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Illinois State U.: Illinois State GIS Day held to showcase career options(U-Wire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) UWIRE-11/19/2008-Illinois State U.: Illinois State GIS Day held to showcase career options (C) 2008 The Daily Vidette via UWIRE By Matthew Tomlin, The Daily Vidette (Illinois State U.) NORMAL, Ill. -- The Illinois State University Geography Department will host its annual Geographic Information Systems Day on Wednesday. Free and open to the public, the event will feature displays, presentations and the possibility to win a free Garmin navigation system. This year's theme is GIS in our community. "We're really ramping things up. This year will be the biggest year so far," John Kostelnick, assistant professor in the geography-geology department, said. "We'll have a number of groups and organizations such as U.S. Geological Survey coming and setting up displays so students can talk to them and do some career networking." Kostelnick said that the Department of Labor has noted GIS and geospatial technologies as being among the top five fastest growing fields. "GIS is using digital maps and other geographic databases to do different types of analysis, mapping and visualization," he said. "So, this is used in a variety of ways, with businesses, social sciences, public health, law enforcement…" University, local government and law enforcement personnel will have displays and demonstrations on the use of the computer-based mapping tool in the Bowling and Billiards Center Activity Room from 9 a.m to 12 p.m. At 11 a.m. ISU President Al Bowman, along with Illinois Wesleyan University President Richard Wilson, Bloomington Mayor Steve Stockton, Normal Mayor Chris Koos and McLean County Board Chairman Matt Sorenson, will sign the GIS Day proclamation. Events will then move to the Spotlight Room of the Bone Student Center with presentations on the use of GIS technology from 1 to 3:30 p.m. Presentations will be given by the City of Bloomington Township Assessor, the Town of Normal, the Bloomington Police Department, Illinois State's GEOMAP and the McLean County Regional Planning Commission. "We're really excited," Gretchen Knapp, a research associate in the geography-geology department, said. "We've been planning since April. This is an event that's aimed at everybody. We've even had inquiries from elementary schools." At 4 p.m., David Bennet, a faculty member in the Department of Geography at the University of Iowa, will deliver the keynote address. "Placement in this field is incredible," Knapp said. "A lot of people are going to geography as a second career." "For people who want to learn about this, it's a way for them to see GIS in action and talk to people in the field," Kostelnick added. "We encourage the public to come out. "We'd love to have anyone who's interested to stop by and stay as long as they like." ##30## ((Distributed on bahalf of U-Wire via M2 Communications Ltd - http://www.m2.com)) ((U-Wire - http://www.uwire.com)) Copyright ? 2008 U-Wire |