UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State’s Department of Geography will commemorate the 25th anniversary of its online geospatial education program with a symposium held in conjunction with the 2025 Esri User Conference in San Diego. The event, titled “Real Maps That Matter in the Age of Artificial Intelligence,” will take place Wednesday, July 16, from 8 to 10 a.m. PT at Sparks Gallery, 530 Sixth Avenue, San Diego, and will also be accessible virtually.
Register here. Attendees may submit questions for the panel in advance on the registration page.
The symposium will begin with a networking breakfast at 8 a.m. hosted by the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, followed by lightning talks and a roundtable discussion featuring Penn State faculty, alumni and industry professionals. The event will explore emerging challenges and opportunities in spatial data science, including the impacts of artificial intelligence on mapping, ethical considerations and the evolving needs of the geospatial workforce.
Lightning talks will be delivered in three speaker pairings:
- Mae Lacey, data scientist at Conservation Science Partners and 2022 graduate of the spatial data science program, will present alongside Marcela Suárez, assistant teaching professor of spatial data science at Penn State.
- Rob Ford, information systems manager at the Columbus Division of Fire and 2022 MGIS graduate, will present with Helen Greatrex, assistant professor of geography and statistics and associate faculty in the Institute for Computational and Data Sciences (ICDS co-funded) at Penn State.
- Sid Pandey, manager at Deloitte and 2014 geography alumnus, will present with David DiBiase, founding director of Penn State’s online geospatial education program and an adjunct instructor.
Penn State’s online geospatial education program launched in 1999 with its first course, Geography 482: The Nature of Geographic Information, developed by DiBiase. The program was created through the support of then department head Roger Downs and early funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation as part of the Penn State World Campus initiative. Since then, the program has grown to offer eight graduate-level certificates and degrees, including programs in GIS, remote sensing, geospatial intelligence, programming and spatial data science.
More than 4,800 students have earned credentials through the program over the past 25 years. The initiative has received multiple national awards and was the first in the United States to offer a fully online geospatial intelligence curriculum.
The symposium is organized by the Department of Geography in collaboration with the John A. Dutton Institute for Teaching and Learning Excellence and Penn State World Campus. Participants are invited to join in San Diego or online to reflect on the program’s legacy and engage with leaders shaping the future of geospatial education and practice.