Meet our research team

Dapeng Li, Ph.D., GISP, Principal Investigator​

Dr. Dapeng Li is an Assistant Professor of Geographic Information Science (GIS) in the Department of Geography and the Environment at the University of Alabama. Dr. Li holds a B.S. in GIS from China University of Geosciences (Beijing) and a M.S. degree in Cartography and GIS from Peking University. His research interests include GIS and its applications in hazards, public health, transportation, and sustainability. Dr. Li is teaching GIS courses at undergraduate and graduate levels at UA. As a certified GIS Professional (GISP), Dr. Li is dedicated to educating the next generation of GIS professionals at UA. 

Graduate Students

Madusha Maha Gamage, Ph.D. Student
Madusha Maha Gamage joined the DIGIT Lab as a doctoral student in fall 2022. She holds a B.S. degree in Surveying Sciences from Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka and an MPS degree in Geospatial Information Science and Engineering from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Madusha’s research interests include geospatial information technology and its applications in hazards and transportation. Her dissertation focuses on using traffic simulation and fire spread models to develop data-driven community wildfire evacuations plans in the wildland-urban interface. 

Jiacheng Cao, Master’s Student
Jiacheng Cao joined the DIGIT Lab as a master’s student in fall 2024. He holds a B.S. degree in GIS from East China Normal University. His thesis topic is OpenStreetMap road data quality assessment. 

Peiyang Guan, Master’s Student

Peiyang Guan joined the DIGIT Lab in fall 2025. His thesis focuses on evaluating people’s access to food in Alabama.

Lab Alumni

  • Shahid Nawaz Khan, 2021-2025, Ph.D. in Geography (Concentration: Remote Sensing), The University of Alabama. Dissertation: “Using remote sensing and machine learning to improve county-level crop yield prediction in the U.S. corn belt”. (First Employment: Tenure-track Assistant Professor of Geoinformatics, National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Pakistan.
  • Alex Ketchpaw, 2020-2022, M.S. in Geography (GIS Specialization), South Dakota State University. Thesis: “Using structure location data to map the wildland urban interface in Montana, USA”. (First Employment: Data Scientist, KBR, Inc., Sioux Falls, South Dakota)
  • Courtney Lusk, 2020-2022, M.S. in Geography (GIS Specialization), South Dakota State University. Research Project: “Using Web GIS to map COVID-19 risk at the zip code level in the U.S.”. (First Employment: Solution Engineer, Esri, Denver, Colorado)
  • ​Thomas White, 2019-2022, M.S. in Geography (GIS Specialization), South Dakota State University. Coursework Option. (First Employment: GIS Developer, Gylling Data Management, Inc., Brookings, South Dakota)
  • ​Kwadwo Dwomoh, 2019-2021, M.S. in Geography (GIS Specialization), South Dakota State University. Coursework Option. (First Employment: GIS Technician, Elk County, Pennsylvania)

Lab Interns

  • Anqi Zhang, summer 2020, Master’s student in Computer Science, South Dakota State University. Topic: Web GIS Development with GeoDjango. 
  • Marcus Haselhoff, spring 2019, Master’s student in Geography (GIS Specialization), South Dakota State University. Topic: Web Development.
  • Logan Megard, spring 2019, Master’s student in Geography (GIS Specialization), South Dakota State University. Topic: Web GIS Development.
  • Herve Kashongwe, spring & summer 2019, Master’s student in Geography (GIS Specialization), South Dakota State University. Topic: Spatial Database Development with PostgreSQL (PostGIS).
  • Woojin Koh, summer 2019, undergraduate student in Computer Science, South Dakota State University. Topic: Web Development with Django.