Convergence Accelerator Expo 2022

July 27–28, 2022 | 7:00 am–1:15 pm PDT

Registration (free!) & Agenda

The Center for Spatial Studies' KnowWhereGraph will be featured along with over 45 projects funded through NSF's Convergence Accelerator program in this two-day virtual exhibition. From NSF: 

Expo 2022 highlights the NSF Convergence Accelerator’s portfolio in an exhibition format, like a big science fair. In addition to a general session, attendees will choose which track topics and team booths to visit.

KnowWhereGraph team members will give live presentations throughout the event:

27 July, 8:00 am–8:45 am PDT: Know, Know Where, KnowWhereGraph

Presenter: 

• Krzysztof Janowicz, Director of the Center for Spatial Studies, Professor for Geoinformatics, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA and University of Vienna, Austria

This session will introduce the audience to the publicly available KnowWhereGraph, its value proposition, and service. We will give an overview of the data layers currently available, explain how we put billions of graph statements at your fingertips, and showcase our pilots. This introductory session will set the stage for the rest of the program, which will take a deeper look at each of the topics mentioned.

27 July, 11:30 am–12:15 pm PDT: Using KnowWhereGraph 101 

Presenters:

• Anthony D’Onofrio, Developer, Michigan State University, USA
• Rushiraj Nenuji, Software Engineer, NCEAS, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
• Shirly Stephen, Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
• Thomas Thelen, Software Engineer, NCEAS, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
• Rui Zhu, Postdoctoral Scholar, Center for Spatial Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA; Lecturer, School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, UK (starting August 1st, 2022)

This session will provide detailed instructions on using the KnowWhereGraph. After briefly introducing the graph and underlying themes, data sources, underlying ontologies, and applied standards, you will then learn how to utilize the different tools for interacting with the graph, including the SPARQL, Knowledge Explorer, GeoEnrichment plugins for ArcGIS and QGIS, and GeoGraphVis tool.

27 July, 12:30 pm–1:15 pm PDT: From Humanitarian Relief to Food Supply: Applications of the KnowWhereGraph

Presenters:

• Colby Fisher, Managing Partner, Hydronos Labs
• Anna Lopez-Carr, Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, Direct Relief
• Mark Schildhauer, Center Associate, NCEAS, University of California, Santa Barbara
• Andrew Schroeder, VP of Research and Analysis, Direct Relief

We will showcase how the KnowWhereGraph empowers practitioners and researchers from diverse domains to obtain maximum insight and understanding of their data, to solve pressing issues. The presentation will focus on current applications of the KnowWhereGraph in the context of disaster relief and food supply chains.

28 July, 10:30 am–11:15 am PDT: Understanding the Role of Ontologies for Knowledge Graphs

Presenters:

• Pascal Hitzler, Lloyd T. Smith Creativity in Engineering Chair, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas
• Cogan Shimizu, Postdoctoral Scholar, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas; Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio (starting August 1st 2022)

We will discuss the roles and trade-offs of using ontologies in conjunction with knowledge graphs, and in particular as knowledge graph schemas. This will include general guidance according to the state of the art and standards, and reports from our experiences in applying it to the realization of the KnowWhereGraph.

28 July, 12:00 pm–12:45 pm PDT: Building the Future Knowledge Graph Infrastructure for the U.S.

Moderator:

• Krzysztof Janowicz, Director of the Center for Spatial Studies, Professor for Geoinformatics, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA and University of Vienna, Austria

Speakers:

• Pascal Hitzler, Lloyd T. Smith Creativity in Engineering Chair, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, USA
• Mark Schildhauer, Center Associate, NCEAS, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
• Shirly Stephen, Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

KnowWhereGraph contains billions of statements about past and present (extreme) environmental events, places, transportation infrastructure, public health, soils, crops, and climate, but to realize its full potential, KnowWhereGraph has to become just one node in an expanding network of open knowledge graphs developed by the NSF Convergence Accelerator, government agencies, and industry partners. In this session, we will discuss with leading experts in the field what it takes for all of us to jointly create a World Wide Web-like Knowledge Graph Infrastructure for the U.S. before 2030.