CIG-YorkU: GeoTalks Webinar Series

Joel Cumming

Joel is SkyWatch’s Chief Technology Officer. His team focuses on making earth observation data open and accessible for everyone. Previously, as Head of Data at Kik Interactive, Joel directed data engineering and data sciences at petabyte scale. Prior to that, Joel managed analytics and big data teams at BlackBerry, helping the company grow from 3 million to 80 million subscribers.

Joel holds several data related patents on location AI and contextual analytics. Outside of work, Joel is an active member of the local community as a coach in minor baseball and hockey.

Dr. Geoff Zeiss

Geoff's area of special focus is locating, mapping and sharing information about underground utility infrastructure. A white paper "Reducing Damage to Underground Utility Infrastructure During Excavation" prepared by Geoff and Dr. Sakura Shinoaki was recently released by GITA. He has been an advisor to a number of underground mapping initiatives including 4M-Analytics, Singapore Digital Underground, Minnesota Underground Utility Mapping Project, and the National Underground Asset Registry in the U.K. Geoff tracks the contribution of geospatial technology to the digitalization of the construction and energy industries on his Between The Poles blog and other media. In recognition of his efforts to increase the awareness of geospatial data and technologies in construction and utilities, Geoff received the Geospatial Ambassador Award at Geospatial World Forum 2014 in Geneva, Switzerland. He has actively supported open standards as a director of the Open Geospatial Consortium.

Dr. Nastaran Saberi

 Dr. Nastaran Saberi who received her PhD in Applied Remote Sensing from the University of Waterloo in 2019, is the co-founder and CTO of GeoMate, alocation -intelligence startup that uses AI to analyze the near real-time safety and accessibility of cities. She also holds the position of researcher at the University of Waterloo (UW), working as a core-modeler in the Global Water Futures program since 2019. Also at UW, Dr. Saberi contributes her knowledge about the geospatial domain as a lecturer and mentor, and in the commercial sector, acts as a data growth coach for small-to-medium enterprises, helping them to grow their geospatial data knowledge, machine vision, and AI and geodata pipeline integration. She is firmly committed to encouraging the use of tech and AI for good and adheres to socially responsible practices in all her geo community activities. Despite a decade of research and development experience in geospatial sciences, Dr. Saberi remains excited to learn more about applied geoscience and the positive contributions it can make to society. 

Stephanie Michaud

Stephanie Michaud is the Strategic Marketing Manager for the field software solutions segment of the Geospatial group at Trimble Inc, and is responsible for activities related to market research, business partnerships, product development, and new product introduction spanning GIS and Survey product portfolios.

During her 9-year tenure at Trimble, she has also held technical roles in the Land Administration and Agriculture groups. Mrs. Michaud holds a degree in geomatics engineering from the University of Calgary in Canada and is a registered professional engineer.

Dr. Mozhdeh Shahbazi

Dr. Mozhdeh Shahbazi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geomatics Engineering, the University of Calgary since 2016. She is also lead research scientist at Centre de géomatique du Québec since 2019. She is vice president of Canadian remote sensing society (CRSS) and secretory of Working Group II, TCI at ISPRS since 2016. She received her BSc degree in civil/survey engineering in 2009, her MSc degree in geomatics/photogrammetry engineering in 2011, and her Ph.D. in applied geomatics in 2016. At the University of Calgary, she has established a research lab, Autonomous Mapping Lab. Her current research areas include: Development, integration and calibration of ranging and imaging technologies (UAV / MMS); Autonomous and high-precision mapping via vision-guided (unmanned aerial) systems; and the applications of such systems in infrastructure inspection and monitoring, precision agriculture, and mining. At Centre de geomatique du Québec, she supervises a technology-access center that aims for build innovation capacity in photogrammetry, hydrography and remote sensing.

Dr. Kevin Lim

Dr. Kevin Lim is the founder and CEO of Lim Geomatics Inc. The company was founded in 2006 to commercialize Dr. Lim's Ph.D. research in airborne lidar and its application to forest inventory and has since grown to employ 20 staff across its two offices located in Ottawa and Calgary. Lim Geomatics was recently recognized as one of Canada's fastest growing companies with its inclusion on the Canadian Business 2020 Growth List.

With its focus on building geospatial software and data to help forestry companies be more efficient with their in-office and field operations, Lim Geomatics has emerged as an industry leader in the forestry market with how it leverages GIS, remote sensing, IoT and AI to increase the bottom line for its forestry customers in Canada, USA and South Africa.

Lim Geomatics remains a bootstrapped company to this day and in this talk, Dr. Lim will share his experiences with his entrepreneurship journey that has spanned over the last 15 years. Dr. Lim received his Ph.D. from Queen's University in 2006 and lives in Ottawa.

Dr. Steve Liang

Dr. Steve Liang is the founder and CTO of SensorUp, a NATO award-winning movement intelligence platform that interconnects the world's IoT data empowering the workforce of the future. Dr. Liang is a global influencer on the Internet of Things, and he is the working group chair of several international standard working groups of the Open Geospatial Consortium and UN’s ITU-T.

Dr. Liang is also a professor and research chair at the Department of Geomatics Engineering at the University of Calgary, and a lab scientist of the Creative Destruction Lab. Dr. Steve Liang was recently named the Rogers IoT Research Chair, a five-year research chair position sponsored by Rogers Communications. A recipient of numerous awards, Dr. Liang has received Calgary’s Top 40 Under 40, Killam Emerging Research Leader Award, and more. Dr. Liang received his PhD from York University in 2007.