PEOPLE

LAB DIRECTOR

Dr. Nick Hedley  [email]

Asst. Professor, Geovisualization & Geospatial Interface Research, SFU Geography [link]

Dr. Nick Hedley is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at Simon Fraser University. Dr. Hedley has been researching geovisualization and interfaces for over 14 years, and virtual environments / mixed reality for a decade or so. He simultaneously works in the areas of new interface technology design, empirical human interface use evaluation, and the development of new theories about how humans engage information and each other through these technologies. His current research emphasis is on geospatial tangible augmented reality (GeoSTAR), mobile geospatial augmented reality, and serious games applied to real geographic problems.

Dr. Hedley designs and develops new interfaces to visualize and interact with three-dimensional geospatial data, aiming to maximize the transparency of user interfaces. His ongoing research aims to develop a more sophisticated understanding of how geographic visualization technologies influence practical, conceptual and abstract spatial knowledge acquisition, and to develop cutting-edge visualization technologies to advance exploratory, analytical and presentation-based geographic visualization. He has designed and developed visualization interfaces in a variety of training/education/communication contexts, including risk mitigation, collaborative spatial decision-making, data exploration, complex environmental systems, human exposure to environmental hazards, dynamic oceanographic processes, uncertainty in remotely sensed data, hydrogeology, avalanche hazards, and tsunami ssimulation.

Dr. Hedley's academic research projects have been funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Energy, the US National Research Center for Statistics and the Environment, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the Canadian Water Network (CWN), Geomatics for Informed Decisions (GEOIDE), as well as support from

In addition to academic research, Dr. Hedley has consulted for numerous major organizations in broadcasting, public education and the movie industry. These include the British Broadcasting Corporation (UK), Broken Hill Proprietary (Australia) and for several well-known science museums, including the Museum of Science (Boston, USA). He was the designer/creator of the augmented reality exhibit seen in the popular museum exhibit Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination - which toured North America between 2005-2008, and in Australia in 2009.

CURRENT GRAD STUDENTS / RESEARCHERS

Britta Ricker (PhD Candidate)

Britta's research in Web 2.0, the semantic web, spatial data infrastructures and ubiquitous gaming, has taken her to developing countries such as Guatemala and Barbados. Through her travels, she has established an understanding of the benefits of the geospatial web for sustainable development. She is passionate about reducing our ecological footprint and is currently working with British Columbia Green Schools investigating the use of location-aware devices for environmental learning.

Matt Kurowski (MSc candidate)

Matt is working on tsunami visualization research. His research (Exploring the Relationship Between Geovisualization Interface Characteristics and Mental Models of Tsunami Hazards) has surveyed existing methods to mitigate risk by educating citizens about tsunami hazards. He is developing new visualization methods and interface technologies as potential solutions to update and improve Provincial capabilities to mitigate tsunami risks through public education.

CURRENT UNDERGRAD RESEARCH ASSOCIATES

Helge Aasen

Ana Brandescu

PAST GRAD STUDENTS / RESEARCHERS

Ranae Kowalczuk (MSc / March 2009)

Ranae has spent the past few years researching the way in which avalanche hazards (in particular, terrain traps) are communicated to winter recreationists. Specifically, there has been an increase in the number of organizations that have adopted interactive, visual interfaces for avalanche education. Her research has explored how various visual and interactive interface elements of such tools may not in fact improve user learning quite the way we might have thought - an important consideration to guide effective future avalanche education.

Cyrille Medard de Chardon (MSc / April 2009)

Cyrille has spent the past couple of years designing and implementing a set of innovative new visual interfaces aimed at improving stakeholder understanding of hydrogeological concepts in the Okanagan Valley, in British Columbia. A talented programmer, Cyrille developed no less than 13 variations of 3 main types of interface for his MSc. These included a new interactive map of the US EPA's DRASTIC model, and a user-driven interactive version of a well-known water use education poster being used in Okanagan communities. The tour de force of Cyrille's MSc work was a new prototype 3D cellular automata tool that he developed to interactively allow users to see the volumetric process of aquifer displacement and recharge in response to surface events.

PAST UNDERGRAD RESEARCH ASSOCIATES

Stefan Lorimer (BA / June 2006)

Stefan Lorimer graduated from Simon Fraser University with a degree in Geography, specializing in geographic information science and geographic visualization. His research spanned sustainable and regional development to developing the first 3D Google Earth visualizations of SFU. While at SFU, Stefan was a research associate of SIRL - helping test new GeoSTAR prototypes. Stefan is now the Technology and Marketing Director at PLAN Institute, where he develops social technology solutions using platforms such as Drupal to improve inter-communication between partner organizations.

Andrea Frustaci (BA / June 2006)

Andrea Frustaci graduated from Simon Fraser University with a degree in Geography, specializing in geographic information science. While at SFU, she was a research associate of SIRL, helping to test GeoSTAR prototypes. Andrea is now a GIS Technician for Teck Cominco. She has also represented Canada as a member of the Canadian National Indoor Volleyball team.

PAST VISITING SCHOLARS

Professor François Golay    [link]

In Summer 2006, we were very fortunate to have Prof. Francois Golay from the Swiss Federal Institute of technology (EPFL) spend some time with us to explore new ideas in creative spatial decision-making interfaces. He also gave an excellent  research seminar to SFU grad students. Dr. Golay directs a large group of GIS grad student and staff researchers at the LaSIG lab at EPFL, and specializes in PPGIS and decision-making systems.