There’s still one more event in the GIS Speaker series on May 17 at 12pm in the Education Building room 105. This event is presented by Phil Smith from the Oregon Department of Transportation and will discuss how GIS can relate to and help with the transportation process. The talk is free and open to everyone.

The series started with in May and highlighted how GIS can be used in a large array of fields in everyday life and how its expansion is helping all sorts of people. To better understand what GIS is or what it can do we’ll leave it up to Dr. Shimizu who teaches Earth Science and GIS here at WOU “GIS, the acronym, can actually stand for several things! The G.I. stands for Geographic Information. The S. can stand for systems, science, services, or students! So what does that all mean? I like to say that “GIS” is like Google Maps…but times 1,000. It is a science and a set of tools that let’s us ask and answer questions that have a “where” to them. So while Google Maps can answer “where is Yeasty Beasty” or “where is the best route between WOU and Bend?”, GIS can answer questions like, “where is the best site for a landfill?” or “where will wetland preservation have the biggest positive impacts?” or “where on my land should I plant pinot noir grapes?”. The list can go on.”

WOU currently offers a GIS minor and a certification. To find out more information on those, click here.