News, events, and announcements for the UD GIS community, November 2013

News

  • We would like to convene a meeting of UD GIS community leaders and stakeholders to discuss the strategic direction for our GIS resources.  I’ve started this document for brainstorming.  Please add your questions.  I’ve created a Doodle to schedule this meeting over the January term.  Please indicate your availability so that we can pick a date when most are available.
  • If you are interested in learning about temporal GIS/story maps, spatial database, or an introductory-level workshop on ArcGIS 10.2 please let me know.  I would like to present these topics in the best format and on a convenient date for participants.
  • We held a 4 day workshop on HAZUS, GIS-based natural hazard modeling software, from FEMA
  • Do you have a publication, grant, or other story you’d like to share with the UD GIS community?  I am happy to include it in this update and pass it on to other relevant parties … free PR!  Public stakeholders at the DGDC meeting (I’m attending on Wednesday) are always interested to know what’s going on at UD.

Recent Publications

Software Updates

Data Updates

  • The UD Satellite Receiving Station has raw data and derived products from: MODIS, GOES-EAST, NOAA AVHHR, and NPP
  • Esri US 2013 Data Update for Business Analyst for Desktop and Server are available  upon request

Events

  • 11/13/13: Delaware Geographic Data Committee, Dover, DE.  Agenda, Minutes
  • 11/13/13: Geo Open Source Conference, Philadelphia, PA
  • 1st week of January or February 2014: IT UnConference
  • ArcGIS 10.2 Workshop, Date TBA
  • Spatial Database Workshop, Date TBA
  • Time Enabled Workshop, Date TBA
  • 5/8/14: Delmarva GIS 2014, Bridgeville, DE
  • 7/8-7/11/2014: 11th International Symposium on Spatial Accuracy Assessment in Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences Kellogg Conference Center, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan
  • 7/14-7/18/2014: Esri International User Conference
  • 8/4-8/8/14: “Humanities Intensive Learning & Teaching“, U. of MD College Park

Past Events and Webinars

  • The last Quarterly DGDC meeting minutes are available for review.  Information on the Fall meeting is above.
  • Network Delaware Day.  Among other presentations on network-reliant projects was  “Environmental Data Services for Delaware” by Kevin Brinson and Tina Callahan of DEOS and DEMAC
  • I enjoyed speaking with those of you who dropped by our table on GIS at the UD IT Tech Fair
  • I attended the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) Biennial Meeting as UD’s Official Representative.  I would be happy to help if you are interested in learning more about ICPSR’s data curation/repository capabilities and vast holdings of data, including much survey data.

Other Opportunities

  • Applications are being accepted now for the 2014 ICPSR Summer Undergraduate Internship Program, an intensive, 10-week program in Ann Arbor, Michigan, for students interested in social science research.
  • A new GIS course is being taught in the Spring, GEOG473/673-013 Select Technical Topics: Digtial storytelling (1 credit).  This course is ideal for students who want to learn how to create videos for course assignments or research. Learn step-by-step digital storytelling skills using video technology you have readily available. The first half of the course will be online, utilizing social media to learn key components.  The second phase will include six 2-hour sessions providing hands on training with your video and editing equipment to create one completed video by the end of the course.

Area/Forwarded Job Postings (if no link, email me mearns@udel.edu, and I’ll forward the email announcements)

  • Undergraduate Research – Special Opportunity: Using Salt Tolerant Crops on Marginal Agricultural Land
  • Assistant/Associate Professor, Geospatial Analytics Faculty, Department of Marine Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, NC State University
  • Assistant/Associate Professor, Geographic Science, James Madison University
  • Assistant Professor, Transportation planning and geographic information systems, Georgia Institute of Technology
  • Assistant Professor, GIScience, Department of Geography University at Buffalo (UB)
  • Spatial Data Analyst/Curator, U-Spatial: Support for Spatial Research, University of Minnesota

Some Current GIS Projects and Tags

  • “Lima Bean” grant: soil science, USDA, google fusion tables, d3.js
  • UD Map front-end update: responsive design, mobile, kiosk, virtual tour
  • UD Campus data update and hosting: facilities, public safety, ArcGIS Server
  • “Chartible Computing”: Association for Information Systems (https://studentcentral.udel.edu/organization/associationforinformationsystems/about), registered student organization, public service, food bank, google fusion tables
  • Mills support: parallel processing, multiprocessing (python package), pickle, subprocess

Recent UD GIS Blog posts

  • win-sshfs is what you want if you’re attempting to mount network accessible linux directories in windows (pre-8), e.g. #millsCluster #UDel

 

As always, please let me know if you have any questions or ideas that you’d like to discuss