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MidAmerica GIS Consortium

We believe geospatial technology creates value far reaching from ourselves. We are a network of dedicated leaders in the fields of mapmaking, location services, & data management.

SHORT COURSES

MAGIC has a rich offering of short courses before the conference. These short courses will consist of hands-on labs and traditional class-room style instruction.

Fees for short courses are:

  • ½-Day Short Course with full conference registration: $125
  • ½-Day Short Course without full conference registration: $250
  • Full Day Short Course with full conference registration: $250
  • Full Day Short Course without full conference registration: $500
Last Updated 01/16/2018

Monday, April 23, 2018 ALL DAY Courses

500. This course is FULL- Unmanned Aerial Systems - From Flight to Map (Hands On Lab) :: Wayne Woldt and Mitch Maguire, University of Nebraska and Jacob Smith UAS Pilot


This is a full day workshop where participants will learn about Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) flight planning, flying a mission, and exploring data collected. Exploration of data includes imagery, metadata, autopilot log data, error and issues with data, and further compilation techniques. The morning session will be held both indoors and outdoors and the afternoon session indoors for the computer lab portion. Participants will come away with a general understanding of the following concepts. Fundamentals of UAS, data application, and legal issues for use in rural and urban settings. Planning, deploying and operation of a UAS. Different types of platforms and remote sensors for data collection. Hands-on data analysis exploring imagery interpretation, flight logs, and metadata. Understanding image interpretation and analysis using Pix4D software. Investigate methods of stitching image tiles, classification procedures, and image band manipulation. Integration of imagery products into GIS and further analysis for techniques such as change detection. Transportation is arranged from the Doubletree to the University of Nebraska research location at Mead, Nebraska.

Monday, April 23, 2018 AM Courses

101. Introduction to Python for the GIS Professional (Hands On Lab) :: Kristen Jordan-Koenig, Kansas Data Access & Support Center

Python is a straightforward scripting language that interfaces with multiple existing programs to automate workflows. Python works with many programs like ArcMap, AutoCAD, Excel, Word, websites, etc. The possibilities of workflow automation are only limited by your imagination!

This course is intended for people who have never programmed before (if you already know programming basics, this is not the class for you). The material will begin with programming basics, continue into the logic of programming, and extend into where to find programming resources for building your scripts. Discussions will include analogies of pirates, Dr. Frankenstein, cooking, and cars.

Although a laptop is not required for this course, you will gain MUCH more from this course if participants bring a laptop that has ArcGIS Desktop installed on it. This way, you can immediately practice what you're learning in class.

102. Legal Issues in GIS (Instruction) :: Chris Dunn, Law Office of Christopher W. Dunn

  • Chris Dunn is a lawyer licensed to practice in Missouri.  He also has a GIS business.  Join Chris for an introduction into the legal aspects of the geospatial profession. In this short course we’ll talk about:
  • Geospatial Data and Product Copyright Issues, 
  • Potential Liability of GIS Technicians,
  • Data Sharing and Public Policy,
  • Geospatial Information Privacy,
  • Crafting Map Disclaimers,
  • Freedom of Information Requests for Geospatial Data, and
  • Geospatial Legal Best Practices

Please visit http://mogovlaw.com/?page_id=348 to submit your legal questions prior to the short course.


103. ArcGIS Online: The Basics and Beyond (Hands On Lab) :: Jesse Adams, North Point Geographic Solutions

You may already have an Esri ArcGIS Online (AGO) account and are aware of some of the things you can do with your subscription, but if you are eager to build on your existing knowledge, then let us show you more of what AGO offers. Participants will learn how to create, utilize AGO dashboards, build applications using the Web App Builder, and more! We will also discuss setting up you AGO to optimize access, and security.  We’ll also look at story maps and how you can start creating compelling stories around your data.  Come join us and see how you can take your AGO knowledge to the next level!

104. Spatial Statistics in ArcMap (Hands On Lab) :: Pamela Jurney and John Edwards, Cross Timbers Consulting, LLC

This workshop is a guided tour through the spatial statistics toolbox in ArcGIS.  Have you ever wondered what it really means to analyze patterns, map clusters, and measure geographic distributions?  What do these terms mean and how you can use them to further explore spatial relationships?

This half-day short course has been set up to work through applications of the spatial statistics tools that are available in ArcMap.  We will discuss basic statistical applications, how to render results in ArcMap, and how to interpret the results.

Key themes: Spatial statistics, mean / median centers, mapping clusters, geographic distributions, cluster and outlier analysis, hot spot analysis

105. Survey123 and Collector for ArcGIS: Better Together (Hands On Lab) :: Brian Hiller, Burns & McDonnell

In this short course attendees will learn how to integrate the Collector for ArcGIS and Survey123 to harness the power that each application provides. Attendees will build a Collector map and a Survey123 form, they will then tie the two applications together through the power of app linking, the class will wrap up by showing how the Web Application builder can be used to display the results of a Collector for ArcGIS and Survey123 field workflow.


Monday, April 23, 2018, PM Courses

201. Intermediate Esri Geoprocessing with Python (Hands On Lab) :: Kristen Jordan-Koenig, Kansas Data Access & Support Center

Intermediate Esri Geoprocessing with Python will pick up where Introduction to Python for the GIS Professional left off. The intermediate course will cover: debugging, looping through commands, data, and fields, suggestions of ways to spend your time at work after automating large portions of your GIS workflows, exporting Model Builder to Python, manipulating geometries, functions, chaining geoprocessing tasks, cursors (search, update, and insert), proper responses for "OMG, you code? I could never do that. You're a genius!", importing and using other Python modules, putting together a Python project from start to finish, making sure your code works in both ArcGIS Desktop and ArcPro, and even more on the logic of programming.

Participants should bring a laptop that has ArcGIS Desktop installed on it.

202. NG911 and the GIS Workflow (Instruction) :: Sandi Stroud, Michael Baker - URISA Licensed Course

This workshop is aimed at the GIS professional who is currently supporting or may support their emergency communications division in the future. In a fully operational next generation 911 system, GIS is the core component in determining how a 911 call is routed to the correct public safety answering point (PSAP). This will have profound impacts on local maintenance workflows, local data access, and data fidelity. We recognize there is a sincere lack of education available aimed at the GIS professional who may not be as versed with the 911 terminology or needs. This workshop is intended to provide an overview of next generation 911, GIS’ role in such a system, the implications on local workflows, and illustrate common pain points and sources of errors in local GIS datasets.

Learning Objectives:

  • Become familiar with basic next generation 911 terminology and concepts
  • Recognize GIS’ role in a fully operational next generation 911 system
  • Understand the implications on local GIS workflows to meet the demands of a next generation 911 system
  • Begin to understand immediate steps that can be taken in preparing GIS assets for Next Generation 911

203. Mobile LiDAR 101: “That’s really cool, but how do I use it?” (Instruction) :: Bryan Salsieder, BartleyEstes, CEC

When it comes to acquiring any kind of geospatial data, it always boils down to using the right tool in the toolbox. Mobile LiDAR is a relatively new remote sensing technology that has enhanced the way we acquire, process, and produce actionable geospatial data. However, to fully leverage the power of 3D laser scan data, it is important to understand the geomatic principles that determine data accuracies, precision, and usability.

This workshop will be an in-depth look into mobile LiDAR data acquisition, data processing techniques, and applications. These applications will include utilizing 3D laser scan data for topographic surveying, 3D modeling, pavement condition analysis, and asset management. We will also discuss ways to utilize this data in GIS platforms like ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Desktop utilizing the 3D Analyst extension, as well as examples of LAS files used in GIS software. We will talk through a complete project lifecycle, from mobile LiDAR data acquisition to producing an end deliverable.

The most common question we’ve had over the years is “That’s really cool, but how do I use it?”. In this workshop, it is our goal to answer that question.


205. Introduction to ArcGIS Pro (Instruction):: Ken Wilkerson, GISEDGE

This workshop helps you get ready for your conversion to ArcGIS Pro. We'll see how to import map documents into ArcGIS Pro and how to perform many of the tasks you are familiar with in your daily use of ArcMap: working with symbology and layer properties, building queries, running tools, making a layout, etc.


Tuesday, April 24, 2018 AM Courses

301. Advanced Geoprocessing with Python (Hands On Lab) :: Brett Lord-Castillo, Monsanto Company

Advanced Geoprocessing with Python continues the series of python courses with advanced special topics. Open source libraries such as GDAL, ogr, shapely, fiona, and rasterio will be explored in more detail, including their interaction with arcpy. We will dive deeper into raster and image processing, focusing on the use of numpy arrays. This will be followed by master class style workshop time to tackle individual programming problems that students bring with them to class. We will wrap up with the special topics of web communication using the requests library and multi-thread processing in python.

302. Introductory ModelBuilder (Hands On Lab) :: Ken Wilkerson, GISEDGE

Esri ModelBuilder (MB) provides a visual programming environment for combining data and tools to automate tasks or create custom scripts. This course will introduce MB processing with hands-on exercises demonstrating the creation of models ranging from simple to complex. You will learn how to quickly and effectively develop models that help you become more productive ArcGIS users.

303. Geoprocessing with R (Hands On Lab) :: Tim Haithcoat, University of Missouri

There are a lot of open source tools now available for use in processing and analyzing spatial information. This short course will provide an overview of the issues and approaches to spatial analysis.  The course will utilize hands-on learning and a ‘learning by example’ method so that there are take-aways that can be directly applied to your situation. Examples of basic operations, assembling relationships, and conducting modeling will be covered.

304. Introduction to Basic Cartographic Principles (Hands On Lab) :: Mike Larson, OSU Cartography Services

Cartography is a tool for communicating and like any other communication tool, having a solid grounding of the basic concepts and principles will help to increase its effectiveness. This hands-on workshop will be an introduction to the basic principles of cartography and map creation focusing on data symbolization and representation, color theory, text placement and labeling. Additional discussion and demonstrations will cover layout and design principles including major element placement and arrangement, figure and foreground concepts, as well as scale and projection issues.

305. GIS Production Workflows and QA/QC (Hands On Lab) :: Bryce Hirschman, Douglas County, Kansas

In this workshop, you will gain skills working with tools and features to get better data with less effort and in less time.  We will review document concepts before diving into edit sessions to build plats and road right-of-way using actual documents for each feature class.  A greater sense of comfort with editing will be experienced by gaining this knowledge.  It will allow you to chain together smaller workflows into production workflows that power your organization’s GIS operation.  For the QA/QC portion of the workshop, we will ensure data is great by using symbology, custom labeling expressions, queries, bulk calculation techniques, and table sorting.  The combination of methods and techniques will allow both visual and tabular quality checks of data, regardless the size of jurisdiction.

306. The Open GIS Sampler with Boundless (Hands On Lab) :: Christina Hupy, Boundless

Come by and get a taste of open GIS and see what the Boundless Stack has to offer.  Get your wheels spinning on how hybrid architecture could cut costs and improve your workflows.  We'll sample Boundless Desktop powered by QGIS, Boundless Server, and a mix of open data, tools, and apps.


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