UCGIS Summer Assembly – Report

By Greg Elmes, Communications Committee

If environmental determinism holds any truths, then the intellectual achievements of the UCGIS Summer Assembly might well be attributed in part to the uplifting sight of the Teton Range, the scent of pines and the sequence of bright warm days and cool evenings. As you might surmise from these purple sentiments, UCGIS held a successful summer assembly from June 28th to July 1st 2005 at the Snow King Resort in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The assembly welcomed researchers and students from member and non-member institutions. Students from 18 UCGIS member institutions received travel awards to participate in the assembly.

Following an emphasis on research at the last assembly, it may be a fair assessment to suggest that the educational mission of UCGIS was at the fore this year. In keeping with the Education Committee’s focus of extending the body of knowledge of geographic information science and technology, Dr. Roger Downs, Head of the Department of Geography, Pennsylvania State University set the tone with a keynote speech titled "Support for Thinking Spatially: The Incorporation of Geographic Information Science Across the K-12 Curriculum." Dr. Downs reported on a National Academies, Board of Earth Science project to characterize the nature of spatial thinking and what we need to know about it in order to incorporate it into instruction in many disciplines. A volume “Leaning to Think Spatially” will be published by National Academic Press in 2005. The opening plenary session was followed by a panel lead by Sue Kalweit, of Booz Allen Hamilton and USGIF Academy leader, debating the recent initiative of the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) and its proposed Geospatial Academy. USGIF’s vision is to build an accredited institution to support the professional education needs of the geospatial intelligence tradecraft to assure its continuance in homeland and national security. A panel of academic, industry representatives and others will establish curriculum guidelines, and accreditation standards and processes for geospatial intelligence academic courses and certificate programs. These conversations were a fitting introduction to the afternoon’s work-oriented session towards the advance of the model curricula and the GIScience and technology “Body of Knowledge” lead by David DiBiase and members of the education Committee. Participants reviewed and augmented selected elements of the model curricula as the project drives towards a 2006 publication goal.

June 30th began with the research plenary featuring Dr. John Wilson, University of Southern California “GIS in the City: A GISer’s Guide to Advancing Policy and Practice.” John provided a number of successful examples of GI inspired research projects, which have had considerable effect both inside and outside the traditional scientific community. The assembly also featured a series of six student paper presentation sessions. Students presented results of advanced research projects in sessions varying from designing geospatial web systems and geospatial knowledge representation to forecasting populations in space and time. Two papers won the Cartography and Geographic Information Science Journal Prize and Transactions in GIS Prize and will be assisted for fast-track publication. The full papers are available online in pdf format.

At the award ceremony, Mei Po Kwan, The Ohio State University, was recognized as the UCGIS Researcher of the Year, and David DiBiase, Pennsylvania State University, was the recipient of the UCGIS Educator of the Year award. Young scholars, Dr. Kevin M. Curtin, University of Texas at Dallas and Dr. Junchang Ju, Boston University received the Intergraph Young Scholars Award. Dr. Steven M. Manson, University of Minnesota and Dr. Xiaobai Yao, University of Georgia received the ESRI Young Scholars Award. A visibly enthused Zaria Tatalovich, University of Southern California, won the UCGIS student paper and oral presentation. Congratulations to all students who participated in a contest with high standards.

Workshops, which are a hallmark of the summer assembly, proved popular. They were organized around diverse themes including teaching and learning for graduate students and new faculty members; development of the “Body of Knowledge;” priorities and action in GIScience policy; promoting GIScience and UCGIS on campus; and opportunities for sponsored GIScience research. The next edition of the successful virtual seminar will be on “GIS Ethics.” Students and faculty interested in participating this fall should contact Dr. David Dibiase.

On the final morning a distinguished panel of five ex-presidents took to the podium to cast their reflection on the achievements and future directions of UCGIS. There was a lively and sometimes heated exchange of perspectives regarding the mission of the organization ten years after its establishment. Debate at UCGIS is alive and well.

At the Council meeting, UCGIS president, officers, and committee chairs reported recent activities and issues of interest and concern to the UCGIS community. The fun moment of the assembly came at the annual UCGIS GIScience Bowl. Hosted by Bowl-Meister, John Wilson, a large number of student teams, with help of their faculty lifelines, competed for the grand prize. A sample of these serious and fun moments at the assembly are captured in an automated slide show with photos contributed by David Tulloch and Nina Lam.

The assembly participants extend thanks to the Research, Education, and Policy and Legislation committees, lead by Tim Nyerges, Dave DiBiase and John Shuler respectively. The whole would not have been a success without the tireless efforts and enthusiasm of Mary Lou Larsen, University of Wyoming, in selecting the outstanding facility and coordinating local arrangements.