Course requirements

176C is intended to be a capstone of the 176 sequence, centered on a close-to-real-world project. The lectures cover various topics related to real-world GIS, plus some practical topics not covered in the earlier courses but relevant to practical projects. The major requirement is the completion of a GIS project by a team of 4 to 5 students. Background reading, data, and other inputs will be different for each team. The course grade will be based partly on individual effort and partly on team effort. Lab sessions will provide a common time for project teams to meet, and to have access to advice from the TA, so it would be good if all members of a group could be in the same lab section. Specific requirements are as follows:

• A project proposal developed by the end of Week 3 (April 20), providing a work schedule plus details of motivation, objectives, methods, data sources, anticipated problems, and likely results, to be presented in class April 30 or May 2 and submitted as a 3-page document May 6. The proposal will be a group effort and will account for 20% of the final grade.
• Participation in weekly lab sessions, as a member of a team, reporting and reviewing progress, assigning responsibilities, and consulting with the TA. Participation will be assessed on an individual basis and will account for 20% of the final grade.
• Final presentation in class on June 4 or June 6, in the form of a Powerpoint presentation and a poster. The presentation should be given by one member selected by the team. Posters are due Wednesday June 6 for display at the spatial@ucsb.local12 event that day at Corwin Hall, and will later be displayed in the Geography department. The presentation and poster will be assessed on a group basis and will account for 20% of the final grade.
• Final report, documenting the project in a 6-page document (no wider than 1.5 spacing) due June 8. The report will be assessed on a group basis and will account for 15% of the final grade.
• Final take-home exam, covering the concepts presented in the lectures, distributed May 14 and due by email May 25, worth 25% of the final grade. In order to ensure that everyone selects a different project you must have your choice approved by Prof Goodchild no later than May 18. Here are more specific requirements.

Team composition

Teams must be of 4 or 5 members, including no more than 2 graduate students. In some cases there will be one or more external points of contact who may want to participate in the work of the team.

Project evaluation

It is very important that projects solve a problem of either practical or scientific importance. They should have clearly identified stages: identification and statement of the problem, acquisition of data, selection of methods, reasoning and inference from the results, and conclusions.