Posted by liq6 on Monday, July 7, 2014 in GIS News.

Geospatial education at UW-Eau Claire is undergoing a significant transformation, thanks in part to a three-year $418,869 grant from the Growth Agenda for Wisconsin Grants Program.

The grant will provide students with real-world training, skills and workforce readiness necessary for successful careers in the growing geospatial industry. The grant was awarded to an interdisciplinary Geospatial Education Initiative (GEI) developed at UW-Eau Claire by a team of faculty members from geography and anthropology, physics and astronomy, computer science, and information systems departments.

In addition to the GEI grant, UW-Eau Claire received a second Growth Agenda grant for a project to broaden the impact of undergraduate research on student success and economic development in Wisconsin. Together, UW-Eau Claire’s grants represent almost one-third of the nearly $1.4 million awarded through the Growth Agenda grant program.

The U.S. Department of Labor has listed geospatial technology and its use as one of 14 “high-growth, high-demand and economically vital sectors of the American economy” and estimates its growth rate to be almost 35 percent annually. The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International predicts Wisconsin will see an $88 million economic impact from 2015-17 with $1 million in taxes and 665 new jobs.

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