[gis_info] Reminder: Solicitation for Student Project Ideas

[Arnone, Harvey]

Hi all, sorry for the repeat email on this (although I added a few new folks to this that I missed the first time around).  I did receive a small number of project ideas but decided I'd better check back in to see if there are more ideas out there as we are still VERY shy on potential projects.  Please review the text below from the prior email for details on what we're looking for....but at this point I don't need much detail, just a few sentences or short paragraph describing the project would suffice (details would come later).

If you do have an idea but are not sure if it would make a good student project, let me know and we can discuss it.

Students will be discussing potential projects in class starting next week (Nov 7th) and by the end of November all students should be settled on projects.

Thanks for your help.  -Harvey Arnone (206.708.9317)


From: Arnone, Harvey
Sent: Friday, September 30, 2011 3:34 PM
To: Arnone, Harvey
Subject: Solicitation for Student Project Ideas



Hello all, it is that time of the year again:  the UW Professional and Continuing Education GIS Certificate program is gearing up for another year.  As in the past, we are looking for project ideas for our student teams.  If you have a project idea and would like to sponsor a project, we'd love to hear about it.

Here's a little bit about what would make a good student project:

*         Size:  should be appropriate for a 3-4 (maybe 5) student project team

*         Schedule:  projects really get into gear January 1st though some planning takes place during the months prior to this.  Deliverables are completed in June.

*         Content:  the project should go beyond just data creation in order to give the students a good learning experience.  Projects that include several of the following are great:  data modeling, data creation, data manipulation, analysis, map production, producing reports, etc

*         Sponsorship:  sponsored projects are usually among the best in terms of student learning opportunity and quality tangible results delivered to the sponsoring organization.  Examples include City of Seattle, City of Kirkland, People for Puget Sound, and many more.

*         Time commitment for sponsors:  can vary greatly.  Some students interview their sponsors to understand the needs and requirements and then work independently from that point forward.  Other projects have very active sponsors who meet several times with the student team, review documents, provide feedback, and receive periodic status reports from the team.   Most projects fall somewhere in between of course.

I have found that many organizations have perfect candidate projects in tasks that have been lingering on the back-burner for some time.  Using students, it is a great way to get some of these small projects done and at the same time provide valuable experiences for the students.  In terms of quality, many of the project have had very happy sponsors.  Some sponsors have provided great feedback and a few of them have gone on to hire some of the students.  I should also mention that our student projects frequently win awards at the annual Washington Status URISA conference.

If you have any questions or project ideas, please feel free to contact me. Here's the details that we would need to get started:

*         Sponsor name and contact information

*         Name of proposed project

*         Description of proposed project (short paragraph is fine)

Thanks ahead of time. Please feel free to forward this to others as you see fit.   -Harvey Arnone (Instructor, UW GIS Certificate Program)
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