{"id":6092,"date":"2021-11-12T12:16:46","date_gmt":"2021-11-12T17:16:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/epscor\/?p=6092"},"modified":"2021-11-12T12:17:12","modified_gmt":"2021-11-12T17:17:12","slug":"6092","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/epscor\/2021\/11\/12\/6092\/","title":{"rendered":"Barracuda Co-PI Profile: Matthew Dube"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Stefania Irene Marthakis\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Matthew Dube<\/span><\/a>, Assistant Professor in Computer Information Systems and Data Science at the University of Maine at Augusta (UMA). Dube completed his undergraduate degree in Mathematics and Statistics as well as both his advanced degrees in Spatial Information Science and Engineering at the University of Maine. Hired straight out of graduate school, Dube has worked with students through the University of Maine\u2019s <\/span>Upward Bound<\/span><\/a> Program (UB) for 11 years. As Co-PI of the NSF-funded <\/span>Barracuda<\/span><\/a> project, Dube\u2014in partnership with UB\u2014focuses on developing an interdisciplinary data science curriculum for everyone.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Teaching anything with data in its title (e.g., data visualization, data mining, data science), programming, and software engineering, Dube started the University of Maine System\u2019s only <\/span>data science major<\/span><\/a> for undergraduates and also teaches graduate classes in the University of Maine\u2019s <\/span>Data Science and Engineering<\/span><\/a> program.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With a background in geographic information system (GIS) science, Dube\u2019s favorite course to teach is geography. He\u2019s been heard to remark, \u201cMaps are my jam.\u201d Through trying to figure out where and how things occur, Dube bears witness to how the language of maps transforms how students see the world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGeography isn\u2019t just maps, geography is about what went into how those maps got there (a social process), and what\u2019s actually there physically or socially,\u201d Dube said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Through Barracuda\u2014which focuses on the species adaptation process\u2014Dube uses informatics (the<\/span> science of processing data for storage and retrieval) to look at where species are moving due to climate change, how different raster regions (matrices of cells, each containing real-world phenomena) align, and the logic of spatio-temporal queries (requests for information from a database that contains both space and time relevant data).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With a background in spatio-temporal reasoning and an interest in accessible query engines, Dube tries to bring out the human side, making sure queries of a system reflect both language and cognition.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI make maps talk,\u201d Dube stated. \u201cIf you can look at a map and find how things are topologically related or how things are directionally related\u2014using prepositions to let the computer know what to do with the data requested\u2014this aligns more with how humans think about the \u2018where\u2019 of things.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With plenty of tools like structured query language (SQL) and GIS methods that show how two objects are related as well as temporal information systems that show the \u2018before\u2019 and \u2018during\u2019, Dube aims to create an information system that merges spatial and temporal queries that will start to say that these species or environmental measures follow this trajectory through that relational space.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Dube explained, \u201cA fox habitat might move, but then you have this bird habitat that\u2019s also moving concurrently. Right now, the bird and the fox might be separated in their habitats, but suddenly they enter into an intersecting relationship that leads to potential predator\/prey dynamics.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The foundation for spatio-temporal logic is built not only on static relationships, but also on how relationships change. \u201cUnderstanding [relational] change is important in queries that have to do with climate change. Thinking about how a suitable environment for a species shifts, you must understand how that shifts relative to other things, even if we have not seen them interact before,\u201d Dube stated.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As part of Barracuda\u2014and Dube’s overarching goal to solve data issues that exist in the general population, which are fundamental to how people live, and ultimately creating a more data literate society\u2014Dube asks this critical question: \u201cWhat is the root math of human cognition relative to tasks that are essential to maps and time?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Stefania Irene Marthakis\u00a0   Matthew Dube, Assistant Professor in Computer Information Systems and Data Science at the University of Maine at Augusta (UMA). Dube completed his undergraduate degree in Mathematics and Statistics as well as both his advanced degrees in Spatial Information Science and Engineering at the University of Maine. Hired straight out of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1966,"featured_media":6093,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"3","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","spc_primary_category":0},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":3,"label":"News"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/umaine.edu\/epscor\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/25\/2021\/11\/Dube-1024x684.jpg",1024,684,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"dtimmermann","author_link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/epscor\/author\/dtimmermann\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":3,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":3,"taxonomy":"category","description":"Stay up-to-date on Maine EPSCoR funded research and activities!\r\n\r\nSubscribe to our e-news and updates.\u00a0<\/a>","parent":0,"count":247,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":3,"category_count":247,"category_description":"Stay up-to-date on Maine EPSCoR funded research and activities!\r\n\r\nSubscribe to our e-news and updates.\u00a0<\/a>","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/epscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/epscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/epscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/epscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1966"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/epscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6092"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/epscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6096,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/epscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6092\/revisions\/6096"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/epscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/epscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/epscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/epscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}