GeoSim Lab: A Virtual Geography Laboratory with Local AI

Habeebullahi Bolaji Raji — Sun, 25 Oct 2026 22:03:54 +0000

What I built

GeoSim Lab is an open-source virtual laboratory for Geography students, teachers, and independent learners. It combines a rainfall-and-runoff experiment, a reproducible synthetic terrain explorer, and GeoTutor, a geography assistant that sends experiment context through a backend to a configurable Ollama model.

The goal is to make hands-on geographical learning more accessible without requiring physical lab equipment or a paid AI API.

How it works

The rainfall laboratory uses a deterministic, documented water-balance model. Learners adjust rainfall, vegetation, soil infiltration, surface storage, and slope, then compare the calculated results with a baseline. The terrain explorer generates a reproducible synthetic surface; it is not real geographic data.

GeoTutor receives the actual experiment inputs, calculated outputs, units, and model limitations through the Express backend. The application does not ask the model to calculate authoritative results.

flowchart LR
  Learner --> UI[React and TypeScript interface]
  UI --> Sim[Shared deterministic simulation]
  Sim --> UI
  UI --> API[Express API with request validation]
  API --> Ollama[Configurable Ollama model]
  Ollama --> API
  API --> UI

The effort it saves

Instead of sourcing equipment or manually repeating a simple classroom water-balance exercise, a learner can change one variable at a time, run the same scenario again, compare saved scenarios, and ask GeoTutor to help interpret the result. It is intended to support self-paced exploration; it does not replace fieldwork or a complete hydrological model.

Why open innovation matters here

GeoTutor uses Ollama, with a local endpoint as the default, so a learner can use an open-weight model without sending experiment context to a paid hosted AI API. The model is configurable, while the numerical simulation remains deterministic and transparent. Ollama and each model have separate licensing terms; the repository's MIT licence does not cover model weights.

Demo

Watch the GeoSim Lab demo on YouTube

The repository includes genuine application screenshots and local setup instructions. GeoTutor requires Ollama and a compatible configured model for inference.

Technology

React, TypeScript, Vite, Express, Zod, Recharts, SVG, Vitest, and Ollama.

Limitations

The runoff calculation is an educational simplification, not a flood forecast or engineering tool. Terrain is synthetic, not a measured digital elevation model. GeoTutor is optional; lab calculations work without an AI service. Model compatibility and response quality depend on the selected Ollama model and available hardware.

Project links

Source: https://github.com/Habeebullahi0/GeoSim-Lab
Demo video: https://youtu.be/YnXT3A46HPE

No Week 3 partner prize category is claimed: the current project does not meaningfully use the listed partner technologies.

AI disclosure: This post was prepared by an AI assistant using project information and the demo link supplied by the author.

DEV Community: Habeebullahi Bolaji Raji