MGIS Student 2022 Awards and Recognition
Congratulations to our six students who graduated with their MGIS degrees in May and August 2022! We returned to an in-person MGIS graduation celebration reception at the Campus Club this spring and enjoyed meeting friends and family of our amazing graduates. Visit the job placement page to see what lies ahead for these talented graduates.
Each year our students receive recognition and gain valuable experience through internships and graduate assistantships including awards from Esri. Maochuan Wang and Mary Heise received 2022 Esri User Conference Student Assistantships plus MGIS professional development funds to cover the cost of their airfare to San Diego, California. Cole Anderson was named the 2022 UMN Esri Innovation Program Outstanding Student of the Year.
Taylor Andersen-Beaver is the graduate student recipient of the 2022 UMN Minnesota GIS/LIS Student Scholar Award for her project Mapping the Global Drug Supply Chain; Len Kne is her adviser on the project. Alex Edstrom received the same award in the undergraduate category for his project Creating a City Prediction Model using Machine Learning; Bryan Runck is his adviser on the project. Taylor and Alex will present their projects at the 2022 Minnesota GIS/LIS Annual Conference in mid-October.
Seven students were funded as teaching assistants in Spring 2022 including Mohsen Ahmadkhani, Taylor Andersen-Beaver, Ethan Bott, Alex Danielson, Rob Hendrickson, Ali Hossaini and Erik Sauer. Two of our students, Shana Crosson and Luke Zaruba, work full-time in GIS positions while earning their MGIS degrees. This can be challenging but also very rewarding as they are able to quickly apply their GIS knowledge and skills on the job!
Finally, a shout out to all our students who participated in internship and research assistant (RA) opportunities in summer 2022. Diego Osorio Castiblanco was hired as a RA with the Polar Geospatial Center. Ethan Bott secured a USGS internship with the Web Informatics and Mapping team. Rob Hendrickson is a RA for Dr. Di Zhu on his Faculty Interactive Research Program grant project, Sensing Geospatial Communities in Mobility Networks: How Human Movements Drive Dynamic Community Structures within the Twin Cities Metro Area. Ali Hossaini has a summer internship with the geospatial team at HazardHub, part of Guidewire Software Inc. Mattie Gisselbeck is working as a RA for Paul Bolstad creating Story Maps. Tom Glancy continued working as a RA for David Haynes. Carl Sones got a summer internship with the Hennepin County GIS unit. Emily Cavazos and Jake Ford are continuing as research assistants for the Mapping Prejudice project. Additionally, Mary Heise and Mao Wang continue to work as RAs for the Polar Geospatial helping to facilitate the delivery of high-resolution satellite imagery in support of federally funded researchers doing work in polar regions. Taylor Andersen-Beaver is a RA for U-Spatial working with her adviser Len Kne on mapping the global drug supply chain. Megan Marsolek is in Washington, DC this summer working as an intern associated with her SMART fellowship; she was also awarded MGIS professional development funds to support her travel to the DC area. In summary, 100% of our students who were seeking funding thus far in 2022 have secured a graduate assistantship or internship opportunity.
Congratulations to all our students and graduates for their accomplishments!
