Extreme Citizen Science (ExCiteS)

Professor Muki (Mordechai) Haklay is a professor of Geographical Information Science (GIScience) at the department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, UCL Where he leads the Extreme Citizen Science (ExCiteS) group. He is an expert in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Geographical Information Science (GISc) and has worked extensively on acquisition, management and analysis of Geographical Information. He specialises in public access and use of Environmental Information; Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Usability Engineering aspects of geographical technologies and GIS; and societal aspects of GIS use – in particular, participatory mapping and Citizen Science. He has extensive experience in interdisciplinary research, working with engineers, urban designers, urban historians, geographers, anthropologists, and computer scientists. email | website

Dr. Jerome Lewis began working with Pygmy hunter-gatherers and former hunter-gatherers in Rwanda in 1993. This led to work on the impact of the genocide on Rwanda’s Twa Pygmies. Since 1994 he has worked with Mbendjele Pygmies in Congo-Brazzaville researching child socialisation, play and religion; egalitarian politics and gender relations; and language, music and dance. Studying the impact of global forces on many Pygmy groups across the Congo Basin has led to research into discrimination, economic and legal marginalisation, human rights abuses, and to applied research supporting conservation efforts by forest people and supporting them to better represent themselves to outsiders. This has resulted in the development of tools (software and hardware) to scientifically describe specific problems (resource damage in logging, illegal logging and poaching) so that ecosystem managers can better take them into account. email | website

Dr. Claire Ellul is a lecturer in Geographic Information Science (GIS) in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, UCL. Her principle research interests include spatial data infrastructures - combining spatial databases and data management and maximising data availability, use and reuse - particularly in the context of interdisciplinary academic projects. She is also researching methods to facilitate the teaching of GIS to users in disciplines where it is not commonly employed as a tool. As a lecturer on the MSc in Geographic Information Science, she focusses on the principles of GIS, spatial databases and web and mobile GIS. email | website

Matthias hails from Ghent, Belgium and before moving to London he has also lived in Córdoba, Brussels and Paris.

He holds a PhD in Science and Master’s degree in Computer Science from Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), and a Bachlor’s degree in Applied Computer Science from University College Ghent. Before joining UCL Matthias has worked as a PhD student at VUB (as part of the BrusSense team) and the Sony Computer Science Lab in Paris. During this time he was involved in the NoiseTube project, a mobile sensing platform for the creation of participatory noise maps. NoiseTube and the more general concept of community memories are also the topic of his PhD thesis (VUB, June 2012).

Matthias worked with with the artist collective Nogo Voyages from Paris to create novel locative storytelling experiences.

His principal research interests are citizen science and mobile sensing, from both a technical and social perspective. Other “serious” interests include mobile application development (mostly Android), software architecture design, cartography, geopolitics and economics.

His favourite pass times include collecting, listening and partying to music, travelling, cycling, and collecting atlases.

Publications: while at VUB

E-mail

Artemis obtained an MSc in GIScience in 2005 from UCL. She recently completed her EngD [‘Trust in Web Geographical Information Systems (GIS) for Public Participation'] at UCL sponsored by EPSRC and Arup. Her research is multidisciplinary focusing on Human-Computer Interaction aspects of Web GIS (usability, trust) and further expands to psychology, risk communication and philosophy.  She previously integrated scientific knowledge from these disciplines to investigate how nuclear waste disposal information should be provided and presented to lay people in the UK to improve public knowledge and trust. She also developed a set of trust guidelines to improve Web GIS trustworthiness. She recently won the EPSRC Doctoral Prize award, and is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at UCL. Her current project involves extending her previous work to other domains with the aim to provide an engineering solution for improving the information quality and interaction with Web GIS representations of public-interest issues. email

Louise Francis is a Londoner, with South African roots. She studied environmental science (BSc, 2003), followed by studies in phylogenetics and biodiversity (MSc, DIC, 2006) at Imperial College London, in association with the Natural History Museum. She has a number of years’ experience working with a diverse range of grass-roots and civil society organisations in the UK and throughout the Caribbean. Louise is Co-founder and CEO of the social enterprise, Mapping for Change. She is interested in the role of participatory mapping, VGI and citizen science in generating positive environmental and social change. email

Patrick Rickles is a full time Research Assistant at University College London based out of the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geomatic Engineering, working on the Adaptable Suburbs project, which is an interdisciplinary study of the relationship between networks of human activity and the changing form of urban and suburban centres through time. Patrick specifically handles technological needs for the group, creating websites, web maps and various systems and tools to help the team work more effectively and visualise results.

Patrick is also working on his PhD, part time, where he is researching Education techniques for efficiently and effectively teaching Geographic Information Systems in Interdisciplinary Research. email

Tyng-Rong Roan grew up in Taichung, Taiwan. She studied Land Economics, Group of Geometric Information (BSc, 2007) at National Chengchi University, Taiwan. She is a final year PhD student, supervised by Prof. Muki Haklay and Dr. Claire Ellul. She is interested in human behaviour and the visualisation and simulation of computer modelling. Her current research focuses on indoor pedestrian movement in fire disasters, studying human evacuation behaviour according to the information from fire investigation reports and modelling fire evacuation model using agent-based model in JAVA language. email

Zhiwei Cao grew up in Zhengzhou, China. He studied Computer Science and Topographic Science (BSc, 2006) at University of Wales, Swansea, followed by Geographical Information Science studies (MSc 2007) at University College London. After that, he worked for Scotia Gas Networks and Veolia Water (UK) (2007-2009), the major duties include digital mapping, spatial data analysis and asset management. Currently, he is a final year PhD student supervised by Prof. Muki Haklay and Dr Tao Cheng, the research focus is on a novel computation approach to improve the accuracy and efficiency of existing geo-processing method. email

Jessica Wardlaw grew up in Dorset, UK. She studied Geography at the University of Oxford (BA, 2004) followed by a GIS internship at the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory in 2005. Following a successful Knowledge Transfer Partnership, she is studying for an Engineering Doctorate supported by Dr Foster Intelligence, a leading provider of healthcare data to the National Health Service. She is interested in the usability and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) aspects of analysis and visualisation tools used for health service management, focusing on geographical visualization of health data. She is currently using insights from HCI to design new health informatics tools. email

Seong Choi grew up in South Korea. He studied Geomatics, especially focused on Geographic Information Systems (BSc, 1998; MSc, 2000) at Inha University, South Korea. He had worked for 7 years in the IT field as a geo-database designer and a GI application developer. He is a final year PhD student and his current research is about ontological modelling to support communications of situation-aware vehicles in Intelligent Transport Systems. He is interested in various kinds of interaction modelling and simulation (human-to-human, human-to-machine, and machine-to-machine) using geographic information based on advanced information and communication technologies. email

Diana Mastracci is Italian-Venezuelan but grew up in Zimbabwe and the Czech Republic. She holds an MA in Russian and Social Anthropology from the University of St Andrews, and an MSc in Biodiversity and Conservation Management from Oxford University. She also studied Documentary Filmmaking at the Escuela Internacional de Cine y Television in Cuba. She is interested in bio-cultural diversity, remote sensing, indigenous issues and participatory mapping and video. In her PhD she will look at technological design and practices that could aid in incorporating indigenous knowledge in the study of land cover change. email

Christian Nold grew up in Germany and England. He studied Fine Art (BA, 1999) at Kingston University. In 2001 he wrote the book 'Mobile Vulgus' and subsequently studied Interaction Design (MA, 2004) at the Royal College of Art. Since then he has taught at a variety of universities. Today, Christian is an artist and director of Softhook Design organising large scale participatory mapping projects in many countries across the world. Christian recently co-wrote the book 'Internet of People for a Post-Oil world' which offers a vision of socio-technical tools that allow the collective grassroots reshaping of the environment. email

Cindy's interest in understanding how people and communities organize themselves and thrive in addressing issues of concern to them was kindled by her international upbringing. She has a background in Environmental Engineering, Geography, GIS and the Arts. In her Master’s degree in Rural Planning and Community Development from the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, she investigated community adaptive strategies to rapid socio-economic change. Cindy is currently a PhD student at University College London looking at engagement in Do-It-Yourself practices that link knowledge to action in 'publicly initiated scientific research'. She is also co-founder of Citizens without Borders, an enterprise that seeks to extend and challenge our conception of ourselves and the world around us through projects such as 'Science has no Borders'. Cindy has lived and worked in the UK, India, Mexico, the Caribbean, Canada and Sweden. email

Gianfranco Gliozzo from Catania, Italy, started his education with a Master Degree in Construction Engineering. Supported several spatial planning research projects using his GIS software expertise both in Catania and in Wageningen (NL). Afterwards he attended an MSc in Geographical Information Management and Applications held by four Dutch research institutions. He is interested in spatial planning, geography, history, linked data. His current research interests involve the support of biodiversity and conservation initiatives through mobile applications. His Engineering Doctorate in UCL is sponsored by the Zoological society of London. email

Michalis Vitos grew up in Thessaloniki, Greece. He studied Information Technology Engineering (BSc, 2008) at Information Technology Department of Thessaloniki, followed by a Masters Degree in Applied Informatics (Msc, 2010) at Department of Applied Informatics of University of Macedonia. In 2008, he successfully completed the Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) training. He is working the last two years as a web developer, at iDesigner Company and as an IT Manager at Kourasanit Company. He is interested in web development, software programming and creating mobile applications. email