Who We Are
The Spatial and Map Cognition Research Lab.
What We Do
We study spatial cognition and thinking, spatial abilities, and map use.
Where We Do It
SMCRL is a part of the Department of Geography at the
University of Oregon - Eugene.
Amy Lobben, Lab Director
Amy Lobben is an associate professor in the Geography Department at the University of Oregon. She received her PhD in 1999
from the Geography Department at Michigan State University under the supervision of Judy Olson. Her MA and BA are both from
Georgia State University, Borden Dent advisor.
Dr. Lobben teaches the following classes: Geog311, Maps and Geospatial Concepts; Geog416, Introductory Geographic Information Systems;
Geog4/510, Visualization; Geog607, Map Perception; Geog607, The Map Reader; Geog633, Progress in Geographic Information Science.
Amy's research lies in the intersection of
human-environmental interaction, behavioral geography, psychological measurement, and
(at times) GIS and visualization. She primarily investigates navigation, map use/reading, spatial abilities, spatial thinking,
and experimental design.
See the Faculty Projects section for a description of projects.
Stephen Fickas, Collaborative Faculty
Steve Fickas is a professor in the Computer and Information Science Department at the University of Oregon. He has three research labs:
Wearable Computing Lab, Sensor Network Lab, and the Think-and-Link Lab. He teaches the following classes:
CIS 170, Foundational Ideas in Computer Science; CIS 650, Graduate Software Engineering; HC 209, Can Computers Think? (Clark's Honors College Course.
Steve's homepage provides a more thorough discussion of his teaching and research interests, including project descriptions and
links to project-related papers.
www.cs.uoregon.edu/~fickas/.
Some of Steve's research interests include: Clinical Requirements Engineering (i.e. integrating requirements engineering (RE)
with clinical disciplines) and Wearable and ubiquitous computing; see the Lab's web page:
www.cs.uoregon.edu/research/wearables/. A major project in this lab focuses on designing a wearable navigation-assistance device for travelers
with cognitive impairment (specifically traumatic brain injury).
Daniel Montello, Collaborative Faculty
Dan Montello is a professor in the Department of Geography at the
University of California, Santa Barbara.
Dan's homepage provides a more thorough discussion of his teaching and research interests, including project descriptions and
links to project-related papers.
www.geog.ucsb.edu/~montello/.
Dan's research interests include spatial, environmental, and
geographic perception, cognition, affect, and behavior.
Additional interests include behavioral and cognitive geography,
environmental psychology.
Nicholas Giudice, Collaborative Faculty
Nick Giudice is an Assistant Professor in the Department of
Spatial Information Science and Engineering at the University of
Maine. He is the Director of the Multimodal Interaction and Spatial
Cognition (MISC) Laboratory and affiliated with the UMaine National
Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA).
Nick's homepage provides a more thorough discussion of his teaching and research interests, including project descriptions and
links to project-related papers.
http://spatial.umaine.edu/faculty/profile.php?id=999.
Research in Dr. Giudice’s Multimodal Interface and Spatial
Cognition (MISC) laboratory at the University of Maine combines
expertise in perception, cognitive neuroscience and human
factors using an integrative approach he calls neurocognitive
engineering. Research in the MISC lab is based on behavioral
experiments with human participants in both real environments
and virtual reality (VR). Ongoing research is supported by 2 NSF
grants and a NIH grant.
Michal Young, Collaborative Faculty
Michal Young is an associate professor in the Computer and Information Science Department at the University of Oregon. He is actively involved
in community projects, including K-12 outreach, specifically targeted to helping middle- and high-school students learn about and prepare for
computer science.
Michal's homepage provides a more thorough discussion of his teaching/research interests and project descriptions.
www.cs.uoregon.edu/~michal/
Some of Michal's research interests include: understanding how people understand and gain confidence in software,
especially the interplay between synthesis (generating something from a spec) and analysis (checking consistency
between a spec and an implementation).