Title: Spatial Networks and AI for Social Sensing
Abstract: Cities pulse with life. People, information, and resources move through streets and neighborhoods, weaving the spatial structures of human-environment interactions in cities. While the proliferation of spatiotemporal data and advances in computational methods have significantly enhanced our ability to sense human activities and characterize geographic places, the power of spatial networks that organize our urban systems is still underutilized. Focusing on three missing pieces in contemporary urban social sensing: connected places, invisible flows, and unknown mechanisms, Di’s talk will discuss how GeoAI and network-informed spatial analytics and modeling can reveal the structural relationships among people, places, and environments that give rise to complex spatiotemporal phenomena in cities.
Bio: Dr. Di Zhu is an Assistant Professor of GIScience in the Department of Geography, Environment, and Society at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (UMN) and the director of Geospatial Data Intelligence (GeoDI) Lab. He holds a Ph.D. in Cartology and GIScience, a B.S. in GIS, and a dual B.Ec. in Economics all from Peking University. Di’s research bridges Spatial Statistics, Geospatial Artificial Intelligence (GeoAI), and Spatiotemporal Social Sensing, focusing on the human-environment systems within urban socioeconomics, human mobility, transportation, population, etc. Beyond the main appointment at UMN, Dr. Zhu is a faculty member of the Minnesota Population Center, a CTS scholar at the Center for Transportation Studies, an executive committee member of the MGIS program, and an affiliated faculty at the Data Science Initiatives of UMN. Di was a visiting lecturer at SpaceTimeLab, University College London before joining UMN. He has published in top venues such as IJGIS, AAAG, TGIS, GeoInformatica, EPB, Scientific Data, ISPRS JPRS, TPAMI, ACM SIGKDD. He served as a panelist or reviewer for NSF CISE, HEGS, MMS and ES programs. He was the BOD member of CPGIS during 2023-2025. He served as a chair, local chair, or PC member for conferences, workshops, and sessions such as ACM SIGSPATIAL, AAG, GISRUK, GeoInformatics. He has won academic accolades such as the Rising Star Award of College GIS Forum in China, Top 20 WGDC 2022 Global Young Scientist Award, Early Career Award of GIS Research of the United Kingdom, Distinction of Doctoral Thesis of Peking University, etc. Di teaches in GIScience, spatial analysis, GeoAI, and spatial networks.