Addressing uncertainty in measurements of human mobility derived from mobile phones
Visiting speaker
Hamish Gibbs
Past Talk
Hybrid
Thursday
Sep 26, 2024
Watch video
1:00 pm
EST
177 Huntington Ave, Rm 207
177 Huntington Ave, Rm 207
Virtual
177 Huntington Ave, Rm 207
177 Huntington Ave.
11th floor
Devon House
58 St Katharine's Way
London E1W 1LP, UK
Online
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Mobility data generated by mobile phones offer an opportunity to collect detailed, continuously updated information on human dynamics. This information has the potential to improve scientific understanding of human behaviour, and to inform evidence-based solutions to major societal challenges. Potential uses of mobility data include responding to infectious disease outbreaks and other natural disasters, improving transport infrastructure to address climate change, reducing social inequalities, or increasing economic opportunity. Despite their potential, mobility data have not proved to be a universally reliable source of evidence. This is primarily due to uncertainties in current systems for generating and using mobility data, where concerns about data provenance, technical limitations of mobility data collection, sampling biases, and the effect of privacy-preserving data transformations have limited the accuracy and reliability of conclusions drawn from these data. My PhD research aimed to resolve these sources of uncertainty and improve the use of mobility data by providing a detailed understanding of the sources and effects of different uncertainties, and by proposing effective approaches to address these uncertainties across a range of applications, data sources, and spatio-temporal contexts.
About the speaker
About the speaker
Hamish Gibbs is a Postdoctoral Researcher working with Esteban Moro in the Social and Urban Networks Group. His research focuses on identifying and mitigating biases in large-scale mobile phone data to enhance their reliability and effectiveness for monitoring human mobility. His work aims to improve the accuracy of mobility data as a tool for informing public policy decisions, with a focus on public health emergencies. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Hamish worked as a research assistant at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He received his PhD from University College London where his thesis focused on addressing bias in large-scale mobility datasets, using mobility data for infectious disease modeling, and improving the privacy of mobility data used in public health emergencies.
Hamish Gibbs is a Postdoctoral Researcher working with Esteban Moro in the Social and Urban Networks Group. His research focuses on identifying and mitigating biases in large-scale mobile phone data to enhance their reliability and effectiveness for monitoring human mobility. His work aims to improve the accuracy of mobility data as a tool for informing public policy decisions, with a focus on public health emergencies. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Hamish worked as a research assistant at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He received his PhD from University College London where his thesis focused on addressing bias in large-scale mobility datasets, using mobility data for infectious disease modeling, and improving the privacy of mobility data used in public health emergencies.