I am a Professor of Geomatics Engineering at the Lassonde School of Engineering, York University, and Director of the Mobility Innovation Centre (MOVE), which I founded and previously led as its inaugural director. From 2023 to June 2026, I served as Chair of the Department of Earth and Space Science and Engineering. I also direct the Augmented Urban Space Modeling Laboratory (AUSMLab), where we develop innovative solutions to represent, describe, and understand urban environments through visual and spatial data.
My research develops embodied spatial intelligence – AI systems that perceive, reason about, and act within physical space – for smart construction and autonomous infrastructure monitoring. It builds on neural computer vision and robotic perception, autonomous mapping and navigation, and 3D urban modelling and digital twins of the built environment, and extends to AI for Earth and space observation, including space situational awareness. My group has led large-scale collaborative research programs supported by CFI, NSERC CREATE, ORF-RE, OCI, and industry partners, including the 3D Mobile Mapping AI (3DMMAI) project with Teledyne Optech and the KAIA digital twin project with Aethon Aerial Solutions.
I received my B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Astronomy and Space Science from Yonsei University, Korea, and my Ph.D. from University College London, where my dissertation received the best thesis award from the Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Society in 2004.
Research Interests
- Neural Computer Vision and Robotic Perception
- Autonomous Mapping and Navigation
- 3D Urban Modelling and Digital Twins of the Built Environment
- Embodied Spatial Intelligence for Smart Construction and Infrastructure Monitoring
- AI for Earth and Space Observation
Publications
I have published more than 160 research papers. A complete, up-to-date list is available on Google Scholar and on the AUSMLab publications page: https://www.ausmlab.com/publications
Selected recent work includes:
- YUTO MMS: A comprehensive SLAM dataset for urban mobile mapping with tilted LiDAR and panoramic camera integration — The International Journal of Robotics Research, 2024
- NSANet: Noise Seeking Attention Network — Remote Sensing, 2024
- Advancing Physically Informed Autoencoders for DTM Generation — Remote Sensing, 2024
- CornerRegNet: Building Segmentation from Overhead Imagery Using Oriented Corners in Deep Networks — 2024
- Fusion-SUNet: Spatial Layout Consistency for 3D Semantic Segmentation — CVPR Workshops, 2023
- PVL-Cartographer: Panoramic Vision-Aided LiDAR Cartographer-Based SLAM — Remote Sensing, 2023
Contact
Department of Earth and Space Science and Engineering, Lassonde School of Engineering, York University — 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, ON M3J 1P3, Canada
Email: gsohn@yorku.ca · Phone: 416-650-8011 · GitHub: github.com/gsohnyork · Lab: ausmlab.com