Charlie Mix helped conduct a GIS workshop on GIS Day 2024. Photo by Angela Foster.
You might not realize it, but you probably use geographic information systems (GIS) every day.
Tools like Google Maps, weather radars, and package tracking all utilize this technology.
“Everyone uses it,” said Charlie Mix, GIS director in the Center for Applied Geospatial Data Science (CAGDS) at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. “Every single industry uses GIS. There’s an application for it and it’s being used by every Fortune 500 company. It’s used in city planning, it’sused in engineering, in public health. It’s used in business and marketing and so on and so on.”
For those who aren’t familiar or proficient with GIS, there is an opportunity at UTC to learn. GIS Day, held every year on the third Wednesday of November, will be celebrated by CAGDS with a workshop for the campus community.
******
The GIS Day workshop will take place from 9-11 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 19, in the Multidisciplinary Research Building (701 E. Martin Luther King Blvd.). It is free and open to UTC students, faculty, staff and members of the public, but seating and computers are limited. Click here to RSVP.
******
This year’s theme focuses on geospatial artificial intelligence (geoAI), the intersection of AI and GIS technology. Participants will be introduced to tools that use deep learning and remote sensing to automate mapping processes.
“Machine learning and AI are really nothing new to GIS,” Mix explained, “but the past few years have brought major advancements in deep learning, particularly in automating workflows for classifying objects in imagery.”
He said what once took days or even weeks to process can now be completed in a matter of hours once a model is properly trained.
Assistant GIS Director Nyssa Hunt said part of the goal is to teach participants how to use AI responsibly.
“Esri (GIS mapping software) is producing a lot of AI modeling solutions and different packages, and it’s really taking off in a lot of directions,” Hunt said. “It’s a good time to show people how to use it responsibly and not just however they think they should. We want to provide guidance on workflows and maybe inspire people with research ideas.”
Mix said the workshop is open to anyone interested in how GIS can be applied across disciplines.
“Anyone who works with data or information should at least get familiar with GIS,” he said. “Especially if you work in engineering, the environment, public health or in nonprofits where you’redealing with community prosperity. If your work involves anything to do with geography, then GIS can help you.”
He added that CAGDS projects have already utilized deep learning to support local environment work, such as in urban forestry where geoAI is used to automate mapping Chattanooga’s tree canopy.
Mix encouraged participants to also join a community networking event, the Chattanooga GIS Users Group “Mappy Hour,” from 5-7 p.m. at Wanderlinger Brewing Company.
“GIS Day is an international celebration of GIS and the people doing GIS to raise awareness, and for people to showcase their work,” Mix said. “This stuff has a real impact. It is being used to hopefully make the world a better place.”
Nyssa Hunt is the assistant GIS director at UTC.
Learn more
UTC Center for Applied Geospatial Data Science
