02.04.2019 |
Institute Meeting |
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Sorry, no abstract available yet. |
09.04.2019 |
Prepare for the Internet of Things: Correct and Reliable Construction of Embedded Systems |
Paula Herber |
Computer Science Department, WWU |
98 % of the processors that are produced world-wide are used in embedded systems, that is, in systems that read sensor data and control actuators, for example to monitor and control our environment, for autonomous driving or other kinds of transportation, or in industrial production systems. At the same time, embedded systems are often used in safety-critical applications, like cars, airplanes or medical systems, where a failure may result in huge financial losses or even endanger human lifes. As a consequence, there is a high demand for automated formal methods to construct safe and secure embedded systems. To achieve this, we require a clear understanding of the models and languages that are used in the development process. However, many industrially relevant languages and models, such as Matlab/Simulink and SystemC, are only informally defined. Together with the restricted scalability of formal design and verification techniques, this makes the correct and reliable construction of embedded systems a major challenge. In this talk, I will summarize some of my contributions and current research activities in this field. |
16.04.2019 |
Tracking Active Mobilities: Lessons from North East England |
Seraphim Alvanides |
Northumbria University |
Adopting Fred Ken's famous quote "If you plan cities for cars and traffic, you get cars and traffic", this session will revisit the past in light of the present transport situation in parts of North East England. Focusing on Newcastle upon Tyne and the surrounding conurbations as a case study, I will present two research projects related to active transport, in light of recent transport policy initiatives. The research design, collection, analysis and reporting will be explained in detail, alongside alternative technologies for tracking and analysing active mobilities. I will conclude by discussing the policy implications of this research, especially for post-industrial cities with "planning baggage" competing with visions of urban futures. I will argue that the casualties of infrastructure conflicts are active and sustainable forms of mobility, such as walking and cycling. |
23.04.2019 |
Postponed to May 7 |
Christian Beecks |
Computer Science Department, WWU |
Sorry, no abstract available yet. |
30.04.2019 |
Data and Metadata Management in EOSC-hub and beyond |
Claudia Mertens |
Deutsches Klimarechenzentrum |
Due to the fact that research is becoming increasingly data-intensive, research (data) infrastructures need to deal with challenges concerning data and metadata. The European Open Science Cloud should be the place to develop, establish and maintain a common research data ecosystem; however up to now no one really knows what the EOSC will look like at the end. The project EOSC-hub meanwhile aims at creating a single entry point for researchers to discover, access, use and reuse a broad spectrum of resources for advanced data-driven research. But what does that mean in practice? How does the integration of big data infrastructures take place and what does that mean for potential users? Here I will use the discovery service B2FIND as an example for such an integration work. B2FIND provides a simple and user friendly discovery portal for research data stored within EOSC-hub and beyond as a basic service of the pan-European collaborative research data infrastructure EUDAT-CDI. It is intended to be the central search and indexing tool for EOSC-hub. How this is done will be one part of the talk. The other part will focus on how B2FIND interacts with other EOSC-hub services and what general problems (and/or solutions) arise from the potential integration of different software, workflows or use cases. |
07.05.2019 |
Data Management and Analytics Group @ WWU |
Christian Beecks |
Computer Science Department, WWU |
Data are a central phenomenon in our digital information age. They offer unprecedented opportunities to simplify our daily life and increasingly influence our society, economy and science. The digitization of data and the analysis of their inherent information are among the great challenges of our time. By utilizing Big Data methods, we are able to control unmanageable amounts of data and analyze hidden relationships efficiently. In this talk, I would like to give an insight into this fascinating field of research and introduce the Data Management and Analytics Group of the University of Münster. |
14.05.2019 |
Algorithms for Spatially Informed Visualization |
Wouter Meulemans |
TU Eindhoven |
Data is often visualized in their geographic context, by embedding it in maps. Though "geographically accurate" maps are wide spread, their focus lies on the geospatial dimension, rather than on the data itself. In many scenarios, a schematic map can be more effective, by reducing spatial detail and accuracy to crystalize structures and patterns in the data. That is, we may want to control the degree to which the spatial dimension informs the visual representation. Independent of this trade-off, algorithms are necessary to compute visualizations automatically, by placing symbols, routing connections, simplifying shapes, arranging elements and so forth. Taking this algorithmic perspective, I will discuss various problems and solutions for spatially informed visualization. |
21.05.2019 |
Institute Meeting |
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Sorry, no abstract available yet. |
28.05.2019 |
Toward Ethical AI (not more AI ethics) |
Michael Rovatsos |
University of Edinburgh |
While the issue of AI ethics is receiving more and more attention as adoption of AI technologies in real-world applications is growing immensely, a lot of the discussion is dominated by conceptual and speculative claims and analyses of how we can make sure future AI benefits humanity. Within the AI community, however, it is widely acknowledge that concrete, technical solutions are needed that actually make AI itself behave ethically. In this talk I will discuss some general issues surrounding ethical problems in AI, and present our own preliminary work on ethical self-regulation of users in online platforms with a focus on algorithmic fairness. |
04.06.2019 |
Panel Discussion: Freedom of Research vs. Societal and Ethical Responsibilities |
Edzer Pebesma, Christoph Brox, Christian Kray |
ifgi |
The freedom of science and research has a long tradition and is deep-seated in the German academic system. Consequently it is the framework for our work at the University of Münster. In the age of Enlightenment, i.e., Humboldt-University Berlin, founded 1809, the ambition was to free science from political, governmental, and religious influences. Instead, science should only be obliged to knowledge and rationality. In Germany, it is a constitutional right of professors to determine the content of their lectures, to do research and to publish the results of their research without prior approval. A different viewpoint is that research has the ethical obligation to serve societal needs. While it might be interesting to analyse the linguistic aspects of the oeuvre of a Russian author of the 19th century, it might be more important to do research on how to increase crop yields in sub-Saharan countries. How should stakeholders decide about allocating resources in academic research such as money, time and people? How should individual scientists and academic institutions act in this context?
This GI forum will start with two 10-minutes lightning talks. In a biased roleplay, which is NOT representing the respective personal opinions, Edzer Pebesma will argue for freedom of science and research, whereas Christoph Brox will argue for societal and ethical responsibilities and restrictions.
Moderated by Christian Kray, the audience will then discuss the contradictory viewpoints and possible consequences – on a personal level as well as on the institutional level of a research institute such as ifgi. |
11.06.2019 |
Pentecost Holidays |
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Sorry, no abstract available yet. |
18.06.2019 |
Towards open Spatial Data Infrastructures |
Bastiaan van Loenen |
TU Delft |
In the search for the ideal spatial data infrastructure a common ground has been established for the development of open spatial data infrastructures. Starting from confidential, highly restricted data with use limited to particular public sector users, SDIs across Europe have developed towards a wider focus, civil society oriented infrastructure enabling a multitude of users to access, share, use and re-use datasets and services from a wide variety of domains both nationally and internationally. Especially in recent years, several countries and public administrations started to make a shift towards the establishment of an open spatial data infrastructures (SDIs), in which also businesses, citizens and non-governmental actors were considered as key stake-holders of the infrastructure. The concept of Open SDI is gaining importance since European Commission, European Parliament and European Council have reached an agreement on a revised directive that will facilitate the availability and re-use of public sector data. This new directive on Open Data and Public Sector Information will rule that all public sector content that can be accessed under national access to documents rules is in principle freely available for re-use. In addition, high-value datasets such as geospatial data will have to be made available as open data via Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).
In this presentation, the concept of Open SDI is introduced to describe and characterize the development and implementation of more open spatial data infrastructures. The ‘Map of Open SDI in Europe’ will be presented, showing the results of three years of exploration of the openness of NSDI implementation in Europe. Finally the presentation will discuss the ever continuing question of how to involve users in SDI development in a successful manner. |
25.06.2019 |
Language and the Visual World: Communicating Between Cultures |
Kenny Coventry |
University of East Anglia |
In this talk I overview a programme of research examining how speakers of different languages describe object location, remember where objects are located, and how object-location memory is affected by language. The focus will be on spatial demonstratives (words including this and that in English; this cup, that computer) and spatial adpositions (in the cup, on the computer, over the house). Following Coventry and Garrod (2004) and Coventry, Griffiths and Hamilton (2014), I outline a model of the use of spatial language, memory for object-location and the effect of language on memory that combines information in long-term memory with actual spatial information leading to situation-specific uses of words and memories for where objects were. Such a model, consistent with models of predictive coding (e.g. Friston, 2005), conceptualizes meaning as a combination of expectation and current experience.
In the second part of the talk I look forward to how such models influence how one communicates science in a ‘post-truth’ world. As an example, I focus on communication of climate science. I outline work in collaboration with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in the preparation of guidelines for IPCC authors on how to produce visual and verbal representations of data that are easier for non-climate scientists to understand (see for example Harold, Lorenzoni, Shipley, & Coventry, 2016).
References
Coventry, K. R. & Garrod, S. C. (2004). Seeing, Saying and Acting: The psychological semantics of spatial prepositions. Psychology Press, Taylor and Francis: Hove and New York.
Coventry, K. R., Griffiths, D., & Hamilton, C. J. (2014). Spatial demonstratives and perceptual space: Describing and Remembering object location. Cognitive Psychology, 69, 46-70.
Friston, K. (2005). A theory of cortical responses. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 360(1456), 815–836.
Harold, J., Lorenzoni, I., Shipley, T. F., & Coventry, K. R. (2016). Cognitive and psychological science insights to improve climate change data visualisation. Nature Climate Change, 6, 1-11. |
02.07.2019 |
Reproducibility of research using crowdsourced or volunteered geographic information |
Frank Ostermann |
University of Twente |
Using crowdsourced or volunteered geographic information has become mainstream in geospatial research. Whether georeferenced social media posts or OpenStreetMap data, crowdsourced or volunteered geographic information has been used in diverse studies, ranging from disaster response to urban planning to epidemiology, and many more. At the same time, other scientific disciplines have faced a veritable replication and reproducibility crisis, in which the results from many published studies could not be reproduced or validated by another team of researchers. A recent investigation in the GIScience domain (Nüst et al. 2018) has shown that in our domain as well the state of reproducibility leaves a lot of room for improvement. This talk will examine the crossroads of these two topics: After looking into reproducibility of geospatial research in general, I will examine what the implications of the particularities of crowdsourced and volunteered geographic information are for reproducible geospatial research. News from the latest workshop on reproducible computational geosciences at the 2019 AGILE conference will round off the talk.
Reference: Nüst, D., Granell, C., Hofer, B., Konkol, M., Ostermann, F.O., Sileryte, R., Cerutti, V., 2018. Reproducible research and GIScience: an evaluation using AGILE conference papers. PeerJ 6, e5072. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5072 |
09.07.2019 |
Institute Meeting |
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Sorry, no abstract available yet. |