Highlights
- GIS Day at Texas A&M features a career fair, industry panel, workshops and networking events
- The geographic information science job market is growing quickly, with over 100 new job postings every day
- Texas A&M students, faculty, staff and the local community are welcome to attend events
- National Geospatial Advisory Committee Chair Julie Sweetkind-Singer will deliver the keynote speech Tuesday Nov. 13 at 4:30 p.m.
If you’ve ever used an app to order lunch delivered to your office, called 911, or used GPS navigation for driving directions, then you’ve benefitted from Geographic Information Science — or GIS — technologies.
Today’s world is tied together with GIS technology. Nearly every public and private sector of society, including banking, health care, tech, and law enforcement, use geospatial tools to make location-based data and services possible. Because of the technology’s widespread utility, job opportunities in GIS are growing, and an interdisciplinary event at Texas A&M University is helping Aggies get trained in GIS skills and network with leading employers.
GIS Day at Texas A&M is a 3-day annual event and the largest GIS Day event in the state. The local community, industry, and Texas A&M students, faculty, and staff are invited to attend free GIS technology workshops and interactive events. A GIS career fair, industry panel and networking events are also open to students.
Attendees are encouraged to register for workshops, events and competitions using the TAMU GIS Day website. All workshops are open to the public; registration is encouraged but not required.
“Geographic information science and technology is one of the cornerstones of modern data-driven applications, modeling and decision-making,” said Dr. Dan Goldberg, a co-chair of GIS Day, and associate professor in the Department of Geography and the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M.
Workshops include:
- Kickstart Your GIS
- Geospatial Modeling, Analysis And Uncertainty
- 3D Aggieland
- Social Media Data Mining
- GIS Vehicle Exhibition
National Security And Digital Infrastructure Run On GIS
Julie Sweetkind-Singer will present the GIS Day keynote, Spatial Data: A National Conversation, Tuesday Nov. 13 at 4:30 p.m. in MSC 2300A. As chair of the National Geospatial Advisory Committee, Sweetkind-Singer officially advises the federal government on the nation’s geospatial infrastructure.
“This year’s keynote will highlight the importance of spatial data to our nation’s infrastructure, and how government agencies use spatial data to inform their decision making,” said Sierra Laddusaw, a GIS Day co-chair and map librarian at the Texas A&M University Libraries. “I’m excited to have Julie with us at GIS Day; she will give us an inside look at how the federal government utilizes spatial data and depends on professionals in the geospatial field to advise them. As a librarian, she can speak to the importance of having an information professional in the national spatial conversation and the role librarians are taking as leaders in the field.”
Sweetkind-Singer is also the assistant director of geospatial and cartographic services and the head of Branner Earth Sciences Library and Map Collections at Stanford University Libraries.
GIS Career Field Is Growing Rapidly
“The GIS job market is booming, with over 100 new job postings every day,” Goldberg said. “All Aggies preparing for careers in science and technology fields and looking for a leg-up on the competition should be learning GIS skills and networking with industry professionals.”
GIS Day gives students from across campus an opportunity to learn these skills for free.
“Texas A&M students in geography, landscape architecture and urban planning, computer science, health science, business, ecosystem science, engineering, and many other disciplines are all learning valuable GIS skills during TAMU GIS Day and turning them into successful careers in the many research, public and private sectors that utilize GIS,” Laddusaw said.
Texas A&M students also are invited to compete in poster and paper competitions, and abstracts for the competitions are due by Nov. 11.
GIS Day is a multidisciplinary, campus-wide event hosted and supported by many Texas A&M Colleges, Departments, and Centers including University Libraries, College of Geosciences, College of Architecture, Department of Geography, Hazard Reduction Recovery Center, Office of Facilities Coordination, Transportation Services, Texas Research Data Center, Texas Sea Grant, and the Center for Texas Beaches and Shores. The event’s website and app were developed by the Department of Geography at Texas A&M.
The organizers would like to thank external industry sponsors ConocoPhillips, ESRI, CivilTech Engineering, and Cimarex Energy for providing additional funding for this year’s events.
Media contact: Leslie Lee, Communications Coordinator, College of Geosciences, (979) 845-0910, leslielee@tamu.edu; or Robyn Blackmon, Communications Manager, College of Geosciences, (979) 845-6324, robynblackmon@tamu.edu.
