New professorship for "Spatial Data Science and Statistical Learning"


"Spatial Data Science and Statistical Learning" is the name of the new professorship at Göttingen University Faculty of Business and Economics. In the summer semester 2020 and winter semester 2020/21 it will be represented by Prof. Dr. Philipp Otto, so that courses for students of the Faculty can already be offered. The appointment procedure for the professorship is currently underway.

Philipp Otto has been assistant professor for "Big Geospatial Data" at the University of Hanover since 2018. After studying International Business Administration at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder), he received his doctorate there in 2016 with a thesis on "Spatial and Spatio-Termal Processes - Modelling and Recognition of Spatial Structural Breaks with Applications in Economics and Biometrics". From 2017 to 2018 Otto also headed the research group "Detection and Surveillance of Spatial and Spatiotemporal Clusters" at the Center for B/Orders in Motion in Frankfurt.

His main research interests are in the field of data science in spatial statistics. In his work, he deals with spatio-temporal random processes and their modelling as well as with statistical learning methods. "My theoretical work includes the development of a new model class of spatial random processes, namely the spatial GARCH models, and the development of automated estimation methods for spatial dependencies where the number of parameters to be estimated is significantly lower than the number of observations," explains Prof. Otto.

His methods are applied in numerous scientific fields, such as empirical environmental sciences, econometrics or biometrics. They range from the detection of effects of the accumulation of investments in conurbations on local tax rates, the image-based detection of bronchial carcinomas to the modelling of the influence of sand washes on the development of the coastal profiles of the German island Sylt.

He is also a reviewer for various journals such as Computational Statistics, Athmospheric Environment and Annals of Regional Science. At the University of Hanover he is leading a project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) for the development of spatial and spatio-temporal GARCH models.

For the students of the Faculty of Business and Economics Philipp Otto will offer the introductory lecture in statistics in the coming winter semester in the Bachelor's programme as well as a seminar in statistical process control for spatio-temporal and network data in the Master's programme.

The professorship for Spatial Data Analysis and Statistical Learning Processes is one of the digitization professorships funded by the state of Lower Saxony. The University of Göttingen and the University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HAWK) were successful in a first round of calls with their joint proposal for the "Data Science Region South Lower Saxony".