GDSG Team

Staff

Dr. Ana Basiri

Professor of Geospatial Data Science

Ana works on developing (theoretical and applied) solutions to the challenges of ‘new forms of data’ such as missingness and biases. These solutions are based on the mindset that considers the bias, missingness, or low quality as a useful source of data to make inference about the underlying reasons for the missingness and bias. One application of this is extracting the 3D map of cities using the patterns of blockage, reflection, and attenuation of the GPS signals (or other similar signals), that are contributed by the volunteers/crowd.

She is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow, Chair of Geospatial Data Science at the University of Glasgow, and the Editor in Chief of Journal of Navigation. She has received several awards and prizes, including Women Role Model in Science by Alexander Humboldt and European Commission Marie Curie Alumni.

Dr. Mingshu Wang

Senior Lecturer in Geospatial Data Science

Mingshu is a Senior Lecturer (Tenured Associate Professor) in Geospatial Data Science at the School of Geographical & Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow.

His research focuses on developing and applying methods of GIScience (i.e., geographical information systems, remote sensing, and spatial analysis) and big data analytics (e.g., machine learning, artificial intelligence, and econometrics) to understand urban systems. He has two interconnected research lines of cities from the perspective of people. At a macro-scale, he quantifies the relationship between urban structure and urban/regional performance from fine-grained geospatial data. At a micro-scale, he examines human mobility issues regarding the built environment with crowdsourced geospatial information. 

Joe Shingleton

Research Software Engineering Scientist

Joe is a research software engineer and data scientist, currently working on geo-locating textual data using natural language processing. His interests include promoting Research Software Engineering across the university and developing a community-of-practice which can provide RSEs with resources and networking opportunities

Dr. Ian Turton

Research Software Engineer

Ian is currently looking at the back end of a system to estimate building heights from missing GNSS signals. Despite training as a geophysicist, he has been learning to be a computational geographer for the last 30 years. He is a charter member of the OSGEO foundation and am a moderator on gis.stackexchange.com.

Dr. Meiliu Wu

Lecturer

Dr. Meiliu Wu is a Lecturer (Tenured Assistant Professor) in Geospatial Data Science at the School of Geographical & Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow, UK.  Her research explores innovative applications and development of Geospatial Data Science and Geospatial Artificial Intelligence (GeoAI).

She is particularly interested in the rapid advancements in AI, foundation models (e.g., ChatGPT), and their potential to transform geospatial applications. Her long-term research goal is to pioneer the development of GeoAI Foundation Models, creating a multimodal learning framework that integrates spatial knowledge from multimodal data (e.g., text, images, audios, and videos), to enhance geospatial analysis and decision-making.

Zahra Mahabadi

Research Associate

Zahra Mahabadi is a Research Associate in Urban Analytics at the School of Geographical & Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow. She analyses large-scale spatial and behavioural data to understand urban dynamics, using statistical modelling, deep learning, and geospatial analytics to study how urban form and socioeconomic factors shape mobility and access. Her long-term research goal is to develop data-driven approaches that support vibrant, equitable, and sustainable urban planning.

Makenna Hopwood

Administrative Assistant

Makenna supports the team's administrative needs while serving as the group's science communication lead. She specializes in translating complex scientific concepts into clear, engaging content for diverse audiences, managing outreach initiatives, and coordinating collaborative events to enhance the team’s public visibility and impact.

Dr. Ndali Liita Cairney

Project Manager

Dr. Liita Iyaloo Ndalinoshisho Cairney’s role is to lead and support the effective delivery of the Geospatial Data Science Group at the University of Glasgow, working closely with Professor Ana Basiri and key team members, including working group leads, administrators, researchers, PhD students, and academic collaborators. In this role, she provides strategic and operational oversight to ensure smooth coordination across internal and external stakeholders.

Dr. James Ackland

Research Associate

James Ackland is a Research Associate in the statistics of missing data. His work tries to understand why some data is less likely to be collected, and the potential consequences of such data being "missing" in the era of "Big Data" and data-hungry AI models. Currently, his work has a particular focus on official statistics, social science data, and political science

Dr. Yunus Serhat Bicakci

Visiting Research Fellow

Yunus Serhat is a Visiting Research Fellow in Geospatial Data Science at the School of Geographical & Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow. His research focuses on integrating geoinformation and computer vision with LLMs and Multimodal LLMs to push the boundaries of AI capabilities. Proficient in Python, R, and SQL, he also has a strong interest in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for spatial analysis. 

Students

Piet Gerrits

PhD candidate

Piet Gerrits is a PhD candidate at the School of Geographical & Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow. His research focuses on the use of geospatial data and machine learning to understand population dynamics in Turkey and Bulgaria.

His additional research interests include Geospatial Data Science, Data Visualisation, and Machine Learning. His collaborative work has been published in IEEE Access, PLOS ONE and Nature Scientific Reports and presented at a variety of academic conferences, such as GIScience, ACM SIGSpatial, ECTQG, UGI-IGU, ECTQG and the UCGIS Symposium.

Merve Polat Kayali

PhD candidate

Merve is a PhD candidate at the School of Geographical & Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow. She focuses on the visualisation of missing geospatial data using Augmented Reality. 

Prior to embarking on her PhD at the University of Glasgow, she worked as a research assistant and teaching assistant in Turkey. She holds dual bachelor’s degrees in Computer Engineering and Industrial Engineering, and she earned her master’s degree in Computer Engineering with a thesis titled ‘GIS-based AR Application for Sightseeing Purposes: The Case of Safranbolu’.

Yu Wang

PhD candidate

Yu is a PhD candidate in Geospatial Data Science, specializing in the intersection of urban studies and telecommunications. His background includes both academic and professional expertise in data mining, network optimization, and signal processing. Currently at the University of Glasgow, his research is centred on developing novel data-driven methods for estimating building heights by leveraging ubiquitous cellular signals, with a focus on creating efficient and scalable solutions that have broad implications in smart cities.

Xinyi Yuan

PhD candidate

Xinyi is a PhD candidate focusing on the application of Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) in cities and society.

Prior to researching at the University of Glasgow, she earned her MEng in Urban Planning from Southeast University (China) and her BEng in Urban Planning from Chongqing University (China). Her current research focuses on the application of Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) in cities and society. 

Dominick Sutton

PhD candidate

Dominick's research interests are in missing data and how it can affect the use of data in analytics, business decision-making and AI systems. This includes the ethical implications of data use, particularly when it is incomplete. He is currently a Fellow and GradStat of the Royal Statistical Society (RSS) and an Associate Member of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA) as well as a Fellow of the Institute of Financial Markets, South Africa.

Rui Deng

PhD candidate

Rui's current work focuses on developing explainable GeoAI models for processing geospatial data. Prior to studying at Glasgow, he had several project experiences with topics of remote sensing of urban environment, urban functional area modelling and other GIS/Remote Sensing applications.

Xinyan Xian

PhD candidate

Xinyan's research focuses on the application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and urban big data in spatial optimization. She is dedicated to exploring the intersection of GIS technology and urban dynamics, aiming to contribute valuable insights to the field of geospatial data science.

Ayush Dabra

PhD candidate

Ayush's research focuses on developing multi-modal generative AI models for understanding urban spaces.

Alumi

Ziqi Li

Edo Barbieri

Jeremiah J. Nieves

Guy Solomon

Matt Johnston

Lorna Gee

Miguel Fidel Pereira