Cyber-GIS Center for Advanced Digital and Spatial Studies

What Cyber-GIS Center for Advanced Digital and Spatial Studies does

The CyberGIS Center for Advanced Digital and Spatial Studies is an academic research center established in 2013 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It pioneers cyberGIS — an integrative framework combining advanced cyberinfrastructure, geographic information science and systems (GIS), and spatial analysis and modeling — enabled by high-performance computing, cloud computing, and data-intensive computing approaches. The center serves academic researchers, graduate students, and government agencies by developing open-source software that democratizes access to HPC resources for geospatial research.

The center's core technology stack centers on CyberGISX (a Jupyter Notebook-integrated platform for reproducible, data-intensive geospatial analytics), CyberGIS-Compute (a Python SDK-based middleware providing automated HPC job submission and Globus-based file transfers), and the I-GUIDE Platform (NSF's $15M geospatial convergence science cyberinfrastructure). It is supported by Virtual ROGER (1 PB storage, GPU-enabled HPC) and specialized modules including CyberGIS-Jupyter for Water (integrated with HydroShare, SUMMA, WRFHydro, RHESSys), WhereCOVID-19, the Resource Management Mapping Service for Illinois EPA, CyberGIS-Vis, and OpenCLC. AI/ML capabilities span 3D CNN land cover classification, U-Net hydrological streamline detection, NLP on social media, and spatial optimization, each backed by peer-reviewed publications.

The business model is grant-funded rather than commercial: primary funding comes from NSF research grants (~$19.8M cumulative across I-GUIDE and SI2-SSI), supplemented by NASA, NIH, USDA, USGS, Illinois EPA, and University of Illinois sponsorship. Platforms are freely accessible to researchers and educators; no commercial pricing exists. The go-to-market is community- and event-led, channeled through AAG-UCGIS Summer Schools, GIS Day workshops, AAG symposia, the Data Science Speaker Series, peer-reviewed publications, and partner ecosystems with Esri, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and HydroShare.

Name

Cyber-GIS Center for Advanced Digital and Spatial Studies

Legal name

CyberGIS Center for Advanced Digital and Spatial Studies

Website

https://cybergis.illinois.edu

Company type

Private

Founded year

2013

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The CyberGIS Center for Advanced Digital and Spatial Studies is a University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign research center that develops open-source cyberGIS platforms (CyberGISX, CyberGIS-Compute, I-GUIDE) enabling HPC-based geospatial analytics for academic researchers, government agencies, and students, funded primarily by NSF grants.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Geospatial Analytics Software

NAICS

Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (518), Geophysical Surveying and Mapping Services (541360), Computer Systems Design and Related Services (5415)

SIC

Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Processing & Data Preparation (7374)

akta.pro industry

PRIMARYBPAMANAK

GIS & Spatial Data Management Platforms

Business & Public Services/Web, Mobile & Digital Platforms/Maps, Location & Navigation Platforms

SECONDARYEUAHAKAC

Geospatial Data Management & Enterprise GIS (Geodatabases, Web GIS, Spatial Analytics)

Energy, Utilities & Environment/Environmental Compliance, Monitoring & Consulting/Environmental Data Management, Modeling & GIS/Remote Sensing

SECONDARYEUAHAKAD

Remote Sensing & Earth Observation Analytics (Satellite/UAV/LiDAR, Image Processing)

Energy, Utilities & Environment/Environmental Compliance, Monitoring & Consulting/Environmental Data Management, Modeling & GIS/Remote Sensing

Keywords

• Geospatial analytics software
• High-performance computing
• Cyberinfrastructure research
• Spatial data science
• Geographic information systems

Headquarters

HQ city

Urbana

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Infrastructure, Technology or R&D, Operations

Revenue model

1. NSF Research Grants: Primary funding from National Science Foundation grants including the $15 million I-GUIDE institute and approximately $4.8 million multi-institution Geospatial Software Institute project.
2. Government Agency Partnerships: Funding and collaboration from EPA, NASA, NIH, USDA, USGS, and state agencies for specific research projects and infrastructure development.
3. Illinois EPA Support: Continuing development of RMMS provided with support from Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and other state agencies.
4. University Support: Sponsorship from College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation, School of Earth, Society and Environment, and Department of Geography and Geographic Information Science at UIUC.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

The Cyber-GIS Center develops and operates open-source cyberGIS software platforms—including CyberGISX, CyberGIS-Compute, and CyberGIS-Jupyter—that integrate high-performance computing, cloud computing, and geographic information science to enable data-intensive, reproducible, and scalable geospatial analytics, modeling, and simulation. It also delivers specialized applications such as I-GUIDE, CyberGIS-Jupyter for Water, WhereCOVID-19, and the Resource Management Mapping Service (RMMS), backed by the Virtual ROGER HPC environment with 1 Petabyte of storage.

Product overview

The CyberGIS Center offers a comprehensive ecosystem of geospatial platforms and tools centered on cyberGIS (cyber geographic information science and systems) technology. The core portfolio includes CyberGISX as the primary platform for data-intensive geospatial analytics, CyberGIS-Compute as the middleware enabling HPC access, and CyberGIS-Jupyter as the Jupyter-based interface for reproducible geospatial research. Specialized modules include CyberGIS-Jupyter for Water (CJW) for hydrological modeling integrated with HydroShare, and I-GUIDE Platform for geospatial data-intensive convergence science. The center also provides domain-specific applications including WhereCOVID19 for pandemic response, RMMS for environmental resource management, and CyberGIS-Vis for visualization. Key capabilities span high-performance computing infrastructure (Virtual ROGER), deep learning tools for land cover classification and hydrological streamline detection, and interoperability with external platforms including HydroShare, SUMMA, WRFHydro, RHESSys, and OGC services. All products emphasize reproducibility, scalability, and cloud computing approaches.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• CyberGISX: Open online platform providing streamlined access to advanced cyberinfrastructure and cyberGIS capabilities with an integrated software stack for computationally reproducible and data-intensive geospatial analytics.
• I-GUIDE Platform
• CyberGIS-Compute
• CyberGIS-HydroShare
• CyberGIS-Jupyter
• Resource Management Mapping Service (RMMS)

Products and services

• CyberGIS-Compute Open-source geospatial middleware framework providing seamless access to high-performance computing resources through a Python-based SDK, automated workflow submission, and Globus-based large file transfers, designed for geospatial researchers requiring HPC access.
• CyberGISX Platform supporting data-intensive, reproducible, and scalable geospatial analytics, modeling, and simulation by integrating cyberGIS capabilities with Jupyter Notebook for accelerated application development, designed for researchers and educators.
• CyberGIS-Jupyter Innovative cyberGIS framework for achieving data-intensive, reproducible, and scalable geospatial analytics using Jupyter Notebook with built-in cyberGIS capabilities for gateway application development, targeted at researchers.
• CyberGIS-Jupyter for Water (CJW) Specialized platform for community hydrologic modeling and data-intensive water science research, supporting SUMMA, WRFHydro, and RHESSys models with integrated HydroShare access, targeted at the hydrology research community.
• I-GUIDE Platform Pioneering cyberinfrastructure designed to empower geospatial data-intensive convergence science and knowledge discovery across disciplines by integrating data, domain expertise, and educational resources, targeted at researchers across multiple domains.
• WhereCOVID-19 Platform Platform mapping and predicting COVID-19 spread across spatial and temporal scales, providing spatial decision support for identifying populations at risk and targeting healthcare interventions, targeted at public health officials and COVID-19 researchers.
• Resource Management Mapping Service (RMMS) Web-based GIS providing interactive mapping environment for evaluating and managing geographically-based information about Illinois natural resources, particularly water resources, serving the Illinois EPA and other state agencies.
• CyberGIS-Vis Software modules integrating cyberGIS and online visualization capabilities for visualization and visual analytical approaches including comparative spatiotemporal patterns, dynamic cartographic mapping, and reproducible visual analytics, targeted at geospatial researchers and educators.
• OpenCLC Open-source tool for automatically identifying matching and mismatching line features between two sets of hydrographic flowlines, significantly outperforming commercial software in computational scalability, designed for hydrology and geospatial professionals.
• CyberGIS-HydroShare Interoperability platform enabling coupling of data and multi-scale multidisciplinary modeling capabilities between CyberGIS and HydroShare systems for collaborative hydrologic research, targeted at hydrology researchers.
• Virtual ROGER HPC Environment High-performance computing environment providing hybrid computing modalities including HPC batch, data-intensive computing, and cloud computing with 1 Petabyte storage and GPU nodes, serving CyberGIS Center researchers and collaborators.

Quantifiable outcome

• U-Net model outperforms best baseline method by 8.08% on average in F1-score for hydrological streamline detection
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration7 records

AI capability9 records

Feature9 records

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• EsricoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEsri is an industrial partner in the approximately $4.8 million NSF-funded SI2-SSI: CyberGIS Software Integration for Sustained Geospatial Innovation project, contributing to cyberGIS software framework development.
• U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerUSGS is a government partner in the CyberGIS Software Integration project, providing expertise and data resources for geospatial problem solving.
• Oak Ridge National LaboratorycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerORNL is a federally funded research and development laboratory partner contributing to the multi-institution cyberGIS software framework project.
• HydroSharecoreTechnology or IntegrationCyberGIS-HydroShare interoperability project enables coupling of data and multi-scale, multidisciplinary modeling capabilities from both communities, empowering scalable geospatial and hydrologic sciences through service-oriented architecture.
• XSEDE (Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment)coreTechnology or IntegrationAccess to national cyberinfrastructure resources through XSEDE for high-performance computing needs.
• Illinois Environmental Protection AgencycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerIEPA sponsors and supports continuing development of RMMS for Illinois natural resource management, providing both funding and data.
• University of Illinois (UIUC) Schools and DepartmentscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSponsors include College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation, School of Earth, Society and Environment, and Department of Geography and Geographic Information Science.
• INFEWS-ER (Intensifying Food-Energy-Water System Educational Resources)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerDr. Padmanabhan attended INFEWS-ER project meeting to discuss geospatial toolbox module being developed for the project.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Precisely: Precisely provides location intelligence, data integrity, and geospatial enrichment APIs for enterprise use cases. It overlaps with CyberGIS Center's spatial data synthesis and decision support capabilities, but addresses commercial enterprise buyers.
• Hexagon Geospatial: Hexagon Geospatial (formerly Intergraph) provides enterprise GIS, remote sensing, and location intelligence software. Its Power Portfolio overlaps with CyberGIS Center's enterprise GIS capabilities but is delivered as commercial software rather than open-source.
• Esri: Esri is the dominant commercial GIS platform provider and an explicit industrial partner on CyberGIS Center's SI2-SSSI project. ArcGIS and ArcGIS Online overlap directly with CyberGISX in geospatial analytics, but Esri operates at commercial scale while CyberGIS is research-grade.
• Maxar Technologies: Maxar provides high-resolution satellite imagery, 3D elevation data, and geospatial analytics. Its imagery and elevation products feed the same hydrology, land cover, and remote sensing workflows supported by CyberGIS Center's platforms.
• Google Earth Engine: Google Earth Engine is a cloud-native platform for petabyte-scale geospatial analysis using Google's infrastructure. It competes with CyberGISX's value proposition of democratizing HPC-backed geospatial analytics, but targets a broader user base with Google's commercial backing.
• Microsoft Planetary Computer: Microsoft Planetary Computer provides cloud-hosted geospatial datasets, APIs, and Hub compute environment for environmental analysis. It mirrors CyberGISX's HPC-enabled geospatial research mission and represents direct competition for federal and academic grants in geospatial data infrastructure.

Direct peers

• CARTO: CARTO is a location intelligence and spatial analytics cloud platform serving enterprise and government customers. It competes with CyberGIS Center in scalable geospatial analytics, particularly for urban analytics and supply chain optimization use cases.
• Planet Labs: Planet Labs operates a commercial satellite constellation and analytics platform serving geospatial monitoring use cases including land cover and environmental change. It overlaps with CyberGIS Center's LiDAR/Landsat-based land cover classification and environmental science applications.

Emerging players

• QGIS: QGIS is a leading open-source desktop GIS project with a global user community of researchers and analysts. It is an alternative open-source entry point to geospatial work, though it lacks CyberGIS Center's native HPC integration.
• HydroShare: HydroShare is a collaborative platform for sharing hydrologic data and models, and a direct integration partner with CyberGIS-Jupyter for Water. The two systems interoperate, but HydroShare owns the data/repository layer that CyberGIS consumes for modeling.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• GitHubgithub.com/cybergis
• Xx.com/CIGILab

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Cyber-GIS Center for Advanced Digital and Spatial Studies