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 Information Systems

Students increase their understanding of the approach to information systems and science offered by formalisms. The course draws on previous mathematics courses to increase familiarity with formal syntax and language. It develops understanding and technical ability in handling discrete structures as well as the formal basis of qualitative reasoning. The course includes a review of fundamental material on set theory, functions and relations, and logic. It goes on to examine a variety of algebraic structures, formal languages, and geometries. Particular attention is given to those structures that form the basis of information systems. The course also discusses topics from information theory and algorithmic complexity. Prerequisites and Course Notes: SIE or MSIS graduate student or permission of instructor. Credits: 3

SIE 507 - Information Systems Software Engineering

Programming for those envisioning careers focused on developing and managing information systems and databases as opposed to software design. Data structures, algorithms, and their analysis. Prerequisites and Course Notes: SIE or MSIS graduate student 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 515 - Human Computer Interaction

Students are introduced to the fundamental theories and concepts of human-computer interaction (HCI). Topics covered include: interface design and evaluation, usability and universal design, multimodal interfaces (touch, gesture, natural language), virtual reality, and spatial displays. Prerequisites and Course Notes: SIE or MSIS graduate student 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 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 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 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: Arranged

INT 601 - Responsible Conduct of Research

Key topics in conducting research responsibly. Guidelines, policies and codes relating to ethical research. Skills development for identifying and resolving ethical conflicts arising in research. Address case studies in the context of ethical theories and concepts. Credits: 1

SIE Course Timetable

Additional Courses Offered

Fall Semester

Spring Semester

SIE Graduate Course Descriptions