Florida State University has launched the Spatial Data Science Center (SDSC) within the College of Social Sciences and Public Policy (COSSPP), establishing a new hub for interdisciplinary research dedicated to solving complex societal problems using advanced spatial data analytics.
Led by renowned spatial data scientist A. Stewart Fotheringham, Krafft Professor of Spatial Data Science in the Department of Geography, the SDSC leverages technologies such as GPS and satellite-based remote sensing to analyze human behavior and societal patterns in a geographical context. The research will address critical issues related to public health, transportation, crime, poverty, the environment and more.
“The Spatial Data Science Center is committed to helping provide solutions to some of society’s most pressing problems through the power of spatial data analytics,” Fotheringham said. “FSU’s center contains some of the world’s most prominent experts in this field.”
Fotheringham joined FSU in spring 2025 and, as an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, he is widely recognized for his contributions to spatial analysis and geocomputation, including the development of Multiscale Geographically Weighted Regression (MGWR) — a method used extensively in public health, urban planning and numerous other disciplines.
COSSPP Dean Tim Chapin said the center’s launch represents a major leap forward for the college as it engages even more deeply in the role of big data in society.
“These investments in spatial data science will yield powerful insights into the health of our people and planet, augment our educational programs to ensure students are trained for a modern workforce, and position the college to continue serving Florida and the U.S. as we develop solutions to our most pressing problems, including political polarization and community health disparities,” Chapin said. “The time for a major social science big data initiative at FSU is now, and Dr. Fotheringham and his team are perfectly placed to see the college and FSU become a leader in this field and industry.”
Fotheringham has founded and led five other prominent spatial data research centers, including the Centre for Geoinformatics at the University of St. Andrews, the National Centre for Geocomputation in Ireland, and most recently, the Spatial Analysis Research Center at Arizona State University.
“The time for a major social science big data initiative at FSU is now, and Dr. Fotheringham and his team are perfectly placed to see the college and FSU become a leader in this field and industry.”
– Dean Tim Chapin, College of Social Sciences and Public Policy
What sets FSU’s center apart is its focus on spatial data science, combining traditional statistical modeling with advanced tools such as artificial intelligence (GeoAI) and machine learning to generate deeper, more localized insights.
“A basic tenet of the SDSC is that to solve real-world problems, we must first understand their root causes,” Fotheringham said. “These issues often have an uneven geographic distribution — cancer rates, crime, house prices, traffic congestion, obesity, literacy rates — and understanding these patterns requires specialized spatial modeling and analysis.”
One of the center’s key areas of expertise is the creation of local statistical models, founded on the belief that “one size may not fit all” when it comes to identifying effective policy or intervention strategies.
Flagship Projects and Innovation
Among its inaugural projects, the SDSC is conducting a detailed analysis of U.S. presidential election voting behavior across more than 200,000 precincts from the 2020 and 2024 elections.
“This is enormously exciting as we are able to uncover aspects of voting behavior at an unprecedented detailed spatial scale,” Fotheringham said. “This involves huge amounts of computer processing time and challenges in both analytics and visualization.”
The SDSC is also advancing the emerging field of explainable AI (XAI) in spatial analytics, developing machine learning algorithms that provide transparent, interpretable insights into why and how an AI model arrives at a particular outcome from spatial data.
Another key project for the SDSC is the development of Multiscale Geographically Weighted Regression (MGWR), a statistical modeling framework co-developed by Fotheringham and his colleagues at FSU. MGWR is freely available on the center’s website.
The SDSC team is working to optimize MGWR for massive datasets, aiming to reduce computation times so the algorithm can run on standard laptops, even with millions of data points.
Collaboration and Community Impact
The SDSC is designed to foster collaboration across FSU and beyond. It invites involvement from departments spanning public health, transportation, sociology, political science, environmental science, urban planning, economics and more. Fotheringham emphasizes the collaborative spirit at FSU that has made launching the center possible.
He recognizes the support the center has received from FSU administration, including Provost James Clark, Vice President for Research Stacey Patterson, College of Social Sciences and Public Policy Dean Tim Chapin and Department of Geography Chair
Anne Chin.
“FSU has some fantastic talents in the area of spatial data science drawn from many disciplines, but I have to single out Geography,” Fotheringham said. “The Geography Department has become a recognized powerhouse in spatial data analysis, and I’m excited to work alongside such dedicated faculty and graduate students.”
Graduate students also play an essential role in the SDSC. Rather than emphasizing seniority or career stage, the SDSC focuses on its members’ skills and interests in spatial data science, maintaining a nearly invisible hierarchy.
The SDSC currently supports around 15 graduate students and offers funding for additional researchers. A dedicated graduate student space is being developed in the Bellamy building, alongside the specialized center’s meeting and visual display room, which is currently undergoing renovation.
The center welcomes collaboration with FSU faculty, local and state government agencies, nonprofits and corporate partners. Faculty can email Fotheringham if they are interested in being involved in one of the center’s six areas of interest: spatial models, GeoAI, and spatial statistics; transportation analytics; voting analytics; urban analytics, environmental analytics; and health analytics.
The SDSC hopes to host its first campuswide forum in February 2026, bringing together FSU scholars and external stakeholders to explore how spatial data science can drive solutions across sectors.
To learn more about FSU’s Spatial Data Science Center, visit cosspp.fsu.edu/sdsc or email stewart.fotheringham@fsu.edu.