Bernd Resch

Research group:

The growing influence of digital data and tools, along with recent advancements in AI, is transforming our world. With the increasing availability of large, open datasets—ranging from social media posts and news articles to physiological measurements and mobile phone records—entirely new insights into geospatial and social processes can be generated. Many of these datasets include geospatial references, offering unique insights into spatial structures across a variety of real-world contexts.

The Geosocial Artificial Intelligence Group is a research laboratory focusing on understanding geospatial and social processes through the AI-based analysis of user-generated digital data. This research, for instance, helps in understanding the spatio-temporal spread of contagious diseases, in identifying the most affected areas after a natural disaster, or in generating new insights into democracy-threatening communication on the Internet and in social media.

Short bio:

Bernd Resch is a Full Professor of Geo-social AI at IT:U and a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University (USA). Bernd Resch did his PhD in the area of “Live Geography” (real-time monitoring of environmental geo-processes) together with University of Salzburg and MIT. His research interest revolves around understanding cities as complex systems through analysing a variety of digital data sources, focusing on developing machine learning algorithms to analyse human-generated data like social media posts and physiological measurements from wearable sensors. The findings are relevant to a number of fields including urban research, disaster management, epidemiology, and others. Bernd received the Theodor Körner Award for his work on „Urban Emotions“. He also established the iDEAS:lab, a multi-functional outreach and science communication laboratory environment. Amongst a variety of other functions, he is an Editorial Board Member of IJHG, IJGI and PLOS ONE, a scientific committee member of various international conferences (having chaired several conferences), and an Executive Board member of Spatial Services GmbH.