The Department of Geography offers the degrees of Master of Arts and Master of Science. The department also participates in the Earth, Environment, & Society Ph.D. degree.
Areas of primary concentration are urban geography, physical geography, resource management, culture, environment and society, GIS, and cartography. The M.A. and M.S. degrees are in part designed to meet the needs of students preparing for careers in research or administration in government and industry, urban and regional planning, and in secondary education and community college teaching. The M.A. and M.S. degrees also provide a predoctoral program in geography for students planning to take advanced work leading to professional careers in university teaching, research, or public service. Students are encouraged to follow a program that combines breadth of knowledge with depth in one field of interest.
Geographic Information Science M.S.
Students will plan a program of study with an adviser and other members of the supervisory committee during the first term of residence (the first term after admission to the program). The program of study must include a minimum of 45 graduate credits. Of these, a minimum of 32 graduate credits must be in geography, to include 6 credits of Geog 509 (GIS Practicum), 12 credits of core geography courses, 8 credits in core GIS competency courses, 4 credits in non-GIS, topical courses, at least two courses (6-8 credits) from one of the five specialized geospatial data science focus areas, and 7-9 elective credits to meet the 45 credits required by the program.
Students in the program must complete a project-based practicum. The practicum requires the presentation of the student’s practicum project into a topic approved by the student's graduate committee, which may include a community partner. The practicum represents an original contribution to knowledge in the field of GIScience and normally involves working with a community partner. A final oral presentation of the project and a project report are required for completion of the degree.
The Geography Department follows the University requirement for minimum and continuous enrollment.
The program consists of coursework in the following areas:
Core Geography Courses
Core GIS Competency Courses
| Geog 590 | GIS Programming | 4 |
| Geog 575 | Spatial Database Design and Applications | 4 |
| Geog 597 | Advanced Spatial Quantitative Analysis | 4 |
| Total Credit Hours: | 8 |
Non-GIS Topical
4 credits of graduate-level non-GIS courses (with approval of the committee)
Specialized Geospatial Data Science Focus Area
Take two courses in one of the focus areas:
Area 1: Remote sensing and digital image analysis
| Geog 580 | Fundamentals of Remote Sensing | 4 |
| Geog 581 | Digital Image Analysis I: Introduction | 4 |
| Geog 582 | Digital Image Analysis II: Advanced Remote Sensing | 4 |
| Geog 577 | Photogrammetry and LiDAR | 2 |
Area 2: Cartography and geovisualization
Area 3: Computer and information sciences
| CS 520 | Object-Oriented Programming & Design | 3 |
| CS 547 | Computer Graphics | 3 |
| CS 549 | Computational Geometry | 3 |
| CS 554 | Software Engineering | 3 |
| Geog 575 | Spatial Database Design and Applications | 4 |
| Geog 590 | GIS Programming | 4 |
Area 4: Spatial statistics and quantitative methods
| ESM 566/CE 566 | Environmental Data Analysis | 4 |
| ESM 567 | Multivariate Analysis of Environmental Data | 4 |
| Geog 597 | Advanced Spatial Quantitative Analysis | 4 |
Area 5: System and data science
| CS 541 | Artificial Intelligence | 3 |
| CS 542 | Advanced Artificial Intelligence: Combinatorial Games | 3 |
| CS 543 | Advanced Artificial Intelligence: Combinatorial Search | 3 |
| CS 545 | Machine Learning | 3 |
| SySc 514 | System Dynamics | 4 |
| SySc 525 | Agent Based Simulation | 4 |
| SySc 527 | Discrete System Simulation | 4 |
| SySc 531 | Data Mining with Information Theory | 4 |
| SySc 535 | Modeling & Simulation with R and Python | 4 |
| SySc 540 | Introduction to Network Science | 4 |
| SySc 552 | Game Theory | 4 |
| SySc 575 | AI: Neural Networks I | 4 |
| Total Credit Hours: | 6-8 |
Students may need to complete additional courses to meet the prerequisite requirements for a course. Please check with the instructor before registering.
GIS Practicum
Electives
Graduate-level GIS courses or seminars:
| G 525 | Field GIS | 4 |
| Geog 507 | Seminar: Speaker Series | 1 |
| Geog 576 | 3D Terrain Analysis & Visualization | 2 |
| Geog 589 | Building a GIS Database with GPS | 4 |
| Geog 594 | GIS for Water Resources | 4 |
| Total Credit Hours: | 7-9 |
Other elective courses may be approved by the committee.
Total Credit Hours: 45