Facilities and Labs
Geographic Information Science Center
Kelley Crews, Director
Alex Moffett, Research Assistant
The campus-wide Geographic Information Science (GISc) Center embodies a three-pronged mission that encompasses research, instruction/education, and outreach. Led by the Department of Geography, the Center includes participants across the UT campus including College of Liberal Arts, College of Natural Sciences, School of Architecture, School of Library Science, Center for Space Research, and the Environmental Science Institute. The Center coordinates UT's existing but previously disjointed strengths in Geographic Information Science and related fields while simultaneously providing infrastructure and leadership in fully integrating digital spatial technologies within the campus as well as with the wider community throughout the state.
Geographic Information Science (GISc) refers to the integration of two components: scientific theory and information systems. The information systems approach synchronized through the evolution of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is united with the explicit understanding of the importance of the substantive or thematic nature of the subject of analysis. That is, any application must be informed by understanding both the phenomenon under study as well as the software and methodologies used to assess that phenomenon. GISc unites a variety of spatial digital technologies including but not limited to Geographic Information Systems (GIS), remote sensing, spatial analysis and statistics, spatial simulations and modeling, data visualization, and global positioning systems (GPS). Existing campus strengths in the substantive areas of inquiry will be leveraged to complement the Center's focus on facilitating the use of these technologies across the campus and in the community.
The Center approaches this task through three separate but related missions: 1) research-- facilitating the application of spatial digital technologies in faculty and center research; 2) instruction/education-- providing training in state of the art software applications as well as in the use of these technologies in discipline-specific contexts and interdisciplinary education; and 3) outreach-- providing this information, training, and locally relevant data to the wider community.
Research: Many UT scholars already perform research that has some level of overlap with GISc. However, the conduction of this research requires access to the tools and techniques required for performing leading research. One such component is affordable access to software. The Center has brought to UT its first ESRI (GIS) site license to campus, greatly reducing the cost of performing GISc research, and recently a digital image processing license has been added to the software managed by the Center (ERDAS Imagine). The newly developed center also is in the beginning stages of bringing together participants from multiple disciplines interesting in creating a more integrated and focused GISc research agenda for UT that leverages existing research strengths.
Instruction/Education: Two frequent comments by those who teach GISc and GIS on campus are that 1) their classes always have waiting lists of students interested in learning GIS to help in securing employment or admission into graduate school, and 2) many students ask for a hands-on software class shorter than a semester to provide software training only. This latter concern is sometimes referred to among technology instructors as training versus education. Some people need software training, whereas others require a more integrated GISc education that includes the substantive theory being applied. Current GIS classes on campus accomplish the education mission, and provide those who would come to the Center looking for in-depth and theoretically rich instruction several places to go. Beginning in 2003, the Center will offer ESRI-authorized and other short courses as well as ESRI authorized components of long semester courses. The offering of short courses by a full-time staff person and/or affiliated faculty member not only provides a high demand service but also offers an opportunity for UT members interested in GIS and GISc to meet other similarly interested researchers, instructors, and students, thus expanding the GISc community. A short course on using GPS technology (global positioning systems) is underway and should be operational by late 2003.
Outreach: In many ways the course instruction described above is one of the main types of outreach or service that the university provides to the campus and to the greater community. Certification of this process could, for example, be used by area teachers for continued learning credit. But in addition, the Center is considering offering an entry for access to a comprehensive database available to the public in regards to the Austin area and throughout Texas that would be maintained through partnership with several interested local and state government agencies. Rather than duplicating other such efforts, one goal of the Center is to combine these existing sources into one central (virtual) place that anyone could access GIS data about the area, and basic mapping and analysis functions. In addition, training materials may be placed online or set up for telecommuting for those who do not have physical access to the UT campus but are interested in learning more about GISc. The Center has begun to provide mapping services to other UT offices to help show the practical uses of GIS in the university community.