This award provides funds to allow Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) to acquire Mobile Spatial Data Acquisition and Processing Technologies (MSDAPT) to support the collection and processing of highly precise spatial and geophysical field data. This instrumentation will be utilized within multiple disciplines at the University where the collection of locationally-accurate field data is crucial to research objectives. The MSADPT instrumentation will make the latest and most accurate technology available to faculty and students in Anthropology, Archaeology, Geography, Geoscience, History, and Planning in support of research excellence, as well as provide undergraduate and graduate students opportunities to gain experience using the latest equipment and designing and implementing technology-based field projects. In addition, MSDAPT will be a mechanism to expand and strengthen inter-departmental and inter-college communication through collaborative teaching and research at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Social and physical science departments at American universities have begun to incorporate spatial analysis instruction in their curricula, and increasing numbers of students each year are being introduced to geographic information systems (GIS) and global positioning systems (GPS) technologies at campuses across the country. Our emphasis on GIS and GPS training will produce students in several disciplines who will be capable of creating and managing their own spatial research databases. Including this training in research-oriented courses will strengthen classroom instruction and make students competitive in the employment marketplace and well-versed for graduate studies. The ability of researchers to use GIS and GPS technologies to identify patterns, trends, and behaviors provides a valuable resource for many fields. Geographic information systems are spatial databases that are able to model the earth's surface in discrete layers that can represent any variable desired (natural phenomena, settlement sites, artifacts, land cover/land use, bodies of water, etc.). Global positioning systems equipment provides a mechanism to record the location of phenomena that is not accurately documented on existing maps, and therefore must be recorded in the field. The utilization of GIS and GPS in MSDAPT will allow IUP faculty and students to integrate field-collected data with increasingly comprehensive mapping datasets produced by federal, state and local governments within uniform recognized geographic coordinate systems. MSDAPT will enable complex spatial analysis of a variety of phenomena across social and physical science disciplines at IUP when implemented.
Indiana University of Pennsylvania is strongly committed to interdisciplinary research and teaching, and MSDAPT will continue and enhance this tradition. Faculty from four departments (Anthropology, Geography & Regional Planning, Geosciences, and History), and two colleges (Humanities & Social Sciences and Natural Sciences & Mathematics) will be contributing directly to the project. Institutionally, MSDAPT will provide new opportunities to document and analyze geographic and subsurface phenomena using methods that were not possible previously, improving university instruction, research productivity, educational outreach, and recruitment of new faculty.
