Based in University College London’s Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering in London, UCL SpaceTimeLab is an interdisciplinary research centre focused on extracting useful insights from data that records both location and time. It works with public- and private-sector partners, developing methods and computational tools to study urban systems and support decisions on mobility, security, health and resilience.1
The lab’s research spans transport and mobility, policing and security, business intelligence and environmental resilience. Its work includes analysing large transport datasets to identify patterns in how people and places move, and developing approaches to assess risks from natural hazards, including floods and forest fires.17 One transport project, STANDARD, worked with Transport for London to model road networks and investigate the causes of congestion.7 In the Crime, Policing and Citizenship project, researchers collaborated with the Metropolitan Police Service to examine links between police activity, crime and public attitudes towards policing.17
SpaceTimeLab has also contributed to INFRARISK, a European Commission project involving 11 partners that tested the resilience of critical infrastructure networks to natural hazards.1 The centre was founded by Professor Tao Cheng, who is identified by UCL as its director and founder.46 A UCL-affiliated account describes the centre as funded in 2012, while its LinkedIn page lists 2013 as its founding year.25