Geospatial information sciences (GIS) harness groundbreaking technologies for Spatial Big Data Analytics that make location and interaction key to our understanding of social and environmental dynamics. GIS graduates will master the knowledge and skills to spatially integrate data and computing resources for informed decision-making in environmental modeling, business intelligence, precision agriculture, smart cities, public safety and community resilience, just to name a few.

Recent technological innovations have greatly enhanced our ability to collect and analyze massive environmental, social and economic data about places as well as individuals. Now more than ever before, unmanned aviation vehicles (UAV) equipped with remote sensors provide near-real time imagery whenever they are needed. LiDAR point clouds enable us to build high-resolution 3D models of buildings, trees and terrains. Location-based services and mobile geospatial apps allow us to search information based on proximity to our locations and connect our social networks in both physical and cyberspaces.

From Microsoft and Apple to Google, and from the United Nations to indigenous communities, geospatial information science and technologies play an essential role for social-environmental inventory, planning, and forecasting of food, water, energy and health. These technologies include geographic information systems (GIS), the Global Positioning System (GPS) and satellite-based remote sensing. They penetrate virtually every aspect of our lives, from digital maps in cars to the maintenance of city infrastructure, precision agriculture and forest management. GIS has revolutionized traditional disciplines such as geography and inspired scientists from a broad range of fields to combine efforts on leading-edge research.

Careers in Geospatial Information Sciences

GIS graduates will encounter a wide variety of career options, as businesses and governments race to take advantage of technological advances. They may work in areas such as public administration, smart cities, transportation planning, geospatial intelligence, emergency response, public health and environmental sustainability. Businesses also recruit GIS graduates, especially companies focused on marketing, site selection, logistics, driverless cars, real estate, internet of things and resource exploration (including petroleum).

Students who graduate with a BS may move on to graduate school, perhaps entering UT Dallas’ highly regarded MS or PhD geospatial programs, which were recently ranked among the top five in the nation. The University’s Career Center is an important resource for students pursuing their career.

Geospatial Information Sciences at UT Dallas

The general BS degree requires 120 hours to graduate: 42 hours from the University’s core curriculum, 39 hours from the major, and 39 semester credit hours of electives.

The general BS degree requires 120 hours to graduate: 42 hours from the University’s core curriculum, 30 hours from the major core, 24 hours of public policy courses and 24 hours of free electives. Students must complete a minor within these free elective hours. The School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences offers a 21-hour Public Policy minor and an 18-hour minor in Science, Technology, and Policy.

Fast Track

The Fast Track program enables exceptionally gifted UT Dallas students to include master’s level courses in their undergraduate degree plans. Students who meet the requirements for admission to graduate school and the minimum GPA requirement for their major can take up to 15 hours of graduate level coursework that can apply toward their undergraduate and graduate level coursework. To take graduate courses in the Fast Track program upper-division undergraduates must have completed 90 semester credit hours and petition their associate dean for permission to take graduate courses.

About the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences

Founded in 1975 as the School of Social Sciences, the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences (EPPS) is a compact, focused policy school embedded within a large, Carnegie-recognized Tier One university. EPPS students receive all of the benefits of studying at a major research university while also capitalizing on personalized instruction and close connections with faculty and classmates of a small college.

An EPPS education is interdisciplinary. Our nine discipline areas include:

• Criminology and Criminal Justice
• Cyber and Big Data Analytics
• Economics
• Geospatial Information Sciences
• Political Science
• Public and Nonprofit Management
• Public Policy and Political Economy
• Public Health, and
• Sociology

All nine disciplines are interrelated, and an understanding of one informs a better understanding of the others. For this reason, we encourage our students to explore the various majors and minors within EPPS and to take classes across majors. 

As an undergraduate in EPPS, you will have the opportunity to work with professors who are probing issues that will affect your future. You will develop the vital skills you need to thrive in a rapidly evolving, highly competitive job market. EPPS will prepare you for careers in government, non-profits and the private sector that enable you to make a real difference in the world of today and tomorrow.  The school has six affiliated centers and initiatives:

• Texas Schools Project

• Institute for Urban Policy Research
• Army ROTC – Comet Battalion
• North Texas Quality of Life Initiative
• Taiwan Studies Program
• Initiative for Civil Leadership

Degrees Offered

Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts: Criminology, economics, geospatial information sciences, international political economy, political science, public affairs, public health, public policy, sociology

Master of Science: Applied sociology, criminology, cyber security, technology and policy, economics, geospatial information sciences, international political economy, social data analytics and research

Master of Arts: Political science

Master of Public Affairs: Public affairs

Master of Public Policy: Public policy

Doctor of Philosophy: Criminology, economics, geospatial information sciences, political science, public affairs, public policy and political economy

Undergraduate Certificates

Undergraduate Certificates

EPPS offers the following 12-hour undergraduate certificates, which generally can be completed in one year of part-time evening classes:

• Nonprofit Management: designed to provide an overview of the nature and context of nonprofit organizations and develop competencies needed by nonprofit managers.

Graduate Certificates

EPPS offers the following 15-hour graduate certificates, which generally can be completed in one year of part-time evening classes:

• Arts Management and Leadership: focuses on the knowledge and skills necessary to work in the nonprofit sector professional settings providing visual or performing arts content and services.
• Economic and Demographic Data Analysis: focusing on the understanding and application of quantitative analysis of demographic and economic data.
• Geographic Information Systems (GIS): focusing on the application of GIS in government, private sector and scientific areas.
• Geospatial Intelligence: focusing on the application of geospatial ideas and techniques to national security and other intelligence activity.
• International Banking and Monetary Systems: focusing on applications for monetary economics, forecasting, and macroeconomic aspects of banking
• Local Government Management: designed to broaden knowledge of important issues and approaches employed by professional local public administrators.
• Nonprofit Management: designed to provide an overview of the nature and context of nonprofit organizations and develop competencies needed by nonprofit managers.
• Program Evaluation: designed to provide students the opportunity to gain competencies in the design and implementation of program evaluations in fields such as education, health care, human services, criminal justice and economic development.
• Public Budgeting and Financial Management: designed to enhance students’ understanding and experience in public budgeting and financial management and control, governmental or non-profit accounting, and public expenditure planning, management, and fiscal control.
• Public Human Resources Management: designed to give students a full introduction to the principles, strategies, and techniques of public human resources management.
• Remote Sensing: focusing on remote sensing and digital image processing.
• Spatial Data Science: focusing on big data handling, machine learning, programming skills, and capabilities in geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing/drone, geovisualization, locational intelligence, and spatial pattern analysis.
• Nonprofit Management: designed to broaden knowledge of important issues in the nonprofit sector and learn practical skills of managing people and data that are key to securing managerial positions and being successful in the nonprofit sector.