GIST empowers students with geospatial information technologies for high in-demand professional careers that are among the fastest growing of all sectors of the economy (e.g., environmental management and science, engineering & design, geo-intelligence & homeland security, facility and asset management, marketing and location-based services, telecommunications, transportation, etc.). The GIST Major is a 124-credit hour bachelor degree program, including 39 credits of required core courses and 23-26 credits of a specialized, marketable and student-chosen concentration (Program Website). Students in the GIS minor are required to take 15 credits of GIST course work.
Learn
Practical skills needed to successfully apply GIST to your major area of expertise, including: Basic and Advanced GIS Theory; Spatial Analysis and Spatial Statistics; Databases, such as Access, MySQL, Oracle Spatial, PostgreSQL, and ArcSDE; GIS Programming using VB.Net, ArcObjects, Javascript, PHP, Python, etc.; Aerial Photograph Interpretation; Remote Sensing of the Environment; Global Positioning Systems; GIS Project Management; Environmental Assessment; and Research Methods.
Opportunities
The skills of GIST professionals are needed in federal agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management, National Imagery and Mapping Agency, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Department of Homeland Security, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA); GIS for K-12 Educators; as well as with municipal agencies, and private engineering, planning and technology firms. Many GIST majors will secure both paid and unpaid internships, which often lead to full-time employment.
Career applications of GIST skills include: Business GIS | Cartography | Crime Analysis | Energy Utilities | Engineering | Environmental Management | Forestry | Geospatial-Intelligence | Military | National Defense | Public Health | Remote Sensing
This is a designated STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) program.