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GIS at UWM

Since 1988, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) has experienced a rapidly increasing interest in geographic information systems (GIS) from existing and prospective students, faculty from many different disciplines, and a number of outside public and private organizations. In that year, two GIS courses were introduced to graduate and undergraduate students from various academic programs at the University. As time went on and more courses were added, more faculty and students became aware of the vast potential that GIS technology offered in so many different disciplines.

Each year, as word about the program spreads, new students are attracted to the GIS-related education and research facilities at the University. Increasingly, organizations in the public, private, and non-profit sectors are expressing interest in the University's capabilities related to GIS technology. This interest, combined with the availability of authentic local government data from the City of Milwaukee and other sources (such as the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency), have worked to create a powerful educational, research, and urban service capacity for the University.

UWM has established itself internationally as an urban-based, multi-disciplinary geographic information systems institution that utilizes GIS technology and unique government data in the education of future professionals in a variety of disciplines, prepares students for a GIS-related career, and conducts research and provides GIS-related services to an urban and regional community for addressing current public and private sector information needs.

UWM GIS in the news


Mockert and "Making the Case for GIS Coordination" featured at GIS Day Luncheon

Another successful GIS Day is behind us. Several hundred students, staff, area professionals, and guests attended our event. Activities this year included a map gallery, vendor demonstrations, and hands-on workshops.

The highlight of our event was Mr. Mockert's presentation, (available here) which focused on the importance of Geographic Information (GI) coordination, addressing three topic areas:

• developing a statewide GI governance body (a geographic information coordination council) in Wisconsin;
• the importance of coordination across jurisdictions at all levels as the world moves into the "New Web 2.0";
• and how to truly leverage the collective investments in GIS in this new environment of readily available and massive amounts of information.

Link to Mr. Mockert's PowerPoint presentation.
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Ottman reports from NASA DEVELOP Earth Science Internship

I am working on a joint project between the National Park Service and the Ecological Forecasting Lab here at NASA. The Ecological Forecasting Lab uses MODIS sensor's LAI (Leaf Area Index) product as an input to their TOPS (Terrestrial Observation and Prediction System) Model. The TOPS model provides ecological fore-casts and now-casts for park managers. Even though there has been extensive validation on the MODIS sensor, by large teams of scientists with months of field work, the NPS wants to further increase their confidence in the MODIS LAI product over Yosemite's steep topography and heterogeneous landscape.

Our team conducted two weeks of field work in Yosemite. We laid out a sampling grids representative of 25, 28m resolution Landsat pixels. We sampled data using Digital Hemispheric Photography and the LAI-2000, both corrected for vegetation clumping in coniferous tree stands with a TRAC (Tracing Radiation and Architecture of Canopies) instrument.

We are using a 2007 Landsat image to produce a Reduced Simple Ratio vegetation index map of Yosemite. That RSR image will be run through a regression analysis with LAI ground-measurements to produce a ground-truthed LAI map of Yosemite that will be re-sampled to 1km MODIS resolution. The ground-truthed LAI map and the MODIS LAI product map will be compared. We are still processing our data.

In the next two weeks, I have to fly down to Langley, VA to give a presentation on this to the director of Earth Sciences at NASA. Little more intense than Geog 600… =)

Dusty
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Mike Kumbera's article in ArcNews

In MUP and Certificate student Mike Kumbera's article in the Winter 2006/2007 issue of ARCNEWS, Symbiont and the City of Milwaukee were recognized for innovative use of geographic information system (GIS) and global positioning system (GPS) technologies as part of a remedial excavation project performed by Symbiont at a brownfields property located in Milwaukee. ARCNEWS is published quarterly by the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI), and is the largest GIS publication in the world, with an estimated global readership of more than 600,000 professionals.

Mike says his internship project "was a brownfield site in Milwaukee that needed to be excavated to be in compliance with residential soil standards. We used a GPS to collect topographic data on the site as well as manage the depths of the excavation. We used GIS to manage the GPS data collected on site, identify coordinates to stake-out the excavation areas, perform cut/fill's to calculate the soil excavation, and create high quality map documents."

Link to Online Article---
http://www.esri.com/news/arcnews/winter0607articles/maintaining-accurate.html
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Professional, student-led GIS Club established at UWM

Founding members Brian Thayer, Kyle Noll, Rama Mohapatra, and Greg Rybarczyk have been successful in creating a new student organization "which would help unite anyone enrolled at UWM who shares a common interest in pursuing GIS as a career."

The club's first item of business is to create some flyers to distribute during GIS Day and take a leadership role in providing lab assistance to the nine workshops taking place that day. They have also made arrangements to have a table set up during the vendor demonstrations where a poster will highlight the multidisciplinary nature of GIS. It is hoped this approach will help generate interest among students who have not been exposed to some of the potential applications of the technology. Brian goes on to say, "We hope the [membership] list grows considerably in the coming months."

Membership forms and flyers will be available at GIS Day.
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  UWM Urban Planning Department receives
ESRI Special Achievement in GIS Award

At its annual User Conference in San Diego this past July (2005), the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) named UWM’s Department of Urban Planning as a recipient of its Special Achievement in GIS (SAG) award. The SAG award ceremony was held on July 27 at the San Diego convention center and presided over by Jack Dangermond, the president and founder of ESRI.

The SAG awards are given annually to organizations who have exhibited exemplary use of ESRI’s geographic information systems software, ArcGIS. Their web site describes SAG awardees

“By embracing GIS technology, these organizations have made extraordinary contributions to our global society and set new precedents throughout the GIS community.”

Recipients of the Special Achievement in GIS award are submitted by ESRI staff from thousands of organizations worldwide, then personally reviewed and selected by Jack Dangermond. Here is what ESRI said about the UWM GIS program in Urban Planning:

“The Department's interests and activities span a broad range of topics, including: GIS in transportation, public participation GIS, and building local capacity in developing nations. The faculty are highly published and have been leading participants in URISA, UCGIS and the Wisconsin Land Information Association. In addition, they are involved in programs to bring GIS skills to at-risk students in local school districts. Their work with local transit agencies and local units of government to develop a multi-modal internet trip planning capability to has helped economically challenged individuals find ways to get to places of potential employment. The Department has a strong GIS-oriented faculty that has been and continues to be at the forefront of education, outreach and research. “

Receiving the award in San Diego were Professor William Huxhold and Adjunct Associate Professor Eric Fowler. Pictured below are Nick Fisher (former GIS student), Huxhold, Dangermond, Fowler, and Ann Johnson (ESRI Education Manager.)
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