Understanding Our World
Formally established in 2020, the Center for the Advancement of Spatial Informatics Research and Education (ASPIRE) researches methods for the capture, analysis, and representation of spatial data characterizing physical and social phenomena, commonly referred to as Geographic Information Science (GIScience). GIScience is an inherently integrative field of study, relying on virtually all engineering fields for technological and theoretical advancements, and having applications in virtually all sciences.
ASPIRE brings together faculty with expertise and cutting-edge research portfolios in a broad range of GIScience sub-fields, including spatial modeling, geo-visualization, remote sensing, and spatial statistics.
Some current projects include:
- A public health partnership with the Navajo Nation to map and model livestock exposure to uranium.
- A collaboration with the US Fish and Wildlife Service to survey waterfowl via unmanned aerial systems (UAS, aka “drones”) and develop a machine learning method to automatically count and identify different bird species in the imagery.
- An educational partnership with the UNM Center for Water and Environment and the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI) to develop open content remote sensing and environmental analysis curricula.
- A collaboration with the UNM Smart Management of Infrastructure Lab (SMILab) to develop methods for automated construction quality control using 3D sensing.
