Sinclair Community College has expanded their opportunities for students as they introduce the field of Geographical Information Systems.
“GIS is a system designed to store, manipulate, analyze and manage geographically referenced data,” GIS Professor Jacqueline Housel said.
Housel said GIS is used for any data that is associated with a physical location.
“For example, each time you swipe a card at a grocery store, what you purchase is tracked and associated with you and your home address. Those purchases are geographically referenced,” she said.
Housel said it is a way to organize information that has a location.
According to esri.com, “GIS allows us to view, understand, question, interpret and visualize data in many ways that reveal relationships, patterns and trends in the form of maps, globes, reports and charts.”
Housel said GIS is used on a daily basis by almost everyone without being aware of it; this may be by using the GPS on our phones, using a media site location or playing a video game with GPScaching.
“GIS is one of the fastest growing fields and complements a lot of other degrees: supply side management, digital marketing, urban and regional planning, surveying, Geo-intelligence, geography, sociology, archeology, history, political science, engineering and unmanned aircraft systems, among others,” Housel said.
Enrolling into the program at Sinclair requires students to take the Introduction to GIS course (GEO 1107). Students who enter the program have five required courses (a total of 20 credit hours) to take, and will receive a short term certificate.
“Most students can take the coursework in two, or maybe three semesters,” Housel said.
She said that students enjoy this field because it is not only versatile, but in high demand in the job market.
“There are [GIS] jobs. [Students should] just Google ‘jobs.’ Today I did that and found 17 jobs in Dayton; it’s one of the fastest growing emerging fields,” Housel said.
Some of the students currently enrolled in GIS agreed with Housel.
“There is always data that needs to be put on a map that can help do numerous things, such as planning an escape from a natural disaster, looking for ways to improve traffic flow or deciding where to build something that will give you the most profit,” Jess White, a Geography major said. “There are so many uses for it.”
According to Housel, there is currently no waiting list for GIS courses for Spring 2014. To learn more about GIS and possible careers, visit www.aag.org/careers or www.esri.com/what-is-gis.