University of Iowa
Developing GeoAI, spatial data science, and geovisualization approaches to understand complex societal challenges across public health, human mobility and migration, population dynamics, and human–environment interactions.
About the lab
The Geo-Social Lab develops computational methods, GeoAI, spatial network analysis, and geovisualization techniques to understand massive and complex geo-social systems and support real-world decisions.
Our research spans human mobility and migration, demography and kinship networks, public health, hazards and social vulnerability, spatial interaction, cartography, and geovisualization.
Current directions
Five interconnected areas define the lab's current research program, including NSF- and NIH-funded projects spanning kinship networks, GeoAI, geovisualization, CAMSA, and human mobility and flow mapping.
Our NSF-funded project constructs and analyzes large longitudinal family-tree networks to study migration, kinship, demographic change, representativeness, and historical spatial processes.
Explore related publications
We use GeoAI, spatial data science, and social sensing data such as Twitter and other user-generated content to model patterns, detect events, discover semantics, and support spatial reasoning.
Explore related publications
We design and evaluate interactive visual systems that help people explore complex spatial data, understand uncertainty, and construct knowledge through geovisualization and human-centered interaction.
Explore related publicationsOur NIH/NCI-funded CAMSA project develops small-area cancer estimates and user-centered interactive mapping tools to support public health professionals, researchers, patients, advocates, and communities.
Visit the official CAMSA website
We model human mobility, regions, flows, and spatial interaction across geographic scales, and develop methods and tools for analyzing and visualizing origin–destination movement patterns.
Explore related publicationsUpdates
Recent publications, awards, presentations, student research, and lab activities.
June, 2026
New paper: Wisler Gerdes, E. O., Cai, J., Mahoney, C., Brown, G. D., Clark, J., Charlton, M. E., Koylu, C., Roberts, E., McKelvey, B., Wiggins, C. L., Meisner, A. W., Christian, W. J., Huang, B., Oleson, J. J., & Nash, S. H. (2026). Estimating Small Area Statistics and Developing a Novel Mapping Tool to Display Them Using a User-Centered Design Process. JCO Clinical Cancer Informatics, 10(2). DOI
February, 2026
CAMSA received extensive press and TV coverage for bringing cancer estimates and interactive mapping to small areas, including ZIP codes. Explore the CAMSA project, publications, press coverage, and videos.
December, 2025
New paper by lab alumnus Dr. Hoeyun Kwon and Dr. Caglar Koylu: Kwon, H., & Koylu, C. (2026). How We Measure Mobility Matters: Comparing Mobility Change Metrics and Their Associations with Social Vulnerability During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 116(3), 697–719. DOI
November, 2025
New paper: Koylu, C., Kasakoff, A. B., & Torkashvand, M. (2025). Settlement and the intergenerational dispersion of kin as a spatial process in the nineteenth century US. The History of the Family. DOI
October, 2025
New paper by Jinyi Cai and collaborators: Cai, J., Wisler Gerdes, E. O., Mahoney, C., Brown, G. D., Clark, J., Charlton, M. E., Roberts, E., McKelvey, B., Wiggins, C. L., Meisner, A. W., Christian, W. J., Huang, B., Oleson, J. J., Nash, S. H., & Koylu, C. (2025). Understanding Users in Small Area Cancer Mapping: Insights from the Early Stages of a User-Centered Design Process. Advances in Cartography and GIScience of the International Cartographic Association, 5, 7. DOI
July, 2025
Rithik Vir, our high school researcher, joined the Geo-Social Lab this summer through the Secondary Student Training Program (SSTP) at the University of Iowa. He presented his poster, The Anatomy of Crowdsourced Family Trees: Discovering Structure in Large-Scale Genealogical Graphs. Poster PDF
June, 2025
New paper: Koylu, C., Kasakoff, A.B., & Torkashvand, M. (2025). US migration from 1850 to 1920: A comparison of family trees with linked census data PDF https://doi.org/10.1080/01615440.2025.2516022
April, 2025
We are excited to announce the launch of theCancer Analytics & Maps for Small Areas (CAMSA) in Iowa Cancer Registry.
Funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), CAMSA is an interactive mapping tool to visualize cancer data at the ZIP code and county levels based on user-centered design.
New collaborative paper: Rethinking GIScience Education in an Age of Disruptions https://doi.org/10.1111/tgis.70048
People
Researchers with backgrounds in GIScience, geography, informatics, computation, cartography, and spatial data science.
Ph.D. Student
Geography / GIScience
Opportunities
We offer graduate, undergraduate, and high-school research experiences in Geographic Information Science through the School of Earth, Environment, and Sustainability at the University of Iowa.
Graduate teaching and research fellowships and assistantships may be available for competitive students. Prospective graduate students can pursue Geographic Information Science research through the Geography degree program. Current team members include Maryam Torkashvand, Jinyi Cai, Loretta Nwajiaku, and Elif Korkmaz, working with lab director Caglar Koylu. Students should contact Dr. Koylu with a brief description of research interests and a CV.
Python · JavaScript, D3, React, and web development · Eye-tracking and usability evaluation · GeoAI, machine learning, and deep learning · Large language models, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and agentic AI · R and Jupyter · ArcGIS Pro and QGIS · PostgreSQL/PostGIS · high-performance and big-data computing
Open research software
FlowMapper is a web-based framework for creating and exploring flow maps without requiring local software installation.
Open FlowMapper