Class Project

 

Each student will define and complete a project, which will count for 50% of the class grade.  The student-defined projects may involve a conceptual aspect of spatiotemporal analysis, or a case study involving a field-based TGIS application.  These fields describe natural, epidemiological, economic, and social phenomena distributed across space and time.  The student is responsible for defining the central research question and a proposal for finding the solution.  The final report should be written as a paper submitted to a peer-reviewed conference proceeding (12 pages maximum including figures).  The steps for completing the project include the following:

 

  1. Select a dataset, perform an exploratory data analysis, and define the research question (homework 3)
  2. Analysis of the space/time variability of the data, and modeling of the covariance (homework 5)
  3. BME mapping estimation providing maps of the BME estimate and associated mapping uncertainty across space for selected estimation times (homework 6)
  4. Preliminary presentation of project results and future work (3 min for 5 slides max + 2 min for discussion) on Nov 26 (part 4 of homework 7).
  5. Final report due at noon on Dec 9.

6.      Final presentation of project results (2 min for 3 slides) at the official final exam time for this course, which is Dec 10 at 8am. Each student must email a powerpoint file with the 3 slides by noon of the day prior to the exam day, and bring the powerpoint files on a thumb drive. This final presentation is mandatory, so that each student meets in person with the instructor during the scheduled exam time.

 

Submit electronically to marc_serre@unc.edu the final report (12 page max) and the final presentation (2 min for 3 slides) by noon of Dec 9. The report should describe the research question, the dataset (include its source), the (succinct) exploratory analysis and space/time variability analysis (with the equation for your s/t covariance model), the BME estimation analysis (with plots of the results), and a discussion/interpretation of your results and their relevance. The 12 page limit forces you to be selective in the figures you present, and focus on creating good/representative plots of the results.

 

If you have researched and found a conference where you plan to submit this paper for a talk or poster, include information about the status of submission in the email, including co-authors and title (it is ok to have co-authors from the class).  The status of submission may be at the planning stage (specify who are co-authors you are planning of contacting or have contacted, and possible title), in preparation (co-authors and title are known), or submitted, or accepted.  The goal of the final paper is to be submit-able to a conference proceeding, so documented efforts to submit it to a conference will positively affect your grade.