Maryam Lotfian Obtained her BSc in Geomatics Engineering from Tehran
University (Iran) in 2013. In 2016, she received her MSc in
Environmental and Geomatics Engineering from Politecnico di Milano
(Italy) with a thesis on urban climate classification using satellite
imagery. In collaboration with the University of Applied Sciences and
Arts Western Switzerland (HEIG-VD), she began her PhD at the Politecnico
di Milano Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in October
2017. Her research focuses on challenges in citizen science projects,
including participants’ motivations and data quality. She works on
developing machine learning algorithms to perform automated data
validation in citizen scientist projects.
Dr. Maryam Lotfian (PhD, April 2022) is a research associate at the
University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland,
specializing in spatial data science, spatial statistics, GeoAI,
volunteered geographic information (VGI), and citizen science. Her work
has contributed to the development of geospatial applications and the
statistical analysis of geospatial data, utilizing free and open-source
software.
Since 2017, Dr. Lotfian has primarily focused on citizen science
projects, particularly exploring the impact of technological
advancements, such as artificial intelligence, on these initiatives. Her
research emphasizes how these technologies can enhance data validation
processes and sustain user participation. Her work is especially
concentrated on citizen science focused on environmental monitoring,
where she investigates the role of species distribution modeling in
validating observations contributed by citizens. To that end, she has
made several scientific contributions to the field of citizen science,
ranging from improving data validation techniques to increasing public
engagement in environmental monitoring projects.