Courses

Courses in the Department of Spatial Information Science and Engineering are typically offered once a year during the same semester each year. Although subject to change, the normally planned course offerings for each semester are shown below. The Schedule of Classes lists the courses which are being offered during any given semester. Independent study courses may be arranged with appropriate professors.

SIE Graduate Course Descriptions

SIE 501 - Introduction to Graduate Research

Covers process of successful graduate research from identification of a researchable question, preparation of a thesis proposal, to completion or the research and its publication. Focus on engineering research methods for spatial information. Credits: 1

SIE 502 - Research Methods

Covers process of successful graduate research, including the written and verbal presentation of plans and results. Students formulate hypotheses, perform a literature search, write abstracts and introductions of research papers, learn about presentation styles and techniques, make two presentations (3-minutes and 10-minutes) about research proposals. Lec 1. Prerequisites and Course Notes: SIE 501 and students must have selected a thesis topic. Credits: 1

SIE 505 - Formal Foundations of Geographic Information Science

Increases student's understanding of the approach to geographic information systems and science by formalisms. Draws on mathematics to increase familiarity with formal syntax and language, develops understanding and technical ability in handling classical and discrete geometric and topological structures relevant to spatial reasoning. Includes a review of fundamental material on set theory, functions and relations, and logic (propositional and predicate calculi); examines variety of algebraic structures, geometries, and topologies for spatial theories. Prerequisites and Course Notes: SIE 550 or permission of instructor. Credits: 3

SIE 509 - Principles of Geographic Information Systems

Covers foundation principles of geographic information systems, including traditional representations of spatial data and techniques for analyzing spatial data in digital form. Combines an overview of general principles associated with implementation of geographic information systems and practical experience in the analysis of geographic information. Not open to those who have taken ISE 201. Prerequisites and Course Notes: Graduate standing or permission of instructor. Credits: 3

SIE 510 - Geographic Information Systems Applications

Introduces both the conceptual and practical aspects of developing GIS applications. Covers application areas from natural resource planning through transportation, cadastral and land information systems and their spatial modeling requirements, and application development from requirement analysis to database design and implementation. Prerequisites and Course Notes: ISE 201 or SIE 509 or permission.
Credits: 3

SIE 512 - Spatial Analysis

Introduces students to techniques for spatial analysis. Covers methods and problems in spatial data sampling, issues in preliminary or exploratory analysis, problems in providing numerical summaries and characterizing spatial properties of map data and analysis techniques for univariate and multivariate data. Students will be responsible for completing several hands-on exercises. Prerequisites and Course Notes: An introductory statistics course. Graduate standing or permission of instructor. Credits: 3

SIE 525 - Information Systems Law

Current and emerging status of computer law in electronic environments: rights of privacy, freedom of information, confidentiality, work product protection, copyright, security, legal liability; impact of law on use of databases and spatial datasets; legal options for dealing with conflicts and adaptations of law over time. Prerequisites and Course Notes: Graduate standing or permission of instructor. Credits: 3

SIE 526 - Cadastral and Land Information Systems

Colonial Spanish, English, French land records traditions and alternatives reviewed; goals and purposes of land tenure systems with attention to social, political, legal, economic, organizational, technical issues examined; U.S. modernization efforts and problems of developing countries explored. (Offered alternate years.) Credits: 3

SIE 534 - Digital Image Processing

Introduction to image processing and analysis techniques suitable to the processing of close-range, aerial or space-borne sensor data. Topics include elements of digital image processing and analysis systems; image digitization, quantization and sampling; geometric operations: image enhancements, point operations and filtering; transformations in spatial and frequency domains; image segmentation and feature extraction; automated information extraction and incorporation in information systems. Lec 2, Lab 1. Prerequisites and Course Notes: MAT 228, PHY 122, MAT 262 (or MAT 258), or permission of instructor. Credits: 3

SIE 535 - Motion Imagery Analysis

Topics covered include: video and still digital cameras; radiometric and geometric calibration; image and video compression; image and video indexing and retrieval; image queries; image sequence anlaysis; spatiotemporal trajectories and feature tracing; object modeling using video imagery; virtual modeling. Prerequisites and Course Notes: MAT 262, SIE 534 or equivalent or permission. Credits: 3

SIE 536 - Remote Sensing

Image formation, B&W and color film, cameras, panchromatic, multispectral and radar imagery, principles of stereoscopic viewing and measurement, orientations, aerotriangulation, matching, orthophotography, accuracy and reliability of image measurements, satellite programs, term project. Prerequisites and Course Notes: ISE 304 or SIE 534, ISE 405, or permission of instructor. Credits: 3

SIE 539 - Statistics for Spatial Information Engineering

Develops fundamental knowledge of statistical analysis of engineering data, with emphasis on geospatial applications. Covers propagation of random errors and variance-covariance, adjusting geospatial observations through various stochastic models, combining observations and conditions among parameters, proceeding with sequential solutions in the presence of steady information flow, modeling and communicating uncertainty in information systems, devising statistical tests. Lec 2, Lab 1. Prerequisites and Course Notes: MAT 262 or MAT 258. Credits: 3

SIE 550 - Engineering Databases and Information Systems

Theoretical foundation for the representation of knowledge in information systems and logic-based programming as a tool for fast prototyping. Object-oriented modeling and database schema design for engineering applications. Database management systems and their suitability for engineering data, transaction concepts and query languages, including SQL. Prerequisites and Course Notes: Graduate standing or permission of instructor. Credits: 3

SIE 551 - Geographic Information Systems User Interface Design

Covers concepts of human-computer interaction (affordance, feedback, etc.), interaction styles (e.g., direct manipulation, Windows-Icons-Menus-Pointers-Interfaces.) Students will design a user interface for a particular spatial application. Lec. 3. Credits: 1 or 3

SIE 553 - Geometry for Geographic Information Systems

A study of analytical geometry on computer systems, including representation of topological and metric properties of two dimensional geometric structures. Overview of raster based systems. Examines computer graphics hardware, design of device independent programs for graphics output, coordinate systems and transformation, principles of effective visual communication and their applications. Prerequisites and Course Notes: SIE 550 or permission. Credits: 1 or 3

SIE 554 - Spatial Reasoning

Qualitative representations of geographic space. Formalisms for topological, directional and metric relations; inference mechanisms to derive composition tables; geometric representations of natural language-like spatial predicates; formalizations of advanced cognitively motivated spatial concepts, such as image schemata; construction of relation algebras. Prerequisites and Course Notes: SIE 550. Credits: 1 or 3

SIE 555 - Spatial Database Systems

Covers internal system aspects of spatial database systems. Layered database architecture. Physical data independence. Spatial data models. Storage hierarchy. File organization. Spatial index structures. Spatial query processing and optimization. Transaction management and crash recovery. Commercial spatial database systems. Prerequisites and Course Notes: SIE 550 and programming experience in Java, C++ or C. Credits: 3

SIE 556 - Information System Architecture

Covers aspects of data sharing and computation in centralized and distributed information system environments. Communication network protocols; layered architecture of distributed information systems; types of distributed system architectures; name spaces, data replication, and caching; inter-process communication, scalability and performance of distributed information systems; middleware; open distributed information systems; interoperability aspects. Data dissemination, and emerging distributed information systems. Prerequisites and Course Notes: programming experience in Java or C++; permission of the instructor. Credits: 1 or 3

SIE 560 - Spatio-Temporal Data Modeling

Introduces concepts necessary for designing and using a spatio-temporal information system. Covers formal models of time, conceptual models of time, fundamentals of temporal databases spatio-temporal database systems, spatio-temporal query languages, event-based modeling and the visualization of temporal data. Prerequisites and Course Notes: SIE 550, graduate standing and permission. Credits: 1 or 3

SIE 565 - Reasoning With Uncertainty in Spatial Information Systems

Information systems and artificial intelligence approaches to uncertainty handling in spatial information systems. Typology of uncertainty: imprecision, inaccuracy and inconsistency. Representing and reasoning with spatial uncertainty in information systems. Logics of uncertainty, probabilistic and Bayesian approaches, Dempster-Shafer theory of evidence. Spatial vagueness. Handling conflicting information. Prerequisites and Course Notes: SIE 550. Graduate standing or permission of instructor. Credits: 3

SIE 589 - Graduate Project

Directed study on a particular spatial information science topic and implementation of a related project. Prerequisites and Course Notes: SIE Master's Project Students. Credits: 3

SIE 598 - Selected Studies in Spatial Information Engineering

Topics in surveying, photogrammetry, remote sensing, land information systems and geodesy. Content varies to suit current needs. May be repeated for credit. Credits: 1-3

SIE 693 - Graduate Seminar

Presentations and discussions on term projects, literature reviews, current events, or thesis topics. Lec 1. Credits: 1

SIE 699 - Graduate Thesis

Graduate Thesis Credits: Ar

SIE Course Timetable

Additional Courses Offered

Fall Semester

Spring Semester

SIE Graduate Course Descriptions