Matthew P. Dube

I am a native of the mountains of Western Maine. I am a first-generation interdisciplinary scholar with data at my very core. My work has its foundation at the intersection of data science with geography, specifically the development of formal representations of spatial linguistics/language toward the development of spatial artificial intelligence. I also do applied research in the redistricting process, equine reproduction, computational ecology, and community psychology, collaborating with faculty across the University of Maine System and around various colleges and universities around the US.  In my spare time, you will find me as a sport official, swing dancing, and playing board games or pub trivia with friends.

Appointments

  Associate Professor in Data Science, Computer Information Systems, and Applied Mathematics – University of Maine at Augusta

  Full Graduate Faculty in Data Science and Engineering – University of Maine

  Cooperating Faculty in Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and Engineering – University of Maine

  External Graduate Faculty in School of Computing and Information Science – University of Maine

Research Interests

My primary research interests are in applications of mathematics to real-world problems, mostly from the perspective of spatial information.  My research centers on conceptual modeling that underlies query systems in geographic information systems from a topological and directional level.  Apart from this area of research, I also work on collaborative projects with researchers in equine science and political redistricting analysis.  Check out my Google Scholar profile and my ResearchGate profile here.  I am also a part of the graduate faculty of the University of Maine and a cooperating faculty of the University of Maine.

Current Teaching Schedule

My teaching centers on concepts core to data science, be it database design, geographic information systems, interdisciplinary data science, data visualization, machine learning, and fundamental programming.  I also teach courses in human computer interaction, interdisciplinary studies, public management, and geography.

Fall Courses

BMS 625 – Computational Biology – Orono (Online Live 12:30-2:00 TR)

CIS 150 – Introduction to Data Science (Online)

CIS 212 – Visual Basic (Online)

CIS 255 – Database Design (Online)

DSC 450/550 – Data Mining (Online)

DSE 501 – Mathematics for Data Science – Orono (Online)

GEO 101 – Human Geography (Online)

Spring Courses

CIS 150 – Introduction to Data Science (Online)

CIS 218 – Introduction to SQL (Online)

DSC 352/552 – Data Visualization (Online)

DSE 510 – Data Science Practicum – Orono (Online Live 9:00-10:00 MWF)

MAT 158E – Mathematics for Musicians (Online)

POS/TEM 487/587 – Data and Research Methods in Public Administration (Online)

Awards

• 2021 Sigma Phi Epsilon Grand Chapter Distinguished Alumnus Award (awarded to 4-5 brothers annually)
• 2021 University of Maine Michael C. Morin Fraternity Advisor of the Year
• 2020 University of Maine Michael C. Morin Fraternity Advisor of the Year
• 2019 University of Maine at Augusta Distinguished Scholar Award (awarded to one faculty member annually)
• 2019 University of Maine Michael C. Morin Fraternity Advisor of the Year
• 2018 University of Maine at Augusta Faculty Gardener of the Year
• 2017 University of Maine at Augusta Faculty Gardener of the Year
• 2016 University of Maine Michael C. Morin Fraternity Advisor of the Year
• 2016 Sigma Phi Epsilon Volunteer Excellence Award
• 2015 University of Maine Pi Beta Phi Faculty Member of the Month (September)
• 2015 University of Maine Michael C. Morin Fraternity Advisor of the Year
• 2014 University of Maine Michael C. Morin Fraternity Advisor of the Year

Service

Organizational Leadership

• Treasurer – Maine Geospatial Institute
• Young Professionals Chair – IEEE Maine Section
• Higher Education (Public) Representative – Computer Science Teachers’ Association of Maine
• Chair – Maine GIS User Group
• Education Chair – Maine GeoLibraries Board

University Leadership

• Coordinator of Data Science
• Co-Chair of the UMS Faculty Governance Council
• Chair of the UMA Faculty Colloquium
• IRB Member
• Alternative Spring Breaks Advisor
• Sigma Phi Epsilon Maine Alpha Chapter Counselor
• Member of the UMA Intercollegiate Honors Council
• Member of the UMA Civic Engagement Steering Committee
• Former Interim Coordinator of Trauma-Informed Emergency Management
• Former Vice President and Secretary of the UMA Faculty Senate
• Former Chair of the UMA Curriculum Committee
• Former Member of the UMA Presidential Search Committee
• Former Chair of the UMA Assessment Committee

Disciplinary Leadership

• Program Chair, 2022 MEGUG Annual Conference
• Program Chair, 2022 MEGUG Drone Conference
• Teaching Statistics Panelist – MPSA 2017

Publications and Presentations

Journal Articles

1. Kling, M., C. Brittain, G. Galford, T. Waring, L. Hebert-Dufresne, M. Dube, H. Sabzian, N. Gotelli, B. McGill, & M. Niles (2024) “Innovations through Crop Switching Happen on the Diverse Margins of US Agriculture.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 121(42), e2402195121.
2. Dube, M. & R. Graziano (2024) “Identification: A Teaching Moment for Privacy and Databases.” ACM EngageCSEdu
3. Claramunt, C. & M. Dube (2023) “A Brief Review of the Evolution of GIScience since the NCGIA Research Agenda Initiatives.” Journal of Spatial Information Science 26(1), 137-150.
4. Gleason, K., M. Dube, J. Martin, E. Bernier, & J. Gipson (2023) “Rural Housing Insecurity: A Case Study Comparison Across Four Rural Areas in Maine.” Journal of Ethnographic and Qualitative Research 17(1), 39-57.
5. Hebert-Dufresne, L., T. Waring, G. St. Onge, M. Niles, S. Miller, L. Corlew, M. Dube, N. Gotelli, & B. McGill (2022) “Source-sink Cooperation Dynamics Limit Institutional Evolution in a Group-strucutred Society.” Royal Society Open Science 9(3), 211743 (full text).
6. Gleason, K., M. Dube, E. Bernier, & J. Martin (2022) “Using Geographic Information Systems to Assess Community-Level Vulnerability to Housing Insecurity in Rural Areas.” Journal of Community Psychology 50(4), 1993-2012. (full text)
7. Dube, M. (2021) “Deriving Topological Relations from Topologically Augmented Direction Relation Matrices.” Journal of Spatial Information Science 23(1), 1-23 (full text).
8. Dube, M., J. Clark, & R. Powell (2022) “Graphical Metrics for Analyzing District Maps.” Journal of Computational Social Science 5(1), 449-475. (full text)
9. Powell, R., J. Clark, & M. Dube (2020) “Partisan Gerrymandering, Clustering, or Both? A New Approach to a Persistent Question.” Election Law Journal 19(1), 79-100. (full text)
10. Dube, M. & M. Egenhofer (2020) “Binary Topological Relations on the Digital Sphere.” International Journal of Approximate Reasoning 116, 62-83. (full text)
11. Dube, M., M. Egenhofer, J. Barrett, & N. Simpson. (2019) “Beyond the Digital Jordan Curve: Unconstrained Simple Pixel-Based Raster Relations.” Journal of Visual Languages and Computing 54(1). (full text)
12. Poulin, A., M. Hutchinson, M. Dube, M. Stokes, S. Mitchell, A. Edwards, K. Harvey, A. Myer, & R. Causey. (2018) “Abatement of Streptococcus equi in Soiled Equine Bedding and Compost.” Journal of Equine Veterinary Science 70, 117-122. (full text)
13. Dube, M., D. Paccamonti, L. Underhill, & R. Causey. (2018) “Differences in Foaling Rates of Thoroughbred Mares with Different Histories.” Journal of Equine Veterinary Science 66, 246. (full text)
14. Dube, M. (2017) “Topological Augmentation: A Step Forward for Qualitative Spatial Partition Reasoning.” Journal of Spatial Information Science 14(1), 1-29. (full text)

Book Chapters

1. Dube, M. & B. Hall (invited). “Conceptual Neighborhood Graphs:  Event Detectors, Data Relevancy, and Language Translation.” In: Geography According to ChatGPT.
2. Clark, J., M. Dube, & R. Powell. (2020) “Stemming the Tide: The Impact of Redistricting on the 2018 Midterm Election.” In: The Unforeseen Impacts of the 2018 Midterms.  T.S. Sisco, J.C. Lucas, & C.J. Galdieri (eds.), Palgrave Pivot, 7-40.
3. Dube, M. (2016) “Beyond Homeomorphic Deformations:  Neighborhoods of Topological Change.”  Advancing Geographic Information Science:  The Past and Next Twenty Years, H. Onsrud & W. Kuhn (eds.), GSDI Association Press, 137-152. (full text) (DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.1969.9445)

Fully-Refereed Conference Proceedings

1. Dube, M. & R. Graziano (2024) “Identification: A Teaching Moment for Privacy and Databases.” 2024 ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium
2. Dube, M., J. Barrett, & M. Egenhofer. (2015) “From Metric to Topology: Determining Relations in Discrete Space.”  Conference on Spatial Information Theory, Santa Fe, NM.  S. Fabrikant, M. Raubal, M. Bertolotto, C. Davis, S. Bell, & S. Freundschuh (eds.), Lecture Notes in Computer Science 9368 151-171. (full text) (DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-23374-1_8)
3. Dube, M., M. Egenhofer, J. Lewis, S. Stephen, & M. Plummer. (2015) “Swiss Canton Regions: A Model for Complex Regions in Geographic Partitions.” Conference on Spatial Information Theory, Santa Fe, NM. S. Fabrikant, M. Raubal, M. Bertolotto, C. Davis, S. Bell, & S. Freundschuh (eds.), Lecture Notes in Computer Science 9368 309-330. (full text) (DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-23374-1_15)
4. Dube, M. & M. Egenhofer. (2014) “Surrounds in Partitions.”  22^nd ACM SIGSPATIAL 2014 GIS, Dallas, TX.  Y. Huang, M. Schneider, M. Gertz, J. Krumm, & J. Sankaranarayanan (eds.), ACM Press, 233-242. (full text) (DOI: 10.1145/2666310.2666380)
5. Dube, M. (2014) “Partitions to Improve Spatial Reasoning.”  1^st ACM SIGSPATIAL Ph.D. Symposium, Dallas, TX.  M. Sarwat (ed). (full text) (DOI: 10.1145/2694859.2694864)
6. Lewis, J., M. Dube, & M. Egenhofer. (2013) “The Topology of Spatial Scenes in R².” Conference on Spatial Information Theory, Scarborough, United Kingdom.  A. Galton, B. Bennett, T. Tenbrink, & Z. Wood (eds.), Lecture Notes in Computer Science 8116, 495-515. (full text) (DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-01790-7_27)
7. Dube, M. & M. Egenhofer. (2012) “An Ordering of Convex Topological Relations.”  GIScience 2012, Columbus, OH.  N. Xiao, M. Kwan, M. Goodchild, & S. Shekhar (eds.), Lecture Notes in Computer Science 7478, 72-86. (full text) (DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-33024-7_6)
8. Egenhofer, M. & M. Dube. (2009) “Topological Relations from Metric Refinements.”  17^th ACM SIGSPATIAL 2009 GIS, Seattle, WA.  D. Agrawal, W. Aref, C. Lu, M. Mokbel, P. Scheuermann, C. Shahabi, & O. Wolfson (eds.), ACM Press, 158-167. (full text) (DOI: 10.1145/1653771.1653796)
9. Dube, M. & M. Egenhofer.  (2009)  “Establishing Similarity Across Multi-Granular Topological-Spatial Relation Ontologies.”  QuaCon 2009 – First International Workshop on Quality of Context, Stuttgart, Germany.  D. Fritsch & K. Rothermel (eds.), Lecture Notes in Computer Science 5786, 98-108. (full text) (DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-04559-2_9)

Abstract-Refereed Conference Presentations

1. Ireland, V., L. Heald, E. Bellaire, K. Harrison, & M. Dube. (2025) “Evaluating a Minimum Test Average Policy in Undergraduate Nursing: A Descriptive Correlational Study.” 2025 NLN Nursing Education Research Conference, March, 2025.
2. Walton, S., L. Lobao, & M. Dube. (2024) “Jail Incarceration across the U.S.: The Role of the Local State and Place-Based Punishment Vulnerability.” 2024 American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, August, 2024.
3. Johnson, T., M. Dube, & M. McCourt. (2023) “Introduction to GIS Mapping Course through the Maine Geospatial Institute.” 2023 Maine GIS User Group Annual Conference, November, 2023.
4. Corlew, L., M. Brunton, P. Burnham, M. Dube, E. Espinosa, N. Gotelli, L. Hebert-Dufresne, M. Kling, B. McGill, B. McLaughlin, S. Miller, M. Niles, & T. Waring. (2023) “Using Narrative to Communicate Epistemic Uncertainty in Climate Change Data.” 2023 Society for Community Research and Action Biennial, June, 2023.
5. Bellaire, E., K. Harrison, L. Heald, V. Ireland, & M. Dube (2022) “Studying Shifting Standards in Nursing” (working title) UMS Nursing Research Conference, November, 2022.
6. Burnham, P., L. Corlew, M. Dube, Q. Dubois, E. Espinosa, N. Gotelli, L. Hebert-Dufresne, M. Kling, B. McGill, B. McLaughlin, S. Miller, M. Niles, & T. Waring. (2022) “BARRACUDA: Rural Adaptation to Climate Change.” Ecological Society of America and Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution Joint Meeting, August, 2022.
7. Dube, M. & N. Gotelli. (2021) “Extra-Disciplinary Data Science Boot Camp.” National Data Science Education Workshop, June, 2021.
8. Gleason, K. & M. Dube. (2019) “Geographic Needs Assessment for Rural Homeless Services in Maine.” 2019 Society for Community Research and Action Biennial, June, 2019.
9. Clark, J., M. Dube, & R. Powell. (2019) “Stemming the Tide: The Impact of Redistricting on the 2018 Midterm Election.”  The American Elections Symposium, March, 2019.
10. Honda, H., T. Surrette, & M. Dube. (2018) “Assessing and Improving Vocational Relevance in Professional Studies.” New England Educational Assessment Network Fall Forum, November, 2018.
11. Powell, R., J. Clark, & M. Dube. (2017) “Assessing the Causes of District Homogeneity in U.S. House Elections.” American Political Science Association Conference, August, 2017 (full text)
12. Powell, R., M. Dube, & J. Clark. (2017) “Mathematical Characteristics of District Boundary Lines as Indicators of Gerrymandering in U.S. House Elections.” Midwest Political Science Association Conference, April, 2017 (full text)
13. Dube, M. & J. Clark. (2016) “Beyond the Circle: Measuring District Compactness Using Graph Theory.” Northeast Political Science Association Conference, November, 2016 (full text)
14. Powell, R., J. Clark, & M. Dube. (2015) “Determining an Expected House Majority through Pattern Analysis.” Northeast Political Science Association Conference, November, 2015. (full text) (DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.2012.9526)

Theses

1. Dube, M. (2016) “Algebraic Refinements of Direction Relations through Topological Augmentation.” Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Maine.
2. Dube, M. (2009) “An Embedding Graph for 9-Intersection Topological Spatial Relations.” Masters of Science, The University of Maine.

Invited Talks

1. Dube, M. (2024) “A High-Level Overview of Data Cleaning.” Maine Revenue Services Property Tax Division Conference, December, 2024.
2. Dube, M. (2024) “Qualitative Spatial Reasoning: Steps toward Spatio-Temporal GIS.” Maine Revenue Services Property Tax Division Conference, December, 2024.
3. Dube, M. (2024) “Coming of Age: The Conceptual Neighborhood Graph in GeoAI.” UMS Research and Innovation Speaker Series, October, 2024.
4. Dube, M. (2022) “Navigating Impostor Syndrome.” TRiO Days, November, 2022.
5. Dube, M. (2021) “Understanding the Seeds of Spatial Poverty.” Maine Resilience Building Network, April, 2021.
6. Dube, M. (2020) “Understanding the Seeds of Spatial Poverty.” 2020 MELMAC Conference, February, 2020.
7. Dube, M. (2019) “A Spatial Approach to Examining Poverty and Educational Gaps.”  Maine Educational Opportunity Association Conference, January, 2019.
8. Dube, M. (2017) “Data Science and Emergency Management.” Annual USA Conference of the International Emergency Management Society, May, 2017

Students Supervised

• Paul Kinlaw – MS Data Science and Engineering (Spring 2026)
• Niranjan Ganesan – MS Data Science and Engineering (Spring 2025)
• Kevin Roberge – MS Data Science and Engineering (Spring 2025)
• Brenden Wood – MS Data Science and Engineering (Spring 2025)
• Amay Dankar – PSM Bioinformatics (Spring 2024)
• Estevan Garcia – MS Data Science and Engineering (Spring 2024)
• Brendan Hall – MS Spatial Information Science and Engineering (Spring 2024)
• Aminaah Aleem – PSM Bioinformatics (Fall 2023)
• Jonathan Parsons – MS Data Science and Engineering (Summer 2023)
• Jesse Clark – BS Political Science (Spring 2016)

Symposia Organized

• Abedi, A., J. Burns, M. Dube, U. Hodeghatta, J. Ippolito, R. Kennedy, B. Mansouri, A. Marino, A. Maxworth, P. Schilling, J. Upton, & P. Veazey, 2025 Maine AI Conference, Orono, ME, June, 2025.
• Richardson, J., M. Dube, C. Manderson, R. Mosher, R. Schaffner, M. Smith, A. Smith-Peterson, L. Teisl, & A. Verrell.  Maine GIS User Group Annual Conference, Portland, ME, November, 2024.
• Richardson, J., M. Dube, C. Manderson, R. Mosher, R. Schaffner, M. Smith, A. Smith-Peterson, L. Teisl, & A. Verrell.  Maine GIS User Group Sustainability/Climate Change Mini-Conference, Orono, ME, May, 2024.
• Richardson, J., P. Cunningham, M. Dube, D. Farrell, C. Manderson, J. Normandin, R. Schaffner, A. Smith-Peterson, & L. Teisl.  Maine GIS User Group Annual Conference, Freeport, ME, November, 2023.
• Gleason, K., M. Dube, J. Martin, E. Bernier, & J. Gipson. “Housing as a Social Determinant of Health: The Importance of Recognizing Housing as a Context for Individual and Community Wellness.”  Society for Community Research and Action, Atlanta, GA, June, 2023.

• Richardson, J., P. Cunningham, M. Dube, D. Farrell, C. Manderson, J. Normandin, R. Schaffner, A. Smith-Peterson, & L. Teisl.  Maine GIS User Group Mini-Conference, Augusta, ME, May, 2023.

• Dube, M., P. Cunningham, J. Normandin, R. Schaffner, A. Smith-Peterson, L. Teisl, & T. Youngs.  Maine GIS User Group Annual Conference, Belfast, ME, October 2022.

• Dube, M., P. Cunningham, J. Normandin, R. Schaffner, A. Smith-Peterson, L. Teisl, & T. Youngs.  Maine GIS User Group Drone Mini-Conference, Brunswick, ME, May, 2022.

Conferences Attended

• 2025 NLN Nursing Education Research Conference (March 2025) – Washington, DC*
• American Sociological Association Annual Meeting (August 2024) – Montreal, PQ*
• ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium (March 2024) – Portland, OR
• UMS Nursing Research Conference (November 2022) – Augusta, ME*
• Ecological Society of America and Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution Joint Meeting (August 2022) – Montreal, PQ*
• Maine Educational Opportunity Alliance TRiO Advocacy Workshop (March 2022) – Augusta, ME (Virtual)
• Maine STEM+C Middle School Educators Workshop (July 2021) – Orono, ME
• Institute on Project-Based Learning (June 2021) – Worcester, MA (Virtual)
• National Workshop on Data Science Education (June 2021) – Berkeley, CA (Virtual)+
• ESRI User Conference (July 2020) – San Diego, CA (Virtual)
• National Workshop on Data Science Education (June 2020) – Berkeley, CA (Virtual)
• Institute on Project-Based Learning (June 2020) – Worcester, MA (Virtual)
• MELMAC 2020 (February 2020) – Orono, ME+
• CUE.NEXT: Envisioning the Future of Computing in Undergraduate Education (January 2020) – Denver, CO
• Census and Electoral Geospatial Data (November 2019) – Boston, MA
• Society for Community Research and Action Biennial (June 2019) – Chicago, IL*
• American Elections Symposium (March 2019) – Manchester, NH+
• Maine Educational Opportunity Association (January 2019) – Orono, ME+
• New England Educational Assessment Network (November 2018) – Worcester, MA+
• International Symposium on Equine Reproduction (July 2018) – Cambridge, UK+
• Maine Educational Opportunity Association (January 2018) – Orono, ME
• American Political Science Association (August 2017) – San Francisco, CA*
• Annual USA Conference of the International Emergency Management Society (May 2017) – Orono,ME+
• Midwest Political Science Association (April 2017) – Chicago, IL+
• Northeast Political Science Association (November 2016) – Boston, MA*
• Northeast Political Science Association (November 2015) – Philadelphia, PA*
• Conference on Spatial Information Theory (September 2015) – Santa Fe, NM+
• Advancing Geographic Information Science – The Past and Next Twenty Years (June 2015) – Bar Harbor, ME+
• ACM SIGSPATIAL (November 2014) – Dallas, TX+
• ACM SIGSPATIAL PhD Symposium (November 2014) – Dallas, TX+
• Conference on Spatial Information Theory (September 2013) – Scarborough, UK+
• GIScience (September 2012) – Columbus, OH+
• Conference on Spatial Information Theory (September 2011) – Belfast, ME
• COST Young Researchers Forum: Moving Objects and Knowledge Discovery (August 2011) – Ghent, Belgium+
• ACM SIGSPATIAL (November 2009) – Seattle, WA+
• Quality of Context (June 2009) – Stuttgart, Germany+

* Other authors presented work on behalf

+ Presented work

Professional Development

MBTI Certified Practitioner, GS Consultants (October 2022 – November 2022)

  Data Storytelling Certificate, Purdue University (December 2020 – January 2021)

   Campus Compact Fusion Course: Enhancing Online Education through Community-Based Learning (August 2020)

    User Experience Design, University of Cape Town Short Course (April – June 2020)

    Artificial Intelligence: Implications for Business Strategy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Short Course (February – March 2020)

Project Management Seminar, Target Technology Incubator (May 2011)

Grants

• UMS Adult Transitions, Learning, and Success (2021) (co PIs Lester French, Sara Flowers, Lorien-Lake Corral, Ian Magill, Elizabeth McCue-Herlihy, Elizabeth Powers, Terri Reiter, Anthony Staffiere)
• NSF CUE.NEXT: Extra-Disciplinary Data Science Modules for Biology/Ecology (2021) (co PI Nicholas Gotelli)
• NSF EPSCoR Track II:  Harnessing Spatiotemporal Data Science to Predict Responses of Biodiversity and Rural Communities under Climate Change (2020) (see details) (co PIs Brian McGill, Timothy Warring, Nicholas Gotelli, Meredith Niles)
• UMS Innovation Fund:  Bachelor of Science in Data Science (2018) (co PIs Joseph Szakas, Diana Kokoska, Bruce Segee, Laura Wilson)
• UMA Presidential Research and Innovation Grant:  How do Adult Students Relate their Academic Studies with their Work Experience and Career Aspirations (2017) (co PIs Hirosuke Honda, Timothy Surrette)

Guest Lectures

• COL 123/TRIO Scholars (UMA) – Impostor Syndrome
• INT 208 (UMA) – Interdisciplinary Journeys
• HTY 105 (UMA) – Inventions that Changed the World Prior to 1500
• HTY 106 (UMA) – Inventions that Changed the World Post 1500
• MAT 112 (UMA) – Exponential Functions in Sensor Calibration
• SIE 554 (UM) – Scene-Based Reasoning
• CSCI 2510 (Bowdoin) – Computing and Redistricting

In the News

Barracuda Co-PI Profile:  Matthew Dube (11/12/21)

Barracuda continues the recent tradition of Maine EPSCoR grants partnering with Upward Bound (10/7/21)

Brother Dr. Matthew Dube (ME Alpha, ’07) among four honored with the 2021 Sigma Phi Epsilon Distinguished Alumnus Award (7/8/21)

Dr. Matt Dube (UMA) delivers remarks about GIS research in elections (2/9/21)

Dr. Matt Dube (UMA) guest on the Democracy Forum on WERU Community Radio (3/16/18)

UMA Students urged at convocation to seek truth, learn how to talk to each other (9/22/17)

Graduate Student Spotlight:  Matthew Dube (11/2/15)