Earlier this year U-M was invited to participate in the informal Esri Development Center (EDC) program. We join a small number of universities recognized as leaders in GIS teaching and research. While the EDC program was initially conceived with a focus on development in the traditional sense—coding and programming of geographic information system (GIS) solutions—U-M was identified as a leader in eliminating barriers to accessing GIS technologies and facilitating adoption at an enterprise-scale, as well as expanding the reach of GIS into many non-traditional disciplines. LSA IT led the effort to enable web, mobile, desktop, and server GIS for all members of the university, across all campuses. University faculty, staff, and students have responded by integrating GIS across a wide variety of research and teaching activities, from archaeology to zoology.
The EDC program provides additional support and access to Esri technologies beyond the standard academic site license. It also funds the EDC Student of the Year award, which enables each university to annually recognize a student who has made exemplary contributions to the development of novel GIS-based solutions. For more information about the EDC program at U-M, please contact Peter Knoop, LSA IT (knoop@umich.edu.) Esri (Environmental Systems Research Institute) is an international supplier of GIS software, web GIS, and geodatabase management applications. The company is headquartered in Redlands, California.
