• Do you have existing expertise at the intersections of research in AI, interdisciplinary and convergence science, and their geospatial contexts?
• Do you have a new analytical technique, dataset, or spatial AI model to explore or a small-scale problem that could use a dedicated team of 5 - 7 members for a week to make exciting progress?
• Do you enjoy guiding bright, eager, and savvy learners to reach solutions?

I-GUIDE invites established scholars and professionals to serve as a team leader (or co-leader) during the 2026 I-GUIDE Summer School, to be held July 13-17, 2026, on the campus of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. To participate in this role, submit a project idea that aligns with one or more of the Summer School focus areas, listed below. Accepted team leaders will spend one week, in-person, guiding their team of 4-6 early-career scholars to tackle the proposed project. Honorarium and accommodations for team leaders are provided. Teams are eligible for awards that can include funding for formal presentations of their research results in multiple venues.

2026 Summer School Application Areas

• Novel applications of spatial AI models
• Environmental hazards and disasters, including floods, extreme heat, or hurricanes
• Social and environmental problems that can benefit from convergence science and AI approaches
• Novel spatial approaches applied to social and environmental contexts

What types of projects are appropriate?  Projects should be appropriately scoped such that topics and questions, as well as any required background research or instruction, can be reasonably addressed within approximately four active work days. Your proposal should not require participants to conduct work prior to the start of the Summer School, conduct excessive data wrangling, or stay up late every night to complete tasks. Team projects completed in Summer School 2023, Summer School 2024, and Summer School 2025 are available as examples.

For the 2026 Summer School, we expect to support up to five teams working on five different projects.  Each team will consist of up to six early career scholars (e.g., graduate students or post-graduate within four years of completing a graduate degree) that engage in a week of in-person collaboration. Active work will be conducted Monday July 13 through Thursday July 16, with brief presentations of preliminary results on Friday July 17. Final results, organized and delivered via one or more Jupyter notebooks on the I-GUIDE Platform, will be due by early August 2026.

Who will be on the teams? Summer School participants will be graduate students or early career scholars who have a range of skill sets, domain knowledge, and experience. The I-GUIDE Summer School administrative team will assign team membership to ensure that necessary and appropriate skill sets are represented for each project. The application for Summer School participants will take place in spring 2026 and we expect to finalize the list of participants by early summer.

Expectations for Team Leaders

The Summer School will take place in-person at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign from July 13-17, 2026.  All team leaders and participants are expected to be able to arrive on Sunday, July 12 and be present in-person through mid-afternoon on Friday, July 17.

• Team leaders will coordinate with I-GUIDE personnel as they prepare project materials, including running pilot tests of software on and copying data to the I-GUIDE Platform, as well as connecting with their Team members in the weeks prior to create positive connections before the Summer School begins.
• Team leaders will be expected to arrive at the Summer School with goals in mind for their project and a sense of how they will pursue those, recognizing that methods may shift over the week.
• Team leaders will be expected to assist their Team members following the in-person portion of the Summer School as the final versions of their Team project are prepared for online sharing (by early August 2026).
• Team leaders will receive full support for travel, lodging, and food during the week of the Summer School.
• Team leaders will receive a $1,000 honorarium, or the equivalent in a travel award, as part of their participation in the program. Holders of work visas are eligible for travel awards rather than honoraria.
• Individuals who have served as Team leaders in the past are not eligible to participate again.

Key Dates

• Monday, March 2, 2026: Last day to apply to serve as a leader. Applications ask for a brief description of your project as well as an overview of data sources, methods, tools, and computer languages.
• Friday March 20, 2026: Decisions about Team leaders announced.
• Friday March 27, 2026: Accepted Team leaders must confirm acceptance of their invitations.
• Monday, April 7, 2026: Final descriptions of the five 2026 Summer School problems will be posted online for Summer School applicants to consider.

Ready to apply?  The online application form to be a Team Leader can be found here.