2021-17
Motion Introduced by: Curriculum and Academic Programs Committee
Date of First Reading: February 1, 2021
Date of Second Reading: March 1, 2021
Title of Motion: Request from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences – School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning - for the establishment of a graduate degree – PhD in Geographic Information Science
Action Requested: This curricular proposal has received all college, school, unit and university administrative approvals, and is being presented to the Senate for review and voting decision.
Rationale: The PhD in Geographic Information Science will foster training of next generation scientists and engineers who will excel at theoretical, computational, analytical and technical knowledge in transdisciplinary geospatial sciences. Recent advances in location-based big data acquisition using remote sensing, Internet of Things, drones, and citizen sensors have created tremendous demand for a workforce to solve unique challenges across spaces and places, and to develop new ways of analyzing geospatial big data to support decision-making in smart city designs, disaster resilience, precision agriculture, public health, homeland- and cyber- security, refugee operations and environmental management. This exciting field sits in the heart of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education, the enhancement of which will undoubtedly retain the international competitiveness and impact of ASU and its students. This new degree program will also play a key role in achieving ASU's mission of becoming "a global center for interdisciplinary research, discovery and development."