GeoRoundtable — Philosophy-Informed Engineering

What We Do

Engineering Consulting Services

GeoRoundtable brings decades of practice across safety-critical, cyber-physical, and AI-driven systems — guided by philosophical principles that make complex engineering responsible, coherent, and durable.

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Socio-Technical Systems Engineering

Engineering is inherently a philosophical enterprise. We help organisations design, operate, and govern complex socio-technical systems by making explicit the stakeholder concerns — responsibility, authority, meaning, and value — that traditional methods leave tacit. Applied from requirements through assurance and governance.

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Spatial Web & Standards Leadership

Deep expertise in the Spatial Web architecture (HSML, HSTP, Universal Domain Graph) and the IEEE P2874 standard. We advise on interoperability strategy, standards development, and the deployment of shared world models for AI agents, robots, digital twins, and human operators across geospatial and cyber-physical domains.

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Agentic AI Architecture & Governance

As AI systems grow less explainable and more autonomous, governance frameworks must be grounded in philosophy — not just compliance. We provide analysis and design guidance for complex agentic systems, drawing on epistemology and the evolutionary theory of agency to ensure accountability and alignment at the system level.

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Philosophy-Informed Standards & Policy

We examine normative assumptions embedded in automation strategies, assess social and political implications of location-aware infrastructures, and interrogate how organisational culture and institutional incentives shape risk, safety, and accountability — informing IEEE, OGC, and NSF standards processes from a rigorous philosophical standpoint.

Our Approach

"Engineering is inherently a philosophical enterprise — and explicit philosophical engagement is now indispensable for responsible socio-technical engineering."

— George Percivall, fPET 2026 Conference

Epistemology Design Ontology Ethics Governance Agency

The Philosopher-Builder

Contemporary systems and software engineering standards codify much of current practice — but they require refinement to remain adequate for today's software-centric, data-intensive, and societally-driven products. Stakeholder concerns regarding responsibility, authority, meaning, and value must be made integral to engineering design, assurance, and governance.

GeoRoundtable revives the tradition of the "philosopher-builder" — combining the engineering discipline as exemplified by IEEE with the deeply humanising educational practices of St. John's College. This enables systematic integration of philosophical inquiry into engineering workflows.

These methods have already been applied in developing the IEEE 2874 Spatial Web standard, AI governance frameworks, and participatory socio-technical design processes for critical infrastructure. The goal: engineering practice that is conceptually robust, practically grounded, and responsive to contemporary ethical and political challenges.

Featured Work

Projects & Publications

Representative engagements across spatial web standards, agentic systems, geospatial infrastructure, and philosophy of engineering.

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IEEE Standard

IEEE 2874-2025 Spatial Web Standard

The foundational standard for the Spatial Web, defining how AI agents, robots, and people share a common world model. Approved May 2025. Socio-technical methods were central to its development.

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Philosophy of Engineering

Philosophy Must Inform Socio-Technical Systems Engineering

Proposed for Track 1 at fPET 2026 Conference. Argues that engineering is a philosophical enterprise and that epistemology, design, ontology, and ethics must be systematically integrated into engineering workflows.

Read the abstract

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Seminar — July 2025

Thinking Machines Seminar- St John's College

Part of a sustained collaboration between GeoRoundtable and St. John's College Graduate Institute on ethical technology and participatory socio-technical design for AI.

View seminar materials

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Standards Development

Innovation, Maturation, and Adaptation in Standards Development

Seven heuristics for standards development drawn from personal experience with the Open Geospatial Consortium — covering open process, STEM foundations, implementation-first, innovation, maturation, and complex adaptive systems.

Read the article

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Symposium — May 2025

JHU Natural Philosophy Symposium 2025

Johns Hopkins symposium bringing together scientists, philosophers, and engineers to reclaim natural philosophy. Features Michael Tomasello, Alison Gopnik, Anil Seth, Thomas Nagel, and others — with direct implications for the philosophical foundations of AI engineering.

View symposium page

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Spatial Web

Spatial Web: Concepts of Space from AI

How AI is expanding humanity's concept of space — from Cartesian coordinates and geographic GIS to high-dimensional tensor spaces, relational graphs, and the Hyperspace framework of IEEE 2874-2025. Explores the "World-to-Vectors" principle and its implications for agentic systems.

Explore the concepts

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Systems Engineering · AI Design

UDG Physical Design Synthesis: Human vs. AI Architecture

Two architectures for the Universal Domain Graph (IEEE 2874 Spatial Web) synthesised from the same functional requirements — one by a human engineer, one by Claude AI. A function-to-form synthesis process produced an 8-node AI design and a 6-node human design, then compared them across structure, coverage, and philosophy.

Read the design synthesis

IEEE Standards Leadership

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Vice Chair

Spatial Web Protocol, Architecture & Governance (P2874)

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Chair — AISC RSC

IEEE Artificial Intelligence Standards Committee (AISC)

Leadership

About the Principal

George Percivall

Distinguished Engineering Fellow · GeoRoundtable & Spatial Web Foundation

George Percivall is the founder and Distinguished Engineering Fellow of GeoRoundtable. He is an officer in IEEE AISC and chairs the IEEE Spatial Web standard working group (P2874).

His engineering career spans safety-critical, cyber-physical, and large-scale geospatial systems: previously CTO of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC); Chief Engineer on NASA's Earth Science Enterprise; Hughes Aircraft Systems Engineer for the General Motors EV1 electric vehicle; and Control Systems Engineer for GOES/GMS weather satellites at Hughes Aircraft.

He holds a BS in Engineering Physics and MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois – Urbana, and is currently enrolled in the Master of Arts in Liberal Arts (MALA) programme at St. John's College, Annapolis MD — grounding GeoRoundtable's philosophy-informed engineering practice in a rigorous classical tradition.

IEEE Life Member Spatial Web Foundation OGC open standards NASA Earth data GM systems engineering St. John's College Univ. of Illinois

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GeoRoundtable Philosophy-Informed Engineering