Mapping Success: Navigating the GIS Landscape with Angela Ober at UMBC

Embark on a GIS adventure with Angela Ober, a graduate student in UMBC's GIS program, as she shares her insights and experiences in the world of Geographic Information Systems. From choosing the program for its unique features to delving into programming languages like Python and JavaScript, Angela's journey reflects the diverse and impactful aspects of GIS education. Explore the broader applications of GIS, discover its role in sustainability, and gain valuable perspectives on social and environmental justice. If you're curious about GIS or considering a program, this episode provides a comprehensive overview of the GIS landscape. Tune in and uncover the possibilities!

For more details about UMBC's GIS graduate program, visit: https://professionalprograms.umbc.edu/geographic-information-systems/

Transcript

Dennise Cardona  0:00  
Hey everyone. Welcome to UMBC's Mic'd Up podcast. My name is Dennise Cardona from the Office of Professional Programs at UMBC. And I am here with our guest, Angela Ober, a student in the UMBC, geographic information systems graduate program. Welcome, Angela. It's wonderful to have you here on the show.

Angela Ober  0:18  
Thanks. Good to be here.

Dennise Cardona  0:21  
So, GIS, can you share with us what motivated you to choose the UMBC GIS master's program, specifically? And what aspects of the program attracted you to it? 

Angela Ober  0:35  
Yeah, absolutely. So I actually I went to UMBC for my undergrad from 2010 to 2014. And when I was in that program, I took GIS classes, I think I took four of them. And I was really interested in I also loved the location for UMBC. I live close by and I was already familiar with the faculty, either through professional avenues, or when I went to UMBC as well. So that was like my top three reasons location, experience there prior, and then just knowing the faculty that were running the program. 

Dennise Cardona  1:13  
Awesome. And for those listeners who may not be familiar with where the GIS graduate program is, and you want to talk about that, how the vicinity is, was really appealing to you. 

Angela Ober  1:25  
Yeah, so UMBC is located, technically, in Baltimore, I like to say Catonsville. It's wedged between Catonsville and Arbutus, in some respect. So it's very convenient to the city, it's about 10 minutes away from downtown Baltimore, it's within a 30 to 40 minute drive to DC depending on traffic. There's just a lot of benefits for that location. Because not only do you get a little bit of feel for Baltimore City, and you get to experience things in Baltimore City, a lot of the faculty work and do research in the city, you also have a lot of professional faculty members who work in commute from DC in that area, too. So you're getting the best of both worlds.

Dennise Cardona  2:10  
Yeah, it's a really nice area. It's a nice campus, it has a community feel to it, right? It's not in the city, it's on the outskirts of it. So you get the best of both worlds. It's really, yeah, a lot of people say that they really love the location of it. So how has your experience in the program contributed to your professional growth so far, and skill development in the area of geographic information systems?

Angela Ober  2:38  
When I went to UMBC, for undergrad, and I took JS courses, I didn't focus as much on the back end user or the developer side of things. I've only taken a few classes so far in this program. But a lot of it focuses on getting familiar with programming language, and things like that, which I think is very helpful. So what I do professionally is in the stainability world, and you might not necessarily think about like maps and data analysis, but there's so much data out there that you can put on a map and visualize. So I think that has been very helpful for me like professionally, just understanding some programming language getting more familiar with it, because I had zero experience with that. And also finding ways to utilize GIS in my existing role where I am professionally.

Dennise Cardona  3:35  
Right. And I think a lot of people might be listening in on this and wondering what is what is GIS? What like, why would I study GIS? What can it do for me? So speaking from your lens in the sustainability world? What is it that you found so interesting about like what pieces fit together that help you to bring value to what you're doing in the sustainability world? 

Angela Ober  3:57  
Yeah, so I do different types of analyses, things that have to do with our institutions, greenhouse gas inventories. So there is locational data associated with where people live and trying to gather that information. And then essentially, quantify miles of each employee or campus member. That has been very helpful in different analyses and also just for education and outreach just for information sharing. It's so easy and helpful to have something that you can not just give information but have some sort of visualization attached to it. So I like to joke I feel like GIS can be whatever you want it to be. It can be data collection. With that geographic aspect to it. It could be visualizing something so it's just more interesting and more easy to understand. Or it could be more in-depth analysis, whether that's internal to whatever you're doing, like within your profession, or if it's something that you want to share with others.

Dennise Cardona  5:13  
That's a great summary. That's a really great summary. Thank you for that. Now, can you highlight a particular project or coursework that you found particularly valuable in preparing you for the career that you're doing right now using GIS?

Angela Ober  5:28  
I think it goes back to what I was saying a little earlier about getting familiar with programming language. So I've only taken three classes so far. And two of them were built on top of each other. I really enjoyed being able to learn Python, JavaScript, and dive a little bit into R. And I had zero coding experience. But I think, though way the courses are set up, allows you to explore that information and kind of play around with it. And I think one of the last classes that I took just maps, which is like the founding one of the foundational courses for the program, that was really interesting, because the professor allowed us to use Chat GBT as a way to troubleshoot our code, which I think is a smart way to use that. AI technology. I don't know, I think I've really enjoyed that, so far, just being able to troubleshoot myself and get creative with how I code.

Dennise Cardona  6:35  
One, I love what you just said, because I was going to be a question I wanted to ask about AI technology and how you think you see it affecting, or, you know, benefiting, I should say, the GIS world. And so you just illustrated that with Chat GPT. And using that to be able to problem solve or to be able to troubleshoot coding. So that's really interesting. What I also love is that the professor embraced it and encouraged it. Because I know when chat GBT came out November 2022, I believe it is it came a lot of people just it became public, and everybody just rushed to it. And there were a lot, there was a lot of worry and concern, especially in the academic world that Whoa, this is going to this could hinder some educational learning experiences. And I love that, that professors are embracing it and using it as part of their course instruction. I think that's really important. How did you feel about that part of it?

Angela Ober  7:30  
I thought it was great. Like I said, it wasn't a way for me to create something through chat GBD. But it was more for me to say, okay, I'm stuck on this area. And I think the way that the professor kind of illustrated it to us was like it's not giving you the answers, because it can't give you the exact answer, especially with coding because and it's similar to creating new content, it's not going to give you exactly what you want, it's only going to give you an output based on what your input is. So you can be as specific as you want. But it's not necessarily going to find those nuances. And it's up to you to still understand the content and provide, I guess, like your individual input, and customizing it for yourself, essentially. So I really enjoyed that part because it helps me understand coding a little bit better, because it like breaks things down as well. So it's I don't know, it's almost like a supplementary material in a way.

Dennise Cardona  8:38  
Yeah, it's almost like an assistant in a way. It's like having a private tutor there. That's how I look at chat GPT and other AI technologies at this point is, I don't think we're at the point where they're going to replace humans anytime soon, but could eventually in the future. I wouldn't say no to that was certain specific jobs. But I do think at this point, it's wonderful if you can embrace it and look at it like it's a tutor and a learning assistant, being able to have that person that you would normally and maybe in real life, you'd bounce ideas off of this. I find that's what I'm finding with Chad TPT. It's it's a great resource to troubleshoot your own ideas and maybe validate them or maybe nix them because you're like, yeah, there's probably not enough information on this topic or whatnot. So it's gonna be interesting to see where this all takes us. 

Angela Ober  9:26  
Yeah, absolutely. 

Dennise Cardona  9:28  
Now, in what ways do you think the UMBC GIS program stands out compared to other programs? And has it met your expectations are exceeded them in any way?

Angela Ober  9:38  
I think something that I really appreciate and I think I alluded to it a little bit, where you have faculty members in Baltimore, and you also have faculty members in DC, whether they're doing research or have professional careers in either of those locations. So you're getting different perspectives and different backgrounds and I don't know, I think something that's really interesting about this program as well as there's this integration of social and environmental justice, like thematically placed throughout. I know that's a, that was a big factor too. In my interest in the program, the fact that the program director and assistant director are very passionate about making sure when you're creating a map, you're thinking about who you're creating the map for, and thinking about, who does that affect? Who does that give an advantage to end? Is there anyone we're forgetting? In that analysis? So I think it's really interesting that they both have that perspective, and encourage and empower their faculty members to use that in their classes as well.

Dennise Cardona  10:53  
That's very powerful. And I couldn't agree more, it's important, it's an important view to take to analyze to take into consideration and I'm glad that the program is doing that. It's a fantastic benefit. And it's not something that I think that on the surface, you would even consider, like somebody who's not in the GIS world, like myself, I'm not, but to hear that, I wouldn't have connected the two, just like that. And now that makes perfect sense that connection needs to be there. And that students faculty, we need, they need to be able to collaborate on that and understand that and dissect it and unpack it and know how it's going to affect the greater good of society in general.

Angela Ober  11:38  
Yeah, for sure. When we are keepers of data, and we try to explain it people, that's the ultimate power. So thinking about it on that lens of who is this benefiting is like super important. And yeah, I think that is something that really sets GIS apart here at UMBC versus other programs that I've seen.

Dennise Cardona  12:01  
That's great. Now, as someone currently enrolled in the program, could you talk about any maybe concerns or reservations that you had before joining and how your perspective maybe has evolved since you've taken those three courses?

Angela Ober  12:16  
Yeah, so I am a full time employee. So I work 40 plus hours a week. And I also haven't taken any sort of classes since 2014. So it had been a while. So I was definitely, I guess, nervous going back into academia that setting. But I think what I've really appreciated the most is how understanding the faculty members are, I think, a big reminder that I have to get myself and something I probably didn't do as an undergrad was to communicate, and just give heads up, hey, I might be out this week due to either work or something personal. And just, you don't even have to explain too much of it. But just allowing your professor to know, this week might not be great for me, and just working with them to figure out a solution if you can't make a deadline. So I think that has been probably that was my biggest concern. Am I going to be able to take these classes while working full time? So I started out with one class and then for one semester, and then this past semester, I took two, I was like, I think that's a good balance. So far, we'll see how it goes for the rest of the program, but...

Dennise Cardona  13:38  
No, that's great. I think that's great. I think that is a big concern from most anybody enrolling in a graduate program or considering it, I should say, because that was certainly my concern. When I enrolled in my graduate program. And I had the same experience, I took one course to see how it was going to work. And it worked fine. And open communication, if there was an issue is key to anything right to any kind of relationship working relationship, and personal relationship. And then I slipped into I ended up sliding into two classes a semester. And I did that throughout the program. And it balances out. It really isn't I think the communication is the biggest key is communication with your professors, with your employer, and even with yourself. Okay, am I taking on too much here or whatnot? So it probably varies semester to semester and what the coursework looks like. Yeah, absolutely. Now, so where do you currently see yourself professionally? And how do you believe that the skills and knowledge gained from the program are helping you to achieve those goals?

Angela Ober  14:44  
So professionally at this point in time, I'm like a mid level professional. And I've always been in all of my jobs. Throughout my career. I've been very passionate about GIS or trying to incorporate the out into what I do, because I love the meld of data and kind of that creativity that exists in GIS when you're trying to create a map and display it for others to see. So I think for me, like the knowledge that I've gained, it allows me to use GIS in different ways. Like I said, I have no coding experience, really a new a little bit of HTML for editing things. But I think going through a full program, where GIS is the key topic, the key subject, it allows me to understand like how I can apply this to so much more than what I've already been doing. So I think it essentially it's like empowering me to continue my GIS journey professionally, and also almost sing the praises of GIS and how we can apply it.

Dennise Cardona  16:03  
So what would you say your greatest takeaway from the program is?

Angela Ober  16:07  
You shouldn't be afraid to apply. And you're getting so much knowledge from the faculty members who are part of this program, I think, take advantage of learning from them. And just absorbing all of the information they have to share, because it's a lot. And it's been a great experience. So far. I'm really happy that I enrolled. And I'm really happy that this opportunity came up when it did. And that I told myself, just go for it. 

Dennise Cardona  16:41  
Wow, that was a great way to end this podcast. I really appreciate you being here with us today. Angela, it's been great talking with you about your experience and just really great to hear that the program is helping you to thrive in your current role. And certainly it well beyond that beyond what you're doing now and beyond the course the coursework. So that's great. Thank you.

Angela Ober  17:04  
Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Dennise Cardona  17:08  
Thanks everyone so much for being here with us today for the UMBC Mic'd Up podcast. I hope that you enjoyed this episode. If you'd like to learn more about our offerings, do a search for UMBC GIS graduate program or simply click the link in the description.