ISSUED: 14 September 2017
MEDIA CONTACT: Valerie Owens
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — More than 55 geographic information system (GIS) professionals and Shepherd University students and faculty attended the Eastern Panhandle West Virginia GIS Users Group 11th annual meeting at Shepherd on September 14.
“We’re very pleased that the Eastern Panhandle GIS users chose Shepherd as a location this year,” said Dr. Clarissa Mathews, chair of the Institute of Environmental and Physical Sciences. “We think it’s fortuitous for our students, who are interacting with the professionals, and also with the industry, government, and nonprofit groups that are here today, since they have asked us to produce students who have training in geomatics and GIS so that they can have a pipeline coming in as interns and even as full-time employees.”
This is the first year the organization has partnered with Shepherd, giving students the opportunity to attend and to make presentations about their research. It also gave the Institute of Environmental and Physical Sciences a chance to highlight two of its programs that incorporate GIS—the minor in geographic information systems and the concentration in environmental geomatics.
The group documented the meeting by posing on Shepherd’s football field for an aerial photo and video taken from a drone operated by Steven Shaffer, adjunct environmental studies professor.
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