Enhancement of Participation at the Spatial Accuracy 2014 Conference, July 2014, East Lansing, Michigan

Michigan State University, East Lansing MI

Investigators

Abstract

This award will provide support to facilitate the involvement of scholars from a broad range of research communities and nations to participate in the Spatial Accuracy 2014 conference, which will be held in July 2014 in East Lansing, Michigan. Spatial Accuracy 2014 will be the 11th in a series of international symposia that have focused on topics of uncertainty in environmental data and model. Theoretical, methodological, software, and instructional advancements shared at Spatial Accuracy 2014 will allow current and future practitioners to draw valid inference about large and complex systems through a number of different lines of inquiry, including assimilating disparate sources and types of data; accommodating spatial and temporal dependence to satisfy statistical model assumptions and improve predictive inference; partitioning and propagating sources of uncertainty through fine spatial scale predictions over large domains and; scaling to effectively exploit information in massive datasets. The exchange of knowledge at the conference will advance scientific practice and interdisciplinary collaboration extending from geography and the spatial sciences to many other fields in the natural and social sciences, engineering, and the humanities. The conference will provide excellent education and networking opportunities for students, post-doctoral scholars, and early-career researchers, and international collaboration will be enhanced because of special emphasis being placed on the involvement of scholars from developing nations. Although the majority of conference participants will be from academic organizations, methodological advances that deal more effectively with uncertainty and error ultimately will lead to improved models used in a diverse range of settings by public, private, and other groups. This award will expand participation in the Spatial Accuracy 2014 conference by providing partial support for travel to and lodging at the conference for up to fifty scholars, including graduate students, early-career researchers, and scholars from developing nations. Special efforts will be made to highlight a number of exciting cutting-edge findings from this set of national and international participants, and special activities will ensure their full engagement in the conference. Because papers in the conference proceedings, all of which will be peer-reviewed to ensure high quality, will be freely disseminated via the Internet, the all participants and other scientists will be able to benefit from the enhanced scientific and technological understanding that will result.