About
- Name:
- Alysha van Duynhoven, PhD.
- Current Role:
- Assistant Professor
- Institution:
- Wilfrid Laurier University
- Department:
- Department of Geography and Environmental Studies
- Date:
- August 2026 - Present
I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University. My research interests and expertise are situated at the intersection of Computing Science and Geographic Information Science (GIScience). My current research focuses on advancing geospatial artificial intelligence (GeoAI) methodologies for analyzing and modelling problems arising from human-environment interactions. I am particularly interested in spatially-explicit and explainable GeoAI solutions that keep domain experts "in the loop."
I am also passionate about geospatial software development to support researchers, practitioners, and educators in geospatial analysis, modelling, and decision-making. Recently, I developed the Geographic Automata Add-In for ArcGIS Pro to support researchers, educators, and practitioners in spatiotemporal simulation model building and evaluation procedures. The project was also recognized through the Esri Young Scholar Award program. I am currently developing new geospatial software and programming packages to support spatial decision making.
Research Interests
- Geospatial Artificial Intelligence (GeoAI)
- Geographic Information Science (GIScience)
- Geographic Information Systems
- Geosimulation
- Spatial Analysis & Modelling
- Explainable AI (XAI)
- Spatial-Explicit Modelling
- Spatial Data Science
- Complexity Science
- Machine Learning
- Deep Learning
Technical Skills
- C++
- C#
- Python
- R
- Java
- JavaScript
- SQL
- HTML
- CSS
Experience
Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University
Spatial Analysis and Modeling Lab, Simon Fraser University
Spatial Analysis and Modeling Lab, Simon Fraser University
Self Employed, Coquitlam BC
Simba Technologies, Vancouver BC
EnerNOC (formerly Pulse Energy), Vancouver BC
Education
Dissertation: Towards Geospatial Artificial Intelligence: Spatial Machine Learning Methods for Land Cover Change Modelling.
Committee: Dr. Suzana Dragićević, Dr. Christopher Bone, Dr. Yasutaka Furakawa.
Thesis: Evaluating Long Short-Term Memory Networks for Modeling Land Cover Change.
Committee: Dr. Suzana Dragićević, Dr. Martin Ester.
Courses: CMPT 726 Machine Learning (SFU), GEOG 651 Advanced Spatial Analysis and Modeling (SFU), GEM 521 Advanced Earth Observation and Image Processing (UBC).
Concentrations: Information Systems and Computing Systems.
Minor in Geography, Spatial Information Systems Certificate, and Computing Science Co-operative Education Designation.