GIS – Page 3 – Jennifer A Miller, PhD

New article on analyzing dynamic interactions

A new paper that continues my research on analyzing dynamic interactions using GPS data has just been published. This article employs a null model approach to assess how six currently used dynamic interaction metrics vary in terms of the type and magnitude of interaction they measure. ‘Towards a better understanding of dynamic interaction metrics for wildlife: a null model approach‘ (also see ‘Using spatially explicit simulated data to analyze animal interactions: a case study with brown hyenas in northern Botswana‘). This work will be presented as part of a special Frontiers in GIScience Research session at the ESRI User Conference July 22, 2015.

This research is supported by NSF #1424920.

New project on exploring anonymity in movement trajectories

Dr. Jennifer Miller has received funding from UT’s Center for Identity for a new project that explores how anonymous movement trajectories are based on GPS locations from smartphones. Location data are often released after they have been ‘anonymized’—which means that the trajectory has been stripped of any obvious

Microsoft GeoLife trajectories in Beijing

identifying information such as name, address, phone number, etc. However, personal points of interest (home, work) can be easily identified by mining trajectory data for movement patterns, and these points of interest are often associated with unique individuals. This project will explore privacy issues associated with smartphone location data using a computational movement analysis framework.

New project on analyzing animal interactions using GPS data

I just received a three year grant to support research on developing a framework for analyzing dynamic interactions between animals using GPS data (NSF #1424920). I’m looking for a graduate student (preferably doctoral) to work on the project starting fall 2015. Student should have a GIScience and/or ecology background and be very comfortable with spatial analysis and modeling. Must have very strong R skills and preferably some python programming experience as well.

If you are a potential graduate student interested in working on this project, please see general information about our graduate program here and more specific information about working with me here.

PiPG Progress Report

Another SDM-related progress report in Progress in Physical Geography is coming out. This one is on the use of simulated data to assess models.

Workshop on Analysis of Movement Data at GIScience 2014

I’m co-organizing a workshop on Analysis of Movement Data at the GIScience 2014 conference, Sep. 23 in Vienna. See here for more information.

Progress report in PiPG

The first in a series of progress reports on species distribution models I’ve been invited to contribute to Progress in Physical Geography was published in 2012. This report focused on spatial autocorrelation and nonstationarity (doi: 10.1177/0309133312442522), the second one is on using simulated data (estimated publication in early 2014).

Analyzing interactions between brown hyenas in N. Botswana

This project originated as an exploratory study to see how GIScience concepts and methods can be used to analyze and understand movement of and interactions between brown hyenas in Northern Botswana. Correlated random walks were used as a ’null model’ to study movement patterns and interaction rates and several different dynamic interaction metrics were compared. This work was recently published in Transactions in GIS and was supported by a UT Vice President of Research Grant.