Spotlight On: Ioannis Toumpalidis

Role & Project:

Ioannis is a Research Assistant at CASA.  After acquiring a Diploma of Engineering as an urban planner in Greece he joined CASA to study Spatial Data Science and Visualization on the MRes programme. He is currently working on Intel’s Capstone project, mainly focused on developing Virtual Reality.  

How would you summarise your personal research?

My research is mainly focused on the use of emerging technologies for the urban planning domain. Emphasizing the use of alternate data sources, I focus on developing various tools that mine and analyze social media data streams to extract useful information about citizens’ mobility and activity patterns. Being fascinated by the new methods of visualization I am currently exploring the use of Virtual Reality as an exploratory tool which can help us observe and better understand urban data sets.

Tell us a little about the research you’re doing at the moment:

In CASA, I am working with Kostas Cheliotis and Flora Roumpani on Intel’s Capstone project for the Queen Elisabeth Olympic Park. At the moment, I am exploring how VR headsets can be used as a mixed reality medium. Combining techniques of photogrammetry and positional tracking we were able to develop a mixed reality experience where the physical and the virtual environment aligns, giving users a better perception of their physical surroundings.

What is your favourite thing about CASA?

The fine blend of different and very interesting people who push the boundaries of urban research.

Where can people find out more about your work?

You can find more about my VR adventures here:

https://medium.com/me/stories/public

Capstone Project:

http://cities.io/

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