School of Physical, Environmental and Mathematical Sciences

Amy Griffin

Dr Amy Griffin

Senior Lecturer
MSc PhD Pens

 

Telephone: +61 2 62688949
Fax:+61 2 6268 8017
Email:a.griffin@adfa.edu.au
Location: PEMS North, Room 238

My UNSW Research Gateway Profile

Geographic Information Science

Biography

I am currently a Senior Lecturer in the School of Physical, Environmental and Mathematical Sciences at the University of New South Wales @ADFA, where I teach both undergraduate and postgraduate courses in GIScience. I completed my PhD at the GeoVISTA Center in the Department of Geography at The Pennsylvania State University in 2004.

Teaching

I currently teach undergraduate units on Environmental Hazards, and This Sporting Life: Mapping Sports in Australia. I also teach a postgraduate unit on customizing GIS applications with programming languages.

Research

My research has two thrusts: (1) Geographic Information Science, with a focus on theoretical aspects of visual representation; and (2) human-environment interactions, particularly taking a complex systems science view of both chronic and infectious disease drivers.

Geographic Information Science:

My current research is investigating the process of visual cluster detection in animated and static maps. I recently collected eye-movement data while working with Sara Fabrikant at the University of Zurich in Switzerland. We hope this information will help us explain how map readers find moving clusters.
This image shows the infrared light from the eye-tracker that is being bounced off my eyes to detect where I am looking.
This image shows and introduction screen from the test instrument that we use to investigate visual cluster detection.

Our big recent news is that we recently acquired an eye-tracker for use at UNSW-ADFA. Stay tuned for pictures of the lab once it's set up!

I am also interested in several other aspects of perception and cognition with maps and am in the process of planning research projects in these areas.

Human-Environment Interactions:

With colleagues at CSIRO-Sustainable Ecosystems, the Australian National University and the ACT Department of Health, I am looking at how how obesity can be conceptualized as a complex system, with influences that range from the individual to the global scale.

Other current projects include:

  1. Working with colleagues from the School of ITEE at UNSW@ADFA and CSIRO and a PhD student to use agent-based models to investigate space-time dynamics of the recent equine flu outbreak in Australia.
  2. Working with colleagues from CSIRO and the Community Fire Authority and a PhD student to develop a socio-ecological measure of bushfire vulnerability.

Grants and Awards

Select Publications

Peer Reviewed Publications:
  1. Walkington, H., Griffin, A.L., Keys-Matthews, L., Metoyer, S.K., Miller, W.E., Baker, R., France, D. 2011, Embedding research-based learning and teaching in the undergraduate geography curriculum, Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 35(3),315-330, doi:10.1080/03098265.2011.563377.
  2. Strazdins, L., Griffin, A.L., Broom, D.H., Banwell, C., Korda, R., Dixon, J., Shipley, M., Paoloucci, F., Esler, M. & Glover, J., 2011, Time scarcity: Another health inequity? Time-Space and Life-Course, Environment and Planning A, 43(3), 545-559, doi:10.1068/a4360.
  3. Mishra, S.R. & Griffin, A.L., 2010, Encroachment: A threat to resource sustainability in Chilika Lake, India, Applied Geography, 30(3), 448-459, doi:10.1016/j.apgeog.2009.12.001.
  4. Griffin, A.L. & Bell, S., 2009, Applications of signal detection theory to geographic information science, Cartographica, 44(3), 145-158, 10.3138/carto.44.3.145.
  5. Abdel hamid, B.E.A., & Griffin, A.L., 2009, Developing a spatial-statistical model and map of the horse population in Australia, 10th International Conference on GeoComputation 2009, UNSW, Sydney, Australia, 30 November-2 December 2009.
  6. Connor, J.M., & Griffin, A.L., 2009, The muscle trade: International track and field athlete mobility, colonialism and development, The Australian Sociological Association 2009 Annual Conference, ANU, Canberra, 1-4 December 2009.
  7. Bhowmick, T., Griffin, A.L., MacEachren, A. M., Kluhsmann, B. & E. Lengerich, 2008, Informing geospatial toolset design: Understanding the process of cancer data exploration and analysis, Health & Place, 14(3), 576-607, doi:10.1016/j.healthplace.2007.10.009.
  8. Scheyvens, R., Griffin, A.L., Jocoy, C., Liu, Y. & Bradford,. M., 2008, Experimenting with active learning: Dispelling the myths that perpetuate resistance, Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 32(8), 51-69, doi:10.1080/03098260701731496.
  9. Banos, A. & Griffin, A.L., 2007, A methodology for exploring urban neighbourhood shapes and sizes, Proceedings of the 15th European Colloquium on Theoretical and Quantitative Geography, Montreux, Switzerland, September 7-11.
  10. Griffin, A.L., MacEachren, A. M., Hardisty, F., Steiner, E. & Li, B., 2006, A comparison of animated maps with static small-multiple maps for visually identifying space-time clusters, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 96(4), 740-753.
  11. Griffin, A.L., 2002, Feeling it out: The use of haptic visualization for exploratory geographical visualization,Cartographic Perspectives, 39, 12-29.
  12. Harrower, M., MacEachren, A. M. and Griffin, A.L., 2000, Developing a geographic visualization tool to support earth science learning, Cartography and Geographic Information Science, 27(4), 279-294.
Book Chapter:
  1. Griffin A.L., 2009, Information graphics, in International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, volume 5, R. Kitchin & N. Thrift (Eds), Oxford, Elsevier, pp. 459-468.
  2. Griffin, A.L., 2009, Color mapping, in International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, volume 2, R. Kitchin & N. Thrift (Eds), Oxford, Elsevier, pp. 195-201.
  3. Griffin, A.L., 2007, Visual Variables, in Encyclopedia of Geographic Information Science, Kemp, K. (ed.),Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, pp. 506-509.

Service and Professional Society Memberships: