James Madison University

Steering Committee Activities

2012-2013 tasks

  • Mini-grant program
    • Mapping Air Quality through the Design and Assembly of an Open-source, Low-cost Mobile Sensor to Test in Juba, South Sudan, Dr. Justin Henriques, Department of Engineering
    • Writing for Nonprofits course project incorporating geospatially encoded photography, community interviews and "spatial writing"; techniques, Dr. Sean McCarthy, The school of Writing, Rhetoric & Technical Communication
    • A Mapping Project for the Study of Rural Homelessness, Dr. Margaret Sloan, School of Strategic Leadership Studies, and Dr. Karen Ford, Department of Social Work
    • Incorporating GIS into courses on: Economic and Community Development, Urban Policy and Regionalism, and Tools for Public Management, and to attend the Federal GIS Conference.  Dr. Nick Swartz, Department of Political Science
  • Joining the Virginia Geographic Information Network (VGIN) Geospatial Archive Resource and Data Exchange Network (GARDEN) to gain access to, and share, official geospatial data of the Commonwealth
  • Setting up university-level mapping server for publicly sharing geospatial data and applications
  • Working with CISE Lab Operations to setup a shared geospatial data repository for campus access
  • ESRI site license funded at university level
  • Student Award Program 
    • JMU students
    • Geospatial Semester program awards to high school students

2011-2012 tasks

  • Mini-grant program
    • A Remote Sensing Field Trip for Geographic Science Students, Dr. Zachary J. Bortolot, Department of Integrated Science and Technology
    • Little Change Through Time?: Mapping Socioeconomic Legacies of Soil Fertility Differences Across Central Virginia, Dr.Tony Hartshorn, Dept. of Geology & Environmental Science
    • The Use of High Resolution Topographic Data to Quantify the Effects of Deep-Seated Landslides on the Width of Valleys and In-Stream Fish Habitat Dr. Christine L. May, Department of Biology; Dr. L. Scott Eaton, Department of Geology and Environmental Science
  • Training
    • An Introduction to KML Scripting for Google Earth, Dr. Steve Whitmeyer
    • Mapping a Difference: Internet-based Tools for Making and Analyzing Digital Maps, Dr. Bob Kolvoord
    • Building and Analyzing Digital Maps: Introduction to GIS, Dr. Bob Kolvoord
    • Publishing Your ArcGIS Maps Online, Dr. James Wilson
  • UCGIS Membership Application
  • Planning for 2012-2013 speaker series
  • Setting up university-level mapping server
  • Expanding committee membership
  • ESRI site license funded at university level
  • Geospatial Semester program awards to high school students

2010-2011 tasks

  • Dr. Michael Goodchild as visiting scholar (co-sponsored by Geographic Science Program, see resources for link to video)
  • Spatial Thinking Across the Curriculum, a 1/2 day workshop at the annual May Symposium (see resources for link to video)
  • ESRI site license funded at the university level
  • Purchases
    • Mapping server for university-wide use
    • Additional 1 TB of network storage for data sharing
    • Logo & website prototype development

Quicklinks

Finding Geospatial Data

JMU-ESRI Site License Information