Geographic Information Science

Preparing a Career in Information Technology

The Department of Geography at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) offers an undergraduate program in Geographic Information Science (GIS). The GIS program emphasizes how digital geographic information is created, analyzed and used to examine economic, environmental, physical and social phenomena. The intent of the GIScience program is to provide students with an indepth knowledge of GIS principles, and expertise with contemporary software packages in order to prepare graduates for work in GIScience businesses. There is growing demand for students with knowledge about the earth’s systems and how geographic information systems are used to enhance business, to protect the environment, and to manage the massive amounts of spatial data that are becoming widely available on the world wide web.

Geographic Information Science Required Courses:

  • GEOG 271 Spatial Analysis
  • GEOG 279 Intro to Geographic Information Systems
  • GEOG 373 Cartography
  • GEOG 377 Intro to Remote Sensing
  • GEOG 379 Principles of GIS

3 of the following 4 courses:

  • GEOG 101 Geography of Developing Countries
  • GEOG 102 Weather and Climate
  • GEOG 103 Physical Geography
  • GEOG 104 Social and Cultural Geography

A minimum of 4 courses from:

  • GEOG 185 Social Statistics
  • GEOG 205 Business Location Decisionmaking: Theory and Practice
  • GEOG 360 Interpretation of Aerial Photographs
  • GEOG 368 Biological Modeling
  • GEOG 369 Spatial Ecosystem Modeling
  • GEOG 370 Introduction to Quantitative Analysis
  • GEOG 376 Applications of GIS to Environmental Problems
  • GEOG 378 Techniques of Remote Sensing Image Analysis

Career Opporunities

Visit these websites to view current job listings to see what you need to study to work in the information technology sector:

Internship Program

Geography Interns with Geological Survey (GIGS) is a program for undergraduate geography majors to work as paid interns with the Illinois State Geological Survey (ISGS).This offers an opportunity for students to apply classroom knowledge derived from GIScience courses to real-world problems being studied by a major Illinois state agency. ISGS is located on the UIUC
campus so students can participate in the internship program while still attending classes at UIUC. Students work between 10 - 20 hours per week during the academic year, and fulltime during the summer.

Facilities

The Department of Geography has two computer labs available for students in the GIScience option. One is a state of the art classroom with 30 HP workstation connected to a server for formal instruction. A second lab has 14 additional computersthat are available for students to work on homework assignments. Both computer labs provide students with access to state-of-theart software, such as ArcGIS, Erdas Imagine, and Stella.

ArcGIS software is used to manage geographic information about places at scales from local communities to global ecosystems. Erdas Imagine software is used to inventory and monitor the earth’s environment with images collected by earth orbiting satellites.

Other Equipment

The geography department has other equipment available to support undergraduate students, such as a large format plotter which can be used to create a portfolio from your classroom assignments, which is useful when interviewing for jobs in the GIScience industry, high resolution image scanner, and Global Positioning receivers.