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Dr Alia Abdelmoty
(she/her)
BEng, MSc, PhD (Heriot-Watt Uni)
- Available for postgraduate supervision
Teams and roles for Alia Abdelmoty
Senior Lecturer
Overview
I study how people understand, describe, and interact with geographic space — and how we can model these experiences to build more intuitive, human-centered systems. My research combines qualitative GIS, semantic technologies, and AI to explore areas such as place semantics, geo-ontologies, and spatio-semantic user profiling. I design formal representations of place using ontologies and knowledge graphs, supporting applications from spatial data integration to mental health reasoning. I also investigate audio-based social platforms (like Clubhouse and X Spaces), focusing on how speech, interaction, and ambient cues reveal rich, non-textual user insights. Through platforms like LBSNs, I explore privacy-aware modelling, recommendation systems, and activity-based reasoning. My work bridges spatial, social, and semantic dimensions, contributing to more inclusive and context-aware technologies.
I am currently Guest Editor for a special issue of Future Internet (MDPI) on "Accessible Knowledge-Enhanced Web Intelligence: Ontologies, Knowledge Graphs, and Natural Language Interfaces" — submissions welcome until 20 October 2026.
To explore current projects or opportunities for PhD research, please visit my personal profile website.
Publication
2025
- Satoti, A. and Abdelmoty, A. I. 2025. A GIS-Native framework for qualitative place models: Implementation and evaluation. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information 14 (12) 474. (10.3390/ijgi14120474)
- Darwish, R. , Abdelmoty, A. I. and Turner, L. D. 2025. Analysing social network structures and thematic engagement on X audio spaces. Social Network Analysis and Mining 15 90. (10.1007/s13278-025-01516-w)
- Darwish, R. , Abdelmoty, A. and Turner, L. 2025. Investigating social network structures and interests on X audio spaces. Presented at: 13th International Conference on Complex Networks and their Applications Istanbul, Turkey 10-12 Dec 2024. Published in: Cherifi, H. et al., Complex Networks & Their Applications XIII. Studies in Computational Intelligence Vol. 1187. Springer. , pp.397-408. (10.1007/978-3-031-82431-9_33)
2024
- Abdelmoty, A. I. and Satoti, A. 2024. A homogeneous approach to reasoning over global geographic data. Presented at: 44th SGAI International Conference on Artificial Intelligence Cambridge, UK 17-19 December 2024. Published in: Bramer, M. and Stahl, F. eds. Artificial Intelligence XLI. Lecture Notes in Computer Science Vol. 15446. Springer Cham. , pp.285-298. (10.1007/978-3-031-77915-2_20)
- Alrayes, F. S. , Abdelmoty, A. I. and El-Geresy, W. 2024. User profile visualisation for privacy awareness on Geo-Social Networks. Journal of Location Based Services (10.1080/17489725.2024.2399512)
- Abdelmoty, A. I. , Muhajab, H. and Satoti, A. 2024. Spatial semantics for the evaluation of administrative geospatial ontologies. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information 13 (8) 291. (10.3390/ijgi13080291)
2023
- Muhajab, A. N. , Abdelmoty, A. and Hassoulas, A. 2023. Reuse and enrichment for building an ontology for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Presented at: International Conference on Biomedical Ontology Brazil 28 August - 1 September 2023. Vol. 360.CEUR Workshop Proceedings. , pp.142-153.
2020
- Alrayes, F. , Abdelmoty, A. and Theodorakopoulos, G. 2020. Modelling perceived risks to personal privacy from location disclosure on online social networks. International Journal of Geographical Information Science 34 (1), pp.150-176. (10.1080/13658816.2019.1654109)
2018
- Abdelmoty, A. 2018. Towards modelling privacy risks in geo-social networks. Presented at: The Tenth International Conference on Advanced Geographic Information Systems, Applications, and Services Rome, Italy 25 - 29 March 2018. Published in: Ruckemann, C. -. ed. GEOProcessing 2018: The 10th International Conference on Advanced Geographic Information Systems, Applications, and Services. International Academy, Research, and Industry Association. , pp.77.
2017
- Mohamed, S. and Abdelmoty, A. 2017. Spatio-semantic user profiles in location-based social networks. International Journal of Data Science and Analytics 4 (2), pp.127-142. (10.1007/s41060-017-0059-9)
- Abdelmoty, A. and Alrayes, F. 2017. Towards understanding location privacy awareness on geo-social networks. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information 6 (4), pp.109. (10.3390/ijgi6040109)
2016
- Alrayes, F. and Abdelmoty, A. 2016. Towards location privacy awareness on geo-social networks. Presented at: 2016 10th International Conference on Next Generation Mobile Applications, Security and Technologies (NGMAST) Cardiff, UK 24-26 August 2016. Next Generation Mobile Applications, Security and Technologies (NGMAST), 2016 10th International Conference on. IEEE. , pp.105. (10.1109/NGMAST.2016.26)
- Abdelmoty, A. and Almuzaini, K. 2016. A computational model of place on the linked data web. International Journal on Advances in Software 9 (3&4), pp.238-247.
- Abdelmoty, A. and Almuzaini, K. 2016. Reasoning with place information on the Linked Data Web. Presented at: Second International Conference on Big Data, Small Data, Linked Data and Open Data (Alldata 2016) Lisbon, Portugal 21 - 25 February 2016. ALLDATA 2016 : The Second International Conference on Big Data, Small Data, Linked Data and Open Data (includes KESA 20. , pp.48-53.
- Mohamed, S. and Abdelmoty, A. 2016. Computing similarity between users on location-based social networks. International Journal on Advances in Intelligent Systems 9 (3&4), pp.542-553.
- Mohamed, S. and Abdelmoty, A. 2016. Uncovering user profiles in location-based social networks. Presented at: GEOProcessing 2016 : The Eighth International Conference on Advanced Geographic Information Systems, Applications, and Services Venice, Italy 24-28 April 2016. GEOProcessing 2016 : The Eighth International Conference on Advanced Geographic Information Systems, Applications, and Servi. , pp.14-21.
2014
- Smart, P. D. , Abdelmoty, A. I. and El-Geresy, B. 2014. Spatial reasoning with place information on the semantic Web. International Journal on Artificial Intelligence Tools 23 (05) 1450011. (10.1142/S0218213014500110)
- Smart, P. D. , Abdelmoty, A. and El-Geresy, B. 2014. Spatial reasoning with place information on the Semantic Web. International Journal on Artificial Intelligence Tools 23 (05) 1450011. (10.1142/S0218213014500110)
- ElGindy, E. and Abdelmoty, A. 2014. Enriching user profiles using geo-social place semantics in geo-folksonomies. International Journal of Geographical Information Science 28 (7), pp.1439-1458. (10.1080/13658816.2014.894194)
- ElGindy, E. and Abdelmoty, A. 2014. Capturing place semantics on the GeoSocial web. Journal on Data Semantics 3 (4), pp.207-223. (10.1007/s13740-014-0034-8)
- Alrayes, F. and Abdelmoty, A. 2014. No place to hide: a study of privacy concerns due to location sharing on geo-social networks. International Journal On Advances in Security 7 (3/4), pp.62-75.
- Alrayes, F. and Abdelmoty, A. 2014. Privacy concerns in location-based social networks. Presented at: The Sixth International Conference on Advanced Geographic Information Systems, Applications, and Services, GEOProcessing 2014, Barcelona, Spain 23-27 March 2014.
- Mohamed, S. and Abdelmoty, A. 2014. Dynamic place profiles from geo-folksonomies on the geosocial web. In: Research and Development in Intelligent Systems XXXI. Springer. , pp.239-251. (10.1007/978-3-319-12069-0_18)
2012
- ElGindy, E. and Abdelmoty, A. 2012. Enhancing the quality of place resources in geo-folksonomies. Presented at: WAIM 2011: International Conference on Web-Age Information Management Wuhan, China 14-16 September 2011. Published in: Wang, L. et al., Web-Age Information Management: WAIM 2011 International Workshops: WGIM 2011, XMLDM 2011, SNA 2011, Wuhan, China, September 14-16, 2011, Revised Selected Papers. Vol. 7142.Lecture Notes in Computer Science Berlin and Heidelberg: Springer. , pp.1-12. (10.1007/978-3-642-28635-3_1)
- Makki al-Azzawi, A. N. , Abdelmoty, A. and Jones, C. B. 2012. What can I do there? Towards the automatic discovery of place-related services and activities. International Journal of Geographical Information Science 26 (2), pp.345-364. (10.1080/13658816.2011.595954)
- Younis, E. E. G. et al., 2012. Hybrid geo-spatial query methods on the semantic web with a spatially-enhanced index of DBpedia. Presented at: GIScience 2012: 7th International Conference on Geographic Information Science Columbus, OH, USA 18-21 September 2012. Published in: Xiao, N. et al., Geographic Information Science: 7th International Conference, GIScience 2012, Columbus, OH, USA, September 18-21, 2012. Proceedings. Vol. 7478.Lecture Notes in Computer Science Berlin and Heidelberg: Springer. , pp.340-353. (10.1007/978-3-642-33024-7_25)
2010
- El-Geresy, B. A. , Abdelmoty, A. and Ware, A. J. 2010. Deriving extensional spatial composition tables. Presented at: 29th SGAI International Conference on Innovative Techniques and Applications of Artificial Intelligence Cambridge, EnglandPublished in: Bramer, M. , Ellis, R. and Petridis, M. eds. Research and Development in Intelligent Systems XXVI: Incorporating Applications and Innovations in Intelligent Systems XVII. London: Springer. , pp.93-106. (10.1007/978-1-84882-983-1_7)
- Makki al-Azzawi, A. N. , Abdelmoty, A. and Jones, C. B. 2010. An ontology of place and service types to facilitate place-affordance geographic information retrieval. Presented at: 6th ACM Workshop on Geographic Information Retrieval (GIR'10) Zurich, Switzerland 18-19th February 2010. Published in: Purves, R. , Clough, P. and Jones, C. B. eds. GIR '10 Proceedings of the 6th Workshop on Geographic Information Retrieval, Zurich, Switzerland, 18-19 February 2010. New York, NY: ACM(10.1145/1722080.1722085)
2009
- Abdelmoty, A. et al. 2009. Supporting frameworks for the geospatial semantic web. Presented at: 11th international symposium, SSTD 2009 Aalborg, Denmark 8-10 July 2009. Published in: Mamoulis, N. et al., Advances in Spatial and Temporal Databases: 11th International Symposium, SSTD 2009, Aalborg, Denmark, July 8-10, 2009. Heidelberg: Springer Verlag. , pp.355-372. (10.1007/978-3-642-02982-0_23)
- Smart, P. D. , Abdelmoty, A. and El-Geresy, B. A. 2009. Semantic web rule languages for geospatial ontologies. In: Giurca, A. , Gasevic, D. and Taveter, K. eds. Handbook of Research on Emerging Rule-Based Languages and Technologies: Open Solutions and Approaches. Hershey, PA: IGI Global. , pp.149-169. (10.4018/978-1-60566-402-6.ch007)
- Reitsma, F. et al., 2009. Semantics, ontologies and eScience for the geosciences. Computers & Geosciences 35 (4), pp.706-709. (10.1016/j.cageo.2008.03.014)
2008
- Schockaert, S. et al. 2008. Mining topological relations from the Web. Presented at: 28th International Workshop on Database and Expert Systems Applications Turin, Italy 1-5 September 2008. Published in: Tjoa, A. M. and Wagner, R. R. eds. DEXA 2008: 19th International Conference on Database and Expert Systems Applications : proceedings, 1-5 September, 2008, Turin, Italy. Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE Computer Society,. , pp.652-656. (10.1109/DEXA.2008.15)
- Abdelmoty, A. and El-Geresy, B. A. 2008. Modeling spatial relations between places to support geographic information retrieval. Presented at: International Conference on Knowledge-Based Intelligent Information and Engineering Systems Zagreb, Croatia 3-5 September 2008. Published in: Lovrek, I. , Howlett, R. J. and Jain, L. C. eds. KES '08 Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Knowledge-Based Intelligent Information and Engineering Systems, Part II. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag. , pp.689-694.
2007
- Abdelmoty, A. , Smart, P. D. and Jones, C. B. 2007. Building place ontologies for the semantic web: Issues and approaches. Presented at: GIR 2007 4th ACM Workshop On Geographic Information Retrieval Lisbon, Portugal 9 November 2007. GIR '07 Proceedings of the 4th ACM workshop on Geographical information retrieval. New York, NY: ACM. , pp.7-12. (10.1145/1316948.1316951)
- Alazzawi, A. N. , Abdelmoty, A. and Jones, C. B. 2007. Spatio-temporal Personalised Web Search. Presented at: GISRUK 15th Annual Conference 2007 Maynooth, Ireland 11-13 April 2007. Published in: Winstanley, A. C. ed. GISRUK 2007: Proceedings of the Geographical Information Science Research UK Conference. Maynooth, Ireland: National University of Ireland. , pp.457-459.
- Smart, P. D. et al., 2007. A framework for combining rules and geo-ontologies. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 4524 , pp.133-147. (10.1007/978-3-540-72982-2_10)
2006
- Abdelmoty, A. , Smart, P. and El-Geresy, B. A. 2006. Towards the practical use of qualitative spatial reasoning in geographic information retrieval. Presented at: 3rd International IEEE Conference "Intelligent Systems" London, UK 4-6 September 2006. 2006 3rd International IEEE Conference Intelligent Systems. Vol. 1.Piscataway, NJ: IEEE. , pp.67-72. (10.1109/IS.2006.348396)
- Cudré-Mauroux, P. et al., 2006. Viewpoints on emergent semantics. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 4090 , pp.1-27. (10.1007/11803034_1)
- El-Geresy, B. A. and Abdelmoty, A. 2006. Qualitative representation and reasoning with uncertainty in space and time. Presented at: Proceedings of AI-2005, the Twenty-fifth SGAI International Conference on Innovative Techniques and Applications of Artificial Intelligence, Cambridge, UK December 2005 Cambridge, UK December 2005. Research and Development in Intelligent Systems XXII. London: Springer. , pp.345-355. (10.1007/978-1-84628-226-3_26)
- Smart, P. , Abdelmoty, A. and Jones, C. 2006. A visual editor for validating Geo-Ontologies in OWL. Presented at: GISRUK 2006: 14th Annual GIS Research UK Conference Nottingam , UK 5-7 April 2006. Published in: Priestnall, G. and Aplin, P. eds. Proceedings of the GIS Research UK 14th Annual Conference. , pp.222-226.
2005
- El-Geresy, B. A. and Abdelmoty, A. I. 2005. Imprecise qualitative spatial reasoning. Presented at: SGAI International Conference on Innovative Techniques and Applications of Artificial Intelligence Cambridge, UK 13-15 December 2004. Published in: Bramer, M. , Coenen, F. and Allen, T. eds. Research and Development in Intelligent Systems XXI : Proceedings of AI-2004, the Twenty-fourth SGAI International Conference on Innovative Techniques and Applications of Artificial Intelligence. London: Springer. , pp.299-312. (10.1007/b138783)
- Fu, G. , Jones, C. B. and Abdelmoty, A. 2005. Building a geographical ontology for intelligent spatial search on the web. Presented at: The IASTED International Conference on Databases and Applications - DBA 2005 Innsbruck, Austria 14-16 February 2005. Published in: Hamza, M. H. ed. Proceedings of IASTED International Conference on Databases and Applications. Anaheim, CA: ACTA Press. , pp.167-172.
- Fu, G. , Jones, C. B. and Abdelmoty, A. 2005. Ontology-based spatial query expansion in information retrieval. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 3761 , pp.1466-1482. (10.1007/11575801_33)
2004
- Morris, A. J. et al., 2004. A filter flow visual querying language and interface for spatial databases. GeoInformatica 8 (2), pp.107-141. (10.1023/B:GEIN.0000017744.85002.4c)
- El-Geresy, B. and Abdelmoty, A. I. 2004. SPARQS: a qualitative spatial reasoning engine. Knowledge-Based Systems 17 (2-4), pp.89-102. (10.1016/j.knosys.2004.03.004)
- Abdelmoty, A. and El-geresy, B. A. 2004. Schema visualisation using a metadata approach for GIS. Presented at: GIS Research UK 12th annual conference GISRUK 2004 Norwich, UK 28 -30 April 2004. Proceedings of the GIS Research UK 12th Annual Conference GISRUK 2004, University of East Anglia, Norwich, 28th-30th April 2004. Norwich: University of East Anglia. , pp.Ch. 19.
- Jones, C. B. et al. 2004. The SPIRIT spatial search engine: Architecture, ontologies and spatial indexing. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 3234 , pp.125-139. (10.1007/978-3-540-30231-5_9)
- Smart, P. D. , Abdelmoty, A. and Jones, C. B. 2004. An evaluation of geo-ontology representation languages for supporting web retrieval of geographical information. Presented at: GIS Research UK 12th annual conference (GISRUK 2004) Norwich, UK 28th-30th April 2004.
2002
- Abdelmoty, A. and El-Geresy, B. 2002. Towards a general theory for modelling qualitative space. International Journal on Artificial Intelligence Tools 11 (3), pp.347-367. (10.1142/S0218213002000939)
- Morris, A. J. et al. 2002. Design and implementation of a visual query language for large spatial databases. Presented at: Sixth International Conference on Information Visualisation London, UK 10-12 July 2002. Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Information Visualisation, 2002.. IEEE. , pp.226-233. (10.1109/IV.2002.1028781)
2001
- El-Geresy, B. A. and Abdelmoty, A. 2001. Towards a general theory for qualitative space. Presented at: 13th International Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence Dallas, TX, USA 7-9 November 2001. ICTAI 2001: Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence, Dallas, TX, 7-9 Nov. 2001. Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE. , pp.111-118. (10.1109/ICTAI.2001.974455)
2000
- El-Geresy, B. A. , Abdelmoty, A. and Jones, C. B. 2000. Episodes in space: qualitative representation and reasoning over spatio-temporal objects. International Journal on Artificial Intelligence Tools 09 (01) 131. (10.1142/S0218213000000100)
1997
- El-Geresy, B. A. and Abdelmoty, A. 1997. Order in space: a general formalism for spatial reasoning. International Journal on Artificial Intelligence Tools 06 (04), pp.423-445. (10.1142/S0218213097000232)
Articles
- Satoti, A. and Abdelmoty, A. I. 2025. A GIS-Native framework for qualitative place models: Implementation and evaluation. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information 14 (12) 474. (10.3390/ijgi14120474)
- Darwish, R. , Abdelmoty, A. I. and Turner, L. D. 2025. Analysing social network structures and thematic engagement on X audio spaces. Social Network Analysis and Mining 15 90. (10.1007/s13278-025-01516-w)
- Alrayes, F. S. , Abdelmoty, A. I. and El-Geresy, W. 2024. User profile visualisation for privacy awareness on Geo-Social Networks. Journal of Location Based Services (10.1080/17489725.2024.2399512)
- Abdelmoty, A. I. , Muhajab, H. and Satoti, A. 2024. Spatial semantics for the evaluation of administrative geospatial ontologies. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information 13 (8) 291. (10.3390/ijgi13080291)
- Alrayes, F. , Abdelmoty, A. and Theodorakopoulos, G. 2020. Modelling perceived risks to personal privacy from location disclosure on online social networks. International Journal of Geographical Information Science 34 (1), pp.150-176. (10.1080/13658816.2019.1654109)
- Mohamed, S. and Abdelmoty, A. 2017. Spatio-semantic user profiles in location-based social networks. International Journal of Data Science and Analytics 4 (2), pp.127-142. (10.1007/s41060-017-0059-9)
- Abdelmoty, A. and Alrayes, F. 2017. Towards understanding location privacy awareness on geo-social networks. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information 6 (4), pp.109. (10.3390/ijgi6040109)
- Abdelmoty, A. and Almuzaini, K. 2016. A computational model of place on the linked data web. International Journal on Advances in Software 9 (3&4), pp.238-247.
- Mohamed, S. and Abdelmoty, A. 2016. Computing similarity between users on location-based social networks. International Journal on Advances in Intelligent Systems 9 (3&4), pp.542-553.
- Smart, P. D. , Abdelmoty, A. I. and El-Geresy, B. 2014. Spatial reasoning with place information on the semantic Web. International Journal on Artificial Intelligence Tools 23 (05) 1450011. (10.1142/S0218213014500110)
- Smart, P. D. , Abdelmoty, A. and El-Geresy, B. 2014. Spatial reasoning with place information on the Semantic Web. International Journal on Artificial Intelligence Tools 23 (05) 1450011. (10.1142/S0218213014500110)
- ElGindy, E. and Abdelmoty, A. 2014. Enriching user profiles using geo-social place semantics in geo-folksonomies. International Journal of Geographical Information Science 28 (7), pp.1439-1458. (10.1080/13658816.2014.894194)
- ElGindy, E. and Abdelmoty, A. 2014. Capturing place semantics on the GeoSocial web. Journal on Data Semantics 3 (4), pp.207-223. (10.1007/s13740-014-0034-8)
- Alrayes, F. and Abdelmoty, A. 2014. No place to hide: a study of privacy concerns due to location sharing on geo-social networks. International Journal On Advances in Security 7 (3/4), pp.62-75.
- Makki al-Azzawi, A. N. , Abdelmoty, A. and Jones, C. B. 2012. What can I do there? Towards the automatic discovery of place-related services and activities. International Journal of Geographical Information Science 26 (2), pp.345-364. (10.1080/13658816.2011.595954)
- Reitsma, F. et al., 2009. Semantics, ontologies and eScience for the geosciences. Computers & Geosciences 35 (4), pp.706-709. (10.1016/j.cageo.2008.03.014)
- Smart, P. D. et al., 2007. A framework for combining rules and geo-ontologies. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 4524 , pp.133-147. (10.1007/978-3-540-72982-2_10)
- Cudré-Mauroux, P. et al., 2006. Viewpoints on emergent semantics. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 4090 , pp.1-27. (10.1007/11803034_1)
- Fu, G. , Jones, C. B. and Abdelmoty, A. 2005. Ontology-based spatial query expansion in information retrieval. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 3761 , pp.1466-1482. (10.1007/11575801_33)
- Morris, A. J. et al., 2004. A filter flow visual querying language and interface for spatial databases. GeoInformatica 8 (2), pp.107-141. (10.1023/B:GEIN.0000017744.85002.4c)
- El-Geresy, B. and Abdelmoty, A. I. 2004. SPARQS: a qualitative spatial reasoning engine. Knowledge-Based Systems 17 (2-4), pp.89-102. (10.1016/j.knosys.2004.03.004)
- Jones, C. B. et al. 2004. The SPIRIT spatial search engine: Architecture, ontologies and spatial indexing. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 3234 , pp.125-139. (10.1007/978-3-540-30231-5_9)
- Abdelmoty, A. and El-Geresy, B. 2002. Towards a general theory for modelling qualitative space. International Journal on Artificial Intelligence Tools 11 (3), pp.347-367. (10.1142/S0218213002000939)
- El-Geresy, B. A. , Abdelmoty, A. and Jones, C. B. 2000. Episodes in space: qualitative representation and reasoning over spatio-temporal objects. International Journal on Artificial Intelligence Tools 09 (01) 131. (10.1142/S0218213000000100)
- El-Geresy, B. A. and Abdelmoty, A. 1997. Order in space: a general formalism for spatial reasoning. International Journal on Artificial Intelligence Tools 06 (04), pp.423-445. (10.1142/S0218213097000232)
Book sections
- Mohamed, S. and Abdelmoty, A. 2014. Dynamic place profiles from geo-folksonomies on the geosocial web. In: Research and Development in Intelligent Systems XXXI. Springer. , pp.239-251. (10.1007/978-3-319-12069-0_18)
- Smart, P. D. , Abdelmoty, A. and El-Geresy, B. A. 2009. Semantic web rule languages for geospatial ontologies. In: Giurca, A. , Gasevic, D. and Taveter, K. eds. Handbook of Research on Emerging Rule-Based Languages and Technologies: Open Solutions and Approaches. Hershey, PA: IGI Global. , pp.149-169. (10.4018/978-1-60566-402-6.ch007)
Conferences
- Darwish, R. , Abdelmoty, A. and Turner, L. 2025. Investigating social network structures and interests on X audio spaces. Presented at: 13th International Conference on Complex Networks and their Applications Istanbul, Turkey 10-12 Dec 2024. Published in: Cherifi, H. et al., Complex Networks & Their Applications XIII. Studies in Computational Intelligence Vol. 1187. Springer. , pp.397-408. (10.1007/978-3-031-82431-9_33)
- Abdelmoty, A. I. and Satoti, A. 2024. A homogeneous approach to reasoning over global geographic data. Presented at: 44th SGAI International Conference on Artificial Intelligence Cambridge, UK 17-19 December 2024. Published in: Bramer, M. and Stahl, F. eds. Artificial Intelligence XLI. Lecture Notes in Computer Science Vol. 15446. Springer Cham. , pp.285-298. (10.1007/978-3-031-77915-2_20)
- Muhajab, A. N. , Abdelmoty, A. and Hassoulas, A. 2023. Reuse and enrichment for building an ontology for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Presented at: International Conference on Biomedical Ontology Brazil 28 August - 1 September 2023. Vol. 360.CEUR Workshop Proceedings. , pp.142-153.
- Abdelmoty, A. 2018. Towards modelling privacy risks in geo-social networks. Presented at: The Tenth International Conference on Advanced Geographic Information Systems, Applications, and Services Rome, Italy 25 - 29 March 2018. Published in: Ruckemann, C. -. ed. GEOProcessing 2018: The 10th International Conference on Advanced Geographic Information Systems, Applications, and Services. International Academy, Research, and Industry Association. , pp.77.
- Alrayes, F. and Abdelmoty, A. 2016. Towards location privacy awareness on geo-social networks. Presented at: 2016 10th International Conference on Next Generation Mobile Applications, Security and Technologies (NGMAST) Cardiff, UK 24-26 August 2016. Next Generation Mobile Applications, Security and Technologies (NGMAST), 2016 10th International Conference on. IEEE. , pp.105. (10.1109/NGMAST.2016.26)
- Abdelmoty, A. and Almuzaini, K. 2016. Reasoning with place information on the Linked Data Web. Presented at: Second International Conference on Big Data, Small Data, Linked Data and Open Data (Alldata 2016) Lisbon, Portugal 21 - 25 February 2016. ALLDATA 2016 : The Second International Conference on Big Data, Small Data, Linked Data and Open Data (includes KESA 20. , pp.48-53.
- Mohamed, S. and Abdelmoty, A. 2016. Uncovering user profiles in location-based social networks. Presented at: GEOProcessing 2016 : The Eighth International Conference on Advanced Geographic Information Systems, Applications, and Services Venice, Italy 24-28 April 2016. GEOProcessing 2016 : The Eighth International Conference on Advanced Geographic Information Systems, Applications, and Servi. , pp.14-21.
- Alrayes, F. and Abdelmoty, A. 2014. Privacy concerns in location-based social networks. Presented at: The Sixth International Conference on Advanced Geographic Information Systems, Applications, and Services, GEOProcessing 2014, Barcelona, Spain 23-27 March 2014.
- ElGindy, E. and Abdelmoty, A. 2012. Enhancing the quality of place resources in geo-folksonomies. Presented at: WAIM 2011: International Conference on Web-Age Information Management Wuhan, China 14-16 September 2011. Published in: Wang, L. et al., Web-Age Information Management: WAIM 2011 International Workshops: WGIM 2011, XMLDM 2011, SNA 2011, Wuhan, China, September 14-16, 2011, Revised Selected Papers. Vol. 7142.Lecture Notes in Computer Science Berlin and Heidelberg: Springer. , pp.1-12. (10.1007/978-3-642-28635-3_1)
- Younis, E. E. G. et al., 2012. Hybrid geo-spatial query methods on the semantic web with a spatially-enhanced index of DBpedia. Presented at: GIScience 2012: 7th International Conference on Geographic Information Science Columbus, OH, USA 18-21 September 2012. Published in: Xiao, N. et al., Geographic Information Science: 7th International Conference, GIScience 2012, Columbus, OH, USA, September 18-21, 2012. Proceedings. Vol. 7478.Lecture Notes in Computer Science Berlin and Heidelberg: Springer. , pp.340-353. (10.1007/978-3-642-33024-7_25)
- El-Geresy, B. A. , Abdelmoty, A. and Ware, A. J. 2010. Deriving extensional spatial composition tables. Presented at: 29th SGAI International Conference on Innovative Techniques and Applications of Artificial Intelligence Cambridge, EnglandPublished in: Bramer, M. , Ellis, R. and Petridis, M. eds. Research and Development in Intelligent Systems XXVI: Incorporating Applications and Innovations in Intelligent Systems XVII. London: Springer. , pp.93-106. (10.1007/978-1-84882-983-1_7)
- Makki al-Azzawi, A. N. , Abdelmoty, A. and Jones, C. B. 2010. An ontology of place and service types to facilitate place-affordance geographic information retrieval. Presented at: 6th ACM Workshop on Geographic Information Retrieval (GIR'10) Zurich, Switzerland 18-19th February 2010. Published in: Purves, R. , Clough, P. and Jones, C. B. eds. GIR '10 Proceedings of the 6th Workshop on Geographic Information Retrieval, Zurich, Switzerland, 18-19 February 2010. New York, NY: ACM(10.1145/1722080.1722085)
- Abdelmoty, A. et al. 2009. Supporting frameworks for the geospatial semantic web. Presented at: 11th international symposium, SSTD 2009 Aalborg, Denmark 8-10 July 2009. Published in: Mamoulis, N. et al., Advances in Spatial and Temporal Databases: 11th International Symposium, SSTD 2009, Aalborg, Denmark, July 8-10, 2009. Heidelberg: Springer Verlag. , pp.355-372. (10.1007/978-3-642-02982-0_23)
- Schockaert, S. et al. 2008. Mining topological relations from the Web. Presented at: 28th International Workshop on Database and Expert Systems Applications Turin, Italy 1-5 September 2008. Published in: Tjoa, A. M. and Wagner, R. R. eds. DEXA 2008: 19th International Conference on Database and Expert Systems Applications : proceedings, 1-5 September, 2008, Turin, Italy. Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE Computer Society,. , pp.652-656. (10.1109/DEXA.2008.15)
- Abdelmoty, A. and El-Geresy, B. A. 2008. Modeling spatial relations between places to support geographic information retrieval. Presented at: International Conference on Knowledge-Based Intelligent Information and Engineering Systems Zagreb, Croatia 3-5 September 2008. Published in: Lovrek, I. , Howlett, R. J. and Jain, L. C. eds. KES '08 Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Knowledge-Based Intelligent Information and Engineering Systems, Part II. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag. , pp.689-694.
- Abdelmoty, A. , Smart, P. D. and Jones, C. B. 2007. Building place ontologies for the semantic web: Issues and approaches. Presented at: GIR 2007 4th ACM Workshop On Geographic Information Retrieval Lisbon, Portugal 9 November 2007. GIR '07 Proceedings of the 4th ACM workshop on Geographical information retrieval. New York, NY: ACM. , pp.7-12. (10.1145/1316948.1316951)
- Alazzawi, A. N. , Abdelmoty, A. and Jones, C. B. 2007. Spatio-temporal Personalised Web Search. Presented at: GISRUK 15th Annual Conference 2007 Maynooth, Ireland 11-13 April 2007. Published in: Winstanley, A. C. ed. GISRUK 2007: Proceedings of the Geographical Information Science Research UK Conference. Maynooth, Ireland: National University of Ireland. , pp.457-459.
- Abdelmoty, A. , Smart, P. and El-Geresy, B. A. 2006. Towards the practical use of qualitative spatial reasoning in geographic information retrieval. Presented at: 3rd International IEEE Conference "Intelligent Systems" London, UK 4-6 September 2006. 2006 3rd International IEEE Conference Intelligent Systems. Vol. 1.Piscataway, NJ: IEEE. , pp.67-72. (10.1109/IS.2006.348396)
- El-Geresy, B. A. and Abdelmoty, A. 2006. Qualitative representation and reasoning with uncertainty in space and time. Presented at: Proceedings of AI-2005, the Twenty-fifth SGAI International Conference on Innovative Techniques and Applications of Artificial Intelligence, Cambridge, UK December 2005 Cambridge, UK December 2005. Research and Development in Intelligent Systems XXII. London: Springer. , pp.345-355. (10.1007/978-1-84628-226-3_26)
- Smart, P. , Abdelmoty, A. and Jones, C. 2006. A visual editor for validating Geo-Ontologies in OWL. Presented at: GISRUK 2006: 14th Annual GIS Research UK Conference Nottingam , UK 5-7 April 2006. Published in: Priestnall, G. and Aplin, P. eds. Proceedings of the GIS Research UK 14th Annual Conference. , pp.222-226.
- El-Geresy, B. A. and Abdelmoty, A. I. 2005. Imprecise qualitative spatial reasoning. Presented at: SGAI International Conference on Innovative Techniques and Applications of Artificial Intelligence Cambridge, UK 13-15 December 2004. Published in: Bramer, M. , Coenen, F. and Allen, T. eds. Research and Development in Intelligent Systems XXI : Proceedings of AI-2004, the Twenty-fourth SGAI International Conference on Innovative Techniques and Applications of Artificial Intelligence. London: Springer. , pp.299-312. (10.1007/b138783)
- Fu, G. , Jones, C. B. and Abdelmoty, A. 2005. Building a geographical ontology for intelligent spatial search on the web. Presented at: The IASTED International Conference on Databases and Applications - DBA 2005 Innsbruck, Austria 14-16 February 2005. Published in: Hamza, M. H. ed. Proceedings of IASTED International Conference on Databases and Applications. Anaheim, CA: ACTA Press. , pp.167-172.
- Abdelmoty, A. and El-geresy, B. A. 2004. Schema visualisation using a metadata approach for GIS. Presented at: GIS Research UK 12th annual conference GISRUK 2004 Norwich, UK 28 -30 April 2004. Proceedings of the GIS Research UK 12th Annual Conference GISRUK 2004, University of East Anglia, Norwich, 28th-30th April 2004. Norwich: University of East Anglia. , pp.Ch. 19.
- Smart, P. D. , Abdelmoty, A. and Jones, C. B. 2004. An evaluation of geo-ontology representation languages for supporting web retrieval of geographical information. Presented at: GIS Research UK 12th annual conference (GISRUK 2004) Norwich, UK 28th-30th April 2004.
- Morris, A. J. et al. 2002. Design and implementation of a visual query language for large spatial databases. Presented at: Sixth International Conference on Information Visualisation London, UK 10-12 July 2002. Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Information Visualisation, 2002.. IEEE. , pp.226-233. (10.1109/IV.2002.1028781)
- El-Geresy, B. A. and Abdelmoty, A. 2001. Towards a general theory for qualitative space. Presented at: 13th International Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence Dallas, TX, USA 7-9 November 2001. ICTAI 2001: Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence, Dallas, TX, 7-9 Nov. 2001. Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE. , pp.111-118. (10.1109/ICTAI.2001.974455)
Research
My research focuses on how humans understand and interact with place. I work across spatial information science, human-centred AI, and semantic web technologies to develop systems that reflect how people describe, reason about, and use geographic space in real life. My goal is to support more intuitive and explainable digital geographies. My work is interdisciplinary, combining qualitative GIS, ontologies, knowledge graphs, and AI-driven user profiling.
1. Semantic and Qualitative Place Modelling
I design models that capture human perceptions of space (e.g. near, central, popular), and build geospatial ontologies and linked data frameworks to enhance reasoning and interoperability in GIS. This work supports vernacular geography, place semantics, and linked geospatial data integration.
2. Ontologies and Knowledge Representations
I develop geo-ontologies and domain-specific semantic structures—for example, modelling mental health concepts—to improve data integration, reasoning, and explanation. I also contribute to geographic question answering systems and semantic search technologies.
3. Human-Centred AI and Emerging Social Platforms
I explore how audio-based and multimodal platforms like Clubhouse and X Spaces can be used to understand user interactions. This includes non-textual semantics, ambient context, bias in recommendation systems, and privacy-aware profiling.
4. Geosemantic User Profiling
I study how users engage with location-based social platforms (e.g., Foursquare), modelling spatio-temporal behaviour, place affordance, and spatio-semantic user similarity to enhance recommendation, activity reasoning, and privacy-aware LBSNs.
Some recent projects are:
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Place Semantics and Knowledge Graphs for user-aware GIS
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Ontologies for Geospatial and Mental Health Domains
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Audio-based Social Media Profiling
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Spatiotemporal Semantic Reasoning in LBSNs
I welcome collaborative opportunities and PhD applicants interested in any of these research areas. Please visit my personal profile website for more information on active projects and publications.
Biography
Education and qualifications
- 1995: PhD in Computer Science, University of Heriot-Watt, Edinburgh
- 1990: MSc in Knowledge-Based Systems, University of Heriot-Watt, Edinburgh
- 1987: BEng in Biomedical Engineering, Cairo University, Egypt
Career overview
- 2018 - present: Senior Lecturer, School of Computer Science and Informatics, Cardiff Univeristy
- 2000 - 2018: Lecturer, School of Computer Science and Informatics, Cardiff Univeristy
- 1995 - 2000: Lecturer, School of Computing, University of Glamorgan, Wales
- 1990 - 1994: Research Associate, Department of Computing and Electrical Engineering, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh
- 1987 - 1989: Research Assistant, Biomedical Engineering, Cairo University, Egypt
Honours and awards
|
2019 |
Nominated, Enriching Student Life Awards |
Cardiff University |
|
2016 |
Best paper award |
IARIA ALLDATA |
|
2014 |
Best paper award |
IARIA GEOProcessing |
|
2014 |
Sustained exceptional performance |
Cardiff University |
|
2004 |
Best paper award |
AI-2003 |
|
2003 |
Finalist |
Machine Intelligence competition BCS SGAI |
Professional memberships
Fellow | Higher Education Academy | 2007-present |
Member | IFIP WG 2.6 on Databases | 2005-2014 |
Supervisions
- Qualitative spatial reasoning and place modelling
- Knowledge graphs and geographic question answering
- Location-based social networks and privacy
- Ontologies for health and geographic domains
- Human-centred AI and audio-based social media
See my Personal Web Site for a list of Research Areas and Project
Current supervision
Abdurauf Satoti
Nouf Albalawi
Sarah Parry
Past projects
PhD Students
- Hanan Muhajab (2025): "Unified Management of Place Information on the Web of Data"
- Areej Nasser (2024): "An Ontology-based Framework for the Modelling and Online Detection of OCD"
- Khalid Almuzaini (2017): "Qualitative Modelling of Place on the Linked Data Web and GIS"
- Soha Mohamed (2016): "Spatiotemporal User and Place Modelling in the Geo-Social Web"
- Fatma Alrayes (2017): "Location Privacy Awareness on Geo-Social Networks"
- Ehab Elgindy (2013): "Extracting Place Semantics from Geo-Folksonomies"
- Ahmed Alazzawi (2011): "Extracting Profiles from Human Activities and Services of Visited Places"
- Eman Younis (2014): "Hybrid Geospatial Query Processing on the Semantic Web" (Co-supervisor)
- Mark Hall (2011): "Modelling and Reasoning with Vague Spatial Language in Image Captions" (Co-supervisor)
- Philip Smart (2009): "A Semantic Web Rule Language for Geospatial Domains"
- Andrew Morris (2003): "A Visual Approach to the Development of Spatial Query Languages for GIS"
MPhil
- Nathan Jones (2021): "Awareness and Monitoring of Personal Environment to Improve Quality of Living at Home for the Elderly"