As part of this project, we are developing a methodology that can link coded observation data and space-time data with a relatively high spatial and temporal positional accuracy, for the purposes of exploring relationships between behavioral geography and social group formation. We are applying this technology to the exploration of social group formation in the dynamics of children’s play routines . A team of coders have been documenting the social signals, interactions, and affects of group members in a day-care center all day, every day, for the last two years. For our component of the project, we are developing novel space-time tracking schemes and related temporal Geographic Information Systems and spatiotemporal analyses to fashion empirical signatures of their movement and spatial interactions.

Traces of two children's movement in space (X, Y dimensions) and time (Z dimension) within a daycare facility. Coded qualitative data on their affect, social interactions, individual, and group behavior are joined to the space-time data in a coupled informatics system. These data are then mined to determine how children develop and maintain groups over long periods of social interaction, in order to explore the role of education, play, space, place, competition, cooperation, resources, and group behavior in shaping their early social interactions.

Dynamic physics for built infrastructure

Moving agents through space and time

Modeling riots

Validating agent-based models

Machine-learning behavioral geography

Accelerating agent-based models

Megacity futures

Immersive modeling

Space-time GIS and analysis

A toolkit for measuring sprawl

Modeling time, space, and behavior

Simulating crowd behavior