Ilya Ilyankou

Ilya is a third-year PhD candidate at UCL's SpaceTimeLab, researching conversational systems (large language models) for complex routing problems, supervised by Dr James Haworth, Dr Aldo Lipani, and Dr Stefano Cavazzi. His research is funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI/EPSRC) and the Ordnance Survey (OS).

Ilya's work focuses on how large language models perceive and reason about the real world, how to adapt LLMs to geospatial data (and vice versa), and how humans communicate spatial concepts with machines. I’m especially interested in recreational outdoor navigation (how we describe, plan, and personalise routes), and in unconventional sources of geospatial data.

He is also a co-founder and chief technology officer at Safest Way, a Geovation-backed startup that aims to make walking in cities safe, any time day or night.