Robert Laurini

Born in 1947, Robert Laurini (aka Roberto) holds two doctorates, one in 1973, and the other in 1980, both in information technologies awarded by the Claude Bernard University of Lyon, France. He speaks fluently French, English, Italian and Spanish. Throughout his career, he primarily worked at INSA-Lyon (University of Lyon), eventually achieving the status of distinguished professor. However, in 1976-77, he spent an entire year as a research associate at the Martin Centre of the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. In addition, in 1986-87, he served as a visiting professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, USA. Between 1995 and 2005, he held a part-time position at IUAV University in Venice, Italy. Since 2011, he has retired and holds the title of professor emeritus. During his career, he worked overall on computing aspects of geographic information systems, namely spatial data indexing, geometric quality control, geographic database consistency, updating through aerial photos, visual summaries, chorem generation from spatial data mining, geographic ontologies, sensor data organization and indexing, etc. In total, he supervised or co-supervised 44 PhD students in those domains. His more recent works have been on geographic knowledge, especially targeted to smart cities and territorial intelligence. He wrote several books regarding geographic information systems, especially for urban and environmental planning and the last one is “Geographic Knowledge Infrastructure: Applications to Territorial Intelligence and Smart Cities” published in 2017. He authored or co-authored more than 250 papers in various journals and conferences. He was invited to give seminars in many countries, especially in Italy, Morocco, Algeria, Argentina, and Mexico. He was a member of PhD committees more than 100 times in 19 countries. During the nineties, he was president of the ACMGIS steering committee (now SIGSpatial), vice-president of UDMS, European editor of Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, and associate editor of the Journal of Visual Languages and Computing. In 2009, he founded the NGO named “Universitaires Sans Frontières/Academics Without Borders” the scope of which is to help modernize universities in developing countries. In this NGO, he is now in charge of several universities in Latin America, especially for the training of PhD students and young researchers for scientific writing, and for lab heads in the definition and validation of promising novel research lines. For more details see www.laurini.net/robert.

Keynote: Introduction to City Digital Twins

Abstract: Computer-based city digital twins are virtual replicas of physical cities, integrating data from various sources to create a dynamic model that mirrors the real-world city. These systems are used to simulate, analyze, and optimize urban systems and processes. They can be overall used for (i) urban planning and design by allowing urban planners to visualize and simulate different scenarios, so, helping in making informed decisions; (ii) predictive analytics by using AI and machine learning, by forecasting potential issues and optimizing urban operations. Those replicas are essentially based on data (2D or 3D descriptions of the city, and coming from various kinds of sensors), algorithms of machine learning mimicking the evolution of the city. Finally, some visualization tools and platforms present the data and insights in an understandable and actionable format for city planners and decision-makers. The objective of this presentation will be to give a review of existing projects and to examine several potential trends.