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WyGISC to Join UW School of Computing

The University of Wyoming Board of Trustees recently approved the move of the Wyoming Geographic Information Science Center (WyGISC) to UW’s new School of Computing.

The move was jointly initiated by WyGISC and the School of Computing, following months of strategic planning and feedback from both departments. The board unanimously approved the move, allowing both units to work together to position UW as a national leader in computational and digital research, education and engagement.

Eight Teams to Compete in John P. Ellbogen $50k Entrepreneurship Competition April 22-23

Laboratory Inventory Management Systems (LIMS) is an end-to-end solution of software and hardware designed to contextualize samples first drawn from the field, as they get processed in the lab, and long after work has concluded. LIMS offers a safe, reliable and compliant way to collect, track, maintain and report data throughout a project’s lifetime. Team members are Shannon Albeke, a senior research scientist in UW’s Wyoming Geographic Information Science Center; and Nicholas Case, a UW graduate student from Laramie, who is majoring in geospatial information science and technology.

Hodza Promoted to Senior Research Scientist

Congratulations to WyGISC faculty member Dr. Paddington Hodza (PhD, West Virginia University, 2007) for his recent promotion to Senior Research Scientist. Dr. Hodza joined the University of Wyoming in 2013 as an Assistant Research Scientist and WyGISC Assistant Director. He was promoted to Associate Research Scientist and WyGISC Associate Director in 2016, a position he held until 2021. Dr. Hodza is a certified GIS Professional, licensed FAA Drone Pilot, past recipient of a Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship and a Leadership Wyoming alumnus (Class of 2017). Dr. Hodza currently serves on the Board of Directors of the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science. His current research interests include unmanned aerial systems, multimodal GIS education, positivity GIS, immersive geovisualization, and spatial data science. Once again, congratulations to Dr. Hodza on this significant achievement!

Driese Appointed Emeritus Lecturer

The University of Wyoming Board of Trustees recently approved WyGISC Senior Lecturer and former Geospatial Information and Technology (GIST&T) Program Director Dr. Ken Driese as Emeritus Senior Lecturer.

The title of Emeritus Senior Lecturer is awarded to faculty members who retire after long and meritorious service to the University.

Driese joined WyGISC in 2001 as a remote sensing scientist, where he established a remote sensing lab and began teaching the core of the remote sensing curriculum at UW. Following subsequent appointments in the Botany Department and Life Sciences Program, Driese returned to WyGISC in 2019 to help design, launch, and direct the Center’s new interdisciplinary GIST Program before retiring earlier this year.

“This is a well-deserved appointment, recognizing Ken’s many contributions to WyGISC and the UW community,” notes WyGISC Director Jeff Hamerlinck.

Congratulations, Ken!

Shannon Albeke, WyGISC Senior Research Scientist, faculty member, and Co-author of "Body size and digestive system shape resource selection by ungulates: A cross-taxa test of the forage maturation hypothesis" is highlighted in the UW News article "UW-Led Research Finds Body Size, Digestive Systems Shape Ungulate Foraging" 

Research led by a University of Wyoming graduate student involving about 50 scientists from across the globe has provided new insights into the behavior of ungulates (hoofed animals) as it relates to forage conditions and water availability.

WyGISC's Di Yang received NASA EPSCoR Grant: "NASA SMD Computational and Information Sciences and Technology Office (CISTO): A Meta-Learning Framework for Characterizing and Accessing Training Data for GLOBE Observer Mosquito and Land Cover Protocols"

The goal of NASA EPSCoR is to provide seed funding that will enable jurisdictions to develop an academic research enterprise directed toward long-term, self-sustaining, nationally-competitive capabilities in aerospace and aerospace-related research. 

Yang will be using the grant to host a series of activities (hackathons) across Wyoming to explore and develop deep learning tools to segment, characterize, classify, and label components of land cover photographs from the GLOBE Observer (GO) land cover and mosquito habitat app.

WyGISC faculty member Di Yang's recent research is highlighted in the recent AGU spotlight "Mass Bird Die-Off Linked to Wildfires and Toxic Gases"

Using observations from crowdsourced science and weather location data, researchers concluded that wildfires caused a mass die-off of birds in the western and central United States in 2020.

UW Students Learn How to Operation Drones in New Online Course

The use of unmanned aerial systems, or UAS, by industry may be in its infancy, but there are many businesses already using the technology.

UW's Sivanpillai Selected as Fellow of National Remote Sensing Organization

Ramesh Sivanpillai, a remote-sensing scientist with the Wyoming Geographic Information Science Center (WyGISC) at the University of Wyoming, has been named a fellow of the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS).

Daniels Fund Faculty Fellows Selected at UW

The Business Ethics Program at the University of Wyoming, supported by the Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative (DFEI), recently named 15 UW employees as 2021 Daniels Fund Faculty Fellows.

UW Trustees Approve Launch of Geospatial Information Science Degree Programs

The University of Wyoming will offer new degree and certificate programs to meet changing student demands and workforce needs, following action by the UW Board of Trustees.

UW Professor Has Shared Satellite Images With Laramie Schools For Last Decade

Years ago, Ramesh Sivanpillai had a feeling that satellite images taken from afar could help bring some closer perspective to lessons being taught to Laramie students in elementary and middle school.

It turns out he was on to something. Sivanpillai, a senior research scientist from the University of Wyoming’s Wyoming Geographic Information Science Center (WyGISC), has been visiting classrooms with his images -- depicting everything from crop fields to forests to lakes to cities to water diversion in the Aral Sea -- for a decade now. 

UW Board of Trustees Approves New Degree Programs

Responding to Wyoming workforce needs, the University of Wyoming will offer three new bachelor’s degree programs starting this fall. 

GeoHub Website Updated
The Wyoming Geospatial Hub (GeoHub) website was updated. The site leverages ESRI's Open Data platform in ArcGIS Hub. 

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9-H SmartRanch - Drone Operations

In this internship/project, a team of four UW students will apply their collective education, training,
and experience in addressing research questions related to the identification of weed species using drone-mounted sensors, image processing software, and machine learning techniques. Students will further explore the use of drones for precise herbicide application and mosquito breeding abatement. The team will be mentored by faculty from UW’s interdisciplinary Geospatial Information Science & Technology (GIST) Program.

WyGISC faculty member and interim GIST director, Ramesh Sivanpillai, will be speaking in Cody, WY on Saturday, October, 2nd.

In the burgeoning manufacturing and economic hub of Coimbatore, development encroaches on wildlife corridors. Now elephants raid crop fields, resulting in infrastructure and economic losses, and in human and elephant deaths. From his work with stakeholders, Dr. Sivanpillai will discuss the measures available to protect investment and minimize casualties.

UAV Symposium May 30-31, 2018 | Laramie, WY 

UAV Symposium May 17-18, 2016 | Laramie, WY