Category Archives: Education/Learning

NACIS 2015 Student Map and Poster Competition

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Greetings,

The North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS) recognizes the important contributions students make to our field. To promote their hard work and achievements, we offer two fantastic student competitions each year at our annual conference (held this year on October 14–17 in Minneapolis, MN). All students currently enrolled in a certificate program, undergraduate, or graduate/post-graduate program are eligible to enter, as long as they have not previously won the top prize in either competition.

Student Dynamic Map Competition

NACIS recognizes the importance of dynamic mapping in cartography. We are sponsoring the 16th Annual Student Dynamic Map Competition to promote cartographic excellence and innovation in this versatile medium. Two prizes of $500 will be awarded; one for and individual project and one for a group project. Deadline for submissions is September 11th. To view the rules and prizes, please visit http://nacis.org/awards/student-dynamic-map-competition/.

Student Map and Poster Competition

Students who would like to display their works at NACIS 2015 should register for the Student Map and Poster Competition. There are two competition categories: cartographic design and research quality. We encourage all students to submit their maps and technical/research posters for a chance at one of two $500 prizes! There is no entry fee. All entrants will be displayed in the Exhibits Gallery, and the winner will be selected by a ballot of all meeting attendees. The deadline to register is September 11th, 2015. For more information, please visit http://nacis.org/awards/student-map-and-poster-competition/.

Please take a moment to encourage your students to enter either of the above competitions. We look forward to seeing the diverse range of entries in Minneapolis!

Travel Grants

As an organization (and as former students ourselves), we’re aware that student budgets don’t often allow for extras like conference attendance. Each year, NACIS offers a number of travel grants to students wishing to attend the annual conference. To find out more, please visit http://nacis.org/awards/grants/.

Thank you, and we hope to see you in Minneapolis in October!

Alethea Steingisser NACIS Board of Directors Chair – Awards and Travel Grants Committee

asteingi@uoregon.edu

EarthWorks

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This one came across my desk and I thought it was interesting to share:

Stanford University Libraries is introducing EarthWorks, their new geospatial data discovery application. EarthWorks allows you to discover and download GIS data and maps from a variety of institutions.

The software is built on top of the open-source project GeoBlacklight, which adds geospatial capabilities to the widely used discovery system Project Blacklight. GeoBlacklight is the product of an ongoing software collaboration between MIT, Princeton, and Stanford. Contributions and collaborators are most welcome!  GeoBlacklight can be used on its own, or as part of GeoHydra, an emerging suite of tools for managing geospatial data assets within a Hydra data repository. For more information about GeoHydra, please see the interest group wiki.

Metadata sharing for EarthWorks is enabled through collaboration with the OpenGeoPortal project and the new OpenGeoMetadata initiative.

EarthWorks also uses GeoMonitor to monitor the availability of data being provided by the network of collaborating institutions.

Questions about EarthWorks, GeoBlacklight, GeoMonitor, or how we collaborate with OpenGeoMetadata can be directed to geoblacklight-working-group@googlegroups.com .

Upcoming related meetings and events:

Open Repositories June 8 – 11, 2015 Indianapolis, IN ,USA

Hands on GeoBlacklight Workshop ESRI Education GIS Conference July 18-21, 2015 San Diego, CA, USA

“GeoBlacklight, a New Discovery Platform for Geospatial Data” lightning talk ESRI User Conference July 20 – 24, 2015 San Diego, CA, USA

“Preservation and discovery for GIS data” presentation HydraConnect September 21 – 24 2015, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA – Hydra Geospatial Interest Group

Demystifying Raster Image Properties and Compression

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LizardTech University is offering a free webinar on Demystifying Raster Image Properties and Compression:

Have you ever wanted to know more about raster imagery? In this webinar, we’ll discuss all the basic properties of raster imagery that you’re likely to encounter. By the end of the webinar, you’ll understand what image bands are, what compression ratios mean, what it means for an image to be 16-bit, and more.

This is the first installment in a series of webinars about raster imagery and GIS.

Date: Thursday, April 23, 2015
Time: 11:00 AM PDT
Duration: 30 Minutes

Register today!

SoCal URISA Open Source GIS Workshop

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SoCal URISA along with Palomar College presents a Certified URISA workshop on Open Source GIS with URISA instructor Sara Yurman.

Saturday, April 25th, 2015
9am to 5pm
Hosted at Palomar College’s GIS Lab
1140 W Mission Rd, San Marcos, CA 92069

Palomar College, San Marcos in the Natural Science Bldg.   NS-127(GIS Lab) Directions and parking pass will be emailed out to registrants closer to the date.

There are a limited amount of desktop computers available for use which will have the software downloaded on them. You can bring your own laptop and our reminder email will have software download instructions on them so you can install on your laptop before the workshop date. A complete list of topics covered will be emailed shortly.

Preliminary Schedule:
8:30 am – Registration opens, grab a light breakfast too.
11:30 am – Lunch
5:00 pm – Conclude Workshop

The workshop is Free for SoCal URISA members, otherwise purchase or renew your membership.

$30  Annual Fee
$10 Student Annual Fee

Please don’t forget to save you receipt from this event and use it towards your GISP credit.
Registration is limited to lab size so do not hesitate.

More information and online registration: http://socalurisa.camp9.org/event-1899459

About Sara Yurman:

 Sara Yurman is an experienced GIS Manager and a founder of Spatial Focus, Inc. She has over 20 years of experience in both organizational and technical aspects of geographic information, encompassing government at the local, regional, and state levels. Her activities have included team-building and change management as well as implementations of raster and vector GIS, GPS data integration, system development, and database design. Before the founding of Spatial Focus, Inc. Ms. Yurman was a consultant for American Cadastre, Inc. Prior to that, she worked with a variety of clients on strategic and technical issues, advising clients on profit potential of existing geographic data within their organization. Ms. Yurman received a Bachelor’s degree from the California Institute of the Arts and a Master’s degree in geography from Georgia State University. Sara was the Conference Chair for the 2011 URISA/NENA Addressing Conference.

GeoTech PCC Guest Lecture Series

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GeoTech PCC Guest Lecture Series Spring 2015
Thursday, April 2, 7-9pm
Pasadena City College, Room E220
More details at http://geotechpcc.eventbrite.com

GeoTech PCC is a new program that just started this semester. We’re fortunate to have Jonathan Robinson and Chandler Sterling from the City of Pasadena give our first guest lectures. We want to make sure that those in the surrounding communities know about it!

MS in GISci at CSULB

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The Department of Geography at California State University Long Beach is accepting applications for our Master of Science in Geographic Information Science (MSGISci) degree program.  The application deadline is April 1st; the FAFSA deadline is March 2nd (https://fafsa.ed.gov/).

Key Program Features: ▪ 1-year completion time (30 units). ▪ Schedule is designed to meet the needs of working professionals (courses are offered on weeknights and Saturdays) ▪ Tuition and fees are just under $20,000.  Additional program details and application information can be found at www.beachgis.com.

Suzanne P. Wechsler, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Geography, California State University Long Beach (CSULB)
Director, Master of Science in Geographic Information Science (MSGISci)

Introduction to Geospatial Technology Using QGIS

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New to GIS?  New to QGIS open source software?  Check out this free self paced course from Del Mar College introducing you to GIS and QGIS software.  The course opens today.

Topics covered in this course include GIS, cartography, remote sensing, and spatial analysis through a series of lectures and hands-on computer-based exercises. This course is designed to be used as a stand-alone course to complement other disciplines or as an entry level course into a geospatial program. Course content is based upon the United States Department of Labor’s Geospatial Technology Competency Model for entry level geospatial occupations, including Geospatial or GIS Technicians and Technologists.

If you consider yourself knowledgeable in GIS, but want to know more about QGIS open source software, visit the QGIS website and follow the training manual.

Free ArcGIS Pro Training

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New to ArcGIS Pro?  Take advantage of ESRI’s free online training to learn the key capabilities of the software:

ArcGIS Pro interface

  • Project structure
  • Explore the ArcGIS Pro interface and structure
  • Map views
  • Work with map views

Editing

  • Editing workflow
  • Edit in ArcGIS Pro

Analysis

  • Geoprocessing and visual analysis
  • Perform analysis in ArcGIS Pro
  • Perform visual analysis of 3D data

Sharing projects

  • Map layouts
  • Create map layouts
  • Packages
  • Create a package file
  • Web layers and web maps
  • (Optional) Share a web layer

ArcGIS Pro licenses come with your ArcGIS Desktop licenses.  You will also need an ArcGIS Online Organizational account.