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Ilya Ilyankou

The Alan Turing Institute, University College London, University of Leeds, Trinity College

ORCID iD 0009-0008-7082-7122
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About

I am a PhD researcher at UCL SpaceTimeLab studying how people communicate about place: what they ask, how they ask it, and what this reveals about human spatial information behaviour at scale. I work at the intersection of GeoAI, NLP, and HCI, using query logs and conversational AI datasets to characterise spatial information needs across interfaces. I’m particularly interested in subjective spatial questions – those that go beyond what deterministic GIS can answer, and expose the gap between place as data and place as lived experience. My research is funded by UKRI/EPSRC and the Ordnance Survey.

I previously worked as a data engineering and a full stack developer, and I co-authored Hands-On Data Visualization (O'Reilly). I am a postgraduate TA at UCL and Birkbeck, supporting modules in geospatial programming, spatial analysis, and data analytics.

I am also a co-founder and CTO of Safest Way, a Geovation-backed startup building safety-first pedestrian navigation.

Employment

  • The Alan Turing Institute Sustainability Mission Intern
    2025 - 2025

Education

  • University College London PhD student
    2023 - 2027
  • University of Leeds MSc in Geographical Information Science
    2019 - 2022
  • Trinity College Bachelor of Science
    2014 - 2018

Projects & Funding

Projects & funding information is unavailable.

Publications (13)