Seth E. Spielman

Computational Social Scientist

Member of Technical Staff, Microsoft AI

I'm an executive and a computational social scientist who specializes in measuring hard to measure things - and then using those measurments to build better products and organizations.

🧑‍💻 I am currently a member of the technical staff at Microsoft AI where I lead Copilot evaluation and define key KPIs for the product. I was previously Director and Principal Data Scientist at Bing, where I developed innovative AI based information retreival methods. Prior to Microsoft I was a senior scientist/manager at Apple where I contributed to the reinvention of Apple Maps and launched the Apple Card. I've contributed to products used by hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

👨‍🏫 I've held academic positions at Columbia, Brown, and the University of Colorado where I was a tenured professor of Geography and Information Science and the university's inaugural Chief Data Officer. I've been profiled in Science, and appointed as a scientific advisor to the US Department of Commererce to help design better ways to measure the US population and economy. As an academic I worked at the intersection of Cartography and Data Science. I wrote Urban Analytics and lots of articles, I received a distinguished scholar award from the American Association of Geographers, and the Brehny Prize for work in Urban Analytics and City Science.

📚 Before all of that I lived an insanely analog life as the sole proprietor of an antiquarian bookshop in Manhattan's Flatiron Building.

Experience

  • 2024-Present Microsoft AI - Member of Technical Staff, Data Science
  • 2021-2024 Microsoft – Principal Data Scientist and Director, Core Search and AI
  • 2021-Present University of Liverpool – Visiting Professor of Geography (honorary)
  • 2010-2021 University of Colorado – Chief Data Officer; Associate Professor of Geography and Information Science
  • 2015-2019 Apple Maps – Senior Data Scientist/Manager
  • 2008-2012 Brown University – Associate Director, Spatial Structures in the Social Sciences; Lecturer and Visiting Professor Population Studies
  • 2001-2006 Columbia University – Adjunct Associate Research Scientist, Adjunct Assistant Professor, GIS Coordinator

Awards and Honors

  • United States Census Bureau, US Department of Commerce Scientific Advisory Board
  • Oak Ridge National Lab, Scientific Advisory Board, Geospatial Science and Human Security
  • US National Academy of Science, Committee on National Statistics Working Group on Data Privacy in the 2020 Census (Geographic Spine Group)
  • Best Paper, IEEE Conference on Social Networking and Computing (SocialCom-2020)
  • Fellow, Institute of Behavioral Science
  • Social Science History Association (SSHA), Founder's Award for Best Paper
  • American Statistical Association, Statistical Partnership Among Academe, Industry, and Government Award (SPAIG)
  • International Journal of Geographic Information Science Award for most read paper
  • Distinguished Scholar Award, Regional Development and Planning, American Association of Geographers
  • US Census Bureau Data Products Redesign Group
  • Associate Editor, Computers Environment and Urban Systems
  • University of Colorado BFA Faculty Recognition Award
  • The Michael Breheny Prize for Urban Analytics and City Science
  • US Department of Interior: Strategic Science Group: Hurricane Sandy
  • Kaggle: First Place, Census Data Visualization Competition
  • Brown University Community Engaged Scholar Award
  • NSF-IGERT Fellowship in Geographic Information Science, SUNY-Buffalo
  • University Consortium for Geographic Information Science, Student Travel Award
  • Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA) Student Paper Award
  • NCGIA-Hugh Calkins Memorial Award in Applied GIS, SUNY-Buffalo
  • Certificate of Recognition 9/11 Emergency Mapping and Data Center, NYC Office of Emergency Management
  • Columbia University Award for Excellence in Planning Methods and Techniques

Publications

student advisee co-author*, postdoc co-author†

Patents

  1. McErlain, J., Guggemos, N., Spielman, SE. (2021) Detecting Changes in Map Data based on Changes in Device Data. United States Patent, US US20200011684A1, US Patent and Trademarks Office. Pending.

Books and Edited Volumes

  1. Singleton, A. Spielman, SE. and Folch D. (2018) Urban Analytics. Sage.

  2. Spielman, SE., Xiao, N., Cockings, S., and Tanton, R. (2017) Spatial Analysis with Demographic Data: Emerging Issues and Innovative Approaches. Special Issue of Computers, Environment and Urban Systems.

Peer Reviewed Articles and Proceedings

  1. Thomas, P, Kazai, G., Craswell, N., and Spielman, SE. (2024) What Matters in a Measure? A perspective from large-scale search evaluation. SIGIR 2024.

  2. Thomas, P., Spielman, SE., Crasswell, N., Mitra, B. (2024) Large Language Models Accurately Grade Online Documents. SIGIR 2024. 2309.10621v1.pdf (arxiv.org)

  3. Singleton, A. and Spielman SE. (2024) High Dimensional Demographic Segmentation with GPT-4. In Press, EPJ Data Science

  4. Folch, DC.†, Spielman SE., Graber, M.* (2023) The Imapct of Covariance on the American Community Survey Margins of Error. Population Research and Policy Review.

  5. Spielman, SE., Singleton, A. (2022) Generalized Activity Spaces: A new model for socio-spatial context. Annals of the American Association of Geographers.

  6. Tuccillo, J.*, Spielman, SE. (2022) Linking individual and area-based social vulnerability to natural hazards. Annals of the American Association of Geographers.

  7. Zhang, Y.*, Spielman, SE., Liu, Q., Shen, S., Shuo JZ., Lv, Q. (2020) Exploring the Usage of Online Food Delivery Data for Intra-Urban Job and Housing Mobility Detection and Characterization. IEEE International Conference on Social Networking and Computing (SocialCom-2020), Exeter, UK, December 2020
    *Best Paper Award

  8. Spielman, SE., Tuccillo, J.*, Wood, N., Tate, E. (2020) Evaluating social vulnerability indicators: criteria and their application to the Social Vulnerability Index. Natural Hazards

  9. Fowler, C., Frey, N., Folch, DC. †, Nagle, N., and Spielman SE.(2019) The "Contextual Fallacy" of Measuring Individual Context with Census Geographies. Geographical Analysis.

  10. Weinberg, D., Abowd, J., Belli, R., Cressie, N., Folch, DC. †, Holan, S., Levenstein, M., Olson, K., Reiter, J., Shapiro, M., Smyth, J., Soh, L-K., Spencer, B., Spielman, SE., Vilhuber, L., Wikle, C. (2019) Effects of a Government-Academic Partnership: Has the NSF-Census Bureau Research Network Helped Improve the U.S. Statistical System? Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology

  11. Jurevitch, J., Griffin, AL., Spielman, SE., Folch, DC. †, Merrick, M. (2018) Navigating Uncertainty: How Urban and Regional Planners Use The American Community Survey. Journal of the American Planning Association

  12. Folch, DC†., Spielman, SE., Manduca, R. (2018) Fast Food Data: Where User Generated Content Works, and Where it Doesn't. Geographic Analysis

  13. Spielman, SE., Xiao, N., Cockings, S., and Tanton, R. (2017) Statistical Systems and Census Data in the Spatial Sciences. Computers, Environment, and Urban Systems.

  14. Bellman, B*., Spielman, S.E., and Franklin R.S. (2017) Local Population Change and Variations in Racial Integration in the United States, 2000–2010. International Regional Science Review.

  15. Guttman, M., Brown, D., Cunningham, A.*, Dykes, J., Leonard, S., Little, J., Spielman, S.E., and Sylvester, K. (2016). Migration in the 1930s: Beyond the Dust Bowl. Social Science History. 40(4) 707-740

  16. Folch, D.C. †, Arribas-Bel, D., Koschinsky, J., and Spielman, S.E.(2016). Uncertain Uncertainty: Spatial Variation in the Quality of the American Community Survey. Demography 53(5) 1535-1554

  17. Singleton, A., Brundson, C., and Spielman, S.E. (2016) Establishing a Framework for Open Geographic Information Science. International Journal of Geographic Information Science.30(8) 1507-1521
    * IJGIS Most Frequently Downloaded Paper 2016

  18. Spielman, S.E. and Singleton A. (2015) Studying Neighborhoods Using Uncertain Data From the American Community Survey. Annals of the American Association of Geographers. 105(5) 1003-1025.

  19. Wood, N., Jones, J., Spielman, S.E., Schmidtlein, M. (2015) Community clusters of tsunami vulnerability in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. 112(17) 5345-5359.

  20. Spielman, S.E. and Folch, DC. † (2015) Reducing the Margins of Error in the American Community Survey Through Data-Driven Regionalization. PlosOne. 10(2) 1-21.

  21. Singleton, A. and Spielman, S.E. (2014) The Past Present and Future of Geodemographics in the US and UK. The Professional Geographer. 66(4) 558-576.

  22. Spielman, S.E., Folch, D.†, Nagle, N. (2014) Causes and Patterns of Uncertainty in the American Community Survey. Applied Geography, 46 147-157

  23. Folch, D.† and Spielman, S.E. (2014) Identifying Regions based on Flexible User Defined Constraints. International Journal of Geographic Information Science, 28(1) 164-184.

  24. Spielman, S.E. (2014) Spatial Collective Intelligence? Accuracy, Credibility and Volunteered Geographic Information. Cartography and Geographic Information Science, 41(2) 115-124.

  25. Nagle, N., Buttenfield, B., Leyk, S., Spielman, S.E. (2014) Dasymetric Modeling and Uncertainty. The Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 104(1) 80-95.

  26. Griffin, A., Spielman, SE., Jurjevuch, J., Merrick M., Folch, DC. (2014) Supporting Planners: Work with Uncertain Demographic Data.. Proceedings of VIS, 9-14.

  27. Spielman, S.E., Harrison, P. (2014). The Co-Evolution of Residential Segregation and the Built Environment at the Turn of the 20th Century: a Schelling Model. Transactions in GIS, 18(1) 25-45.

  28. Spielman, S.E. and Logan, J. (2013) Using High Resolution Population Data to Identify Neighborhoods and Determine their Boundaries. Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 103(1) 67-94.

  29. Spielman, S.E., Yoo, E.H., Linkletter, C. (2013) Neighborhood context, health, and behavior: the role of scale and residential sorting in statistical inference Environment and Planning B. 40(3) 489-506.
    * Winner of the Michael Breheny Prize for Best Paper in Environment and Planning

  30. Logan, J., Spielman, S.E., Xu, H.*, Klein, P. (2011) Identifying Ethnic Neighborhoods. Urban Geography, 32(3), 334-359.

  31. Spielman, S.E. and Yoo, E.-H. (2009) The Spatial Dimensions of Neighborhood Effects. Social Science and Medicine, 68(6) 1198-1105.

  32. Spielman, S.E. and Thill, J.-C. (2008) Social Area Analysis, Data Mining, and GIS. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 32 (2), 110-122
    * CEUS Top 25 Most Cited Article List 2010-2012

  33. Erdemir, E. T., Batta R., Spielman S. E., Rogerson P. (2008). Optimization of aeromedical base locations in New Mexico. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 40(3) 1105-1114.

  34. Erdemir, E.T., Batta, R., Spielman, S.E., Rogerson, P., Blatt, A., and Flanigan, M. (2008). Location Coverage Models with Demand Originating from Nodes and Paths: Application to Cellular Network Design. European Journal of Operations Research, 190(3) 610-632.

  35. Borrell, L., Northridge, M. E., Miller, D., Golembeski, C.A., Spielman S. E. (2007). Oral Health and Health Care for Older Adults: Addressing Disparities and Planning Services. Special Care in Dentistry, 26(6) 252-266.

  36. Spielman, S.E. (2006) Appropriate use of the K-function in Urban Environments. American Journal of Public Health, 96(2) 205.

  37. Spielman, S.E., Golembeski, C.A., Northridge, M.E., et al. (2006) Interdisciplinary Planning for Healthier Communities: Findings from the Harlem Children's Zone Asthma Initiative. Journal of the American Planning Association, 72(1) 100-108.

Book Chapters

  1. Singleton, A., Spielman, S.E. (2021) Urban Governance. Urban Informatics. Kwan, M.-., Batty, M., Goodchild, M., Shi, W. (eds) Springer Nature.

  2. Spielman, S.E. (2017) The Potential for Big Data to Improve Neighborhood-Level Census Data. Seeing Cities Through Big Data – Research, Methods and Applications in Urban Informatics. Thakuria, V. (ed).

  3. Spielman, S.E. (2016) Point Pattern Analysis. International Encyclopedia of Geography. (4700 words)

  4. Spielman, S.E., Folch, D.C. (2015) Social Area Analysis with Self-Organizing Maps. Chapter 9, p.152-169 in Geocomputation. Brundson, C. and Singleton, S. (eds.) Sage Press.

Conference Proceedings

  1. Spielman, S.E. (2014) The Potential for Big Data to Improve Neighborhood-Level Census Data. Big Data and Urban Informatics. Chicago, August 2014.

  2. Manduca, R., Spielman, S.E., Folch, D.C.† (2014) Phoenix is Cool: Administrative and Big Data complement each other. Big Data and Urban Informatics. Chicago, August 2014.

  3. Spielman, S.E. (2012). Exceptions to the Law: Negative Spatial Autocorrelation in Egocentric Spatial Analysis. Proceedings, GIScience 2012, Columbus Ohio, September.
    http://www.giscience.org/past/2012/proceedings/abstracts/giscience2012_paper_145.pdf

  4. Spielman, S.E. (2012). Thinking Inside the Box: Heterogeneity Within Census Enumeration Zones (and Why It Matters). Proceedings, AutoCarto 2012, Columbus Ohio, September.

  5. Nagle, N., Buttenfield, B., Leyk, S., and Spielman, S.E. (2012). An Uncertainty-Informed Penalized Maximum Entropy Dasymetric Model. Proceedings, GIScience 2012, Columbus Ohio, September.

  6. Spielman, S.E. (2011). Time-Geography and the Twilight Zone, Proceedings of ISPRS-ICA Joint Commission on Geospatial Analysis and Modeling, Simon Frasier University, August.

  7. Spielman, S.E. and Linkletter, C. (2011). Understanding the Role of Scale and Sorting in the Estimation of Neighborhood Effects, Proceedings of the 17th European Colloquium on Quantitative and Theoretical Geography Athens, Greece, August.

Reports and Working Papers

  1. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. 2020 Census Data Products: Data Needs and Privacy Considerations: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/25978.

  2. The 'contextual fallacy' of measuring individual context with census geographies (2018). CS Fowler, N Frey, DC Folch, N Nagle, SE Spielman. Center for Economic Studies, US Census Bureau Working Papers

  3. Understanding the Evolution of Customer Motivations and Adoption Barriers in Residential Solar Markets: Survey Data (2017). Sigrin, Ben; Dietz, Tom; Henry, Adam; Ingle, Aaron; Lutzenhiser, Loren; Moezzi, Mithra; Spielman, Seth; Stern, Paul; Todd, Annika; Tong, James. National Renewable Energy Laboratory-Data (NREL-DATA), Golden, CO (United States); National Renewable Energy Laboratory

  4. Department of Interior Strategic Sciences Group (2014) (Spielman, S.E. one of 15 authors) Operation Group Sandy Technical Report. Department of Interior, Reston, VA.

  5. Folch, D.C., Arribas-Bel, D., Koschinsky, J., and Spielman, S.E. (2014). Uncertain Uncertainty: Spatial Variation in the Quality of American Community Survey Estimates. Arizona State University, Geoda Center Working Paper Series.

  6. Spielman, S.E. and Folch, D.C. (2014). Reducing Uncertainty in the American Community Survey through Data-Driven Regionalization. University of Colorado, Institute of Behavioral Science Working Paper Series (Paper # POP2014-05).

  7. Spielman, S.E., Logan, J. and Buka, S. (2011) A Report to the National Institutes of Health, National Children's Study, Section on Neighborhood Measurement: Using structured social observation to assess neighborhood contexts.