Welcome to netmob logo 2026

October 14th–16th, Niterói, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil

NetMob 2026 — Full Conference Program

October 14th–16th, Niterói, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil

Program at a glance

Select any slot to jump to its papers, speakers and details.

Time WednesdayOctober 14th ThursdayOctober 15th FridayOctober 16th
08:00 Registration Registration Registration
08:30 Opening session Session 4 Health and Risk 6 talks Session 7 Data Challenge and Behavioral Dynamics 6 talks
09:00 Session 1 Mobility Foundations 4 talks
10:00 Coffee break + 6 posters Coffee break + 7 posters Coffee break + posters
10:30 Keynote 1 Alexander Zipf Heidelberg University Keynote 2 Vanessa Frias-Martinez University of Maryland Keynote 3 Rafael H. M. Pereira Ipea
11:30 Session 2 Data and Methods 5 talks Session 5 Data Challenge 5 talks Session 8 AI and Privacy 4 talks
12:45 Lunch Lunch Awards ceremony
13:00 Lunch
14:00 Session 3 Urban Life and Inequality 8 talks Session 6 Behavioral Dynamics 7 talks
16:00 Coffee break + posters Coffee break + posters
16:30 Sponsor talk Qualcomm
17:30 Panel Cities in Motion, Models in Action Moderator & panelists →
19:30

Talks are 10 minutes plus 5 minutes of Q&A. Posters are on display all day and presented during both coffee breaks. * The optional MAC visit and dinner has an additional fee of R$200 (~US$38) — more information.

    MCMain Conference DCData Challenge

    Wednesday, October 14th

    1. 08:00

      Registration

    2. 08:30–09:00

      Opening session

    3. 09:00–10:00

      Session 1: Mobility Foundations

      4 talks · Session chair: Ronaldo Menezes

      • MC A behavioral census of US cities from interpretable mobility embeddings

        Hamish Gibbs (Northeastern University, USA), Esteban Moro (Northeastern University, USA)

      • MC The power law in human mobility is a mixture artifact: evidence from a pandemic natural experiment

        Leo Ferres (Universidad del Desarrollo, Chile), Bruno Gonçalves (D4Sci, USA)

      • MC The Hyperfractal Dimension: Measuring the Multi-Scale Structure of Urban Mobility

        Geoffrey Deperle (INRIA Saclay, France), Philippe Jacquet (INRIA, France)

      • MC Navigating decision points in mobility data

        Giuseppe Perona (UC Berkeley, USA), Marta Gonzalez (UC Berkeley, USA)

    4. 10:00–10:30

      Coffee break + Poster Session

      6 posters · on display all day, presented during both coffee breaks (10:00–10:30 and 16:00–16:30)

      • MC GraniteMob: An AI Framework for Mobility Intelligence in the City of Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

        Krishna M. Bathula (Pace University, USA), Jaiden Roman (Pace University, USA), Amir Abdullozoda (Pace University, USA), Christelle Scharff (Pace University, USA)

      • MC Beyond Geographic Proximity: A Methodological Framework Informed by Mobility Data for Assessing Access to Specialized Hospital Services

        Darcio L. Mario (Ebserh, Brazil), Rodrigo P. Campos (Ebserh, Brazil), Aluizio N. da Silva Junior (Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brazil), Marco de O. da Silva (Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brazil)

      • MC Mobile Data for Public Good: Sustainable Pathways within a Changing Mobile Ecosystem

        Anna Colquhoun (GSMA, UK)

      • MC Using UAVs To Improve The Logistics Of Medical Supply Transport In Urban Areas

        Pedro H. Maia (Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais - PUC Minas, Brazil), Gabriel F. Pereira (Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais - PUC Minas, Brazil), Felipe Belem (Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais - PUC Minas, Brazil), Humberto T. Marques-Neto (Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais - PUC Minas, Brazil)

      • MC Scalable multilayer urban social networks using Call Detail Records and census data

        Paulo G. N. Cançado (Universidade Federal de São João del-Rei, Brazil), Carolina R. Xavier (Universidade Federal de São João del-Rei, Brazil), Alexandre G. Evsukoff (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), Vinícius da F. Vieira (Universidade Federal de São João del-Rei, Brazil)

      • MC Daily municipal bus demand forecasting in Niterói: combining weekly recurrence, calendar effects, and operational heterogeneity

        Matheus Silva (Universidade Federal do Rio e Janeiro, Brazil), Marina Baltar (Universidade Federal do Rio e Janeiro, Brazil), Luís E. Santos (CEFET-RJ, Brazil), (CEFET/RJ, Brazil), Glaydston M. Ribeiro (Universidade Federal do Rio e Janeiro, Brazil), Anderson Marden (Universidade Federal do Rio e Janeiro, Brazil)

    5. 10:30–11:30

      Keynote 1

      Beyond the Trace: GeoAI and Open Geodata as the Context Layer for Mobility Where the Map Runs Out

      Alexander ZipfAlexander Zipf

      Chair of GIScience (Geoinformatics) at Heidelberg University, Germany.

    6. 11:30–12:45

      Session 2: Data and Methods

      5 talks · Session chair: Kyriaki Kalimeri - UNICEF

      • MC An Interactive Stop-Detection-Algorithm Tool for Comparison and Visualization

        Jorge Barreras (University of Pennsylvania, USA), Tina Ni (University of Pennsylvania, USA), Lorenzo Santos (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA), Celia Tung (University of Pennsylvania, USA), Darren Wang (University of Pennsylvania, USA)

      • MC Fastkit-Mobility: A High-Performance, DataFrame-Agnostic Library for Mobility Analysis

        Gustavo H. B. dos Santos (Federal University of Technology of Parana, Brazil), Aline Carneiro Viana (Inria Saclay, France), Luca Pappalardo (CNR Pisa, Italy), Thiago H. Silva (Federal University of Technology of Parana, Brazil)

      • MC Correcting socioeconomic bias in mobile phone mobility estimates

        Leo Ferres (Universidad del Desarrollo, Chile), Laetitia Gauvin (IRD, France)

      • MC Selection Bias in Phone-Based Migration Statistics: Evidence and Correction Strategies

        Paul Blanchard (World Bank, France), Sveta Milusheva (World Bank, USA), Francisco Rowe (University of Liverpool, UK), Stefania Rubrichi (Orange, France)

      • MC Identifying and characterizing dangerous road sections using vehicle telemetry and OpenStreetMap data

        Giovana Piorino (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil), Andrea Lanzillotta (Politecnico di Torino, Italy), Luca Vassio (Politecnico di Torino, Italy), Danilo Giordano (Politecnico di Torino, Italy), Ana P. C. da Silva (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil), Marco Mellia (Politecnico di Torino, Italy), Claudio De Tommasi (Unipoltech, Italy), Marco Di Cristina (Unipoltech, Italy)

    7. 12:45–14:00

      Lunch

    8. 14:00–16:00

      Session 3: Urban Life and Inequality

      8 talks · Session chair: Hamish Gibbs (MIT & Northeastern University)

      • MC People-Place Networks Reveal Economic Disparities in United States

        Baoshen Guo (MIT, USA), Yuzhou Chen (University of Florida, USA), Shenhao Wang (University of Florida, USA)

      • MC Digital Fingerprints of Multicultural Communities

        Máximo Pirri (IMDEA Networks Institute, Spain), Ada D'Iorio (IMDEA Networks, Spain), Diego Madariaga (IMDEA Networks Institute, Spain), Zbigniew Smoreda (Orange, France), Marco Fiore (IMDEA Networks Institute, Spain)

      • MC Amenity Proximity Redistributes Mobility Across Home, Workplace, and City Center: Evidence from Austria

        Piero Birello (Central European University, Austria), Andrew Renninger (Central European University, Austria), Marton Karsai (Central European University, Austria)

      • MC Planning for isolation? The role of urban form and function in shaping mobility in Brasília

        Andrew Renninger (Central European University, Austria)

      • MC Beyond Proximity: Rethinking Urban Accessibility Through Human Mobility Patterns in United States

        Saumitra Kulkarni (Northeastern University, USA), Esteban Moro (Northeastern University, USA)

      • MC Moving Unequally: Phone-Based Mobility Metrics Reveal Socio-Spatial Inequality in Mexico City

        Randy B. Gallegos-Rodríguez (Centro de Investigación en Computación, Mexico), Tonatiuh Suárez-Meaney, Miguel Jesús T. Ruiz (Centro de Investigación en Computación, Mexico), Maribel R. Hernandez (CINVESTAV-IRA, Mexico)

      • MC The parenthood effect in urban mobility

        Mariana Macedo (Constructor University, Germany), Ronaldo Menezes (University of Exeter, UK), Alessio Cardillo (University of Barcelona, Spain)

      • MC Measuring the Daytime POI-visit Impacts of Hybrid Work across U.S. Cities

        Callie Clark (New York University, USA), Xiaotong Xu (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China), Wei Ma (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China), Takahiro Yabe (New York University, USA)

    9. 16:00–16:30

      Coffee break + posters

      See today’s posters ↑
    10. 16:30–17:30

      Sponsor talk

      Qualcomm University Platforms Program & the BUBBLE-BLUE project

      Wilfred DoréWilfred Doré

      Staff Engineer and Head of University Developer Platforms, EMEA at Qualcomm.

      NetMob 2026 Golden Sponsor · qualcomm.com

    11. 17:30–19:00

      Panel

      Cities in Motion, Models in Action: Using Urban Mobility Data to Build AI for City Planning and Management

      Moderator: Humberto Marques-Neto


      Overview: Over the past two decades, digital traces from mobile phones, GPS devices, and transit smart cards have turned human mobility into a measurable phenomenon and, more recently, into training material for artificial intelligence. Deep learning now supports tasks such as next-location prediction, crowd flow forecasting, and trajectory generation, and urban foundation models pre-trained on multimodal city data aim to carry these capabilities across tasks and places. Reinforcement learning experiments also show that algorithms can propose land-use and road layouts in collaboration with human planners. Predictive accuracy, however, is not equivalent to public value. Evidence from Rio de Janeiro shows that transport policies assessed without a distributional lens can widen inequalities in access to jobs and schools, and the reuse of individual-level traces depends on governance arrangements that protect privacy while preserving analytical utility. This panel brings together perspectives from policy research, municipal government, and industry to discuss what is required to move from mobility data to models that inform both long-term planning and day-to-day management: which data cities can access and share, how models should be evaluated and by whom, and what institutional capacity their responsible adoption demands, particularly in Latin American cities.

      Panelists

      • Rafael H. M. Pereira Head of Data Science at the Brazilian Institute for Applied Economic Research (Ipea). Researcher in the fields of urban analytics, spatial data science, and transport studies.
      • Carlos Krykhtine Municipal Secretary of Urban Planning for the City of Niterói. Architect, urban planner, and Specialist in urban and Environmental Management.
      • Angelo E. M. Ciarlini Senior Staff Data Scientist at Unico ID. Data Scientist focused on developing cutting-edge, data-driven authentication algorithms to enhance client security.

    Thursday, October 15th

    1. 08:00

      Registration

    2. 08:30–10:00

      Session 4: Health and Risk

      6 talks · Session chair: Anna Colquhoun (GSMA)

      • MC A Multi-resolution Mobility-aware Framework for Dynamic Air Pollution Exposure Assessment

        Bassel Othman (IFPEN, France), Guillaume Sabiron (IFPEN, France)

      • MC Social media-based measures of social capital attenuate economic disparities in extreme weather evacuations and recovery

        Aparimit Kasliwal (UC Berkeley, USA), Carlos Guirado (UC Berkeley, USA), Marta Gonzalez (UC Berkeley, USA)

      • MC Prediction of Infection Risk in an Epidemic Contact Network via Temporal Line Graph Representations

        Mathieu Gilles (Télécom SudParis, France), Zaher Moussawel (Télécom SudParis, France), Miguel Nunez-del-Prado (World Bank, USA), Hugo Alatrista-Salas (De Vinci, France), Vincent Gauthier (Télécom SudParis, France)

      • MC Empirical Trajectory Sparsity Biases Mobility-Informed Epidemic Modeling Outcomes and Parameter Estimates

        Federico Delussu (Technical University of Denmark, Denmark), Francisco Barreras (University of Pennsylvania, USA), Yuan Liao (Technical University of Denmark, Denmark), Duncan J. Watts (University of Pennsylvania, USA), Laura Alessandretti (Technical University of Denmark, Denmark)

      • MC Mobility Networks Reveal Association between Dynamic Food Environment and Chronic Cardiometabolic Diseases across U.S. Cities

        Yuzhou Chen (University of Florida, USA), Baoshen Guo (MIT, USA), Chang Zhao (University of Florida, USA), Shanting Chen (University of Florida, USA), Shenhao Wang (University of Florida, USA)

      • MC Transmission-aware mobility interventions for epidemic control

        Bibandhan Poudyal (University of Rochester, USA), David S. Panos (University of Rochester, USA), Gourab Ghoshal (University of Rochester, USA)

    3. 10:00–10:30

      Coffee break + Poster Session

      7 posters · on display all day, presented during both coffee breaks (10:00–10:30 and 16:00–16:30)

      • DC Detecting bus delays and service anomalies in Niterói with autoencoder latent feature representations

        Matheus Germano (Federal University of Campina Grande), Claudio E. C. Campelo (Federal University of Campina Grande)

      • DC Demand-Weighted Reliability and Diagnostic Observability in Public Transport: A Multi-Source Alignment Approach

        Manuel Mendoza-Hurtado (University of Cordoba), José Manuel Cuevas-Muñoz (University of Cordoba), Domingo Ortiz-Boyer (University of Cordoba)

      • DC Counterfactual Dispatch Regularization Reduces Passenger Waiting in Urban Bus Services

        M. Mavin De Silva (Nagaoka University of Technology; The University of Tokyo), Santiago Garcia Gabilondo (The University of Tokyo), Ketian Chen (The University of Tokyo), Shusei Hayashi (Tohoku University), Jue Ma (The University of Tokyo), Yoshihide Sekimoto (The University of Tokyo)

      • DC A GPS-Based Framework to Distinguish Road-Network Congestion from Bus Operation in Niterói, Brazil

        Alexander Bousman (Washington and Lee University; DIS Study Abroad in Scandinavia)

      • DC The Impact of Precipitation on Public Transportation in Niterói, Brazil

        Lucas Toshioka Tenório (University of São Paulo), Fernanda Yumi Assonuma (University of São Paulo), Pedro Henrique Campos Ribeiro (University of São Paulo), Alan Uema Tavares (University of São Paulo), Matheus Teixeira Passos Giarola (University of São Paulo)

      • DC Assessing the Effects of Precipitation on Public Transportation Demand Through Eigenvector Analysis

        Geymerson S. Ramos (Inria, INSA Lyon), Sachit Mishra (Inria, INSA Lyon), Razvan Stanica (Inria, INSA Lyon)

      • DC Spatial Analysis of Operational Discrepancies in Niterói's Municipal Bus System

        Matheus de Souza e Silva (COPPE, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), Marina Leite de Barros Baltar (COPPE, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), Luis Eduardo Santos Fortes (COPPE, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro; CEFET/RJ), Anderson Marden de Sousa Silva (COPPE, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), Glaydston Mattos Ribeiro (COPPE, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), Cintia Machado de Oliveira (CEFET/RJ), Daniel Kim Imai (COPPE, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), Lucas Ribeiro Sampaio (COPPE, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), Bruno Peçanha Simões (COPPE, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro)

    4. 10:30–11:30

      Keynote 2

      From Digital Traces to Behavioral Insights: LLMs, Data Bias, and Fairness

      Vanessa Frias-MartinezVanessa Frias-Martinez

      Professor in Computer and Information Science at University of Maryland.

    5. 11:30–12:45

      Session 5: Data Challenge

      5 talks · Session chair: Sveta Milusheva (World Bank)

      • DC Privacy and anonymization of stochastic mobility trajectories from bus payment logs

        Vincenzo Ricciardelli (Politecnico di Torino), Nikhil Jha (Politecnico di Torino), Luca Vassio (Politecnico di Torino)

      • DC Unequal by Design: Bus Network Structure, Social Vulnerability, and Favela Access in Niterói

        Issa Moussa Diop (Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour), Ali Yassin (Université Bourgogne Europe), Randy Brandon Gallegos-Rodríguez (Instituto Politécnico Nacional), Tonatiuh Suárez-Meaney (SEDATU, Mexico), Maribel Hernández-Rosales (CINVESTAV Irapuato)

      • DC Planned and experienced accessibility reveal contrasting diagnoses of transit poverty and inequality

        Egor Kotov (TU Dortmund University; Universitat Pompeu Fabra; Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research), Yuan Liao (Lund University), Leonardo Akinaga Moreira (University of São Paulo), Rafael H. M. Pereira (Institute for Applied Economic Research – Ipea)

      • DC Edge on Wheels: Forecasting Bus Fleet Compute with Calibrated Uncertainty

        Wellington Lobato (Inria Saclay), Nadjib Achir (Inria Saclay), Aline Carneiro Viana (Inria Saclay)

      • DC Transit Opportunity Landscapes Under Climate Stress: Spatial Equity, Vulnerability Evaluation, and the Usage–Accessibility Gap

        Chenchen Sun (The University of Tokyo; Renmin University of China), Yuxi Zhang (The University of Tokyo), Yichuan Zhang (The University of Tokyo), Shuata Okuaki (Pitzer College), Yuya Shibuya (The University of Tokyo)

    6. 12:45–14:00

      Lunch

    7. 14:00–16:00

      Session 6: Behavioral Dynamics

      7 talks · Session chair: Diego Madariaga, IMDEA Networks Institute

      • MC Urban mobility network centrality predicts social resilience

        Lin Chen (Northeastern University, USA), Fengli Xu (Tsinghua University, China), Esteban Moro (Northeastern University, USA), Pan Hui (Deutsche Telekom Laboratories, Germany), Yong Li (Tsinghua University, China), James Evans (University of Chicago, USA)

      • MC Spatiotemporal dynamics of adult content consumption: mapping traffic peaks and socioeconomic indicators

        Ada D'Iorio (IMDEA Networks, Spain), Thomas Mas (IMDEA Networks Institute, Spain), Diego Madariaga (IMDEA Networks Institute, Spain), Zbigniew Smoreda (Orange, France), Marco Fiore (IMDEA Networks Institute, Spain)

      • MC Infrastructure Matters: Quantifying Measurement Bias in Mobile Phone Mobility Data

        Leo Ferres (Universidad del Desarrollo, Chile), Erick Elejalde (L3S Research Center, Germany), Kyriaki Kalimeri (ISI, Italy), Loreto Bravo (Universidad del Desarrollo, Chile)

      • MC Parental Activity Space Across Childcare Stages

        Shusei Hayashi (Tohoku University, Japan), Takahiro Yabe (New York University, USA), Naoya Fujiwara (Tohoku University, Japan)

      • MC Invariant, elastic and plastic: how mobility reorganizes around a residential move

        Andrew Renninger (Central European University, Austria), Piero Birello (Central European University, Austria), Marton Karsai (Central European University, Austria)

      • MC Cross-Metropolitan Transferability of Behavior-based Dependency Networks

        Boyang Li (New York University, USA), Saumitra Kulkarni (Northeastern University, USA), Morgan Frank (Case Western Reserve University, USA), Esteban Moro (Northeastern University, USA), Takahiro Yabe (New York University, USA)

      • MC Do tsunami evacuation drills reproduce real evacuation response? Evidence from paired events in coastal Chile

        Kyriaki Kalimeri (ISI, Italy), Leo Ferres (Universidad del Desarrollo, Chile)

    8. 16:00–16:30

      Coffee break + posters

      See today’s posters ↑

    Friday, October 16th

    1. 08:00

      Registration

    2. 08:30–10:00

      Session 7: Data Challenge and Behavioral Dynamics

      6 talks · Session chair: Christelle Scharff (Pace University)

      • DC Impact of provided services and socio-demographic factors on bus accessibility: a Niterói case study

        Luca Fantin (IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca; Motion Analytica), Chiara Pugliese (IIT-CNR), Fabio Pinelli (IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca), Giulio Loddi (IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca), Chiara Renso (ISTI-CNR), Alessandro Betti (IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca), Bruno Zamengo (Motion Analytica), Andrea Frasson (Motion Analytica)

      • DC Reaching the Stop, Reaching the City: Socio-Spatial Inequality in Public-Transport Access in Niterói (SDG 11.2.1)

        Kinin Koné (Agence Nationale de la Statistique – ANStat, Côte d'Ivoire), Abdoulaye Doumbia (Agence Nationale de la Statistique – ANStat, Côte d'Ivoire)

      • DC Urban Mobility and Demand Dynamics: A Telemetry and Ticketing Baseline for Niterói's Bus Network

        Evaldo Alves de Brito Júnior (Federal University of Campina Grande), Luiz Sergio Pompeu Alves Filho (Federal University of Campina Grande), Claudio E. C. Campelo (Federal University of Campina Grande)

      • DC The Predictability of Bus Bunching and Who Pays for It: Evidence from Niterói, Brazil

        Hugo Barbosa (University of Exeter), Federico Botta (University of Exeter), Zihao Chen (University of Exeter), Luiz Correia (University of Exeter), Yifan He (University of Exeter), Soroush Karimi (University of Exeter), Ronaldo Menezes (University of Exeter), Diogo Pacheco (University of Exeter), Yuchen Zhou (University of Exeter)

      • MC Comparing Gender-Labeled Urban Co-Visitation Networks Across U.S. Cities Using Google Places

        Jemal Jilo (Federal University of Technology of Parana, Brazil), Myriam R. B. S. Delgado (Federal University of Technology of Parana, Brazil), Thiago H. Silva (Federal University of Technology of Parana, Brazil)

      • MC Leveraging mobility behavior to re-identify users

        Lucas Felix (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil), Vinícius da F. Vieira (Universidade Federal de São João del rei, Brazil), Anne J. Kouam (INRIA Saclay, France), Alexandre G. Evsukoff (COPPE/UFRJ, Brazil), Aline Carneiro Viana (INRIA Saclay, France), Nadjib Achir (INRIA Saclay, France), Jussara Almeida (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil)

    3. 10:00–10:30

      Coffee break + posters

    4. 10:30–11:30

      Keynote 3

      Accessibility and mobility data: two halves of a policy story

      Rafael H. M. PereiraRafael H. M. Pereira

      Head of Data Science at the Brazilian Institute for Applied Economic Research (Ipea) and visiting professor at the University of Toronto.

    5. 11:30–12:45

      Session 8: AI and Privacy

      4 talks · Session chair: Claudio Campelo (Federal University of Campina Grande)

      • MC Large Language Models Create an Uneven Informational Layer over Cities

        Lin Chen (Northeastern University, USA), Guangyuan Weng (Northeastern University, USA), Esteban Moro (Northeastern University, USA)

      • MC Do LLM Agents Reproduce Human Mobility Laws?

        Gustavo H. B. dos Santos (Federal University of Technology of Parana, Brazil), Aline Carneiro Viana (Inria Saclay, France), Thiago H. Silva (Federal University of Technology of Parana, Brazil)

      • MC Predictability of Urban Park Visitation Behavior Using Context-Aware Fine-Tuned LLM Agents

        DongHak Lee (New York University, USA), Xiyu Pan (New York University, USA), Yixuan Hong (New York University, USA), Takahiro Yabe (New York University, USA)

      • MC Some Users Are Easier to Re-identify: Evidence from Mobility Profiles and Embedding Geometry

        Tiziano Martin Bernal (Universidad de San Andrés, Argentina), Anne J. Kouam (INRIA Saclay, France), Mariano Beiró (Universidad de San Andrés, Argentina)

    6. 12:45–13:00

      Awards ceremony

    7. 13:00–14:00

      Lunch