LinkedIn: Why learn an open-source GIS solution? - Christopher Haakon Strutz of OSGIS offers his argument. Reminder: Open source software is commercial software. My advice to students: learn to use lots of different software. Why? Because whatever software (title, version, platform, etc.) you are using in school will most assuredly NOT be what you use further along in your career. You need to learn how to learn software (and programming languages, workflows, etc.) since you'll be using new ones all the time!
UN Dispatch: Map of the Day: Where Giving Birth Is Most Dangerous - There is one key intervention that significantly decreases the risks facing women as they give birth: the presence of what is known as a “skilled birth attendant.”
eSpatially New York: Geogames: The Intersection of Geospatial and Games - Sam Wear explores work on the topic at RIT.
Programs and Courses
Coursera: The Brain and Space - Dr. Jennifer Groh from Duke offers this MOOC based on her 2014 book, Making Space: How the Brain Knows Where Things Are. "This course is about how the brain creates our sense of spatial location from a variety of sensory and motor sources, and how this spatial sense in turn shapes our cognitive abilities." The course is $49 for a certificate; the book runs $10-$20 electronic or print. Via@JWvanEck.
Harris County (TX): STEM Academy - High school students in grades 10-12 are invited to register for a STEM mapping summer camp July 29th - Aug 1st. Fees are modest ($65) and include a field trip to Sheldon Lake State Park. Via @URISATexas.
On and Off Campus
WISE Student Is an Activist for Local Water Quality - Stonybrook graduate Lucy DiBenedetto ’19 majored in coastal environmental studies with a minor in geospatial sciences. She joined PSEG-Long Island as a solution architect. I want to highlight this story because there are far too many students who believe that getting a job in GIS requires a degree or other credential in GIS. Lucy seems to have followed her passions - diversity, band, environmental issues - and found where they lead.
Wesleyan: Mapmaking's Double Edge - A profile of Associate Professor of the Practice in Earth and Environmental Sciences Kim Diver and Sam Raby ’17 who do GIS at Wesleyan. Ray was an intern on Esri's Story Maps team.
Colorado State: Using geography to explore land policy and management - "Jamie Hoover (Ph.D. ’16) and Eric Rounds (M.A. ’16), former students of Associate Professor of Geography Stephen J. Leisz, were motivated to use geographic methods and training to investigate land-use issues in Papua New Guinea and Central Vietnam, respectively."
NBC Dallas Fort Worth: Students Use Mapping Software to Help Underdeveloped Countries - "Geographic Information System maps are a way more professionals are analyzing data, students at Bishop Dunne Catholic School are getting a crash course in the skill. "
Crain's Detroit Business: Wayne State develops novel geocoded map to improve health outcomes throughout Michigan - "Known as PHOENIX, the Population Health OutcomEs aNd Information EXchange, this novel geocoded map will be housed at Wayne State University using de-identified electronic health records in combination with information on population level social determinants to paint an overall picture of health in Michigan area by area, using color-coding to graphically display differences." Wayne State paid for the article to be published.
UVic: Grad's mapping tool on track to save lives, skies and forests - Graduating senior Patrick Robinson developed a smartphone mapping app during a co-op with GeoBC that provides “smoke jumpers” with key fire information.
The Vermont Cynic (UVM): Geography professor adds art to classes - "Professor Harlan Morehouse ... uses the example of melting glaciers as an example of where art, social justice and environmental science meet."
ERAU: Embry-Riddle, UCF Partner to Map Oyster Reefs Using UAS - "The project, conducted by [ Dr. Dan] Macchiarella, Unmanned Aircraft Systems Science students Liam Griffin, George Gebert and Kyle Zeir, and Drs. Linda Walters and Giovanna McClenachan, of UCF’s Department of Biology, stands as Embry-Riddle’s first partnership with UCF’s National Center for Integrated Coastal Research. "
Contests and Awards
Esri (GeoNet): Fun with GIS 248: 2019 HS+MS Competition Results - Charlie Fitzpatrick recaps the nationwide competition and shares a story map of the 168 awardees.
USGIF: USGIF Announces 2019 Stu Shea Endowed Scholarship Recipient - Jaclyn Guz, a Ph.D. student in geography at Clark University received the scholarship.
LinkedIn posts advertising GIS training are getting weird.
