Resources and Articles of Interest
Times Higher Ed: US academics put interdisciplinary research on the map - A Duke University challenge on visualising scholarly collaboration produces treasure trove of results that map interdisciplinary work.
C|Net: 3 good reasons to draw on Windows Maps - Find your way, see where you've been or just jot down some notes. Extra fun on a touch screen!
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Heat map showing the distribution of researchers
by gender from Duke Viz Challenge.
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C|Net: 3 good reasons to draw on Windows Maps - Find your way, see where you've been or just jot down some notes. Extra fun on a touch screen!
ArcGIS Blog: Lights On & Lights Out - Esri's John Nelson explains how to use ArcGIS Pro to illustrate how nighttime lights have appeared, or been extinguished over time. He uses the new NASA night time data I mentioned last week.
Reddit: GIS Survey - There were a total of 492 respondents to the survey. 108 were from outside the USA.
Journal of Geography In Higher Education: Evolving technology, shifting expectations: cultivating pedagogy for a rapidly changing GIS landscape - "Here we pose an applied pedagogical framework for teaching cutting-edge GIS material to diverse student populations with varying levels of technological experience and professional goals." [not open access]
NASA is looking to get 64,000 locations on Earth adopted for Earth Day. "NASA invites you to help us celebrate Earth Day 2017 by virtually adopting a piece of Earth as seen from space. Your personalized adoption certificate will feature data from NASA’s Earth-observing satellites for a randomly assigned location. Print it and share it, then explore other locations with our interactive map and get even more Earth science data from NASA’s Worldview website."
Data Driven Journalism: Crowdmapping as a new data source for journalists - Crowdsourced apps have a highly nuanced and complex process with many problems. The article details five issues.
Google introduced a brand-new version of Google Earth—on the web and Android. Of note: Voyager, a showcase of interactive guided tours.
Open Litter Map is now live. The crowdsourced geospatial data collection effort has as its goal: stopping plastic going into the ocean. I wonder why it's not OpenLitterMap? There's a video here.
Quote of the Week
Tom MacWright, @tmcw, tweeted:
wizard of oz except it's the open source community and when you pull back the curtain it's the same 40 people making everything
For Students
The American Geographical Society is accepting applications for its Summer 2017 Scholar Internship Program at its headquarters in Brooklyn Heights, New York. Interest in geography desirable, but pursuit of a degree in the field not required. Summer internships last 15 weeks, 35 hours per week. Summer Interns receive a scholarship up to $1000.00 upon completion of the internship. Undergraduate and graduate students from accredited colleges and universities who have maintained a grade point average of 3.5 on a 4.0 scale are invited to apply.
Enrolled Master’s students are invited to apply for the Cartography Specialty Group (CSG) Master’s Thesis Research Grants. These grants are intended to promote scholarly research in cartography by students enrolled in Geography or a related degree program. Grants are available up to a maximum of $500 and may be used for items necessary and relevant to research, such as travel, materials, equipment, and human subject fees. Deadlines for applications are March 15, June 15, and November 1 of each year.
The American Geographical Society is accepting applications for its Summer 2017 Scholar Internship Program at its headquarters in Brooklyn Heights, New York. Interest in geography desirable, but pursuit of a degree in the field not required. Summer internships last 15 weeks, 35 hours per week. Summer Interns receive a scholarship up to $1000.00 upon completion of the internship. Undergraduate and graduate students from accredited colleges and universities who have maintained a grade point average of 3.5 on a 4.0 scale are invited to apply.
Enrolled Master’s students are invited to apply for the Cartography Specialty Group (CSG) Master’s Thesis Research Grants. These grants are intended to promote scholarly research in cartography by students enrolled in Geography or a related degree program. Grants are available up to a maximum of $500 and may be used for items necessary and relevant to research, such as travel, materials, equipment, and human subject fees. Deadlines for applications are March 15, June 15, and November 1 of each year.
Programs, Degrees and Courses
Southeast Missouri State University will offer a drone program along with a Bachelor of Science degree in "geographic-information systems" (or perhaps science?) this fall.
The International Board on Standards and Competence for Hydrographic Surveyors and Nautical Cartographers (IBSC) ok'd Coast Survey’s certification programme in cartography (CAT-B). The new program will grant certificates to up to 13 cartographers per year. The first class (which is already full), will begin in fall 2017 at Coast Survey headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, USA.
The West Virginia Board of Education last Thursday approved providing computer science courses that public high school students can take to satisfy math and science graduation requirements. Of note is this new course, "Computer Science — Introduction to Geographic Information Systems, which can provide the science credit. ... Geographic Information Systems, often abbreviated as GIS, generally deals with using computers to create maps."
The University of New Mexico will offer a new geography course “World of Beer,” this fall. “It’s a geography class where we’re going explore beer,” said Maria Lane, Associate Professor. More on the course here and here.
As part of the Nebraska's celebration of the 150th anniversary of statehood, the Nebraska Sesquicentennial Commission asked that the Student Atlas of Nebraska be used for a statewide educational curriculum this fall. A total of 30,000 copies have been printed and will be distributed to every fourth-grader and fourth-grade teacher in the state.
The University of Montana Autonomous Aerial Systems Office and Sands Unmanned Aviation Training of Kalispell will team up to offer a Basic Unmanned Aviation Systems Training Course on the UM campus May 22-26.
The next Esri Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), slated to debut later this year, will be titled Cartography. The instructor, Kenneth Field, is completing a book with the same title.
In and Out of the Classroom
"A Washington State University graduate student has created what he believes is the first map showing precinct-level results for the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Ryne Rohla, a doctoral candidate in economics, created the map as a side project. He’s now planning to incorporate the results into part of his dissertation, where he’ll look at how changes in insurance coverage due to the Affordable Care Act correlate with voting patterns." Warning: some may find the map visually challenging.The University of Montana Autonomous Aerial Systems Office and Sands Unmanned Aviation Training of Kalispell will team up to offer a Basic Unmanned Aviation Systems Training Course on the UM campus May 22-26.
The next Esri Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), slated to debut later this year, will be titled Cartography. The instructor, Kenneth Field, is completing a book with the same title.
In and Out of the Classroom
Jake Greenberg '18 chose Brandeis University, outside Boston, but was not sure what to study. The New Jersey native is double majoring in Environmental Studies and Business, and is hooked on GIS. That's the first I've heard of GIS on that campus!
"British learner drivers will have to prove their proficiency in operating satellite navigation systems (GPS systems) if they are to pass their tests, under changes announced Saturday (Apr 15) to be enacted this year."
The USGIF leadership has been meeting with NGA, Global Skills Exchange, industry and others for months to expand the geospatial intelligence workforce pipeline in the city of St. Louis. The official St. Louis Initiative kicked off March 28 with a "visioneering session."
Simon Fraser University geography student student Vienna Watt is completing a co-op term with Veteran Affairs Canada at the Canadian National Vimy Ridge memorial in France.
USGIF announced that it will offer certification exams at GEOINT 2017.
The University of Wisconsin Madison geography department welcomed young cartographers . "The Geography Department recently welcomed the entire second grade class from Van Hise Elementary School in Madison. 65 energetic second graders visited Science Hall on a field trip to learn about maps and Cartography. Staff in the Geography Department organized a series of sessions for the students to experience a “lecture”, “lab”, and “discussion section”, in an effort to create a fun college experience for the 7 and 8 year-olds."
An Oak Brook, IL family filed a federal lawsuit seeking more than $50 million in damages from Butler Elementary District 53, claiming their two sons were subjected to cruel and unusual punishment related to allegations of cheating in a geography bee. The mother of the family is accused of accessing bee questions to help her sons gain an advantage in the contest in 2016.
The University of Vermont department of geography got some love from the university. The title: The Why of Where.
According to The Tracking Board, Netflix has ordered 22, 22-minute episodes of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, that will premiere in 2019. Carmen Sandiego will be voiced by Gina Rodriguez, who is best known for her role in The CW series Jane the Virgin. The show will offer geography and entertainment just like the computer game and live action show with the same name from the last century.
Mississippi State University’s Graduate Student Research Symposium winners for work during the fall 2016 and spring 2017 semesters include Caitlin A. Ruby of Long Beach, a geoscience/geospatial sciences master’s student in the Arts and Humanities category. Here's what she's up to now.
Two Tauranga, NZ teenagers, Abigail Chaytor and Alexandra Groos,developed a prototype project that could change search and rescue operates, won a 2017 New Zealand Youth Award. The two developed the ArcGIS Pre Planning Mapping Project, which is designed to improve decision making in search and rescue and emergency management situations in New Zealand.
The University of Canterbury’s College of Science Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Professor Wendy Lawson won the Asia-Pacific Spatial Excellence Awards (APSEA) Professional of the Year 2016 award. The APSEA award event was held in conjunction with the recent Digital Earth & Locate17 symposium. The award highlights her "sustained strategic leadership and influence in the geospatial sector, both in New Zealand and internationally."
GeorgiaTech won the first-ever Collegiate Drone Racing National Championship.
Esri's Student of the Year awards at college- and university-based Esri Development Centers (EDCs) date back to 2008 Read about the Class of 2017.