Information Systems
Information Systems
Sub topics:
- Smart cities - Cyber-physical Systems - intelligent transport systems- Smart grid
- Smart Agriculture
- Geographical information systems
Information Systems (IS) are the combination of hardware, software and infrastructures, organised to collect, store and process data for a particular purpose. Often these systems are working in real time, attempting to process the data as it comes in so that they can alter their actions. These systems can also be cyber-physical, meaning that they consist of the networked computer system and physical objects, controlled by the system. Research in Information Systems looks at amassing data from a wide range of places, including sensors or the Internet of Things, and creating resource efficiencies in real time. For example, a smart grid might adjust energy prices to match usage patterns, or a smart city could allocate services where and when they are needed. With Smart Agriculture farmers can plan in detail for their season with up to date information on weather, soil type, and expected yields. Farmers can make science-based decisions as to when to plough or fertilise, reducing imports and costs while increasing production.
One specific form of IS, is Geographical Information Systems (GIS). GIS is a framework for gathering, integrating and analysing data geospatially and spatio-temporally, that is along space and time. Geospatial and Spatio-Temporal research concerns the development and application of computational techniques to store, process, analyse and report the relationships that exist in spatial and temporal datasets. The task is complex as it requires both the temporal and spatial correlations to be accounted for. By representing spatial or temporal relationships between data, GIS can organise and layer data, creating maps and visualisations that allow for the interpretation of complex information. In the UCD School of Computer Science, researchers are involved in many of these areas of Geospatial Research. Examples of their work can be seen in the development of urban dashboards, human mobility simulation, trajectory analysis, analysis of crowdsourced data quality, and social network data analysis. Another area of interest regards mapping of informal settlements (slums). Slum mapping is the topic of one of our research projects, in which we combine satellite images and other spatio-temporal data sources.
Associated staff
(opens in a new window)Dr Gavin McArdle
(opens in a new window)Dr Fatemeh Golpayegani
(opens in a new window)Assoc Professor Rem Collier
(opens in a new window)Dr Shen Wang
(opens in a new window)Dr Liliana Pasquale
(opens in a new window)Professor Mohand Kechadi
(opens in a new window)Professor Mark Keane
(opens in a new window)Dr Soumyabrata Dev