Hello everyone—my name is Devin, and I’m a second-year PhD student at the University of Toronto. I’m excited to introduce myself to the ECCE community and share a bit about what I’m working on, what brought me into GIS, and the kinds of questions I’m hoping to explore with you all.

My academic path didn’t start in GIS. In undergrad, I was in the CS program, where I focused on the kinds of tools and skills that make it possible to work with complex data: programming, algorithms, machine learning, and building systems that can scale.

At that stage, I honestly didn’t know much about GIS—not because it wasn’t important, but because I hadn’t yet seen how powerful spatial data can be when paired with computational thinking. That changed once I started encountering real-world problems where location and time aren’t just “extra columns,” but the core of the story.

For me, GIS is exciting because it helps answer questions that matter, which questions people can see, communities can feel, and decision-makers can act on. I also love that GIS naturally encourages interdisciplinary work. It’s not just “maps”; it’s a way to connect data + place, models + lived experience, and pattern + decision. I find it motivating to work in a field where the outputs don’t just live in a notebook. They can become a map, a dashboard, a policy-relevant metric, or a clearer explanation of what’s happening in the world.

My current focus is spatiotemporal modeling, which research on methods that help us understand how things vary across space and over time, not just in a static snapshot. A big part of my interest is building models and workflows that can handle the reality of messy, high-dimensional, real-world data while still producing results that are interpretable and actionable.

If we cross paths this term—through ECCE, classes, research talks, or collaborations—please feel free to say hi. I’m looking forward to learning from the community and contributing wherever I can.