Head of Geo-social Analytics Lab

Associate Professor | Head Geo-social Analytics Lab

Bernd Resch is an Associate Professor at University of Salzburg’s Department of Geoinformatics – Z_GIS and a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University (USA). Bernd Resch did his PhD in the area of “Live Geography” (real-time monitoring of environmental geo-processes) together with University of Salzburg and MIT. His research interest revolves around understanding cities as complex systems through analysing a variety of digital data sources, focusing on developing machine learning algorithms to analyse human-generated data like social media posts and physiological measurements from wearable sensors. The findings are relevant to a number of fields including urban research, disaster management, epidemiology, and others. Bernd received the Theodor Körner Award for his work on “Urban Emotions”. Amongst a variety of other functions, he is an Editorial Board Member of IJHG, IJGI and PLOS ONE, a scientific committee member of various international conferences (having chaired several conferences), an Associated Faculty Member of the doctoral college “GIScience”, and an Executive Board member of Spatial Services GmbH.

Scientific staff

Researcher / PhD candidate

Dorian Arifi is a PhD student and holds a M.Sc. in Data Science from the University of Salzburg with a particular focus on Deep Learning and Database Management. Prior to that, he earned a B.Sc. in Economics from the LMU Munich, where he specialized in statistical analysis and behavioral economics. His research interests include the development of Artificial Intelligence models for geospatial data analysis and Natural Language Processing for social media analysis.

Researcher / PhD candidate

Mona Bartling received a MSc in Applied Geoinformatics at the University of Salzburg, Austria and is a PhD candidate since October 2017. Since April 2015 she is a researcher at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Colombia where she is part of the developer team of the participatory tool GeoCitizen. In her PhD she focuses on improving user experience of participatory tools and has a particular interest in intelligent user interfaces and gamification elements.

Maximilian Ehrhart

Study assistant

Maximilian Ehrhart is studying digitalization, innovation and society at the University of Salzburg because he sees interdisciplinary approaches as promising for the future. His main interests are in the field of Machine Learning and Data Science, which he wants to apply to solve Problems in daily life.

Researcher / PhD candidate

Clemens Havas is a PhD student with a background in computer science at University of Salzburg’s Department of Geoinformatics – Z_GIS since 2017. His research interests lie in the fields of machine learning, social media and geospatial analysis. Besides doing his PhD programme, Clemens Havas has been working for various projects funded by international organisations/programmes (e.g. Horizon 2020) by using new data sources to assess the impact of disasters.
Sruthi Ketineni

Researcher / PhD candidate

Sruthi is a PhD student with a Bachelors degree in computer science and a Masters degree in geoinformatics from the University of Münster. Her research interests lie in the fields of machine artificial intelligence, spatial reasoning and spatial interaction.

Researcher

Eva is currently enrolled in the Masters Program “Applied Geoinformatics” at Z_GIS and received her Mag.phil. in “Applied Cultural Studies” at the University of Klagenfurt and Dipl. Ing. in “Spatial Planning” at the TU Vienna. She is particularly interested in science communication and new formats of EO*GI education and training. Eva is involved in creating content and graphic design tasks for the iDEAS:lab and training material development for the EO4GEO project.

Researcher / PhD Candidate

Andreas Petutschnig received his BEng in Cartography and Geomedia-technology at the University of Applied Sciences in Munich, Germany and his MSc in Applied Geoinformatics at the University of Salzburg, Austria. His research interests include the analysis and visualisation of spatiotemporal data flows, spatial statistics, scaling issues of spatial data clusters, and reproducible research. His PhD work has a focus on spatiotemporal point pattern analysis. Specifically, this includes the detection of refugee camps in crisis regions based on traces of social media data.

Sebastian Schmidt

Researcher

Sebastian Schmidt studied Geography at Heidelberg University, with an additional Bachelor in Romance Studies (Spanish). His main research interests include data combination, the incorporation of web data for geographical questions, perception research and the analysis of natural disasters.

Researcher / PhD candidate

Helen graduated from Midlands State University (Zimbabwe) with a BSc. in Surveying and Geomatics. She then pursued her MSc in Spatial Engineering at the University of Twente (Netherlands). During her MSc, Helen developed strong interests in spatiotemporal data analysis and visualisation, particularly for applications in risk analysis and reduction.

Associated members

Infrastructural representative

Peter received his MSc in Applied Geoinformatics at the University of Salzburg, Austria and is currently enrolled in the Master Program “Data Science”. In his Master thesis, he focussed on database concepts for humanitarian research at Z_GIS. He is non-scientific staff member at the University of Salzburg and is focussing on technical and infrastructural points at Z_GIS, including database management and workflow automation.
Jan Kinne

Researcher / PostDoc

Jan Kinne studied geography with minors in computer science and economics at Heidelberg University, Germany. He is a researcher at the Centre for European Economic Research in Mannheim, Germany (Research Department “Economics of Innovation and Industrial Dynamics”) since June 2016 and an external student in the Applied Geoinformatics PhD programme at the University of Salzburg. His research interests focus on innovation research using big spatial data and spatial data mining.
Kristyna Mechurova

Research associate

Kristýna Měchurová received her MSc in Applied Geoinformatics and Cartography at Charles University in Prague, Czechia. During her studies, she mainly focused on network analysis and the generalization of 3D spatial data models. Currently, she is involved in physiological measurements from wearable sensors projects.
Jakob Neumayer

Research associate

Jakob Neumayer is currently studying Spanish and Geography at the University of Salzburg. His interest in geoinformatics and his enthusiasm for cycling in general led him to cooperate with Z_GIS. A field study from Z_GIS on cycling in Salzburg is the basis for his bachelor thesis.
Steffen Reichel

Research associate

Steffen Reichel studied computer science in Berlin and worked in the Software Industry. He’s currently involved in the wearable sensor projects.
Edhem Salihagić

Research associate

Edhem Salihagić holds a bachelor’s degree in “Regional and Spatial Planning” from the University of Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He started his master’s degree studies in “Applied Geoinformatics” at Z_GIS in March 2019. Currently he is supporting the research group by working on different projects, mainly focusing on software development and its uses in spatial sciences.
Marius Servais

Research associate / study assistant

Marius Servais holds a BA in Geography from the University of Bonn and is currently enrolled in the Master Program ‘Applied Geoinformatics’ at the University of Salzburg. He has a strong interest to utilize Data Science and Software Engineering for topics of sustainability and participation such as smart city, smart energy, smart government, smart citizen, smart mobility and circular economy. His current work focuses on the detection of stress moments within cities.