$5 Million Awarded to Promote GIS Education

The National Science Foundation has awarded a $5 million grant to Del Mar College (DMC) and project partners through the NSF Advanced Technological Education Program to establish the National Geospatial Technology Center of Excellence (GeoTech Center) at DMC. The goal of the GeoTech Center is to increase the number and quality of educated geospatial technicians in the fields of GIS, GPS, remote sensing and mobile- and location-based services (LBS).

Dr. Phillip Davis, DMC professor of computer science says their is shortage of geospatial technicians in the U.S. "Institutions and businesses are worried that this type of work will be outsourced to other countries. We want to keep these jobs here; but right now, there’s not a sufficient number of geospatial technicians to meet the demand," he said. Geospatial technology was listed among the top three high-technology, high-growth industries in the country as part of President Bush’s High Growth Job Training Initiative.

The GeoTech Center is a partnership that includes seven community colleges, four universities, ESRI, and the Texas Engineering Experiment Station.