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Tucker Worrall
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Professor Keith Ratner, chairperson of the geography and sustainability program at Salem State, has seen the demand for workers trained in Geographic Information Science (GIS) significantly grow since the first of its kind master’s program was instituted at SSU in 1992. Geographic information science uses Geographic Information Systems and geographic data to solve the world’s problems. It is used by municipal governments, oil companies, environmental conservationists, locational analysts, and many others for more purposes than can be counted.
“Right now, GIS…is an incredibly booming field. The Department of Labor says it is a top 10 job prospect and has been for the last 10-15 years,” said Professor Ratner. “It’s also a very diverse field, that can’t get enough trained workers.”
The power of GIS comes from using maps to solve problems and to clarify data. One such project was recently done by Salem State student Jill Carr whose Master’s thesis discussed using drones to map coastal tidal zones. In her work, Carr explored how to best use many different geospatial tools to measure changes in the coastal habitats of Cape Ann.
“Almost every state in the US has some kind of drone program,” she said in her thesis defense. “It seems like only a matter of time [before drone programs are more fully implemented for evaluating tidal zones along all of the East Coast of the United States].”
The prospects for GIS seem to be almost endless. Everything has a location, and knowing this data can aid groups in meeting challenges in an uncertain future. In Amesbury, Massachusetts, students from the Capstone course in the program used GIS information to prepare the town for future flooding. Much of Amesbury sits between Lakes Gardner, Lake Attitash and the Merrimack River, and experiences flooding every 2-5 years.
By using GIS technology like radar to create potential flooding maps, the town is now better able to prepare for its cyclical flooding and evaluate what infrastructure needs to be replaced. As climate change increases the amount of rain that falls on northeastern Massachusetts, analyses like these will become even more important.
Recently, the geography and sustainability department invited 1991 alumnus Ron Bisio to campus to talk about his career working with GIS since he graduated from Salem State. Ron is currently the executive vice president for Geospatial Technology at Trimble, Inc. a company specializing GIS equipment and software. Trimble’s growth since its founding in 1978 perfectly matches the meteoric rise of GIS since that time.
Over 40 years, Trimble has gone from a small start-up run from the attic of a movie theatre to a massive publicly-traded company with $3.3 billion in annual revenue. During his talk, Bisio made clear that it was his excellent education from the SSU geography department that helped him succeed and move up in the geospatial technology field. “The world is your oyster after graduating from this program. I’ve been all around the world…and you guys are in a great place. The geospatial industry is booming right now!”
All of us at the Center for Research and Creative Activities are convinced that this program will continue to do great work, and we are looking forward to seeing what the future hold for this incredibly exciting program.
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Learn more about the Center for Research and Creative Activities. All Salem State University students, faculty, and staff are invited to email their research to be featured by the CRCA: ssu-research@salemstate.edu.