GeoScience Education - gis.sk.tsukuba.ac.jpgis.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp/research_doc/060128_studymeeting/mit_geo.pdf · Geoscience: MIT-U.Tsukuba & U.Tokyo video conference - Joe Ferreira

GeoScience Education:Experience and Comments from MIT

January 27/28, 2006

Joseph Ferreira, [email protected]

Professor of Urban Planning and Operations ResearchHead, Urban Information Systems Group

Department of Urban Studies and PlanningMassachusetts Institute of Technology

Geoscience: MIT-U.Tsukuba & U.Tokyo video conference - Joe Ferreira January 27, 2006, slide 2


IntroductionsChallenges for geospatial science programsContext and examplesComments on educational strategiesConclusions


Challenges for GeoSpatial Science Programs

Interdisciplinary development of fieldImpact of evolving information technologiesEvolution of field and methods

from specialized techniques (photogrammetry, remote sensing, surveying, cartography, automated mapping, …),to geospatial analysis (spatial econometrics, water runoff,…),to embedding location in all aspects of computing (cellphones, car navigation, location based services,…),to reconfiguring decision processes (firm location, environmental monitoring, urban indicators, development contingencies,…)

Dilemma of needing a 10-year curriculumdifferent starting/ending points for different fieldsdifferent priorities for professional domains


Context and Examples

Evolution of GIS and geospatial sciences at MITin my department

Urban Studies and PlanningSchool of Architecture and Planning

in my own workUrban information systemsSpatial analysis and metropolitan modelingRisk management


Evolution of GIS and Geospatial Sciences

at MIT - prestigious research university, but Small (4500 undergrads, 5000 graduates, 1000 faculty)No geography dept., no policy analysis school, no surveying dept., etc.Tradition of small number of classes emphasizing

Basic principlesAnalytic methods (math and science understanding, quantitative reasoning)‘Mens et Manus’ (mind and hand) engagement in real-world problem solving


GIS and Geospatial Sciences at MIT

Bottom-up emergence - Roll-your-own approach in research labs

Physical Science: early GPS, remote sensing work, tectonic plate modeling,…Engineering: moon lander, space probes, hydrological models,…Computing & analysis: computational geometry, computer graphics, time sharing, constrained optimization and data compression algorithms, location allocation models,…

MIT-level support of GIScience – quite recentNo campus-wide Information Systems and Technology (IS&T) support before late 1990s Some home-grown software: e.g., MITmap (originally Xmap) on Athena (unix) around 1990Early use of PC-based GIS software in professional schools and social sciences


GeoScience Support at MIT

Currently: University-wide support for

Software: ArcGIS, PCI, etc.

Full-time ‘spatial data specialist’ in IS&T (Dan Sheehan)

Full-time librarian for GIS Services in MIT Libraries (Lisa Sweeney)

Staff teaching of GIS-related minicoursesand modules: use of census data, digital elevation models, programming in ArcGIS, runoff modeling, field data collection, …


GeoScience Education at MITElements of many degree programs

Earth and Planetary Science (EAPS)Geosystems sequence, geological image interpretation,…

Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)Software engineering, data modeling, hydrology, transportation,…

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS)Computer graphics, algorithms, autonomous navigation,…

Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP)Spatial analysis, urban design/modeling, urban information systems,…

Media Arts and Sciences (MediaLab)Context aware computing, tangible interfaces, pattern recognition…

No large campus-wide GIScience-focused classes, but easy cross-department class registration


GeoScience Education in DUSPMaster of City Planning (MCP) - 2-year professional degree

Some hands-on mapping & database management in required core:

11.204 Planning, Communications, and Digital Media 11.220 Quantitative Reasoning and Statistical Methods for Planning

Urban Information Systems (UIS) specialization includes11.520 A Workshop on Geographic Information Systems 11.523 Fundamentals of Spatial Database Management 11.524 Advanced Geographic Information System Project

UIS PhD and advanced master’s studentsTake basic classes across MIT: programming, knowledge representation, statistics, econometrics, algorithms, information management,…Rely on cross-MIT research labs and project-oriented classes for advanced knowledge: environmental science, software engineering, transportation demand modeling, computer graphics, pattern recognition,…


My Perspective on GeoScience Education

My backgroundMIT-educated engineer and operations research analystProfessor focusing on urban information systemsIn non-technical, professional school on very-technical campus (MIT)

My focusWhat should planners/policy analysts know about GeoScience

Professional grad-education focus with strong design and hands-on interests

What is state-of-art and challenges for professional use What portion of UCGIS body-of-knowledge is useful

http://www.ucgis.org/priorities/education/modelcurriculaproject.aspWhere to get basic knowledgeHow to gain sophistication regarding use for planning and policyanalysis

http://www.ucgis.org/priorities/education/modelcurriculaproject.asp


Examples from my WorkUrban Information Systems

10-15 years ago: Help planning agencies digitize maps and use GIS Use 1990 census data to include worker/customer accessibility in hedonic models of office market price

NowWork on web services and APIs to support a national infrastructure for community statistics (NICS)Share parcel-level data across agencies and community groups to empower local communitiesUse detailed journey-to-work data to model the congestion effects of housing and job decentralization

Evolving technology and infrastructure requires changes in geoscience educational requirements


Examples from my Work (continued)

One project: Intelligent Middleware for Understanding Neighborhood Markets

Funded through Metropolitan Policy Program at The Brookings InstitutionPart of ‘Urban Markets Initiative’ to assist urban revitalization and empower communities through better informed decision supportProject elements

Empower community groups by enabling better use of local knowledge when interpreting city dataFederated database approach with loose coupling of spatial data repositories, local knowledge, spatial analyses, and user interfacesWeb services using Map Server, Postgres/PostGIS, AJAX, and Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) protocols University collaboration with community, city, metro, and state agencies and organizations

Shared geospatial services vs. customized vertical ‘silos’ is much more than a technical choice


Traditional Data Center Model

1-A: Isolated data centers (with combined datasets, data processing, and data services)

1-B: Coordinated virtual data centers (with distributed datasets)

Police Dept. Assessing Dept. HealthDept.

Environmental portal

Housing portal

Data Sets Processing Services

Processing& Services

Data Sets Data Sets

HousingDept.

Data Sets

Processing& Services

Data Sets Processing Services

Data SetsProcessing

Services

Data Sets


‘Smart’ Middleware AlternativeIntelligent Middleware for Understanding Neighborhood Markets

A collaborative effort by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, Boston’s Department of Neighborhood Development, and The Boston Foundation with

support from the Urban Markets Initiative of The Brookings Institution.

Environmental portal

Housing portal

Read-only, ‘Official’ data repositories

Intelligent data intermediaries

Normalize, trim, merge, transform, overlay, cookie-cut, extrapolate, qualify, …

Processing

ServiceService

Police Dept. Assessing Dept. HealthDept.

HousingDept.

Data Sets Data Sets Data Sets Data Sets


Intelligent Middleware Concepts

(1) Sharing data within a metropolitan area Avoid ‘data center’ limitations as small geographies and large/changing datasets explode data needsProvide mechanism for accumulating and utilizing local knowledge about level land use, ownership, and market potential (independently of official datasets)



(2) Loose coupling of data, interpretive rules, and indicators (or analyses)

Repository data (BASETABLES) are read-onlyCodify local knowledge using ‘business RULES’that create ‘virtual tables’ (FACADES) when applied to the basetablesDefine REPORTS and THEMATIC MAPS in terms of the facadesUpdating basetables or changing/improving rules does not break reports and maps



(3) Modular design with interoperability, distributed access and user/group control

Open source software on linux server (Apache, Postgres/PostGIS, MapServer)Web services with XML messaging and OGC protocolsUser accounts with group-level sharingBrowser tools (javascript – AJAX) for managing middleware [involving Traverse Technologies, Inc.)Usable from many clients (Excel, Google Maps, ArcGIS, ordinary browsers)


Overview of Development strategyPartners: Work with Regional, City, and Neighborhood organizations in metro BostonParcel data: Focus on re-interpreting parcel-level data for Boston, but ideas work for other datasets and for cross-town geographiesMiddleware: MIT research team prototypes web services ‘middleware’ for building/editing/using/viewing ‘local knowledge’and re-interpretation toolsExperiments: Workshops and class projects experiment with tools to test usefulness and practicality.Lego-blocks: MIT research team uses OGC standards and XML to integrate web service middleware and GIS analyses with general purpose clients (with help from OGC and Traverse Technologies, Inc.)


Simple Spelling Example

Want REPORT showing largest landowners in neighborhood: Top-10 Owners ListingProblem: many different spellings of city agencies and other large landowners in parcel databaseSolution: standardize spelling and then run the report


‘Spelling Problem’ with Parcel Landuse and Ownership DataTop-9 Landowners - Before & After 2 Spelling Changes

BEFORE (1996 data)OWNER PARCELS VALUE(K) ------------------------------ ---------- ---------- --CITY OF BOSTON 2876 3883239 CITY OF BOSTON BY FCL 1258 19117 SANTORO VINCENT J 309 23087 COMMONWEALTH OF MASS 235 528891 BOSTON REDEVELOPMENT AUTH 231 106863 BOSTON HOUSING AUTHORITY 215 325756 COMMWLTH OF MASS 196 704968 BONAN SEON P 188 17120 UNION SQ APARTMENTS 160 14042

AfterOWNER PARCELS VALUE(K) ------------------------------ ---------- ---------- --CITY OF BOSTON 2876 3883239 CITY OF BOSTON BY FCL 1258 19117 BOSTON REDEVELOPMENT 605 164991SANTORO VINCENT J 309 23087 BOSTON UNIVERSITY 283 300140COMMONWEALTH OF MASS 235 528891 BOSTON HOUSING AUTHORITY 215 325756 COMMWLTH OF MASS 196 704968 BONAN SEON P 188 17120


Example of Facade Spelling RULE•Standardize OWNER names

•Create ‘update’ RULE to fix spellings•Apply on-the-fly to Boston’s parcel data (BASETABLE) to produce temporary tables (FACADES) with spelling corrections•Use temporary table for REPORTS and THEMATIC MAPS

•Example of one RULE for City of BostonUPDATE fas_parcel_bos05

SET OWNER_FY05='CITY OF BOSTON'where OWNER_FY05 like '%CITY%'

and ((OWNER_FY05 like '%BOSTON%' or OWNER_FY05 like %BSOTON%') and OWNER_FY05 not like '%CITYWIDE%' and OWNER_FY05 not like '%SUITES%' and OWNER_FY05 not like '%LIGHT%‘and OWNER_FY05 NOT LIKE '%PROPERTIES%'and OWNER_FY05 NOT LIKE '%LLC%'and OWNER_FY05 NOT LIKE '%L L C%'and OWNER_FY05 NOT LIKE '%CREDIT UNION%)';


Illustrative Examples

Excel spreadsheetTop10 listing before and after spelling correctionsPie Chart comparing acreage for each top-10 ownerMap showing parcels owned by top-10 owners‘Buttons’ (macros) can change neighborhood and refresh resultsExcel can call Websites and interpret XML-tagged responses

Google MapsPinmap showing parcels with the largest number of unitsPinmap of properties owned by Dudley Neighbors Inc.Pinmap of parcels with landuse = (auto repair shops)Google Maps can get pinmap info from user-defined Websites

Other ApplicationsArcGIS can read the map in as a map layer (using Open Geospatial Consortium web mapping service protocols – WMS and WFS)Agencies can include Reports and Maps as ‘live’ feeds on webpages



Sample Facades and ReportsConcept Example

Thematic MAPs Parcels owned by larges landowners in DSNI areaBuild new ones after viewing reports

REPORT Top 10 landowners before and after spelling fixesOwner names most frequently changedselected_land_uses

FACADES Boston parcels with and without spelling fixes and owner typesDNI propertiesExamine/edit Rules in rule editor (R)

Base FACADES starting points with ground parcels (land) and multiunitsadded in (mixed)

Study Area See pick list in Excel spreadsheet


Properties owned by the Top-10 landowners can be viewed in any browser via javascripttools, XML messaging, and WMS map requests.


The 20 parcels with the largest unused floor-area-ratio square footage can be viewed in any browser using the javascript tools.




Examples from my Work (summary)

One project: Intelligent Middleware for Understanding Neighborhood Markets

Project elementsEmpower community groups by enabling better use of local knowledge when interpreting city dataFederated database approach with loose coupling of spatial data repositories, local knowledge, spatial analyses, and user interfacesWeb services using Map Server, Postgres/PostGIS, AJAX, and Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) protocols University collaboration with community, city, metro, and state agencies and organizations

Shared geospatial services vs. customized vertical ‘silos’ is much more than a technical choice



IntroductionsChallenges for geospatial science programsContext and examplesComments on educational strategiesConclusions


Comments on Educational StrategiesEvolving nature of geoscience educational challenge

Computing is disruptive technology fostering bottom-up changeGeosciences is one area being impacted now

Past examples of IT-driven evolutionManagement information systems (MIS) in businessStatistics and quantitative analysis in the Social SciencesComputing and math in science and engineering schools

Educational StrategiesUCGIS - academic discipline, or at least a codified body of knowledge, http://www.ucgis.org/priorities/education/modelcurriculaproject.aspGISCI - professional specialty with certification, professional societies, and (eventually) accreditation http://www.gisci.orgCross-cutting programs – as Environmental science, Statistics, and Operations Research have been at MIT

http://www.ucgis.org/priorities/education/modelcurriculaproject.asp

http://www.gisci.org/


Conclusions - 1Large demand for geoscience specialists at many levels

Room for lots of specializations and certificationTechniques and technologies are reaching down to K-12 grades

Use GIS for geography and spatial analysis questionsSpatial location is becoming a first order data types (like text, images…)

Geospatial science continues to evolveConsider difficulty in nailing down primary skills for UCGIS curriculumNote ICT changes during past 10 years (Web, PDA, WiFi,…)


Conclusions - 2

Advanced use of geospatial technologies requires Considerable specialized knowledge Organizational/institutional/social understanding

Emergence of ‘GIS and Society’ issuesDebate over ‘Ground Truth’ book,…)

Higher and higher levels of abstraction regardingKnowledge representation and usefor planning and policy analysisas well as for technical operations and management


Conclusions - 3At MIT

Growing cross-campus interest and engagementContinued cross-cutting and minicourse strategy with several specializationsIncreased cross-department role

in campus-level efforts and research labsaimed not at geoscience education per se but at broader policy issues and research questionsfor example: using MIT campus as an ‘urban testbed’

Highly sensed environment with ubiquitous computing and high tech audience – microcosm of future citiesIdeal setting to research a broad range of questions from space usage and autonomous navigation strategies to community building, privacy policy, and social networks


January 27/28, 2006

Prof. Joseph Ferreira, [email protected]

Thank you!

Documents

GeoScience Education - gis.sk.tsukuba.ac.jpgis.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp/research_doc/060128_studymeeting/mit_geo.pdf · Geoscience: MIT-U.Tsukuba & U.Tokyo video conference - Joe Ferreira