The GISDE program strongly encourages professional development in GIS and even offers professional seminar course for students to prepare students and have them best utilize their GISDE degrees. The GISDE department has taken professional development a step further by offering students a chance to take on real world GIS consulting work within the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Research Seminar offered for the first time this spring. Students work in groups of four and use GIS and remote sensing techniques on WCS projects around the world.
I’m in a group that is assisting in the conservation of land for the Mongolian Gazelle. We’re using remote sensing techniques to figure out where forage for the gazelle grows most consistently from year to year. The idea is that these patches of consistent vegetation could help in selecting conservation lands.The analysis goes further as we are also looking into how rain and temperature events influence the growth of potential forage. This will offer insight into how a changing climate may influence the lands chosen for conservation.
As a team of consultants my group and I update our client (the WCS) on our research and plans. In return, the WCS also serves as a teaching body, training us in their expectations for consultants in their agency. John Rogan and Florencia Sangermano serve as facilitators and ensure groups are meeting deadlines with high quality products. At the end of the semester we’ll present our findings to the WCS at their headquarters in the Bronx zoo. The course is a nice blend between applying the skills developed so far and fitting them into the context of the GIS consulting world. It doesn’t get better than that!
I’m in a group that is assisting in the conservation of land for the Mongolian Gazelle. We’re using remote sensing techniques to figure out where forage for the gazelle grows most consistently from year to year. The idea is that these patches of consistent vegetation could help in selecting conservation lands.The analysis goes further as we are also looking into how rain and temperature events influence the growth of potential forage. This will offer insight into how a changing climate may influence the lands chosen for conservation.
As a team of consultants my group and I update our client (the WCS) on our research and plans. In return, the WCS also serves as a teaching body, training us in their expectations for consultants in their agency. John Rogan and Florencia Sangermano serve as facilitators and ensure groups are meeting deadlines with high quality products. At the end of the semester we’ll present our findings to the WCS at their headquarters in the Bronx zoo. The course is a nice blend between applying the skills developed so far and fitting them into the context of the GIS consulting world. It doesn’t get better than that!
-Mike Towle, 2nd Year GISDE Master's of Science Candidate
