GeoAI 2026 in Ghent, 3–6 June

I attended the first International Conference on Geospatial Artificial Intelligence (GeoAI 2026) in Ghent, Belgium, from 3–6 June 2026, together with my PhD student Fengjiao Li. It was lovely to share the experience with Fengjiao and to see her present our work on spatially explicit graph neural networks for epidemic forecasting.

I led and organised the workshop Building Open Labs and Learning Activities for “Introduction to Geospatial AI”, with the help of Profs. Siqin Wang and Song Gao. I am very grateful to both for their support in bringing the workshop together. I also served on the conference programme committee. Our research contributions included:

Spatially Explicit Graph Neural Networks for Epidemic Forecasting: Evidence from Socioeconomic Embeddings, by Fengjiao Li, Meiliu Wu and Ana Basiri. Paper.
Spatially-Weighted CLIP for Street-View Geo-localization, by Ting Han and colleagues. Preprint.

My sincere thanks to the GeoAI 2026 organising committee and session chairs for making this first conference such a welcoming place to share ideas. I am also grateful to our fellow workshop organisers and participants for their contributions to the GeoAI teaching discussions.

Conference website

A group of conference participants together at GeoAI 2026 in Ghent — Together in Ghent for GeoAI 2026.

The opening presentation at GeoAI 2026 — The first International Conference on Geospatial Artificial Intelligence.

Leading the GeoAI education workshop

Meiliu beside the opening slide for Building Open Labs and Learning Activities for Introduction to Geospatial AI — Leading our GeoAI education workshop, with help from Profs. Siqin Wang and Song Gao.

Discussion at the GeoAI education workshop — Working together on open labs and learning activities for GeoAI education.

Workshop participants discussing GeoAI learning activities around a table — Group discussions during the workshop.

Research presentations and discussions

Fengjiao presenting spatially explicit graph neural networks for epidemic forecasting — Fengjiao presenting our work on spatially explicit graph neural networks for epidemic forecasting.

Presenting Spatially-Weighted CLIP for Street-View Geo-localization.

Meiliu presenting spatially weighted CLIP to the GeoAI conference audience — Sharing the ideas behind Spatially-Weighted CLIP with the conference audience.

A discussion with the audience during a GeoAI conference session — Questions and discussion during the conference sessions.

Time together in Ghent

The conversations continued beyond the sessions, over dinner and while exploring Ghent with colleagues. A wonderful chance to catch up, make new connections and enjoy the city together.

A selfie with a colleague during a coffee break at GeoAI 2026 — A coffee-break catch-up at the conference.

Colleagues gathered beneath the GeoAI conference banner — Meeting colleagues at GeoAI 2026.

A selfie together in front of the GeoAI conference banner — A happy moment together in Ghent.

Conference colleagues sharing dinner in Ghent — Continuing the conversations over dinner.

Conference colleagues together on a boat in Ghent — Exploring Ghent together between conference activities.