dr. M. Farnaghi (Mahdi)

I am an Assistant Professor at the University of Twente, Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), Department of Geo-Information Processing (GIS), Enschede, The Netherlands.

My primary research interest has been in the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and geodata processing (or GeoAI, in short). During PhD, I worked on solutions based on semantic web concepts/technologies and AI to generate geodata processing workflows automatically. After the PhD, I extended my research further into the spatial data science and big data processing fields, where I have been using machine learning (ML) techniques for spatio-temporal modelling in different application areas, including air pollution monitoring and forecasting, spatial epidemiology, and disaster management. I exploited big data processing technologies and deep learning (DL) methods to extract information from the massive amount of spatial data collected for environmental phenomena. I have also been working on geospatial social media analysis using ML methods and am interested in exploiting new technologies like blockchain and distributed ledgers to tackle the need for security and accountability in the geospatial domain.

Currently, I am working in the following directions:

-          Spatial and spatio-temporal effects in modelling using ML/DL

-          eXplainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI)

-          Spatial data fusion

-          MLOps and automation of geoprocessing workflows

-          Spatial data handling on blockchains and distributed ledgers

Organisations

• Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), Department of Geo-information Processing (GIP)