May 20-24, 2024

Call for Applications November 15, 2023 – January 31, 2024 via the VIU website

This Graduate Seminar will be led by:
- IUAV University of Venice, Italy
- University of Lausanne, Switzerland
- Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy

The adoption of data science in environmental and earth sciences, physical geography, humanities, and social sciences, has begun to emerge as self-contained discipline only recently, demonstrating exceptional efficiency in addressing the complexity of the investigated phenomena. This trend encourages contemporary scientists to collaborate with disciplines that may initially appear distant from their own expertise. Such an interdisciplinary openness is of growing significance as society struggles to respond to the implication of anthropogenic pressures on different issues, including natural hazards and climate change, or the harmful impacts of human activities on biodiversity, water and air quality, and human health. Therefore, there is a real need for the development of novel techniques that facilitate the extraction of insights from data and the subsequent transformation of this information into actionable knowledge

Faculty
Marj Tonini, University of Lausanne, Switzerland (Scientific Coordinator)
Sebastiano Trevisani, Iuav University of Venice, Italy (Co-coordinator)
Pietro Omodeo, University of Ca’ Foscari, Venice, Italy (Co-coordinator)
Mikhail Kanevski, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Francesco Luzzini, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Italy, and Johns Hopkins University, USA
Alejandra Morán-Ordóñez, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Filippo Catani, University of Padua, Italy
Paolo Fabbri, University of Padua, Italy
Dario Camuffo, National Research Council of Italy
Donata Canu, National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics OGS, Italy

Topics
- Theoretical prospective of the role of geoenvironmental data and other source of information for the characterization, analysis, and modelling of the geosphere and the anthroposphere, from historical times to present.
- The derivation of quantitative data from historical documents will also be introduced in this first part of the seminar, crucial for stimulating open discussions among the participants.
- Practical concepts and environmental applications of the main techniques of analysis in Geo-Data Science, in particular geostatistics and machine learning.

Learning outcomes
- To gain a good understanding of main theoretical and practical concepts of Geo-Data Science and its applications
- To learn about the quantitative analysis of geoenvironmental data in the context of sustainability and management of the environment in current and historical times, as well as the role of expert-knowledge on the application of geocomputational approaches.
- To promote a wide and holistic view on geoenvironmental and geoengineering issues.
- To handle different methods of Data Science, such as exploratory data analysis and data visualization; key concepts of Geostatistics with practical skills in the implementation of kriging algorithms, unsupervised and supervised machine-learning approaches for regression, classification, and prediction mapping.

Who can apply?
This Graduate Seminar is offered to advanced Master, early PhD students and junior researchers in Earth/Environmental Sciences, Biology and Spatial ecology, Physical geography, and equivalent disciplines. Students in Architecture, Humanities, Planning and Arts related disciplines can also apply. The participants should have a good knowledge of mathematics and statistics; skills in geographical information systems and notions in R programming language are also required. Students need their laptops for the practical parts of the seminar.

Fees & grant support
Students from the VIU member institutions will pay no participation fees. Grant support is also available to support, partially or fully, the costs of international travel and accommodation. The participation fee for students of non-member institutions is Euro 1.150 VAT included. The fee is inclusive of tuition, course materials, accommodation, lunches, social events and taxes. Students from non-member institutions are not eligible for VIU grant support. VIU Alumni are eligible for a reduced fee.

Applicants must submit the application form, a letter of motivation – which should include a brief description of the candidate’s research interests, a curriculum vitae and a photo.

For further information please download the Brochure and the Program or write to: summerschools@univiu.org