Spatial Informatics (MS)

Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, Spatial Sciences Institute
spatial.usc.edu
Program Director: John P. Wilson, Ph.D.
Program Associate Director: Susan H. Kamei, Ph.D.

The Master of Science in Spatial Informatics is a cross-disciplinary joint degree program offered by the Viterbi School of Engineering and the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. Students must be admitted by both the Viterbi School of Engineering and the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.

Geospatial data accessibility, spatial decision support systems and geospatial problem solving environments are revolutionizing most industries and disciplines, including health care, marketing, social services, human security, education, environmental sustainability and transportation. Spatial informatics professionals draw upon engineering, computer science and spatial sciences principles to solve data-intensive, large-scale, location-based problems.

The USC Master of Science in Spatial Informatics provides students with the knowledge and skills to:

• Understand and contribute toward the significant technical and societal challenges created by large location-based data environments, including architecture, security, integrity, management, scalability, artificial intelligence topics and distribution;
• Understand the principles and application of informatics and geographic information science (GIS), and the goals of enterprise information intelligence and analytics; and
• Utilize technical, engineering and GIS skills coupled with informatics capabilities to intelligently mine data to provide enterprise-centric solutions for diverse societal issues.

Students complete a core set of courses to provide a foundation in information engineering, analysis and spatial thinking with their choice of electives to optimize preparation for their preferred career path and unique professional opportunities.

Students will understand the overall field of data analytics, the role of the analyst and/or data scientist and the domains where spatial informatics skills can be applied to critical organization missions. They will understand how data management, data visualization and artificial intelligence techniques (specifically data mining and machine learning) are critical to the spatial analysis process and how these can be applied to real world challenges. Throughout their coursework, students will assemble a digital portfolio of work product which is intended to help them demonstrate their capabilities and skills for the job market.

Applicants to this program are expected to have a previous degree in science, technology, engineering, math or a related social science with at least a 3.0 overall GPA and satisfactory GRE Test results. Programming experience and at least a year of calculus are required for admission.