Due to time constraints and becoming a data science student I haven’t taught a GIS course in a while and lost my bearing on what is offered and who teaches GIS at Columbia University. However, I often get asked about GIS courses and resources at Columbia University. A couple of grad students who took my intro GIS course a few years back inspired this post.

Disclaimer: this post is not sanctioned by Columbia University, nor is it being delivered in any way affiliated with my employment at Columbia University. The only benefit of this post for me is that I can direct folks who inquire about GIS at Columbia to this post rather than reusing email text.

Spring 2016 GIS Courses At Columbia University

Course Listings in SSOL when search word “GIS” gis courses columbia 2016

Advanced GIS Courses

Since I taught intro GIS courses, I am often asked what’s a good course to followup the vast array of intro GIS courses at Columbia. I know a few of the folks teaching, but for the most part Columbia tends to cycle through GIS instructors fairly regularly as they are mostly, if not all, non-tenure track positions and adjunct positions.

As far as I understand, the two advanced courses available are Jeremy Porter’s Advanced GIS & Spatial Analysis at QMSS and Juan Francisco Saldarriaga’s Advanced GIS at GSAPP.

Another course I’d highly recommend is PLA6204 Tales of the Digital City, a civic hacking course, by Richard Dunks and Jeff Ferzoco.

Other NYC GIS Academic Course Resources

  • CUNY Graduate Center and Hunter College offers many great graduate-level GIS courses and programs. This is perhaps the best place in NYC for all things GIS in academia as they offer Certificates, Master’s and a PhD. Full disclosure: do not know very many of the faculty here.

  • Pratt Institute’s Spatial Analysis and Visualization Initiative (SAVI) is an excellent tech-forward newer program and are offering Certificates. Pratt has offered a GIS courses in the past, but SAVI is a new initiative. Full disclosure: know some of the faculty here.

  • NYU offers some GIS resources but I don’t know much about their programs specifically.

  • Parson’s also offers some GIS courses and materials but I’m also not that familiar with their offerings.

  • Also, for those who are more interested in self-directed learning and informal workshops, check out MaptimeNYC.

GIS Resources and Groups at Columbia University

GIS Resources in New York City

I’m not going to go too in-depth with these resources, but will provide a few links to groups.

Meetup Groups

Spatiality