Index: <not yet updated for 2004> Course details | Lecture Schedule | Projects | Results | Cooperator Links
This course provides a workshop environment to serve as a capstone
course. Students will join in teams to take on a complex task
defined by community cooperators, or develop a similar project
from a research perspective. As a workshop, it is not driven by
lecture material or examinations.
This course does not cover all possible methods of treating
geographic information, but it will pick up the technical problems
encountered by each project team for discussion by the whole.
Participants should have adequate background in operating the
hardware and software in the Sherman Lab (Arc/INFO; ArcView, etc.)
The course centers around a set of team projects, structured along the lines of consultant practice. Each team will be composed of 4 or 5 students, unless some particular reason dictates a different size. Teams will "bid" for proposed projects through a Qualifications Statement (due in first week). Course management will negotiate assignment of teams to clients and projects. Teams will work with their "client", develop a procedural plan to carry out the analysis, refine these plans to make them realistic within the course constraints and the computing resources available. The first work product will be a Needs Assessment that will be shared with the client. The second stage will implement that plan. Teams will present the results of their work in an oral/graphic presentation/ demonstration (to the class and to the client) and in a written/illustrated report. Emphasis will be placed on clarity in analytical purpose, skill of execution, and polish of presentation. The client will be asked to give their assessment of the quality of student work, but the grades will be generated by the instructors.
In addition to the group project, each student in the class must produce a metadata description on an individual basis. The product covered will typically figure in the project: either an undocumented input or a result of the project. The metadata report should comply with FGDC metadata standards and be ready to be included in the appropriate clearinghouse (UW Library, WA State node, etc.).
The workshop situation offers an opportunity to share experience
between students working on different projects. This interaction
will be maximized by continual group discussion of goals, problems
and solutions. As technical problems arise, they may become the
subject of a general presentation to the rest of the class. The
instructor and the teaching assistants will provide some technical
support services, but the team will hold the primary responsibility
for defining the scope of the project so that they remain inside
their available budget for computing resources and their time.