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giCentre - Department of Information Science

giCentre people

Academic Staff

  • Vesna Brujic-Okretic (Head of Department)

    Senior Lecturer and Course Director of MSc in Electronic Publishing, with expertise in web applications architecture, including delivery of information on mobile devices. Co-Principal Investigator on a flagship LOCUS project, responsible for virtual and augmented reality interfaces. Leading a new MSc in Information, Communication and Society, with Sociology, on deploying technology to manage digital information and analyse its impact on the society.

  • Jason Dykes

    Senior Lecturer and Course Director for GIS MScs with expertise and publications in Cartography, GIScience & Information Visualization. Co-chair of the ICA Commission on Geovisualization, editor of 'Exploring Geovisualization' and National Teaching Fellow. Developer of a variety of novel means of representing and interacting with spatial data and software implementations to support exploration.

  • David Mountain

    David is a Lecturer with research interests and publications focussing on the convergence of GIScience and Mobile Computing. He is co-developer of several innovative location-based services including WebPark (2004) and a mobile mixed reality platform from the Locus project (2007). Outside the giCentre, he is the Technical Director of a startup company, Placr.

  • Jonathan Raper (Director of giCentre)

    Professor of Geographic Information Science and Director of the giCentre, with research interests in location technologies, digital privacy and environmental information. Editor of the Journal of Location Based Services, and Steering Committee member Location and Timing Knowledge Transfer Network. Outside the giCentre he is the Managing Director of a geo-mobile software startup company, Placr.

  • Jo Wood

    Reader in Geographical Information Science with interests in information visualisation, terrain and surface analysis, Java programming and object-oriented modelling of GI. Author of a number software applications including the LandSerf GIS, and TreeMappa. He directs the City branch of the Willis Research Network concentrating on visual methods of processing GI for the global insurance industry.

Research Staff

  • Aidan Slingsby (Willis research fellow)

    Research Fellow interested in interactive visualisation for data exploration, data modelling, spatial programming and uncertainty. Member of the Willis Research Network, applying and developing geovisualisation methods and spatial analysis techniques to the needs of the insurance industry. Produces prototypes to illustrate and test ideas.

  • Robert Radburn (UPTAP research fellow)

    ESRC User Fellow and Research Manager at Leicestershire County Council with a wide experience of developing visualization solutions to enable local authorities produce effective policy and services. Working with City on the 'vizLib' project to create innovative interactive prototypes to provide insight into the characteristics of library usage across Leicestershire.

PhD Students

  • Susanne Bleisch - Cartography and 3D GeoVisualization

    Susanne is a forth year part-time PhD student based at FHNW (University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland) in Muttenz, Switzerland. She researches the effectiveness and efficiency of visual combinations of abstract data graphics with 3D virtual environments.

  • Christos Gatzidis - Mixed realities

    Joined the Department Of Information Science at City University as a PhD student in October 2005 having been awarded an industrial CASE studentship partly sponsored by an industry partner, Alcatel Lucent Telecom Limited UK. Now writing up PhD thesis for submission whilst employed as a Lecturer In Media Technology at Bournemouth University (School Of Design, Engineering And Computing).

  • Nicola Beddall


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  • Lenny Kivuti - GIS and land information in Africa


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  • Naz Khalili-Shavarini - Visualization of Social Networks

    Naz is a second year research student supervised by Jo Wood and Jason Dykes who is focusing on the visualization of geography in social networks.

  • David Lloyd - Human Centred Geographical Interfaces for Evidence-Based Policy

    David Lloyd is a final year PhD student at City University London, sponsored by EPSRC and Leicestershire County Council, looking at how the nature of geovisualization changes human-centred approaches when used to understand users and their requirements, and then design, prototype and prioritise changes to software. David holds degrees in Astronomy and in Statistics, is a graduate of City's Masters in Geographic Information, and a Chartered Statistician.

  • Stelios Papakonstantinou - Mobile location based services and agent technologies.

    Stelios joined the Dept. of Information Science as a Postgraduate student in September 2004. He gained a distinction MSc in Information Systems & Technology and on September 2005 decided to pursue a research degree in Information Science and join the giCentre. Formerly, on June 2004, he had been awarded with a BSc Hons in Computing & Networks. Currently, Stelios is working on his PhD thesis, which involves gathering requirements, designing and implementing a technological framework that will enhance social interaction of its users, by employing context-aware mobile devices. The project has reached its latest phase, which evaluates the effectiveness of the developed system.

  • Lian-Chee Koh - User-Centred Design of Web-based Data Visualisation

    Lian-Chee joined the Department of Information Science as a part-time research student in October 2009 under the supervision of Jason Dykes and Aidan Slingsby. She is based at the Singapore Management University and researches the user-centred design of web-based data visualisation techniques using the Singapore property market as case study.

Recent PhD Completions

  • Vlasios Voudouris - Enabling of the collaborative GI research proces

    Vlasios's research developed new ways of modelling spatial data for collaborative GI management. Using an extension of the spatial object- field model he developed new theory and a demonstration prototype showing how uncertain data could be generated and shared in a collaborative environment. Vlasios graduated in November 2008 and was supervised by Jo Wood and Peter Fisher.

  • Cristina Arciniegas Lopez - Bibliometric analysis of GI science communities

    Cristina's research examined the bibliographic networks of co-authored papers in Geographic Information Science. Using techniques from Social Network Analysis she was able to compare GI Science co-authorship with collaboration in other disciplines. It was one of the first studies to examine the geography of a social academic network. Cristina graduated in August 2007 and was supervised by Jo Wood.

  • Stephanie Marsh - User-centred evaluation of geovisualization

    Stephanie's research evaluated a number of human-centred methods in the context of geovisualization applications in research and education. Comparing the results of these techniques in different contexts enabled Stephanie to make recommendations for using human centred techniques in geovisualization. Stephanie graduated successfully in May 2008. The research was supervised by Jason Dykes.

  • Ian Greatbatch - Ethnophysiography of mountain regions

    Ian's work examined how mountain prominence may be measured in order to understand how people's perception of mountain features contribute to a sense of place. He compared measures of mountain shape in the Lake District with the history of mountain names and current online web prominence. Ian graduated in March 2009 and was supervised by Jo Wood and Peter Fisher.

Visiting staff

  • David Rhind (Professor Emeritus)

    Emeritus Professor of GI Science. Formerly, Vice Chancellor of City University, CEO of the Ordnance Survey national mapping agency and Chair of the Statistics Commission. Currently Chair of the UK Advisory Panel on Public Sector Information and research consultant. Co-author of one of the best selling GIS textbooks "Geographic Information Systems and Science" with Longley, Goodchild and Maguire.

  • Fotis Liarokapis (visiting fellow)

    Visiting Research Fellow at the giCentre at City University. Senior Lecturer and director of Interactive Worlds Applied Research Group (iWARG) at Coventry University. Contributed to more than 45 refereed publications and has more than 110 citations. Member of the editorial advisory board of The Open Virtual Reality Journal published by Bentham and organising the 1st IEEE International Conference in Games and Virtual Worlds for Serious Applications.