Master of Geographic Information Systems

The Master of GIS helps geospatial professionals to attain the analytical, technical, and professional skills needed to attain leadership roles in geospatial enterprises. Graduates gain experience with the latest industry technology, including GIS, Lidar, drones, remote sensing, location intelligence, web mapping, geospatial programming, and much more. Students in this program learn to design, specify, and manage complex geographic information infrastructures as leaders in such fields as environmental resource management, urban and regional planning, cartography, business, facilities management, and transportation planning. You will find much of the course content related to this degree in these Open Educational Resources.

Resource Description

General James Clapper, former United States Director of National Intelligence and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), once said "everything happens somewhere." He stressed that there are aspects of time and place to every intelligence problem. In this course, you will examine how time and place work with general intelligence techniques to create geospatial intelligence. You will learn and apply critical thinking skills, structured analytical techniques, and other intelligence methods in a geospatial context.

man pointing to a computer monitor. Three people sitting at a table looking at him.

Photo credit:  Filip Linders, MSF/Doctors Without Borders/Swedish Innovation Unit (used with permission)

Resource Description

Do you believe that we can be more creative in planning our communities and protecting environments for a sustainable future? Would you like to learn a method to make a difference? One that empowers stakeholders and reduces conflict? Geodesign delivers creative solutions for environmental, economic, and social issues. This method works collaboratively across disciplines, deploying innovative technology to dynamically illustrate the impacts of alternative design scenarios.

Unmanned Aerial Systems

Credit: Photo by JESHOOTS.COM is licensed under CC0

Resource Description

Unmanned Aerial Systems, or drones, are developing aggressively, and many government and non-government agencies are considering acquiring such systems. This course will focus on the geo-spatial utilization of a UAS. It will cultivate students' knowledge of the capabilities and limitations of the UAS and data post-processing systems. It introduces fundamental concepts surrounding operating a UAS such as strategies for selecting the right UAS, assessing its performance, managing resulting products (i.e.

Mashups

Credit: Ipad, Map, Tablet, Internet, Screen by FirmBee is licensed under CC0

Resource Description

Locating restaurants in an unfamiliar place, reporting potholes to the local DOT, obtaining real-time traffic conditions... All of these are examples of geospatial web apps that are revolutionizing how people obtain and share information about the world. In GEOG 863, you will learn how to build apps like these. You'll start with a quick look at the fundamentals of web programming (HTML and CSS) before diving in to using JavaScript and a mapping application programming interface (API) developed by Esri.

Resource Description

A good detective or researcher like Sherlock Holmes knows the fundamental questions that need to be answered to gather facts to solve a problem. So how does geospatial intelligence contribute to answering these questions? While geospatial technology is useful in revealing who, what, when, and where events take place, it is less useful in explaining why events occur.

Spatial Database Management

Credit: (c) Penn State University is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Resource Description

A spatial database is the backbone of a successful organization or website that depends upon maintaining and using data pertinent to locations on Earth. In GEOG 868, Spatial Database Management, capabilities specific to Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are combined to teach students to create, maintain, and query spatial databases in both desktop and enterprise environments.

Resource Description

How would you like to travel to new places while collaborating on a geospatial data challenge with students from around the world? In this class, students collaborate on a global-scale geospatial analysis problem with a focus on data analytics and professional practice in Geographic Information Systems. Penn State MGIS students collaborate with graduate students from ITC - University of Twente in Enschede, Netherlands to develop solutions to analyze spatio-temporal patterns in refugee migration data.

Resource Description

Independent Study is an opportunity for students to work with individual direction from a faculty member on a topic of mutual interest in geospatial intelligence. Students must have strong professional experience or have taken courses in the subject matter leading up to the chosen topic. Independent Study is reserved for advanced specialties or for intermediate study in areas in which the department does not normally offer course work. Faculty members are under no obligation to accept Independent Study students, but do so as their teaching load permits.

Independent Study in Geospatial Intelligence

Credit: Computer Laptop by Rudy and Peter Skitterians is licensed under CC0

Resource Description

Independent Study is an opportunity for students to work with individual direction from a faculty member on a topic of mutual interest in geospatial intelligence. Students must have strong professional experience or have taken courses in the subject matter leading up to the chosen topic. Independent Study is reserved for advanced specialties or for intermediate study in areas in which the department does not normally offer course work. Faculty members are under no obligation to accept Independent Study students, but do so as their teaching load permits.

GIS for Transportation: Principles, Data, and Applications

Credit: pxhere photo is licensed under CC0

Resource Description

Do you know how important GIS is to the transportation industry? The spatial applications to this field are so extensive that they represent an entire sub-discipline within the GIS community. In this course, we'll learn about the primary modes of transportation and explore some of the spatial applications developed to meet the unique needs of each. We'll also take a close look at some key organizations in the industry and learn firsthand from more than a dozen transportation professionals about the role GIS plays for them.

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