Candidate for SIGACT Chair
Association for Computing Machinery
2014 SIGSPATIAL Election Candidate Bios & Statements
Candidate for Chair Mohamed F. Mokbel University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA BIOGRAPHY Academic Background: Ph.D., Purdue University, 2005, Computer Science. Professional Experience: Associate Professor, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 2011 – Present; Assistant Professor, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 2005 – 2011. Professional Interest: GIS; Spatial and Spatio-temporal Databases; Spatial Cloud Computing; Location-based Services; Location-based Social Networks. ACM Activities: Treasurer, SIGSPATIAL, 2011 – 2014; Program Co-Chair, SIGSPATIAL, 2008 – 2010; Workshop Co-Chair, SIGSPATIAL, 2012 – 2014; Proceeding Chair, SIGMOD, 2010. Membership and Offices in Related Organizations: Associate Editor, IEEE Data Engineering Bulletin, 2010 – 2011; Track Chair, IEEE ICDE, 2015; Member/Senior Member, IEEE, 2005 – Present. Awards Received: ACM Recognition of Service, 2010; ACM Recognition of Service, 2009; ACM Recognition of Service, 2008; NSF CAREER Award, 2010. STATEMENT It is my pleasure to run for the Chair position for ACM SIGSPATIAL. If elected, I will focus on two orthogonal directions. First, to broaden SIGSPATIAL membership base and outreach through three main activities: 1. Expanding and diversifying the human capital of SIGSPATIAL with initiatives that target geographic regions and universities with no established tradition in the field,
2. Cultivating the interdisciplinary nature of the SIGSPATIAL community and being inclusive to researchers from various research communities including database systems, sensor networks, algorithms, computational geometry, visualization, cartography, geography, transportation, among others, and 3. Establishing a spirit of cooperation with other SIG organizations, including SIGMOD, SIGGRAPH, SIGKDD, SIGIR, among others. My second direction would be to ensure the impact and continuity of SIGSPATIAL researchers through three main activities: 1. Organizing visits to worldwide universities and related departments to encourage the deans and department heads to hire new faculty in SIGSPATIAL-related areas, 2. Providing one-to-one mentorship program connecting SIGSPATIAL junior researchers and faculty to our well established senior members, and 3. Helping our members to build strong connections with industry and funding agencies through a special dedicated committee that will strongly advocate for the impact and need for SIGSPATIAL-related research.
Candidate for Chair Markus Schneider University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA BIOGRAPHY Academic Background: Ph.D., FernUniversität Hagen, Germany, 1995, Computer Science. Professional Experience: Associate Professor, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 2008 – Present; Assistant Professor, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 2002 – 2008; University Assistant, FernUniversität Hagen, Hagen, Germany, 1996 – 2001. Professional Interest: Spatial, moving objects, and extensible databases; Spatial information science; Spatial fuzziness and uncertainty; Applied Computational Geometry; Design and implementation of complex/big objects. ACM Activities: General Chair of ACM SIGSPATIAL GIS, 2013 – 2014; ACM SIGSPATIAL (Supervisory) Workshops Chair, 2010 – 2012; Program Chair of ACM SIGSPATIAL GIS, 2007 – 2008; Treasurer and Member of the Executive Committee, SIGSPATIAL, 2007 – 2011. Membership and Offices in Related Organizations: Member, ACM SIGSPATIAL, 2007 – Present; Member, ACM SIGMOD, 1998 – 2010; Member, ACM, 1998 – Present. Awards Received: ACM Recognition of Service Award: General Chair, SIGSPATIAL, 2013; ACM Recognition of Service Award: Program Chair, SIGSPATIAL, 2008. STATEMENT It has been my pleasure to have served as Executive Committee Member, Treasurer, General Chair, Program Chair, and supervisory Workshops Chair for SIGSPATIAL. This year, I am pleased to be running for Chair. As a co-founder of SIGSPATIAL I have always been deeply rooted with our community and its mission. Within a few years, SIGSPATIAL has increased its membership significantly, improved and extended its flagship conference
ACM SIGSPATIAL GIS with its affiliated workshops, stabilized its finances, attracted sponsorship from the software industry, provided sponsored student travel support to the main conference, and established the ACM Transactions on Spatial Algorithms and Systems. SIGSPATIAL is now a sound and growing community, but I see a great potential for new and exciting opportunities. If elected, I will continue to increase the reputation of our mission, grow our organization, and ensure the health of our flagship conference. While the years so far have been devoted to building our membership, conference, and research infrastructure, we will also aim to: 1) 2) 3) 4)
add the educational part to our mission, develop a body of knowledge and curriculum for our discipline, increase the synergy of research and education, and hereby attract young researchers to our community.
Candidate for Vice Chair Goce Trajcevski Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA BIOGRAPHY Academic Background: Ph.D., Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois at Chicago, 2002, Moving Objects Databases. Professional Experience: Assistant Chairman, Dept. of EECS, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 2008 – Present; Research Assistant Professor, Dept. of EECS, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 2006 – 2008; Post-Doctoral Fellow, Dept. of EECS, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 2003 – 2006. Professional Interest: Spatio-Temporal Databases; Mobility and Querying in Sensor Networks; Reactive Behavior in Dynamic Systems. ACM Activities: Local Organizing Chair, SIGMOD, 2006; Local Organizing Chair, SIGSPATIAL (GIS Conference), 2011; Local Organizing Chair, SIGSPATIAL (GIS Conference), 2012. Membership and Offices in Related Organizations: Member, ACM, 2005 – Present; Member, ACM/SIGSPATIAL, 2011 – Present. Awards Received: Best Paper Award, CoopIS Conference, 2000; Best Paper Award, MDM Conference, 2010; Best Short Paper Award, MSWiM Conference, 2013. STATEMENT I have been involved closely with the organization of the ACM GIS conference -- the annual forum of SIGSPATIAL -- in various roles over the past 3 years. I have witnessed its growth since 2007 and I firmly believe in its potential for further growth which is what I would like to contribute to. My organizational skills have evolved over the past 6 years, during my term as Assistant Chairman of the EECS department at Northwestern, where I have been involved in various departmental activities. I also have extended participation in Organizing Committees of conferences. In addition to being a local chair of ACM SIGMOD (2006) and
ACM GIS (2011 and 2012), I have served as tutorials co-chair (MDM 2012) and PhD colloquium co-chair (MDM 2011). I am presently a general co-chair of ICDE 2014; program committee co-chair of ADBMIS 2014; and workshops co-chair of MDM 2014. I will do my best to streamline the activities/operations of SIGSPATIAL and increase its impact in two aspects: (1) industry-academia collaboration; (2) early involvement of undergraduates in research topics related to SIGSPATIAL.
Candidate for Vice Chair Shawn Newsam University of California, Merced, CA, USA BIOGRAPHY Academic Background: Ph.D., UC Santa Barbara, 2004, Electrical and Computer Engineering. Professional Experience: Founding Co-director, UC Merced Spatial Analysis and Research Center (SpARC), Merced, CA, 2013 – Present; Assistant then Associate Professor and Founding Faculty, University of California, Merced, CA, 2005 – Present; Postdoctoral Scholar, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, 2004 – 2005. Professional Interest: Remote Sensing; Image Processing; Computer Vision; Pattern Recognition; Geoinformatics. ACM Activities: Associate Editor, ACM Transactions on Spatial Algorithms and Systems, SIGSPATIAL, 2013 – Present; Executive Committee Member (appointed), Conference Venue Coordinator, SIGSPATIAL, 2011 – 2014; Co-chair International Workshop on Location-Based Social Networks, SIGSPATIAL, 2012; Local Arrangements Co-chair (SIGSPATIAL Conference), 2010 – 2011. Awards Received: NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, 2012; Presidential Early Career Award for Science & Engineering (PECASE), 2007; Department of Energy (DOE) Early Career Scientist and Engineer Award, 2007. STATEMENT I am honored to be given the opportunity to run for vice-chair of SIGSPATIAL. I have been involved with the organization since 2007 and am committed to its continued growth and success. Since 2011, I have served as an appointed officer on the Executive Committee as the Conference Venue Coordinator. Serving in this role, as well as the local arrangements co-chair for the SIGSPATIAL conference in 2010 and 2011, has allowed
me to become very familiar with the organization and its constituents. If elected as ViceChair, I will leverage this experience to: 1. Further promote interactions between SIGSPATIAL and other scientific GIS communities. 2. Promote stronger ties with industrial partners that have stakes in this area. 3. Increase student participation, particularly in the SIGSPATIAL conference, by improving our financial assistance. These are exciting times for the intersection of location and computer science, and our community is well positioned to further strengthen its leadership role in the field. I am committed to doing all I can to help achieve this.
Candidate for Secretary Roger Zimmermann National University of Singapore, Singapore BIOGRAPHY Academic Background: Ph.D., University of Southern California, 1998, Computer Science. Professional Experience: Associate Professor, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 2007 – Present; Research Assistant Professor, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 2000 – 2006; Media Immersion Environment Research Coordinator, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 1999 – 2000. Professional Interest: Streaming media architectures; Spatial and temporal information management; Mobile location-based services; Distributed and scalable systems; Peer-to-peer systems. ACM Activities: Member, SIGSPATIAL, 2013 – Present; Member, SIGMM, 2007 – Present; Member, SIGMOD, 2003 – Present; Poster Co-chair, ACM SIGSPATIAL GIS, 2011 – 2012. Membership and Offices in Related Organizations: Senior Member, IEEE, 2007 – Present; Member, IEEE, 1993 – 2007. Awards Received: ACM SIGSPATIAL GIS Cup 2013, 2nd place Winner, 2013; IEEE International Symposium on Multimedia, Best Paper Award, 2013; ACM Multimedia 2012 Grand Challenge, 1 of 4 Finalists, 2012; Nomination for IEEE ComSoc MMTC Best Paper Award, 2010. STATEMENT I attended my first GIS conference in 2004 when it was co-located with CIKM. Ever since then I found it to be a diverse and very inclusive community where many interests are represented. My own interests intersect both GIS related topics and multimedia. While the
position of secretary would be new for me, I have been involved in academic service for many years, for example as poster co-chair for the GIS conference and most recently as General Chair of the ACM Multimedia Systems 2014 conference. Therefore I believe that I have the experience and understanding necessary for the position of secretary. The SIGSPATIAL community has seen impressive growth and achievements, and I would like to contribute to its further impact. Beyond SIGSPATIAL, I am an active member of both SIGMM and SIGMOD and I will work to improve cooperation, recognition and outreach of SIGSPATIAL with other SIGs and organizations. I believe my multi-disciplinary experience will be a benefit. Within SIGSPATIAL my objectives will be to help organize and promote SIGSPATIAL activities (such as the annual conference), and to support the members of the community in joint and effective collaboration with the other SIGSPATIAL officers.
Candidate for Secretary Mohamed Ali Microsoft, Redmond, WA, USA University of Washington, Tacoma, WA, USA BIOGRAPHY Academic Background: Ph.D., Purdue University, 2007, Computer Science. Professional Experience: Senior Software Engineer, Microsoft, Redmond, WA, 2007 – Present; Associate Professor, University of Washington, Tacoma, WA, 2010 – Present. Professional Interest: Geographic Information Systems; Spatiotemporal Databases; Real-time Data Streaming Systems; Visualization of spatial, temporal and spatiotemporal information; Real time behavioral targeting and business intelligence. ACM Activities: Founding Chair of the ACM SIGSPATIAL Cup, 2012 – 2013; Founding Chair of the ACM SIGSPATIAL IWGS Workshop, 2010 – 2013; Poster Co-Chair of ACM SIGSPATIAL GIS Conference, 2010 – 2011; Local Arrangements Chair of ACM SIGSPATIAL GIS Conference, 2009. Membership and Offices in Related Organizations: Member, ACM, 2007 – Present; Member, ACM SIGSPATIAL, 2007 – Present. STATEMENT It has been my pleasure to be engaged with the SIGSPATIAL community over the past 9 years, even before the SIGSPATIAL community had been officially established. I am pleased to be running this year for Secretary which enables me to deeply serve my SIGSPATIAL community. I envision this responsibility as being the liaison between our valued members and the SIGSPATIAL board, more specifically, facilitating the communication and addressing the members’ concerns in a timely manner. Moreover, I understand how crucial it is to increase the number of members, to outreach a diversity of audience across multiple verticals and to smooth the interaction between such a diversity of audience. Maintaining the technical strength of the GIS conference, increasing its attendance and enabling multiple specialized workshops is a priority. Given my industrial background and my experience in bridging the gap between academia and industry, I am
committed to increasing attendance from industry, to create a dialogue between academic researchers and their fellow industry members, and to attract industry sponsors. Last but not least, I want to increase our international presence through chapters worldwide and through attracting international researchers to the SIGSPATIAL community, in general, and to the GIS conference, in particular.
Candidate for Treasurer Egemen Tanin University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia BIOGRAPHY Academic Background: Ph.D., University of Maryland, 2001, Information Visualization. Professional Experience: Associate Professor, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia, 2013 – Present; Senior Lecturer, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia, 2009 – 2012; Lecturer, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia, 2003 – 2008. Professional Interest: Spatial Databases; Mobile Systems; Sensor Networks; Database Visualization; Information Visualization. ACM Activities: ACM SIGSPATIAL Workshops Chair, 2013 – Present; ACM SIGSPATIAL PC Chair, 2011 – 2012; ACM SIGSPATIAL Australia Chair, 2012 – 2012; ACM SIGSPATIAL Australia Founding Vice-Chair, 2010 – 2011. Membership and Offices in Related Organizations: ACM TSAS Associate Editor, SIGSPATIAL, 2013 – Present; ACM SIGSPATIAL Member, 2008 – Present; ACM SIGSPATIAL Special Newsletter Founding Editor, 2009 – 2011. Awards Received: CSSE Excellence in Research Award, University of Melbourne, 2006. STATEMENT Spatial information has spread to every corner of todays information systems and in general to our daily routines. From classical database management systems to mobile platforms, we see spatial information as first class citizen of decision making, information exchange and processing. I see spatial information being used in further new aspects of our interactions with technology in the coming decades. SIGSPATIAL was formed at the dawn of the transformation to this new technological terrain. I have been involved with SIGSPATIAL since its formation and I have held various positions, served under various roles. Most notably, I have served as the PC Chair of the flagship conference, ACM
SIGSPATIAL GIS from 2011 till 2012, and helped form the Australian Chapter. I also served as the founding editor of the newsletter, SIGSPATIAL Special. I hope to perform beyond the regular duties of the treasurer position and promote SIGSPATIAL further.
Candidate for Treasurer Gabriel Ghinita University of Massachusetts, Boston, MA, USA BIOGRAPHY Academic Background: Ph.D., National University of Singapore, 2008, Computer Science. Professional Experience: Assistant Professor, University of Massachusetts, Boston, MA, 2011 – Present; Research Associate, Purdue University, Lafayette, IN, 2008 – 2011. Professional Interest: Spatial Databases; Privacy and Security; Big Data. ACM Activities: Registration Chair - SIGMOD Conference, SIGMOD, 2013 – Present; PC Track Chair - CODASPY Conference, SIGSAC, 2012 – Present; Proceedings Chair - GIS Conference, SIGSPATIAL, 2011 – 2012; TPC Member - CODASPY, GIS and SIGMOD Conferences, SIGSAC, SIGSPATIAL, SIGMOD, 2010 – Present. Membership and Offices in Related Organizations: Member, ACM, 2008 – Present; Member, ACM SIGSPATIAL, 2008 – Present. STATEMENT I have been a member of ACM SIGSPATIAL since 2008, soon after its inception. Since then, I have been an active member of the SIGSPATIAL community, and volunteered for the roles of Proceedings Chair and Technical Program Committee member. I have also organized two workshops co-located with SIGSPATIAL GIS, namely SPRINGL 2009 and LBSN 2012. As proceedings chair, I helped organize, automate and document some of the challenging and time-consuming processes of putting together the conference proceedings. Currently, I am running for the position of SIGSPATIAL Treasurer. I am confident that my previous roles in SIGSPATIAL have provided me with sufficient knowledge about the organization, and the necessary experience to allow me to be an effective treasurer and support the growth and success of the SIG.
If elected, I will work hard to ensure the smooth management and operation of SIGSPATIAL finances. I will also work closely with other executive committee members to expand the SIG’s visibility by supporting and overseeing the organization of workshops co-located with the SIG’s main conference event, ACM SIGSPATIAL GIS.
2014 SIGSPATIAL Election Candidate Bios & Statements
Candidate for Chair Mohamed F. Mokbel University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA BIOGRAPHY Academic Background: Ph.D., Purdue University, 2005, Computer Science. Professional Experience: Associate Professor, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 2011 – Present; Assistant Professor, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 2005 – 2011. Professional Interest: GIS; Spatial and Spatio-temporal Databases; Spatial Cloud Computing; Location-based Services; Location-based Social Networks. ACM Activities: Treasurer, SIGSPATIAL, 2011 – 2014; Program Co-Chair, SIGSPATIAL, 2008 – 2010; Workshop Co-Chair, SIGSPATIAL, 2012 – 2014; Proceeding Chair, SIGMOD, 2010. Membership and Offices in Related Organizations: Associate Editor, IEEE Data Engineering Bulletin, 2010 – 2011; Track Chair, IEEE ICDE, 2015; Member/Senior Member, IEEE, 2005 – Present. Awards Received: ACM Recognition of Service, 2010; ACM Recognition of Service, 2009; ACM Recognition of Service, 2008; NSF CAREER Award, 2010. STATEMENT It is my pleasure to run for the Chair position for ACM SIGSPATIAL. If elected, I will focus on two orthogonal directions. First, to broaden SIGSPATIAL membership base and outreach through three main activities: 1. Expanding and diversifying the human capital of SIGSPATIAL with initiatives that target geographic regions and universities with no established tradition in the field,
2. Cultivating the interdisciplinary nature of the SIGSPATIAL community and being inclusive to researchers from various research communities including database systems, sensor networks, algorithms, computational geometry, visualization, cartography, geography, transportation, among others, and 3. Establishing a spirit of cooperation with other SIG organizations, including SIGMOD, SIGGRAPH, SIGKDD, SIGIR, among others. My second direction would be to ensure the impact and continuity of SIGSPATIAL researchers through three main activities: 1. Organizing visits to worldwide universities and related departments to encourage the deans and department heads to hire new faculty in SIGSPATIAL-related areas, 2. Providing one-to-one mentorship program connecting SIGSPATIAL junior researchers and faculty to our well established senior members, and 3. Helping our members to build strong connections with industry and funding agencies through a special dedicated committee that will strongly advocate for the impact and need for SIGSPATIAL-related research.
Candidate for Chair Markus Schneider University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA BIOGRAPHY Academic Background: Ph.D., FernUniversität Hagen, Germany, 1995, Computer Science. Professional Experience: Associate Professor, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 2008 – Present; Assistant Professor, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 2002 – 2008; University Assistant, FernUniversität Hagen, Hagen, Germany, 1996 – 2001. Professional Interest: Spatial, moving objects, and extensible databases; Spatial information science; Spatial fuzziness and uncertainty; Applied Computational Geometry; Design and implementation of complex/big objects. ACM Activities: General Chair of ACM SIGSPATIAL GIS, 2013 – 2014; ACM SIGSPATIAL (Supervisory) Workshops Chair, 2010 – 2012; Program Chair of ACM SIGSPATIAL GIS, 2007 – 2008; Treasurer and Member of the Executive Committee, SIGSPATIAL, 2007 – 2011. Membership and Offices in Related Organizations: Member, ACM SIGSPATIAL, 2007 – Present; Member, ACM SIGMOD, 1998 – 2010; Member, ACM, 1998 – Present. Awards Received: ACM Recognition of Service Award: General Chair, SIGSPATIAL, 2013; ACM Recognition of Service Award: Program Chair, SIGSPATIAL, 2008. STATEMENT It has been my pleasure to have served as Executive Committee Member, Treasurer, General Chair, Program Chair, and supervisory Workshops Chair for SIGSPATIAL. This year, I am pleased to be running for Chair. As a co-founder of SIGSPATIAL I have always been deeply rooted with our community and its mission. Within a few years, SIGSPATIAL has increased its membership significantly, improved and extended its flagship conference
ACM SIGSPATIAL GIS with its affiliated workshops, stabilized its finances, attracted sponsorship from the software industry, provided sponsored student travel support to the main conference, and established the ACM Transactions on Spatial Algorithms and Systems. SIGSPATIAL is now a sound and growing community, but I see a great potential for new and exciting opportunities. If elected, I will continue to increase the reputation of our mission, grow our organization, and ensure the health of our flagship conference. While the years so far have been devoted to building our membership, conference, and research infrastructure, we will also aim to: 1) 2) 3) 4)
add the educational part to our mission, develop a body of knowledge and curriculum for our discipline, increase the synergy of research and education, and hereby attract young researchers to our community.
Candidate for Vice Chair Goce Trajcevski Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA BIOGRAPHY Academic Background: Ph.D., Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois at Chicago, 2002, Moving Objects Databases. Professional Experience: Assistant Chairman, Dept. of EECS, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 2008 – Present; Research Assistant Professor, Dept. of EECS, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 2006 – 2008; Post-Doctoral Fellow, Dept. of EECS, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 2003 – 2006. Professional Interest: Spatio-Temporal Databases; Mobility and Querying in Sensor Networks; Reactive Behavior in Dynamic Systems. ACM Activities: Local Organizing Chair, SIGMOD, 2006; Local Organizing Chair, SIGSPATIAL (GIS Conference), 2011; Local Organizing Chair, SIGSPATIAL (GIS Conference), 2012. Membership and Offices in Related Organizations: Member, ACM, 2005 – Present; Member, ACM/SIGSPATIAL, 2011 – Present. Awards Received: Best Paper Award, CoopIS Conference, 2000; Best Paper Award, MDM Conference, 2010; Best Short Paper Award, MSWiM Conference, 2013. STATEMENT I have been involved closely with the organization of the ACM GIS conference -- the annual forum of SIGSPATIAL -- in various roles over the past 3 years. I have witnessed its growth since 2007 and I firmly believe in its potential for further growth which is what I would like to contribute to. My organizational skills have evolved over the past 6 years, during my term as Assistant Chairman of the EECS department at Northwestern, where I have been involved in various departmental activities. I also have extended participation in Organizing Committees of conferences. In addition to being a local chair of ACM SIGMOD (2006) and
ACM GIS (2011 and 2012), I have served as tutorials co-chair (MDM 2012) and PhD colloquium co-chair (MDM 2011). I am presently a general co-chair of ICDE 2014; program committee co-chair of ADBMIS 2014; and workshops co-chair of MDM 2014. I will do my best to streamline the activities/operations of SIGSPATIAL and increase its impact in two aspects: (1) industry-academia collaboration; (2) early involvement of undergraduates in research topics related to SIGSPATIAL.
Candidate for Vice Chair Shawn Newsam University of California, Merced, CA, USA BIOGRAPHY Academic Background: Ph.D., UC Santa Barbara, 2004, Electrical and Computer Engineering. Professional Experience: Founding Co-director, UC Merced Spatial Analysis and Research Center (SpARC), Merced, CA, 2013 – Present; Assistant then Associate Professor and Founding Faculty, University of California, Merced, CA, 2005 – Present; Postdoctoral Scholar, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, 2004 – 2005. Professional Interest: Remote Sensing; Image Processing; Computer Vision; Pattern Recognition; Geoinformatics. ACM Activities: Associate Editor, ACM Transactions on Spatial Algorithms and Systems, SIGSPATIAL, 2013 – Present; Executive Committee Member (appointed), Conference Venue Coordinator, SIGSPATIAL, 2011 – 2014; Co-chair International Workshop on Location-Based Social Networks, SIGSPATIAL, 2012; Local Arrangements Co-chair (SIGSPATIAL Conference), 2010 – 2011. Awards Received: NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, 2012; Presidential Early Career Award for Science & Engineering (PECASE), 2007; Department of Energy (DOE) Early Career Scientist and Engineer Award, 2007. STATEMENT I am honored to be given the opportunity to run for vice-chair of SIGSPATIAL. I have been involved with the organization since 2007 and am committed to its continued growth and success. Since 2011, I have served as an appointed officer on the Executive Committee as the Conference Venue Coordinator. Serving in this role, as well as the local arrangements co-chair for the SIGSPATIAL conference in 2010 and 2011, has allowed
me to become very familiar with the organization and its constituents. If elected as ViceChair, I will leverage this experience to: 1. Further promote interactions between SIGSPATIAL and other scientific GIS communities. 2. Promote stronger ties with industrial partners that have stakes in this area. 3. Increase student participation, particularly in the SIGSPATIAL conference, by improving our financial assistance. These are exciting times for the intersection of location and computer science, and our community is well positioned to further strengthen its leadership role in the field. I am committed to doing all I can to help achieve this.
Candidate for Secretary Roger Zimmermann National University of Singapore, Singapore BIOGRAPHY Academic Background: Ph.D., University of Southern California, 1998, Computer Science. Professional Experience: Associate Professor, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 2007 – Present; Research Assistant Professor, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 2000 – 2006; Media Immersion Environment Research Coordinator, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 1999 – 2000. Professional Interest: Streaming media architectures; Spatial and temporal information management; Mobile location-based services; Distributed and scalable systems; Peer-to-peer systems. ACM Activities: Member, SIGSPATIAL, 2013 – Present; Member, SIGMM, 2007 – Present; Member, SIGMOD, 2003 – Present; Poster Co-chair, ACM SIGSPATIAL GIS, 2011 – 2012. Membership and Offices in Related Organizations: Senior Member, IEEE, 2007 – Present; Member, IEEE, 1993 – 2007. Awards Received: ACM SIGSPATIAL GIS Cup 2013, 2nd place Winner, 2013; IEEE International Symposium on Multimedia, Best Paper Award, 2013; ACM Multimedia 2012 Grand Challenge, 1 of 4 Finalists, 2012; Nomination for IEEE ComSoc MMTC Best Paper Award, 2010. STATEMENT I attended my first GIS conference in 2004 when it was co-located with CIKM. Ever since then I found it to be a diverse and very inclusive community where many interests are represented. My own interests intersect both GIS related topics and multimedia. While the
position of secretary would be new for me, I have been involved in academic service for many years, for example as poster co-chair for the GIS conference and most recently as General Chair of the ACM Multimedia Systems 2014 conference. Therefore I believe that I have the experience and understanding necessary for the position of secretary. The SIGSPATIAL community has seen impressive growth and achievements, and I would like to contribute to its further impact. Beyond SIGSPATIAL, I am an active member of both SIGMM and SIGMOD and I will work to improve cooperation, recognition and outreach of SIGSPATIAL with other SIGs and organizations. I believe my multi-disciplinary experience will be a benefit. Within SIGSPATIAL my objectives will be to help organize and promote SIGSPATIAL activities (such as the annual conference), and to support the members of the community in joint and effective collaboration with the other SIGSPATIAL officers.
Candidate for Secretary Mohamed Ali Microsoft, Redmond, WA, USA University of Washington, Tacoma, WA, USA BIOGRAPHY Academic Background: Ph.D., Purdue University, 2007, Computer Science. Professional Experience: Senior Software Engineer, Microsoft, Redmond, WA, 2007 – Present; Associate Professor, University of Washington, Tacoma, WA, 2010 – Present. Professional Interest: Geographic Information Systems; Spatiotemporal Databases; Real-time Data Streaming Systems; Visualization of spatial, temporal and spatiotemporal information; Real time behavioral targeting and business intelligence. ACM Activities: Founding Chair of the ACM SIGSPATIAL Cup, 2012 – 2013; Founding Chair of the ACM SIGSPATIAL IWGS Workshop, 2010 – 2013; Poster Co-Chair of ACM SIGSPATIAL GIS Conference, 2010 – 2011; Local Arrangements Chair of ACM SIGSPATIAL GIS Conference, 2009. Membership and Offices in Related Organizations: Member, ACM, 2007 – Present; Member, ACM SIGSPATIAL, 2007 – Present. STATEMENT It has been my pleasure to be engaged with the SIGSPATIAL community over the past 9 years, even before the SIGSPATIAL community had been officially established. I am pleased to be running this year for Secretary which enables me to deeply serve my SIGSPATIAL community. I envision this responsibility as being the liaison between our valued members and the SIGSPATIAL board, more specifically, facilitating the communication and addressing the members’ concerns in a timely manner. Moreover, I understand how crucial it is to increase the number of members, to outreach a diversity of audience across multiple verticals and to smooth the interaction between such a diversity of audience. Maintaining the technical strength of the GIS conference, increasing its attendance and enabling multiple specialized workshops is a priority. Given my industrial background and my experience in bridging the gap between academia and industry, I am
committed to increasing attendance from industry, to create a dialogue between academic researchers and their fellow industry members, and to attract industry sponsors. Last but not least, I want to increase our international presence through chapters worldwide and through attracting international researchers to the SIGSPATIAL community, in general, and to the GIS conference, in particular.
Candidate for Treasurer Egemen Tanin University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia BIOGRAPHY Academic Background: Ph.D., University of Maryland, 2001, Information Visualization. Professional Experience: Associate Professor, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia, 2013 – Present; Senior Lecturer, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia, 2009 – 2012; Lecturer, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia, 2003 – 2008. Professional Interest: Spatial Databases; Mobile Systems; Sensor Networks; Database Visualization; Information Visualization. ACM Activities: ACM SIGSPATIAL Workshops Chair, 2013 – Present; ACM SIGSPATIAL PC Chair, 2011 – 2012; ACM SIGSPATIAL Australia Chair, 2012 – 2012; ACM SIGSPATIAL Australia Founding Vice-Chair, 2010 – 2011. Membership and Offices in Related Organizations: ACM TSAS Associate Editor, SIGSPATIAL, 2013 – Present; ACM SIGSPATIAL Member, 2008 – Present; ACM SIGSPATIAL Special Newsletter Founding Editor, 2009 – 2011. Awards Received: CSSE Excellence in Research Award, University of Melbourne, 2006. STATEMENT Spatial information has spread to every corner of todays information systems and in general to our daily routines. From classical database management systems to mobile platforms, we see spatial information as first class citizen of decision making, information exchange and processing. I see spatial information being used in further new aspects of our interactions with technology in the coming decades. SIGSPATIAL was formed at the dawn of the transformation to this new technological terrain. I have been involved with SIGSPATIAL since its formation and I have held various positions, served under various roles. Most notably, I have served as the PC Chair of the flagship conference, ACM
SIGSPATIAL GIS from 2011 till 2012, and helped form the Australian Chapter. I also served as the founding editor of the newsletter, SIGSPATIAL Special. I hope to perform beyond the regular duties of the treasurer position and promote SIGSPATIAL further.
Candidate for Treasurer Gabriel Ghinita University of Massachusetts, Boston, MA, USA BIOGRAPHY Academic Background: Ph.D., National University of Singapore, 2008, Computer Science. Professional Experience: Assistant Professor, University of Massachusetts, Boston, MA, 2011 – Present; Research Associate, Purdue University, Lafayette, IN, 2008 – 2011. Professional Interest: Spatial Databases; Privacy and Security; Big Data. ACM Activities: Registration Chair - SIGMOD Conference, SIGMOD, 2013 – Present; PC Track Chair - CODASPY Conference, SIGSAC, 2012 – Present; Proceedings Chair - GIS Conference, SIGSPATIAL, 2011 – 2012; TPC Member - CODASPY, GIS and SIGMOD Conferences, SIGSAC, SIGSPATIAL, SIGMOD, 2010 – Present. Membership and Offices in Related Organizations: Member, ACM, 2008 – Present; Member, ACM SIGSPATIAL, 2008 – Present. STATEMENT I have been a member of ACM SIGSPATIAL since 2008, soon after its inception. Since then, I have been an active member of the SIGSPATIAL community, and volunteered for the roles of Proceedings Chair and Technical Program Committee member. I have also organized two workshops co-located with SIGSPATIAL GIS, namely SPRINGL 2009 and LBSN 2012. As proceedings chair, I helped organize, automate and document some of the challenging and time-consuming processes of putting together the conference proceedings. Currently, I am running for the position of SIGSPATIAL Treasurer. I am confident that my previous roles in SIGSPATIAL have provided me with sufficient knowledge about the organization, and the necessary experience to allow me to be an effective treasurer and support the growth and success of the SIG.
If elected, I will work hard to ensure the smooth management and operation of SIGSPATIAL finances. I will also work closely with other executive committee members to expand the SIG’s visibility by supporting and overseeing the organization of workshops co-located with the SIG’s main conference event, ACM SIGSPATIAL GIS.
