The Bachelor of Science in Geographic Information Science and Technology (GIST) will give you a rigorous, modern-day education and training in GIST with applications in physical and human geography.
The bachelor's degree in GIST is designed to:
- Provide modern-day exposure to the rapidly changing field of GIST
- Balance education and training with a focus on competency
- Provide application and problem-solving experiences
- Support student activities and research
- Provide students with professional experience
- Produce high-quality geographers with strong GIST knowledge and skills
Careers
Employers need problem-solvers, not button-pushers, to address problems in various application domains.
Geospatial technology graduates are in extremely high demand. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, they are one of the highest growth areas in the federal government, particularly in:
- Homeland security activities
- Energy
- Software and engineering firms
- Biomedical and biohazard research
Students have employment opportunities with the following corporate and government entities:
- Government agencies (federal, state, county and city): management and planning of urban infrastructure, inventory and assessment of natural resources including agriculture, forestry and water resources.
- Energy industry: assessing biofuel production and identifying locations suitable for renewable energy resources and mineral exploration.
- Health science industry: determine hotspots of health events and explore causes.
- Military and intelligence community: numerous opportunities exist in military branches and agencies such as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), National Security Agency (NSA) and other intelligence organizations.
- Commercial industries: business analytics and marketing, as spatial information can be used to target marketing campaigns, and suitable site assessment to locate companies.
- Geospatial industries: software development, geotechnical engineering and technology development.