Computer Models for Social Change - students

Welcome to our visiting graduate student from Brazil

sieber — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 23:10:44 +0000

Thiago Alves de Souza is visiting us from Curitiba, Brazil for the term. He will be investigating the use of mobile apps to engage the public in discussions about how urban street furniture transforms the city. He joins Pierre Beaudreau and Korbin da Silva in our urban design 2.0 team.

Jin Xing finishes his Masters thesis

sieber — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 04:26:31 +0000

Congratulation, Jin for finishing your Masters. Now you can start your PhD!

IHC3: An Integrated Hybrid Cloud Computing Cyberinfrastructure for GIS/RS Research

ABSTRACT: With the advancement of technologies, earth observation data could be obtained with finer spatial and spectral resolution. However, the increasing volume and complexity of those high resolution data presents new challenges in geographic information system (GIS) and remote sensing (RS) research, such as heterogeneous distributed data handling, efficient parallel data processing algorithms, easy manageability of the underlying cyberinfrastructure, new collaboration model and lower computation costs. Geospatial cloud computing is leveraged in GIS/RS research to address the challenges of heterogeneous distributed data and its processing. Although the early experience has proven it is a great success to utilize cloud computing in GIS/RS research, the manageability of the cyberinfrastructure cannot be neglected. To be manageable, I argue that cloud computing must handle domain specific problems in GIS/RS, manage privacy of data, ease of use, and be inexpensive.

Honours Thesis, Pierre Beaudreau

sieber — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 04:34:46 +0000

Congratulations, Pierre on finishing your undergraduate honours thesis as well as a dynamic application.

YouSayCity: an Online 3D Public Participation Tool for Urban Planning

This project explores the opportunities offered by Web 2.0 technologies and ICTs in developing an online 3D interactive application oriented towards public participation, information sharing, and online deliberation in the context of urban planning. Using existing technologies and previous research as the basis for the application development criteria, a new application, coined ‘YouSayCity’ for the purpose of this research, is developed.

Welcome to the new year!

sieber — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 22:42:27 +0000

Welcome to the new school year everyone. Our new students are

Drew Bush, PhD candidate, Use of the Geoweb to Understand Space and Place for Climate Change Perceptions

Genevieve Reid, PhD candidate, GIScience in the Service of Indigenous Aspirations

Jin Xing, PhD candidate, Distributing Geostatistics and Remote Sensing Algorithms on the Cloud

Ana Brandusescu, MA candidate, Mobile Phones for Community Economic Development

Korbin daSilva, MA candidate, Comparing Online and Offline Urban Design Tools for Effective participation

Returning students are

Jian Zhou, MSc candidate, The Geoweb for Climate Change Education

Pierre Beaudreau, Undergraduate Honours, YouSayCity

2011 GEOG 506 Projects

sieber — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 23:13:11 +0000

Emilie Roy-Dufresne: A Multi-Scale Analysis of the White-Footed Mouse’s Distribution Using MaxEnt Species Distribution Model

Abstract: Issues of modeling species geographic distributions are critical factors which need to be studied in conservation biology. One of these issues is the appropriate spatial scale at which studies need to be conducted. The identification of spatial patterns depends on the spatial scale at which patterns are measured. Ecologists face the issue that interpreting the data based on one scale, and to apply them to another scale may not accurately describe the existing pattern but instead reflect artefacts of the scale of measurement.

Korbin DaSilva's Undergraduate Honours Thesis

sieber — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 23:06:39 +0000

Congratulations, Korbin, on writing a strong thesis and building a dynamic application. Korbin's research is part of our urban design node.

The Community Design Tool: Unfolding Participatory Urban Design in a Dynamic Three-Dimensional Environment

Abstract: The Community Design Tool allows for community members to engage in a community controlled urban design process within a dynamic three-dimensional environment. The community members are guided by a methodology for participatory urban design adapted from Christopher Alexander’s work on generative codes and the process of unfolding. Community members and non-professionals understand spatial concepts and designs more naturally when viewed in three-dimensions and when they can interact with the environment dynamically. The Community Design Tool is a plugin for the simple yet robust modelling software Google Sketchup and walks community members through a step by step process to create urban design schemes for their community by using simple tools built into the Community Design Tool itself. The simplicity of the Community Design Tool’s individual steps allow for those with even limited technical knowledge to fully participate in the design process.

Visit by Sonja Klinsky

sieber — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 22:57:06 +0000

Had a nice visit with my former Masters, Sonja Klinsky, who is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Faculty of Economics and Politics, University of Cambridge, UK. Her research talk @ McGill:

Vinaigrette or Oil and Vinegar? Comparing Public Rationales for Justice in Mitigation and Adaptation Climate Policy Dilemmas

The ideal relationship between climate change adaptation and mitigation policy has been long debated. Are they substitutes for each other, in which case the policy task is to find the optimal trade-off between the two, or can they be integrated to take advantage of win-win overlaps?

Instead of proposing how these policies should relate to one another from an abstract policy perspective, this study examines public rationales about justice and burden-sharing in each case. What arguments about justice resonate from a mitigation perspective, which ones are dominant from an adaptation perspective, and what might this suggest about the contours of politically acceptable climate policy?

Congratulations, Yuan

sieber — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 04:53:51 +0000

Congratulations to Yuan Jin for his Masters Thesis in Computer Science.

Undergraduate research into the adoption of the Geospatial Web 2.0 in QC

sieber — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 22:48:15 +0000

Andreanne Lussier and Patrick Quinn this semester are conducting research on the social construction of the Geoweb as different government agencies seek to engage a broader public in watershed management.