Reinke and Krenzelok Named 2015 UMN Minnesota GIS/LIS Student Scholar Award Winners

Congratulations to Jennifer Reinke (MGIS) and Joseph Krenzelok (B.S., Geography) who have been named as the 2015 UMN Minnesota GIS/LIS Student Scholar Award recipients.  Joseph, who is advised by Steve Manson, is the undergraduate award winner for his project, "Detecting Terminus Advance and Velocity of Hubbard Glacier, Alaska, Using Image Correlation Techniques."  Jennifer, who is advised by Len Kne, is the graduate award winner for her project, "Il etait une fois: Mapping Balzac's Paris."  Joseph and Jennifer will represent the University of Minnesota in the undergraduate and graduate student paper competition sessions at the 2015 Minnesota GIS/LIS Annual Conference held in Duluth this fall.  Good luck to both of them!

2015 U-Spatial Mapping Prize Winners Announced

Congratulations to all of the 2015 U-Spatial Mapping Prize winners including our own MGIS students. Sarah Belcher's map, Creating a Matchbook of Memories, won in the Graduate Student - Best Use of Maps category. Mike Clementz took the prize for Graduate Student - Best Cartography for his submission, Air Operations Planning Map Series: Scott Glacier. Finally, Paul Paddock won the prize for Graduate Student - Best Use of Maps for his entry, Sidewalk Poems in Historic Downtown Northfield.  Thanks to U-Spatial for sponsoring this wonderful competition and to U of M alumnus Jack Dangermond, founder and president of Esri, whose generous gift made this Mapping Prize possible.

2015 MGIS Graduate Job Hires and Changes

Congratulations to our MGIS students who have graduated in 2015 and secured jobs or are in the process of interviewing!   Many other graduates have been promoted or changed jobs in 2015 as they continue to achieve success in the GIS profession!

Nathan Aamot (2009) now works for Optum Technology in Minneapolis, Minnesota as their GIS Technical Lead.

Chris Brink (2015) has been hired as a GIS Production Specialist/Journeyman Cartographer for East View Geospatial in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

David Bryson (2008) now works for Cloud Sherpas as a Geospatial Solutions Consultant in Denver, Colorado.

Kyle Chester (2010) moved to Charlotte, North Carolina in late April to begin a new position with ESRI as a Solution Engineer. Brian Udell (2010) has been hired into Kyle's former position as Senior Geospatial Analyst at Xcel Energy.

Jason Dally (2015) is a GIS Technician at CenterPoint Energy in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Stephan Dunning (2004) is now a Senior Program Director with Optum Labs in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Brian Fischer (2001) has been promoted to a Vice President and Senior GIS Project Manager at Houston Engineering in Maple Grove, Minnesota.

Teresa Lewandowski (2014) has been hired as a Web Application Developer for SetSight in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Yiwen Li (2014) has moved to Butte, Montana to become a GIS Specialist with the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology at Montana Tech.

Taylor Long (2015) has been hired as a Cartographer for the National Park Service in Denver, Colorado.

Yuanyuan Luo (2014) was recently hired as a Product Engineer in ESRI's Software Products Division in Redlands, California.

Molly (Wynia) McDonald (2014) now works as a GIS and Planning Assistant for the Upper Mississippi River Basin Association in St. Paul, Minnesota

Agata Miszczyk (2015) is a GIS Technician at HDR, Inc. in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Bennett Morris (2011) has been promoted to the position of GIS Manager with the Bois Forte Tribal Government on the Bois Forte Indina Reservation in northern Minnesota.

Joseph Mueller (2015) has been hired as a Geospatial Analyst for Travelers Insurance in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Andrew Munsch (2014) recently began his new position as the GIS Information Technology Specialist for the Real Estate Office at the University of Minnesota.

Sandra Paddock (2000) has transitioned to a position as an Information Technology Consultant with Pearson VUE in Minneapolis, MN.

Noel Peterson (2011) has been promoted to a Senior Analyst at the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning.

Kathryn Purdham (2015) has been hired as the GIS Coordinator for Nobles County, Minnesota.

Andrew Reicks (2015) has been hired as a GIS Specialist 2 at CDM Smith in Chicago, Illinois.

Andrew Walz (2015) works for Flat Rock Geographics, based in Minneapolis, as a GIS Software Developer.

Kyle Wikstrom (2015) has been hired as a GIS Solutions Specialist for Pro-West and Associates in Walker, Minnesota.

Shashi Shekhar receives 2015 UCGIS Education Award

Dr. Shashi Shekhar, the McKnight Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Computer Science and MGIS faculty member at the University of Minnesota, has received the 2015 UCGIS Education Award. Dr. Shekhar was recognized for his many contributions to GIScience education. According to the UCGIS, In 2003, Dr. Shekhar co-authored a textbook on spatial databases (Prentice Hall, 2003), which has become a GIScience classic. It transformed our view of a GIS from a static map to a spatial database, which can yield many maps customized to individual users. The highly regarded book is used to teach spatial database topics around the world. To reach GIScience students beyond the Minnesota campus, Shashi recently co-developed and co-taught a massive open online course (MOOC), titled "From GPS and Google Maps to Spatial Computing" on Coursera. It attracted over 21,800 students from 182 countries. He's leveraged numerous service assignments and hundreds of speaking engagements to spread the word about GIScience. In his own classroom, he is an innovative teacher who engages his students with active-learning methods and original effective course design. He has mentored 75 graduate advisees, many of whom have risen to leadership roles in academia, industry, and government.

Yiqun Xie Selected for 2015 ESRI Summer Internship Program

Congratulations to Yiqun (Ian) Xie, MGIS graduate student, who has been selected to participate in the very competitive ESRI Summer Internship program! Ian will spend this summer at the ESRI Headquarters in Redlands, California working for the ESRI Mapping and Charting Center. Some possible projects he will work on include machine learning on data validation, object recognition algorithms with images or LIDAR, and 3D GIS. Ian has also been admitted to the PhD program in Computer Science for Fall 2015. He will join the Spatial Computing Research Group and work on spatial database and data mining under the supervision of his adviser, Dr. Shashi Shekar, Professor of Computer Science and MGIS Faculty member.

Andy Walz Named the 2015 UMN ESRI Development Center Student of the Year

Congratulations to Andy Walz, MGIS graduate student, who has been named the 2015 UMN ESRI Development Center Student of the Year. The Esri Development Center (EDC) program provides recognition and special status to university departments and centers that have exemplary programs focused on educating students to design and develop GIS applications using ESRI's ArcGIS for Desktop, Server, and Mobile technologies. Students in the EDC program are allowed special access to ESRI software for their projects. Andy will be automatically entered in the International EDC Student of the Year competition; the winner is selected by ESRI from all the EDCs worldwide and announced at the 2015 ESRI User Conference.

GISSO's 2015 Annual GIS Career and Networking Fair A Huge Success!

Congratulations to the GIS Student Organization (GISSO) which hosted its hugely successful annual GIS Career and Networking Fair on Monday, March 30th from 11 am to 4 pm in the Mississippi Room of Coffman Memorial Union on the University of Minnesota Twin Cities Campus. GISSO members did an outstanding job organizing an excellent set of guest speakers, employer representatives, student posters and much more. The goal of this career fair is to build a bridge between GIS/Geography students and employers around the region, granting the opportunity to network, exchange job opportunities and resumes, and share research and technologies being used in both the professional and academic worlds.