Program

Join us on April 22, 2026 from 12-4pm for the first BU Geospatial Data & Technologies Symposium

Schedule of Events

12:00pm

Ladd Room, 2nd Floor
Opening remarks
Dennis Milechin, Scientific Programmer/Analyst, Information Services & Technology

PANEL DISCUSSION
The Big Picture: Data Governance, Ethics, and the Changing Research Landscape

Patricia Fabian, Moderator
Professor
Environmental Health

Kevin Lane
Associate Professor
Environmental Health

Chris Sedore
Chief Transformation Officer
Information Services & Technology

Cy Smith
Director
MassGIS, State Geospatial Information Officer

Seth Villegas
Lecturer
Computing & Data Sciences

KEYNOTE ADDRESS
The Child Opportunity Index, a Data System to Document and Address Inequities in Child Health and Wellbeing

Dolores Acevedo-Garcia
Professor, School of Social Work
Director, Institute for Equity in Child Opportunity & Healthy Development

1:00pm

Lounge, 2nd Floor
Student research poster session
Refreshments served in lounge and atrium

2:00pm

CONCURRENT SESSIONS, round 1

Room 101, 1st Floor
Birds of a Feather Session
The Shape of Data: Teaching Geospatial Analysis Across the Disciplines
Discussion Leader: Suchi Gopal, Professor, Earth & Environment

Room 106, 1st Floor
A multi-sensor data assimilation approach to terrestrial carbon cycle monitoring, reporting, and validation
Michael Dietze, Professor, Earth & Environment

Room 207, 2nd Floor
Traumatic shocks, near-misses, and exploratory innovation
Khoa Cao, Research Assistant, GLOB~S Research Lab, Questrom School of Business

Ladd Room, 2nd Floor
Birds of a Feather Session
Geospatial data repositories: What are BU’s strategic opportunities for growth?
Discussion Leader: Christoph Nolte, Associate Professor, Earth & Environment

2:30pm

CONCURRENT SESSIONS, round 2

Room 101, 1st Floor
Digital geohumanities at the public library
Ian Spangler, Associate Curator of Digital & Participatory Geography, Leventhal Map Center, Boston Public Library

Room 106, 1st Floor
Tracking a changing planet: Charting the frontier of global change with Landsat
Curtis Woodcock, Professor, Earth & Environment

Room 207, 2nd Floor
Methodological priorities for using residential history in population health research
Kendra Sims, Assistant Professor, Epidemiology

Ladd Room, 2nd Floor
Birds of a Feather Session
Community Geospatial Science
Discussion Leader: Nathan Phillips, Professor, Earth & Environment

3:00pm

CONCURRENT SESSIONS, round 3

Room 101, 1st Floor
Visualizing the energy transition CANCELED
Cutler Cleveland, Professor, Earth & Environment

Room 106, 1st Floor
Embodying place: Understanding the relationship between the social, psychological, and built environment through “embodied geographic methods” CANCELED
Josh Lown, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Initiative on Cities

Room 207, 2nd Floor
Virtual streets, real insights: Scaling urban digital twins with geospatial AI
Eshed Ohn-Bar, Assistant Professor, Electrical & Computer Engineering
Sentient spaces: Leveraging GEOINT and AI for global resilience
Suchi Gopal, Professor, Earth & Environment

Ladd Room, 2nd Floor
Birds of a Feather Session
GIS as a tool for convergent research & community collaboration
Patricia Fabian, Professor, Environmental Health

3:30pm

Ladd Room, 2nd Floor
Closing remarks & wrap-up
Suchi Gopal, Professor, Earth & Environment

All-Day Features

Atrium, 2nd Floor
Exhibits
Meet the symposium’s sponsor organizations and learn about the services they offer