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Written by Shambhu Sharan, The Shorthorn senior staff |
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Wednesday, 18 November 2009 09:08 PM |
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The university participated Wednesday in the third annual Geographic Information Systems Day in the Central Library sixth floor parlor by providing information and presenting posters and workshops. Departments can use GIS in different ways to gather data. Geologists use it for urban planning, biologists to track animals’ movement and historians to find historical maps. The event brought many fields that use the technology but never converse together. Participants showcased posters. GIS Day is celebrated by most city firms and government in the world, GIS Librarian Joshua Been said. The university celebrated the event on a smaller scale. Been gave an hour-long workshop on mapping vampires in North America. Attendees exercised their imagination and learned how to explore data, create suitable layers and identify places to look for vampires then create a Google Map of those locations. “It was very interesting,” said Leila Ahmadi, an environmental science graduate student. “I liked [Been’s] presentation. Today, I worked with GIS and learned a lot in one hour. I use GIS for one of my courses.” Vinodh Valluri, environmental science graduate student, said GIS is useful for getting information about businesses and real estate. He said he’s glad he attended the event. Darren Hayunga, finance and real estate assistant professor, gave a presentation titled “Using GIS in Applications of Spatial Statistics.” The presentation focused on employing spatial research techniques in real estate. He said GIS has helped that field. Electrical engineering freshman Adrian Stecker said GIS is useful for his English class. “I use it for the OneBook project [in] my English class,” Stecker said. “I used GIS mapping and found that I am in the happiest country.” |
http://www.theshorthorn.com/content/view/18310/265/