The STeamer group, created in 2007, conducts research on Information Systems, focusing more precisely on the spatial and temporal dimensions of data. Our objective is to propose models, methods, and tools to improve acquisition, modelling, querying, reasoning, and visualization in Spatial and Temporal Information Systems. The scientific concerns are at the confluence of many disciplines among which Computer Science and Geography are prominent, in what is more broadly called Geographic Information Sciences or Geomatics.

 

In the last decade, tremendous advances in various technologies (wireless networks, mobile devices, global positioning systems) have considerably enlarged the scope of applications involving Spatial and Temporal Information. These mutations, combined with the dramatic increase of available data (both due to the generalization of mobile devices and sensors, and to OpenData initiatives) have led to substantial changes in the way geomatics and GIS must be thought. The STeamer research, focused on the domain of representing and reasoning with spatial and temporal information, takes place in this evolving technological and scientific context. The research is organized along three complementary axes:

• Spatial and Temporal Semantic Web,
• Mobility and Context-Awareness,
• Spatial and Temporal Analysis and Visualization.

Most of our scientific collaborations aim at various application domains, spatial analysis, natural hazard prevention, and digital humanities. They provide us with specific research problems addressed in the three axes.