Ran Tao

Tao's research centers on GIScience methods and applications. He is particularly interested in studying spatial interaction phenomena with spatial flow data. He has developed a series of spatial flow data analysis methods that blend the latest techniques in spatial statistics, data mining, geovisualization, and geocomputation. He has also been leading or been actively engaged in collaborative research projects which exert the power of GIS to a variety of domains, such as studying shrinking cities in Northeast China with human migration data, predicting the recovery locations of the stolen vehicles, modeling territorial control based on violent conflict events in Sub-Saharan Africa.

His teaching philosophy is to create a network of effective knowledge sharing both inside and outside the classroom, while tailoring his teaching style to enhance student’s professional development, regardless of their diverse disciplinary or cultural backgrounds. He is interested in teaching various GIS-related courses, including but not limited to: Spatial Thinking, Spatial Analysis, Spatial Database, Mobile GIS, Web GIS, GIS Programming, and Open-Source GIS.