"The risk is that non-geographers mastering these methods analyze the spatio-temporal data and information better than the geographers. That is why the need to deal with competition induced by other sciences claiming the geographic space as their subject of study and research becomes a serious challenge for geographers. Geographers need to test and adapt to the new methods, models and procedures and implement them in all fields and development trends of Geography. By these also, Technical Geography as a new line of research and professional training becomes a necessity."
— Ionel Haidu 2016, "What is Technical Geography - A letter to the editor," Geographia Technica.
I am a geographer, and my research interests are in all things geographic. It doesn't matter if the data are COVID-19 cases or ice cream truck sales; if I can map it, I'm interested. I have worked on research involving COVID-19 and other public health topics, invasive plant species, real estate, noise pollution, and the impact of colonial legal systems on modern Africa. My master's thesis focused on assessing 3D printed terrain models and augmented reality to display spatial information, and I'm interested in how WebGIS is being used for various purposes. The common theme of all these are the techniques and concepts used to solve spatial problems, and this is where my research interests lie. In short, geography.
One of the major contributions to academia geographers have is bringing our techniques and methods to other researchers and helping them solve spatial problems. Without geographers doing this, other disciplines may appropriate the spatial domain and, more importantly, may misuse our techniques and make bad maps. In addition to my original research, I like to seek opportunities to support researchers in other disciplines with the skills and techniques geographers have created.
The research skills I bring to such collaborations include:
Cartography Skills:
Extensive experience creating static maps, dynamic web maps, and physical 3D terrain models.
Statistical Skills:
Experience utilizing GIS, R, Stata, and Excel. Survey research.
Geographic Information Systems Software:
ESRI Software: ArcGIS Desktop, ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Online
Other GIS Software: QGIS, SaTScan, Geoda
Remote Sensing Software:
Software: ENVI, ERDAS IMAGINE
Other Computer Skills:
Familiar with computer basics on Windows and Linux OS
Programming languages: Python, R, some Java