The pandemic made it more difficult for many of us to do research. Thanks to the initiative of AAG, faculty members throughout the country were brought together to share their expertise and help students during this challenging time! I (Yingjie) had a great time leading the workshop on “Integrating Machine Learning into Geographic Research” in the past week. While the AAG committee and I initially planned only a 20-person small workshop to ensure personal level interactions, this workshop received 175 registrations from not only students but also researchers all over the world (see the map of the registrants).
Map of the workshop registrants.
This overwhelming interest is a nice surprise to us, but it also means that we would have to reject a large number of students and researchers who are eager to learn, if we were just to admit 20 participants. Meanwhile, having more participants in the workshop will make it more difficult for the students to have personal interaction with the instructors. Eventually, we admitted 21 students as “active participants” who can actively engage in the workshop, while a large number of other registrants were admitted as “observers” who can still call in and listen to the workshop lectures.
The workshop was a great experience, as I can share my knowledge on GIS and Machine Learning with a wide audience while interacting with each individual active participant. Thank you all for your participating, and many thanks to our AAG workshop committee, particularly Julaiti and Coline for their great help and support!
