SDSS 2022: Keynote 1: Professor Vanessa Frias-Martinez
Channel: UCSB Center for Spatial Studies
Date: 29/09/2022

Recorded during the Spatial Data Science Symposium (SDSS 2022), September 22-23, 2022, online

Keynote 1: Professor Vanessa Frias-Martinez
Data-driven decision making for accessible and equitable cities

Abstract: 
The pervasiveness of cell phones, mobile applications and social media generates vast amounts of digital traces that can reveal a wide range of human behavior.  From mobility patterns to social networks, these signals expose insights about human behaviors and social interactions. In this talk, I will discuss approaches that can help local governments and non-profit organizations better understand the spatial dynamics of cities and communities - offering additional insights beyond more traditional sources of information - and assisting in the design of more accessible, equitable and humane cities. 

I will first give a high-level overview of the research that I lead in the Urban Computing Lab; followed by an in-depth description of two projects. The first project will present a novel approach to create cycling safety maps at large scale.  These maps can be used by cycling activists and departments of transportation to understand safety perceptions as well as to identify accessibility to safe routes by different communities. In the second project, I will describe a new method to enhance the fairness of mobility-based crime prediction models by addressing crime under-reporting bias that can negatively affect minority communities. This work highlights that controlling for bias can improve both the fairness and the accuracy of mobility-based crime prediction models.

September 22

Symposium website: http://sdss2022.spatial-data-science.net/