GIScience at Virginia Tech
Mission
Virginia Tech contributes to the mission and goals of
UCGIS by fostering collaboration of multiple educators and researchers with
GIS, GPS, and remote sensing expertise with those who have a need for geographic
information science in their teaching and research projects. Large
interdisciplinary projects and strong intercampus communication have developed
over the past few years with a large variety of faculty whose teaching and
research interests intersect with geospatial technologies. In both teaching and
research, Virginia Tech promotes the responsible use of geospatial technologies
for the benefit of society.
Multidisciplinary Connections
Cooperation amongst Virginia Tech faculty members has been a strength for
many years. The Office for GIS and Remote Sensing (OGIS) was created in 1996 as a group of faculty who regularly taught and/or did a
significant amount of research in the geospatial arena. From this group many
collaborative efforts lead to further growth and cooperation.
The Center for Environmental Applications of Remote Sensing (CEARS) was formed in 1998 as a
NASA center of excellence in applications of remote sensing to regional and
global integrated environmental assessments and serves as Virginia Tech's focal
point for interdisciplinary research, instruction, and outreach focused on
remote sensing applications. The Conservation Management Institute (CMI) was founded in
2000 based on previous work done at the Fish & Wildlife Information Exchange
Center. CMI deals with research questions that affect conservation management
issues. The Center for Geospatial Information Technology (CGIT) is a university level center founded in
2003, consisting of research staff and affiliated faculty members from 6
colleges, and serves as an institutional focal point for faculty and staff who
specialize in, or use geospatial information technology such as GIS and GPS as
an integral component of their research, teaching, and outreach mission. The Virginia Geospatial Extension Program (VGEP) was formed in 2003 to extend
opportunities and empower organizations and individuals across the Commonwealth
of Virginia through training, assessing application needs, and providing
increased access to data resources.
In addition to the research centers that have spawned from the OGIS group,
other benefits have accrued as well. An OGIS-sponsored GIS/RS Research Symposium
is held in the spring of every year for the purposes of communicating VT-based
geospatial research to our collective university community, regulatory agencies,
and private companies. A graduate geospatial information technology graduate
certificate is currently in the proposal stage. Faculty have become more aware
of the multitude of courses that are offered in different departments and
graduate students have been able to gain a well-rounded perspective of the
various discipline-specific applications of the technology.
