Alysha van Duynhoven, Ph.D.

Geospatial Information & Computer Scientist

About Me

I am interested in creating geospatial methods and software tools to help solve issues related to human impacts on the environment. My doctoral research focussed on advancing geospatial artificial intelligence methods.

I am currently working as a postdoctoral researcher in the Spatial Analysis and Modeling Lab at Simon Fraser University.

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Experience

Postdoctoral Researcher

Spatial Analysis and Modeling (SAM) Laboratory, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby BC

  • Building spatial decision support tools based on soft computing using C# and the .NET framework.
  • Documenting research findings and contributing to academic publications.

Teaching Assistant

Simon Fraser University, Burnaby BC

  • Delivered and facilitated computer lab sessions for undergraduate geographic information science courses focussing on spatial analysis and modelling.
  • Prepared PowerPoint presentations and software demonstrations weekly over 11 semesters.
  • Created software tutorial videos for 3 semesters using ArcGIS Pro and Adobe Premiere Pro.
  • Provided technical support for: ArcMap 10.6-10.8, ArcGIS Pro 2.X and newer, IDRISI TerrSet, and Microsoft Excel.
  • Graded assignments, scientific research papers, presentations, and exams.
  • Assisted in the development of course materials, scientific research project deliverables, and assessments.
  • Awarded the SFU Faculty of Environment Teaching Assistant Teaching Excellence Award in 2025.

Graduate Research Assistant

Spatial Analysis and Modeling (SAM) Laboratory, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby BC

  • Developed and implemented geospatial artificial intelligence (GeoAI) and geosimulation methods.
  • Collaborated and implemented experimental methodologies for GIS-based multi-criteria decision-making and urban heat island (UHI) modelling.
  • Created the Geographic Automata Add-in to support spatial modelling in ArcGIS Pro.
  • Documented research findings and contributed to academic publications.

Undergraduate Research Assistant

Spatial Analysis and Modeling (SAM) Laboratory, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby BC

  • Awarded an NSERC USRA for Summer 2018.
  • Created comprehensive bibliographic databases.
  • Explored and implemented deep learning methods.

Freelance Web Developer

Self Employed, Vancouver BC

  • Working with various company owners in a range of industries to create and maintain useful, informative websites showcasing work and services to potential customers.
  • Utilizing Node.js, modern front-end CSS frameworks such as Bootstrap, and gained experience creating web mapping applications using MapBox and Leaflet with MySQL databases.
  • Creating or enhancing logos and designing responsive interfaces.
  • Implemented and maintained WordPress blogs monetized with Google AdSense and Amazon Affiliates.

Computer Scientist Intern

Simba Technologies, Vancouver BC

  • Worked in a team of 8 developers to develop a new ODBC driver solution.
  • Learned ODBC driver concepts and implemented a basic ODBC driver with a small team of interns during training, and attended weekly C++ classes provided by Simba.
  • Utilized Visual Studio development tools to debug C++ driver code, and gained experience debugging with GDB on Solaris systems.
  • Assisted in thorough driver testing on platforms including Windows, OSX, Centos, Solaris, AIX, and HPUX.
  • Participated in and coordinated release tasks, including fuzz testing tasks for Microsoft.
  • Used Perforce for revision control and Jira for task management.
  • Helped create a new visualization dashboard using Splunk to assist the team and managers in viewing test case failures and report progress across the supported platforms and bitnesses.

Software Developer Intern

Pulse Energy, Vancouver BC

  • Worked in a small team on Energy Intelligence Software, delivering personalized energy insights to assist customers in optimizing energy performance.
  • Utilized Node.js for our web application, Github for revision control, and Asana for task management.
  • Developed solutions to both user-facing and back-end bugs and implementing customer requested features with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS.
  • Dedicated to creating robust and organized solutions while utilizing Javascript libraries such as Knockout and Underscore.
  • Participated in assisting the QA team in regression testing prior to large software releases.

Publications

  1. van Duynhoven, A. and Dragićević, S. 2025. "Spatial sample weighted machine learning for multitemporal land cover change modeling with imbalanced datasets." Big Earth Data 9 (4).
  2. Zhao, L.Q., van Duynhoven, A. and Dragićević, S. 2024. "Machine Learning for Criteria Weighting in GIS-Based Multi-Criteria Evaluation: A Case Study of Urban Suitability Analysis." Land 13 (8).
  3. van Duynhoven, A. and Dragićević, S. 2024. "The Geographic Automata Tool: A New General-Purpose Geosimulation Extension for ArcGIS Pro." Applied Sciences 14 (15).
  4. van Duynhoven, A. and Dragićević, S. 2023. "A landscape metrics-based sample weighting approach for forecasting land cover change with deep learning models." Geocarto International 38 (1).
  5. van Duynhoven, A. and Dragićević, S. 2022. "Mitigating Imbalance of Land Cover Change Data for Deep Learning Models with Temporal and Spatiotemporal Sample Weighting Schemes." ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information 11.12 (2022): 587.
  6. van Duynhoven, A. and Dragićević, S. 2022. "Assessing the Impact of Neighborhood Size on Temporal Convolutional Networks for Modeling Land Cover Change." Remote Sensing 14.19 (2022): 4957.
  7. van Duynhoven, A. and Dragićević, S. 2021. “Exploring the Sensitivity of Recurrent Neural Network Models for Forecasting Land Cover Change.” Land 10 (3): 282.
  8. van Duynhoven, A. and Dragićević, S. 2019. “Analyzing the Effects of Temporal Resolution and Classification Confidence for Modeling Land Cover Change with Long Short-Term Memory Networks.” Remote Sensing 11 (23): 2784.
  9. Mohajerani, S., Asad, R., Abhishek, K., Sharma, N., van Duynhoven, A., Saeedi, P. “CloudMaskGAN: A Content-Aware Data Augmentation for Improving the Performance of Cloud Detection in Remote Sensing Imagery.” IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP), Taipei, Taiwan 22-25 September 2019.
  10. van Duynhoven, A., Lee, A., Michel, R., Snyder, J., Crooks, V., Chow-White, P., Schuurman, N. 2019. "Spatially exploring the intersection of socioeconomic status and Canadian cancer-related medical crowdfunding campaigns." BMJ Open 9 (6): e026365. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2018-026365.

Education

PhD in Geographic Information Science

Sept 2019 - Aug 2025

Simon Fraser University

  • Dissertation: Towards Geospatial Artificial Intelligence: Spatial Machine Learning Methods for Land Cover Change Modelling
  • Research areas: Geographic Information Science, Geospatial Artificial Intelligence, Data-Driven Geosimulation, Spatial Modelling
  • NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship-Doctoral (PGS-D) scholar

MSc in Geographic Information Science

Sept 2018 - Aug 2019

Simon Fraser University

  • Thesis: Evaluating Long Short-Term Memory Networks for Modeling Land Cover Change
  • Courses: Machine Learning (SFU), Advanced Spatial Analysis and Modeling (SFU), Advanced Earth Observation and Image Processing (UBC)

BSc in Computer Science

June 2018

Simon Fraser University

  • Completed concentrations in Information Systems and Computing Systems
  • Minor in Geography
  • Spatial Information Systems Certificate
  • Computing Science Co-operative Education Designation

Projects

Geographic Automata Add-In

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Geographic Automata Add-in

Add-In for ArcGIS Pro 3.X, May - August 2023

The Geographic Automata Add-In supports end-to-end geosimulation modeling projects in ArcGIS Pro. It was developed as part of a Spatial Analysis and Modeling Laboratory research project and was fully funded through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Grant program..

Geographic Automata Add-in Documentation

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Designed & developed by: Alysha van Duynhoven

Crowdfunding for Health Research Project

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Crowdfunding for Health Research Project (CHRP)

Medical Crowdfunding Web Project, January - April 2018

This exploratory project utilized Canadian cancer-related crowdfunding campaigns obtained from GoFundMe in 2016.

The objective of this project was to detect patterns in campaigner socio-economic status and frequent text employed in campaign narratives.

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Designed & developed by: Alysha van Duynhoven

goElectric

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goElectric by mapit.space

Submission for the Esri App Challenge, Created 2018

In this project, my team created an interactive web mapping application for Vancouverites to explore and compare Electric Vehicles (EVs) with gas-powered vehicles.

We completed this work and research in 7 days for the Esri Canada App Challenge in March 2018.

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Project Lead & UI Designer: Chris Yee

Lead Developer: Alysha van Duynhoven

Lead Researcher: Anthony Lee

Website for Van Duynhoven Garden Service Ltd.

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Van Duynhoven Garden Service Ltd.

Company website, Created 2015

The purpose of this website is to provide a company homepage for Van Duynhoven Garden Service Ltd., displaying information about the company, careers, and services.

This site was created using HTML, CSS, and PHP while consulting frequently with the company owner to deliver the final product.

View Van Duynhoven Garden Service Ltd.

Designed & developed by:
Alysha van Duynhoven