Degree Programs

Master of Geospatial Information Science and Technology

This degree will prepare high end professionals to lead North Carolina and the nation both in the development of new technology used to understand and manage spatial phenomena (economic development, disease, emergency planning and response, environmental resources, etc.) and in the management and application of this technology in corporate and service organizations.  The degree will be centered on NC State’s strengths in management of technology, computer engineering, and statistical analytics and will build on our successful Graduate Certificate in GIS and our Master’s of Natural Resources/Spatial Information Systems Option degree.  The new program will focus on advanced skill development in computational modeling and management decision support, as opposed to geography, and will address the growing need for GIS developers, managers, and analysts.

Required Courses (15 hours):

1. GIS/MEA 592 - Geospatial Modeling and Analysis

• Data acquisition, integration, display, and 3D visualization
• Neighborhood and proximity operators, map algebra
• Cost surfaces, least cost path, emergency response applications
• Spatial interpolation and approximation
• Terrain and bathymetry mapping and modeling, LIDAR data processing
• Topographic analysis, line of sight, viewshed analysis
• Flow tracing, watershed analysis, landforms
• Modeling of geospatial processes
• GIS-based hydrologic and erosion modeling (introduction)
• Solar radiation, photovoltaic energy potential assessment
• Hands-on experience with open source GRASS GIS and ArcGIS

2. GIS/NR 532 –Principles of Geographic Information Science

• Introduction to GIS software: ArcView vs ArcInfo applications.
• Data formats (discrete, continuous, raster, vector)
• Georeferencing, map projections, scale
• Geographic data: scale, sampling, measuring distance/similarity, census data
• Generalization
• Geodatabase, topology, digitizing
• Spatial analysis: polygon overlay, query, transformation, interpolation.
• Spatial analysis: summaries, inference, raster analysis, patterns, routing

3. GIS/NR 595 - GIS Programming Fundamentals

• Automating data preparation, workflow, and spatial processing (via Python)
• Basic programming: Pseudocode, Python syntax, variables, strings, keywords, integrated development environment
• Exporting Modelbuilder models to scripts
• More programming components: flow control, built-in data structures, debugging, file i/o, user-defined functions and modules, built-in modules, introduction to object-oriented programming, using object classes
• Geoprocessing: calling tools, batch geoprocessing, geomessaging, ESRI file i/o
• Customizing Arc desktop with VBA using ArcObjects and scripts
• VBA variables, syntax, forms, events, subroutines, IDE, debugging
• Calling Python from VBA
  
• Introduction to ArcObjects: managing map layers, adding layers to maps, defining queries, browsing to files
• Project: Customizing Arc desktop with VBA calling scripts

4. GIS/NR 533 - Databases and Web Services

• Database models: Relational models, Object-oriented data modeling with universal modeling language (UML)
• Distributed database concepts and implementation, query language
• Transactions, recovery, security, ArcSDE with SQL (or Oracle) server
• Web delivery (including open source software)
• Interoperability, Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards
• Web services

5. GIS/NR 693 - GIST Project Course

• Electronic Portfolio - Each student will develop a web based portfolio demonstrating their technical and management skills in GIS&T. The portfolio will be both a resume of the students credentials and a review of program breadth and quality
• Project description - Students will design and implement a significant "real world" project addressing a complex spatial data management and analysis issue. The projects will emanate from student contacts with private sector firms and government agencies.

Elective Courses (15 hours):

Geographic Information Science

          Any GIS course not listed above.

Business Management

BUS 590A: Strategic Management Foundations

MBA 551 - Service Management and Marketing

MBA 552 - Management Issues in Organizational Culture

MBA 553 - Business Process Design and Analysis

Engineering, Civil

CE 538: Information Technology and Modeling

CE 705: Intelligent Transportation Systems

Engineering, Electrical

ECE 759: Pattern Recognition

ECE 763: Computer Vision

Engineering, Industrial and Systems

ISE 754: Logistics Engineering

Forestry and Environmental Resources

FOR 510: Introduction to GPS

FOR 554: Principles of Spatial Analysis

FOR 753: Environmental Remote Sensing

Landscape Architecture

LAR 500: Landscape Design Studio

LAR 512: Landscape Resource Management

Public Administration

PA 541: GIS for Public Administration

Soil Science

SSC 440: GIS in Production Agriculture

Statistics

ST 733: Applied Spatial Statistics