CV

Education

• Ph.D in Geography, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, 2017 - 2025 (expected), Advisor: Dr. Shaowen Wang
• M.S. in Geographic Information Systems and Archaeology, University of Edinburgh, 2015, Thesis: The Influence of Signalling upon Milecastle and Turret Positions along Hadrian’s Wall
• Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Classical Languages, University of Pennsylvania, 2014
• B.A. in Greek and Roman Studies, Rhodes College, 2008-2012

Work experience

• Research Assistant, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA (2018-present)
  • Designed custom CyberGISX Python tutorials and Jupyter Notebooks to assist GSI Geospatial Fellows and CyberGISX users. Met weekly with Geospatial Fellows to troubleshoot projects. Provided additional 1 on 1 tutoring on geospatial computation for Geospatial Fellows. Handled administrative tasks and webinar scheduling with AAG for Geospatial Fellows program. Helped create user experience workflows and wrote all help documentation for CyberGISX. Assisted with Geospatial Software Institute user community survey, and 2nd workshop setup, audio visual recording, and follow-up. Edited and developed a series of Jupyter Notebooks for the 2019 CyberGIS Summer School.
• Geographic Information Systems Technician, Apple Inc. via Apex, Sunnyvale, CA, USA (2016-2017)
  • Analyzed, validated, enhanced, and assembled new data content for consumer applications.
• Geographic Information Systems Student Associate, Rhodes College, Memphis, TN, USA (2009-2012)
  • Created, designed, and implemented projects in cross-departmental collaboration with students and faculty in geography, physics, international studies, and others. Assisted students and faculty by troubleshooting ArcGIS 9.2–3 and other software issues. Collected, standardized, and organized data for faculty, student projects, and GIS classes.

Skills

• Python, C++, High Performance/Parallel Programming (MPI, CUDA), R, JavaScript, Perl, KML, XML, HTML, SQL, Hive
• Esri ArcGIS Desktop 9.2–3, 10.1–6, ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Online, Grass GIS, QGIS, IBM SPSS
• Agent-Based Modeling
• Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign

Publications

CyberGIS-Jupyter for spatially explicit agent-based modeling: a case study on influenza transmission

Kang, Jeon-Young, Jared Aldstadt, Alexander Michels, Rebecca Vandewalle, and Shaowen Wang. (2019). "CyberGIS-Jupyter for spatially explicit agent-based modeling: a case study on influenza transmission." GeoSim '19: Proceedings of the 2nd ACM SIGSPATIAL international workshop on geospatial simulation, pp. 32–35, https://doi.org/10.1145/3356470.3365531.

The Influence of Signalling upon Milecastle and Turret Positions along Hadrian’s Wall

Vandewalle, Rebecca C. (2015). "The Influence of Signalling upon Milecastle and Turret Positions along Hadrian’s Wall" University of Edinburgh MSc thesis, http://hdl.handle.net/1842/11782

Integrating CyberGIS-Jupyter and spatial agent-based modelling to evaluate emergency evacuation time

Vandewalle, Rebecca, Jeon-Young Kang, Dandong Yin, and Shaowen Wang. (2015). "Integrating CyberGIS-Jupyter and spatial agent-based modelling to evaluate emergency evacuation time." GeoSim '19: Proceedings of the 2nd ACM SIGSPATIAL International Workshop on GeoSpatial Simulation, pp 28–31, https://doi.org/10.1145/3356470.3365530.

A CyberGIS Approach to Spatiotemporally Explicit Uncertainty and Global Sensitivity Analysis for Agent-Based Modeling of Vector-Borne Disease Transmission

Kang, Jeon-Young, Jared Aldstadt, Rebecca Vandewalle, Dandong Yin & Shaowen Wang (2020). "A CyberGIS Approach to Spatiotemporally Explicit Uncertainty and Global Sensitivity Analysis for Agent-Based Modeling of Vector-Borne Disease Transmission." Annals of the American Association of Geographers. 110:6, 1855-1873, DOI: 10.1080/24694452.2020.1723400.

Understanding the multifaceted geospatial software ecosystem: a survey approach

Vandewalle, Rebecca C., William C. Barley, Anand Padmanabhan, Daniel S. Katz, and Shaowen Wang (2021). "Understanding the multifaceted geospatial software ecosystem: a survey approach" International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 35 (11), 2168-2186, DOI: 10.1080/13658816.2020.1831514

Enabling computationally intensive geospatial research on CyberGIS-Jupyter with CyberGIS-Compute

Anand Padmanabhan, Zimo Xiao, Rebecca Vandewalle, Alexander Michels, and Shaowen Wang (2021). "Enabling computationally intensive geospatial research on CyberGIS-Jupyter with CyberGIS-Compute" Gateways 2021, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5570056

CyberGIS-Compute for enabling computationally intensive geospatial research

Anand Padmanabhan, Ximo Ziao, Rebecca C Vandewalle, Furqan Baig, Alexander Michel, Zhiyu Li, and Shaowen Wang (2021). "CyberGIS-compute for enabling computationally intensive geospatial research" SpatialAPI '21: Proceedings of the 3rd ACM SIGSPATIAL International Workshop on APIs and Libraries for Geospatial Data Science, 3, 1-2, DOI: 10.1145/3486189.3490017

Lessons (Not) Learned: Chicago Death Inequities during the 1918 Influenza and COVID-19 Pandemics

Ruby Mendenhall, Jong Cheol Shin, Florence Adibu, Malina Marlyn Yago, Rebecca Vandewalle, Andrew Greenlee, and Diana S. Grigsby-Toussaint (2023). "Lessons (Not) Learned: Chicago Death Inequities during the 1918 Influenza and COVID-19 Pandemics" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20 (7), 5248, DOI: 10.3390/ijerph20075248

Talks

Geospatial Software Institute Community Survey Results

April 05, 2019

Presentation at American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, Washington, DC

Integrating CyberGIS-Jupyter and Spatial Agent-Based Modeling to Evaluate Emergency Evacuation Time

September 17, 2019

Presentation at Research Innovation Forum Meeting, Urbana, IL

Integrating CyberGIS-Jupyter and Spatial Agent-Based Modelling to Evaluate Emergency Evacuation Time

November 05, 2019

Presentation at GeoSim Workshop, ACM SIGSPATIAL, Chicago, IL

Integrating CyberGISX and Spatial Agent-Based Modelling to Evaluate Emergency Evacuation Time

February 14, 2020

Poster presentation at SESE Research Review, Urbana, IL

Geospatial Fellows combat COVID-19 with CyberGISX

November 18, 2020

Poster presentation at University of Illinois GIS Day, virtual

Building Lab Identity with a Jupyter Notebook Style Guide

March 12, 2021

Presentation at Research Innovation Forum Meeting, virtual

Evaluating Routing Assumption Implications in Spatially Explicit Agent-Based Models of Wildfire Evacuation

April 10, 2021

Presentation at American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, virtual

A Spatially Explicit Agent-Based Modeling Approach to Evaluating Routing Strategies in Wildfire Evacuation

April 21, 2021

Poster presentation at SESE Research Review, Urbana, IL

Teaching

High School Substitute Teacher

Teaching Assistant: Information Science 457 - Introduction to Data Science

Instructor of Record: Geography 379 - Intro to GIS Systems

Teaching Assistant: Language and Culture in India

Scholarships & Grants

Illinois Distinguished Fellowship (2017-2021) Scotland Saltire Scholarship (2014) Edinburgh Santander Master’s Scholarship (2014) Edinburgh Global Master’s Scholarship (2014)

Service & leadership

• Journal peer review: Transactions in GIS (2)

Language Skills

German (advanced, Zertifikat Deutsch B1), Latin (advanced), Ancient Greek (advanced), Mandarin Chinese (intermediate)

Professional Memberships

• AAG - American Association of Geographers
• ACM SIGSPATIAL

Leadership

• The Shire of Caer Gwyn Student Organization President 2018-2022
• UIUC Geography Graduate Student Association - Vice President
• UIUC Geography Graduate Student Association - Social Chair