News and Events

Two funded PhD research assistantships announced

The Department of Spatial Information Science and Engineering and the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis announce the availability of two funded PhD research assistantships.  Students will be working with advisor Professor Mike Worboys and will register for the degree of PhD.  The funding will cover a stipend, tuition, and a contribution to the […]

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Establishing Similarity Across Multi-Granular Topological-Relation Ontologies

Published: Jun 1, 2009 Author(s): Dube, Matthew P., Egenhofer, Max J. Abstract: Within the Geospatial Semantic Web, selecting a different ontology for a spatial data set will enable that dataís analysis in a different context. Analyses of multiple data sets, each based on a different ontology, require appropriate bridges across the ontologies. This paper focuses on establishing such […]

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Ph.D. thesis defense by Guang Jin

On April 8, 2009, Guang Jin successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis with the topic “Towards spatial queries over continuous phenomenon using sensor networks.”  His work included several approaches to compute field-based and object-based queries for detecting, estimating, and tracking continuous phenomena such as toxic chemical clouds and their boundaries using novel wireless sensor network technology.  […]

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Onsrud receives Fulbright Specialists Award

Harlan Onsrud has been selected for a Fulbright Specialists project in Law in Australia at The University of Melbourne during February and March 2009, according to the United States Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.  Onsrud will develop and present five major lectures, known collectively as the 2009 Melbourne Fulbright […]

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Department welcomes new faculty Reinhard Moratz and Nicholas Giudice

Dr. Reinhard Moratz and Dr. Nicholas Giudice, new faculty members in the Department of Spatial Information Science and Engineering, were welcomed by faculty, staff, and students at a recent social gathering hosted by Chair Michael Worboys.  Associate Professor Moratz comes to the University of Maine from Hamburg, Germany, where he was a Senior Researcher at […]

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SIE alumnus Xavier Lopez inducted into Francis Crowe Society

SIE alumnus Xavier Lopez was inducted into the Francis Crowe Society as a Distinguished Engineer at the annual Francis Crowe Society ceremony held Saturday, May 10, 2008, at Hauck Auditorium on the UMaine campus. The purpose of the Francis Crowe Society is to recognize UMaine engineering graduates as they accomplish the formidable goal of completing […]

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SIE students graduate – UMaine Commencement May 2008

University of Maine held its 206th Commencement on Saturday, May 10, 2008, at the Alfond Arena. Three SIE graduate students received their Master’s degree in Spatial Information Science and Engineering. Three SIE undergraduate students received their Bachelor’s degree in Information Systems Engineering. The SIE faculty hosted a celebratory luncheon in the department library where family […]

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Metric Details of Topological Line-Line Relations

Published: Jan 1, 2007 Author(s): Egenhofer, Max J., Nedas, Konstantinos A., Wilmsen, Dominik Abstract: Many real and artificial entities in geographic space, such as transportation networks and trajectories of movement, are typically modeled as lines in geographic information systems. In a similar fashion, people also perceive such objects as lines and communicate about them accordingly as evidence from research […]

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Spatial Reasoning with a Hole

Published: Sep 1, 2007 Author(s): Egenhofer, Max J., Vasardani, Maria Abstract: Cavities in spatial phenomena require geometric representations of regions with holes. Existing models for reasoning over topological relations either exclude such specialized regions (9-intersection) or treat them indistinguishably from regions without holes (RCC-8). This paper highlights that inferences over a region with a hole need to be […]

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Perceptual Sketch Interpretation

Published: Jun 1, 2008 Author(s): Egenhofer, Max J., Wuersch, Markus Abstract: An automated extraction of regions from sketches can be of great value for multi-modal user interfaces and for interpreting spatial data. This paper develops the Perceptual Sketch Interpretationalgorithm, which employs the theory of topological relations from spatial reasoning as well as continuity and good gestalt from gestalt theory […]

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