Associate Professor Ben Adams is in the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering.

“In my research I am exploring new ways of using computing technology to advance human understanding of our environment and world. I am interested in understanding, modelling, and improving how the people who want to learn about the world (e.g., scientists, students, and policy makers) interact with and make decisions based on geographic knowledge represented in a computer. The research I undertake is both explanatory and constructive. In the first case I work to develop theories that explain how the information that we produce and share in digital form reflects human conceptualizations of the world. In the second case I build software systems that help people use geographic information better to solve problems. My research methodology is informed by methods from data science, machine learning, spatial information science, interactive systems, and cognitive science.”

• information retrieval
• environmental narratives
• GIR
• spatial data science
• eScience
• geoinformatics
• exploratory search
• search user interfaces
• spatial humanities
• spatial cognition
• location-based services

For more information on Ben’s research, please visit his University of Canterbury research page.