Project

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Links to examples and instructions

• Project gallery (examples from previous semesters)
  
  
• Project Proposal Format and Evaluation
  
  
• Final submission checklist
• Final submission format
  
• Where to submit the final project
  
  
• How the project is graded
  

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Project requirements synopsis

For the project, you'll apply course topics to a geospatial application area of your choice. The project will include GIS Programming in Python.

The final submission will include:

• A short write-up describing the project.
• Map files, scripts, toolboxes, and data and any other supporting files needed to test the code.
• A short (total of 10 minutes max. = project explanation + recorded demo) project presentation to the class. Distance education students can submit a video if they can not attend and give a live presentation. Distance education students making their own video can use the free software called Jing to capture it or any other video capture software they have. Jing only allows up to 5 minutes capture per video, so you may need to capture it in two parts.

The project allows students to apply what they've learned in the course to a problem that has arisen in their workplace or research. The projects often involve filtering raw data, performing geoprocessing analysis on it, and visualizing the data. Students will choose a project that is relevant to their area of interest and use their own data. The project will require Python scripting to perform data processing and build ArcMap GUIs.

For example, suppose your research routinely requires you to download spatial data that comes in a csv format that can't be loaded directly into ArcMap.  You have to open it, delete the header, remove dashes from the field names, and delete extra columns.  Then it takes several additional steps to add it to a map (choose the x, y  fields, project it, save it as a layer) so that you can display it. If you only had to do this once or twice, it's no big deal, but since you have to do it all the time, writing some scripts to automate the process would save a great deal of time in the long run.  This would be a typical project for the course.

As part of your course homework, one-third of the way through the semester, you will submit a proposal for your project. Each proposal that is submitted will be scrutinized by the instructor for application of the scripting concepts and sufficient complexity. If the proposed project is not sufficiently complex or challenging, the proposal will be rejected and a project will be assigned by the instructor, in which case the project topic is non-negotiable.

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