Todd M. Greenwood, a recent Spatial Data Science graduate (MSc. 2023), recently put his newly-acquired geospatial analysis skills to excellent use in helping obtain federal disaster relief funds to hurricane victims in Florida. 

Working with both FEMA and the Civil Air Patrol, he was part of a national disaster imagery assessment response team that quickly and accurately identified structures that qualified for federal disaster assistance. 

The FEMA/CAP program, which enables CAP volunteers to receive and apply specialized disaster imagery assessment training, is both unique and extremely valuable as part of an overall national emergency response framework. 

As part of his efforts, Greenwood was awarded the CAP National Commander's Commendation Award for outstanding duty performance. Says Greenwood, "I would like to humbly extend my thanks to both the Charleston, SC and Hanscom, MA squadrons, as well as Scott Kaplan's national CAP response team, and of course Penn State for providing me with the tools and support to help our fellow Americans in need. WE ARE!".

Congratulations Todd! 

MGIS graduate Cathryn Hunt received the Esri Innovation Program 2024 Student of the Year Award. Our program is one of a small number of academic units around the world recognized as a participant in the Esri Innovation Program (EIP). The EIP seeks to promote GIS software and application development by providing students special access to Esri software and opportunities to be recognized for their accomplishments. Each academic program nominates a student, and Ms. Hunt received the overall award. 

Her capstone research project, "From Selfish to Selfless Routing," addressed traffic congestion through innovative GIS routing applications. 

Recent previous EIP Student of the Year nominees from Penn State are:

2023 - Libbie Duskin
2021 - Sue Panton
2020 - Gene Trantham

Teaching Professor Todd Bacastow was recently accepted into the Emeritus Academy at Penn State. The Emeritus Academy was “founded to promote the ongoing engagement of Penn State emeriti faculty in both scholarly and creative activities. It seeks to promote scholarly community​ among emeritus faculty, provide connections to keep emeritus faculty connected to the University, enhance the reputation of the University, and to benefit society at large.”

Here is a note from Professor Bacastow about his goals while in the Academy:

“It's a sad yet undeniable reality that conflict often drives innovation. The Emeritus Academy facilitates my studies of the innovations in geospatial technologies resulting from the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Recognizing and conveying the learnings from this conflict play a vital role in the sustained evolution of Penn State's online educational offerings. The research serves as a compass, directing the programs toward recent innovations and helps to solidify Penn State's reputation as a pioneer in the geospatial field.”

MGIS student Yousre Odeh, through his work with the City of Wilmington, Delaware’s Public Works Department, was one of the recipients of the 2023 Esri Special Achievement in GIS award. The winning organizations for the award "set new precedents throughout the GIS community" (ESRI). Mr. Odeh is the project manager for Wilmington’s innovative efforts to improve the city's aging water distribution infrastructure by identifying water mains for replacement, sharing findings with stakeholders, and efficiently documenting the installation of new mains.