By Sofia Johnson ’19 As part of our work in the Spatial Analysis Lab, we like to check the accuracy of our equipment by testing it ourselves. We have the opportunity to use new and interesting technology such as new GPS equipment, but we want to assure the quality of our results. Thus, we tested […]
Category Archives: Updates
September 2017 Mystery Map Solution
We concluded the first Mystery Map over the weekend with six entries! Despite the robust difficulty testing (an impressive sample size of two), all the contestants proved to be seasoned map puzzle solvers. The victory belongs to Susannah Howard, who identified all the parameters correctly and promptly (submitted the same day it was released, and […]
Upcoming Fall 2017 Workshops!
Communicating Data with Maps October 12, 2017 (Thursday) 4:00 – 5:00 An introduction to the basics for visualizing your data in a map designed for print. Register Humanitarian Mapping for Recent Hurricanes October 16, 2017 (Monday) 4:00 – 5:00 Contribute to disaster response by identifying infrastructure in satellite imagery to inform humanitarians for effective […]
Today in History as Told by Maps: September 19, 1987 / Fictional Maps
A cult classic, The Princess Bride first captured the hearts and minds of viewers on this day in 1897 (starting, of course, with the Grandson.) The story followed a slew of characters as they traversed the inconceivable landscapes of Florin and Guilder. The love-revenge-espionage plot cast the characters in a wild game of cat and […]
Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
The SAL is rhumb-ling ahead in the fall semester! With the new school year, we mosaicked a new team to support the charted and uncharted territories of GIS at Smith. To briefly survey the lab’s topography: Jon, director/the prime meridian of the SAL; your friendly neighborhood post-bac spatial analysis fellow Tracy here; and a cluster […]
Documentary Video – Research trip to St. Catherines Island
[advanced_iframe securitykey=”5bc49ba0db168937774fd40d43b1f0f57eecc76d” src=”https://player.vimeo.com/video/212575403″ width=”640″ height=”360″ frameborder=”0″ webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen ] We plan to offer future courses and research trips harnessing drone technology. Please visit our sister site dedicated to DroneThinking at Smith College Students on the trip included: Emma Becker Asmita Gautam Susannah Howard Anastasia Konefal Jasmine Pacheco-Ramos Emily Wert Alexandra Widstrand (co-instructor) Instructors were […]
We’re hiring a new post-bac!
** Note: the post-bac position is now filled ** – fall 2017 – Loyal readers, it is almost time for me, Scott, to bid you farewell! After two years serving as your Post-Baccalaureate Spatial Analysis Fellow (try saying that ten times fast – or fitting it on a resume!), I’m moving on to graduate school […]
Cartography Across Disciplines: Archaeology in the SAL
By SAL Assistant Rachel Moskowitz ’18 During the fall semester, Professor Liz Klarich came to the Spatial Analysis Lab to ask for assistance with a series of maps for her book manuscript. She requested help with three publication maps detailing her archaeology research in Pukara (Pucará), near Lake Titicaca in the Peruvian Andes. Professor Klarich […]
Creating a Twitter-Scraper for Tweets about Smith and Northampton
By SAL Assistant Kalynn Kosyka ’19 The goal of the project was to map social media data to look for interesting geographic patterns. We originally wanted to use data from Instagram, but, unfortunately, Instagram changed their restriction policy last summer making it difficult to obtain the data we wanted. However, we were able to access Twitter […]
Spring NEArc GIS Conference at UMass
Each May, the Northeast Arc Users Group (NEArc) hosts a GIS conference at UMass for GIS professionals, researchers using GIS, and geography enthusiasts. The conference is a great way to see the many ways that others are using GIS across New England. There are also workshops to learn cutting-edge GIS skills and many opportunities to […]