Author: Janine Glathar

Janine Glathar joined the Digital Pedagogy & Scholarship team in 2009 to fill the newly-created role of GIS Specialist at Bucknell. She has worked in the field of geospatial technologies for more than 15 years as research specialist, technical analyst and software trainer. Prior to joining L&IT at Bucknell, Janine spent seven years doing applied GIS research in Philadelphia’s non-profit social services sector as the GIS Senior Analyst for Philadelphia Safe & Sound and the Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition. Before transitioning to the social services research world, Janine worked for the GIS software company ESRI as a trainer and education/non-profit coordinator. She earned a B.A. in European History and Russian Language/Literature at the University of Pennsylvania. If you ask Janine where she’s from, she’ll tell you she’s a Navy brat and will probably offer to show you a map of all of the various places she’s lived over the years.

Areas of expertise:
ArcGIS, Digital Pedagogy, Digital Scholarship, GIS, Google Earth, Spatial Thinking

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Bucknell/Local Interest General GIS Slideshow

Call for faculty interest in summer 2012 GIS workshops at Bucknell (revised)

As we have for the past two summers, Bucknell’s LIT division will offer a series of summer workshops for faculty interested in hands-on instruction in GIS. Stipends of $400 will be offered to faculty for participating in each workshop. Please fill out this interest/registration form as soon as possible if you are interested in any of the following workshops.

Overview

1. Introductory GIS workshop (4 days, 4 hours per day) – no prerequisites
Monday, August 6th-Thursday, August 9th from 9am-1pm (lunch included)
2. Using ArcHydro for Water Resources Analysis (3 days, 8 hours per day)*
Monday, August 13th-Wednesday, August 15th from 9am-1pm (lunch included)
3. Spatial Statistics with ArcGIS and Geoda (2 days, 8 hours on 1st day, 4 hours on 2nd day)*
Thursday, August 16th from 9am-4pm and Friday, August 17th from 9am-1pm (lunch included)

Details – Spatial Statistics with ArcGIS & Geoda

The workshop ‘Spatial Statistics with ArcGIS and Geoda’ will be taught by Professor Jennifer Miller, Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography & Environment and Director of the GIScience Center at University of Texas at Austin. Below is a tentative outline of the 3-day workshop. Faculty will have an opportunity to work with their own data for part of the last day of the workshop.

Day 1: Introduction to Spatial analysis and Point pattern analysis

  • 1st order vs 2nd order effects (density vs. distance)
  • Nearest neighbor analysis, Ripley’s K statistics
  • Interpreting results (z-scores, Monte Carlo simulation)

Day 2: (Global) Spatial pattern measurement and modeling

  • Spatial autocorrelation analysis
  • Conceptualizing spatial relationships
  • Moran’s I, Getis-Ord General G statistic
  • OLS Regression
  • Model fittingModel diagnostics
  • Residual analysis

Day 3: (Local) Spatial pattern measurement and modeling

  • Local spatial autocorrelation analysis
  • LISA, Gi* (Geoda software)Mapping/interpreting results
  • Geographically weighted regression
  • Spatial non-stationary

Details – Using ArcHydro for Water Resources Analysis

The workshop ‘Using ArcHydro for Water Resources Analysis’ is tentatively scheduled to be taught by Professor Venkatesh Merwade, Assistant Professor in the School of Civil Engineering at Purdue University and Director of the Geospatial Water Resources Institute.  We are close to finalizing details on this workshop, so stay tuned for details on who will teach the workshop. Below is a tentative outline of the 3-day workshop. Faculty will have an opportunity to work with their own data for part of the workshop.

  • ArcGIS Skills Review
  • Integrating Geospatial and Temporal Datasets for Hydrology
  • Raster and Vector Data in Hydrology
  • Terrain Analysis in ArcGIS (Hydrology Tools)
  • Terrain Processing Using ArcHydro
  • Developing SCS Curve Number Grid
  • HEC-GeoHMS Application
  • HEC-HMS Application
  • HEC GeoRAS Application
  • HEC-RAS Application
  • Building ArcHydro Network using NHD
  • Groundwater Tools in ArcGIS
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Bucknell/Local Interest Data Environment General GIS GIS in Engineering GIS in Environmental Studies Slideshow

GIS in the Classroom: Civil & Environmental Engineering 432

Last summer, Bucknell’s administration asked our GIS team to conduct an analysis of parking availability across campus.  The project was assigned to Dan Dougherty, Geography/History ’12 and is summarized in Dan’s guest post here. This spring, a team of four students in Prof. Michelle Oswald’s CENG 432 course, Sustainable Transportation Engineering, are picking up where Dan left off. The team – comprised of Meredith Menzel, Emily Liggett, Dennis Lee and Jordan Roder (all CENG majors from the class of 2012) – intends to add new data, extend the analysis and propose environmentally-friendly solutions to the parking shortages across campus. Says Menzel,

“We are planning on doing some of our own surveying to update these parking lot ratios and update the maps with any new parking lots, especially in relation to the current construction, the Bucknell South campus project, and the Master Plan.

We are also planning on surveying Bucknell students and staff to collect more information about who drives, walks, etc. to evaluate the parking demand which will help us propose new parking solutions. If some of these solutions involve physically redesigning the parking lots at Bucknell, we were planning on creating some new maps to present our solutions.”

Incidentally, 3 of the 4 team members (Menzel, Liggett and Lee), are veterans of Prof. Carl Kirby’s GEOL230 class, Environmental GIS. Below are maps that each of the students produced for GEOL230 (click on the images to view them at full size). Stay tuned for updates for their work on the parking analysis.

Dennis Lee’s poster from GEOL230

 Emily Liggett’s poster from GEOL230

A map from Meredith Menzel’s GEOL230 presentation

 

 

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Bucknell/Local Interest Environment General GIS GIS in Geography GIS in History GIS Jobs, Internships, Scholarships & Grad Programs Slideshow

GIS could help you get into grad school (and get funding!)

In recent posts I’ve given examples of how GIS can help you find an internship during your undergraduate years (click here to read more) and/or help you land a job once you have graduated from Bucknell (click here, here and here to read more).  Having experience with GIS as an undergraduate can also help you get into grad school (and get funding!).

Nick Gonsalves, Geography ’11, is a great example. In addition to taking Prof. Duane Griffin’s GEOG204 ‘Applied GIS’ course, Nick used GIS as one of the key research methodologies for his senior honors thesis. For his thesis, Nick reconstructed the historical vegetation of Union County during the early historical era (1755-1855) to assess the relationship between topography and vegetation, as well as the impact of European settler tree cutting on vegetation. Nick’s undergraduate experience with GIS and his ability to apply the technology in developing his honors thesis was surely a factor in his acceptance and funding for graduate studies in the University of Georgia’s Geography Department.

Now that he’s in the graduate program at UGA, Nick continues to use GIS for class projects (such as researching the distance food travels from the farm to the farmer’s market in Athens, GA) and for developing his Master’s thesis.  He’s also continuing to present the results of his senior honors thesis from Bucknell – including participating in a poster session at this year’s American Association of Geographers conference in NYC (see below – click on image for a larger version of the poster).

 

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Bucknell/Local Interest General GIS GIS & Environmental Justice GIS in Environmental Studies GIS in Geography GIS in Social Science GIS Jobs, Internships, Scholarships & Grad Programs Slideshow

GIS Job Opportunities – Summer 2012 paid GIS internship with REU

I’ve been posting a lot (here, here and here) about GIS job opportunities for Bucknell’s class of 2012 – but there are also lots of GIS internships out there for returning students. Are you interested in using GIS for research this summer? Do you want to get paid for it too?  If so, you should consider applying to the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program’s Georgia State University site.

The Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program is funded by NSF and among the most competitive and prestigious summer research programs available to undergraduate students. REU targets students from various disciplines and hosts programs at sites all across the U.S.  (click here to see the full list). In Summer 2012 Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA will host an REU site focused on using GIS to do community-based research and fieldwork.  Check out the details below and be sure to tell me if you decide to apply for this.  BTW, having something like this on your resume would be incredibly helpful in any future job searches.

Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site: Addressing Social and Environmental Disparities through Community Geography and Geographic Information Systems.  The project is funded by the National Science Foundation.  The program runs June 18th – August 2nd.

Research Interests: Working with faculty mentors in one of three research tracks, 10 selected undergraduates will engage in community-based research and fieldwork to quantitatively and qualitatively examine neighborhood change, property markets, air and soil quality, urban green spaces, and neighborhood visioning in partnership with neighborhood residents and community groups.

Compensation: Each REU student will receive a competitive funding package, including: a $3000 stipend, up to $250 in travel support to/from Atlanta, up to $750 for conference presentations, free room and board at GSU, and 3 required texts.

Application Process: Applications are due Friday, March 23rd @ 5 PM EST.  Complete application instructions and the application form can be found at http://csaw.gsu.edu/nsf-reu/application-instructions/

To Learn More:  Visit http://csaw.gsu.edu/nsf-reu/

Any questions can be directed to the Dr. Timothy Hawthorne (PI) at thawthorne@gsu.edu or Dr. Katherine Hankins (Co-PI) at khankins@gsu.edu

 

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Bucknell/Local Interest Digital Humanities General GIS Slideshow

Save the date – Bucknell’s GIS in Higher Education Conference 11/16-11/18/12

Bucknell will be hosting a GIS in higher education conference from Friday, Nov. 16th through Sunday, Nov. 18th. The conference will focus on sharing ideas and examples of integrating GIS into teaching and research in the higher ed curriculum as well as opportunities for sharing research datasets and web map apps.  Target audience includes faculty, GIS specialists and students. Stay tuned for details on keynote speaker, session topics and how to submit papers & maps.