Description
The I-GUIDE Symposium on Responsible Spatial AI and Data Science will explore foundational theories, emerging concepts, innovative methods, and advanced cyberinfrastructure that support the responsible development and application of spatial AI and data science. As AI increasingly transforms how we integrate, analyze, model, and communicate geographic knowledge, the symposium will examine how principles such as transparency, trustworthiness, fairness, accountability, reproducibility, privacy, and human-centered design can be embedded throughout the spatial AI and data lifecycle.
This symposium will bring together researchers, educators, practitioners, policymakers, and industry leaders to address both the opportunities and challenges of responsible spatial AI and data science in tackling pressing geospatial and societal challenges, including natural hazards, environmental sustainability, infrastructure resilience, public health, community well-being, biodiversity conservation, and food and water security. The symposium seeks to advance the scientific foundations of responsible spatial AI and data science while fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and community engagement. More broadly, it aims to help shape a future in which spatial AI and data science enhance scientific discovery, decision-making, and societal resilience while ensuring that technological advances remain aligned with human values and the public good.
The symposium is sponsored by the Institute for Geospatial Understanding through an Integrative Discovery Environment (I-GUIDE, https://i-guide.io), an NSF-funded institute dedicated to advancing convergent cyberGIS, spatial AI and data science, and data-intensive science through integrated research, education, and community engagement. The symposium builds on the success of previous AAG symposia focused on cyberGIS, geospatial data science, and spatial AI that have been held annually since 2011. A suite of paper sessions, panel discussions, and workshops will highlight cutting-edge advances in cyberGIS, spatial AI and data science, and data-intensive geospatial understanding derived from the synthesis of spatial and spatiotemporal data.
Topical themes will include, but are not limited to, responsible geospatial foundation models, multimodal geospatial AI, spatial representation learning, human-AI collaboration, AI governance, ethical data stewardship, reproducible geospatial research, trustworthy and explainable spatial AI, standards and interoperability, geospatial agentic systems, geospatial knowledge integration, educational approaches for developing an AI-ready workforce, and high-performance computing approaches to geographic problem solving. Together, these themes reflect the growing importance of responsible innovation at the intersection of AI, geospatial science and technology, and society.
Sponsorship
Cyberinfrastructure Specialty Group (CISG), Geographic Information Science and Systems (GISS) Specialty Group, Spatial Analysis and Modeling (SAM) Specialty Group, etc.
Panel Sessions
- Frontiers of CyberGIS and Spatial AI
- Geospatial World Models
- Responsible Spatial AI and Data Science
- Unlocking National AI Computing Resources for Geographic Education and Research
- University Consortium for Geographic Information Science: Funding Opportunities to Advance GIScience Education and Research in the Era of AI
- University Consortium for Geographic Information Science: Preparing the Next Generation of Geographers in the Age of AI
Paper Sessions
- Advancing Multi-source Geospatial Data Fusion and Analysis with GeoAI
- AI and Big Data for Spatial Accessibility
- Spatial Modeling for Complex Geographic Problems
Workshops
- Getting Started with the I-GUIDE Platform
If you are interested in organizing any sessions or panels as part of the Symposium, please contact Wen Zhou via wz53@illinois.edu. To present a paper in any of the Symposium sessions, please register and submit your abstract online, and email your presenter identification number (PIN), paper title, and abstract to Wei Hu at weih9@illinois.edu by the AAG submission deadline (October 15, 2026). We look forward to your submissions and participation!
Chairs
- Shaowen Wang, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)
- Samantha T. Arundel, United States Geological Survey
- Fangzheng Lyu, Virginia Tech
- Alexander Michels, University of Texas at Dallas
- Yiqun Xie, University of Maryland, College Park
- Zhe Zhang, Texas A&M University
- Bo Zhao, University of Washington, Seattle
Organizers
- Wen Zhou, UIUC
- Wei Hu, UIUC
Organizing Committee
- Li An, Auburn University
- Luc Anselin, University of Chicago
- Peter Atkinson, Lancaster University
- David Bennett, the University of Iowa
- Budhendra L. Bhaduri, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
- Christopher Brunsdon, Maynooth University
- Guofeng Cao, University of Colorado, Boulder
- Xiang Chen, University of Connecticut
- Peter Darch, UIUC
- Zhenhong Du, Zhejiang University
- Chen-Chieh Feng, National University of Singapore
- A. Stewart Fotheringham, Florida State University
- Jing Gao, University of Delaware
- Song Gao, University of Wisconsin, Madison
- Michael Goodchild, University of California, Santa Barbara
- Joseph Holler, Middlebury College
- Yingjie Hu, University at Buffalo
- Xiao Huang, Emory University
- Devika Jain, Harvard University
- Krzysztof Janowicz, University of Vienna
- Nattapon Jaroenchai, Khon Khaen University
- Myeonghun Jeong, Chosun University
- Jeon-Young Kang, Kyung Hee University
- Yuhao Kang, University of Texas at Austin
- Peter Kedron, University of California, Santa Barbara
- Mei-Po Kwan, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
- Nina Lam, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
- Gary Langham, American Association of Geographers
- Wenwen Li, Arizona State University
- Ziqi Li, Florida State University
- Zhenlong Li, Penn State University
- Yue Lin, UIUC
- Gengchen Mai, University of Texas at Austin
- Steven Manson, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
- Harvey Miller, The Ohio State University
- Trisalyn Nelson, University of California, Santa Barbara
- Shawn Newsam, University of California, Merced
- Anand Padmanabhan, UIUC
- Jinwoo Park, Kyung Hee University
- Ethan Shavers, United States Geological Survey
- Shih-Lung Shaw, University of Tennessee Knoxville
- Xun Shi, Dartmouth College
- Eric Shook, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
- Renee Sieber, McGill University
- Diana Sinton, University Consortium for Geographic Information Science
- Conghe Song, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Lawrence Stanislawski, United States Geological Survey
- Kathleen Stewart, University of Maryland
- Daniel Sui, Virginia Tech
- Wenwu Tang, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
- Ming-Hsiang (Ming) Tsou, San Diego State University
- Rebecca Vandewalle, University of South Florida
- Zhaonan Wang, New York University, Shanghai
- John Wilson, University of Southern California
- Ningchuan Xiao, The Ohio State University
- Chaowei (Phil) Yang, George Mason University
- Xinyue Ye, University of Alabama
- May Yuan, University of Texas at Dallas
- Di Zhu, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
- Lei Zou, Texas A&M University