WHO PARTICIPATES AND WHO BENEFITS WHEN A UNIVERSITY LAUNCHES A PROFESSIONAL MASTER'S: AN EXAMPLE FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH

Geographical Information Systems are increasingly central in many applications. The Department of Geology and Planetary Science was given the task of teaching Geography within the university in the middle 1980’s. This resulted in developing an active and highly popular curriculum in Geographical Information Systems and an undergraduate Certificate Program in GIS. The undergraduate Certificate Program has shown remarkable growth over the past several years. Our analysis of internet-posted job announcements and the employment experience in GIS of our students, suggested that the M.S. degree is an appropriate terminal degree in this field. In internal department plans we had identified a Masters of Science in Geographical Information Systems as an appropriate program to develop. Initiated by Steven Husted, and supported with a generous grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the University of Pittsburgh developed a Professional Master’s programs in Geographical Information Systems (http://pro-ms.geology.pitt.edu). This program provides a solid education in the geographic, scientific, economics, and methodology of GIS as well as geospatial analysis and statistics. Our experience suggests that there is a strong demand for students trained in GIS techniques across a wide spectrum of fields, and our faculty have developed ties with faculty and students in a number of schools and departments on the Pitt campus with interests in using these tools in their disciplines. Through the internship requirement of the Certificate Program, contacts with local government, industry and professional organizations have been assembled. Industry support has come from ESRI, ERDAS, Intergraph, and Earth Resource Mapping. The immediate objectives at the University of Pittsburgh were: (1) Launch the new M. S. program within two years of the funding start: (2) Design and establish a cluster of skills-oriented education modules: (3) Establish cross discipline graduate level short courses: and (4) Establish an industrial affiliate council and internships for the program. Each of these, now successfully completed objectives, brings together a unique partnership of university faculty and programs, educational resources, technology, corporate experience and real-life experience to help train a GIS Professional.