University moving on GIS projects

17 years ago

    PRESQUE ISLE – Big community projects are in the works as the University of Maine at Presque Isle’s GIS Program collaborates with a local city, town and economic development organization to offer paid student internships.     Thanks to partnerships with the Northern Maine Development Commission, the city of Presque Isle and the town of Fort Fairfield, the University will be able to establish at least six paid student internships involving GPS and GIS technology.
    GIS [Geographic Information Systems] is a computing system designed to capture, store, analyze and display geographic information and spatial data. GPS [Global Positioning System] is a satellite-based navigation system that can precisely locate any position on the planet.
    Students in the University’s GIS Program, directed by Dr. Chunzeng Wang, already have used both technologies to complete community projects. For example, last year they gathered data on roads, sidewalks, curbs and drains, and set up a geodatabase to help the city of Presque Isle maintain its roadway infrastructures and storm water management system. The project saved the city about $25,000. It also got many local officials interested in how GIS and GPS technologies could benefit them.
    NMDC will hire four of Wang’s GIS students as paid interns to begin work as early as this spring on the cooperative corridor management and preservation plan/project for Route 1 between Presque Isle and Caribou. The project is funded by the Maine Department of Transportation. Students will collect field data with GPS units, digitize hard-copy parcel maps and convert them into GIS datasets. The project will help manage properties, improve traffic flow and safety, and aid any planning and zoning activities for Route 1 between both major cities in northern Maine. Dennis Berube, transportation coordinator at NMDC; Mr. Ken Murchison, GIS specialist at NMDC; and Wang will supervise the student work.
    In other projects, the Presque Isle Public Works Department, Fort Fairfield Public Works and the Fort Fairfield Planning Office have confirmed that they will create paid internships for Wang’s GIS students to work on several projects throughout the summer and fall. For example, two student interns will be hired by the PIPW to update the geodatabases constructed last summer; collect new data of city infrastructures, such as storm water drain outlets and major traffic signs, using sophisticated GPS technology; and build new GIS databases for the city. In Fort Fairfield, students will collect water pipeline and water shutoff data to create relevant GIS databases. This is based on work two of Wang’s students conducted in the fall of 2006 for Fort Fairfield, when they collected fire hydrant and storm water drain basin data to create GIS databases.
    On top of these projects, Wang just received word that the University will host the Maine GIS Users Group Fall Meeting on Friday, Sept. 26. He said the University was chosen because of its growing GIS program.
    The University’s GIS program was the last one created among the seven university system campuses and launched only two and a half years ago after Wang’s arrival at the University. Now, it has developed into a full-fledged and active program equipped with state-of-the-art Trimble GPS technology, an ArcGIS software package, Dell computers and a wide-format printer. The program offers a two-semester sequence of GIS courses, including GIS I, an introduction to GIS in the spring, and GIS II, advanced applications of GIS and spatial analysis in the fall.
    And the program continues to grow. With a federal Title II B grant awarded through the Maine Department of Education last year, the program recently hired a half-time GIS specialist, Mark Matson, to assistant Wang in laboratory teaching and in bringing GPS and GIS technologies to local public school classrooms as part of the granted project.
    The University also is working to build partnerships and to establish a major GIS Service Center in the region. The mission of the GIS Service Center would be to assist in rural economic and community-sustainable development. Community members and entities, including municipal departments and businesses, would benefit from the service center.
    The collaborations with municipal and economic development officials will benefit both the region and the students involved.
    “These projects provide our students with excellent opportunities to work on real projects to gain important hands-on experience which will benefit students’ future careers,” Wang said. “The projects also complement the University’s commitment to technology transfer and community service.”