Carnegie Mellon University at Qatar students learn about geographic information systems

Carnegie Mellon University at Qatar (CMU-Q) recently announced that it is offering a class focused on geographic information systems (GIS), an area of major potential for Qatar.
 
“It’s a way of making sense of big data,” said Chadi Aoun, associate teaching professor of information systems. “For instance, imagine looking where clinics are located within Qatar, and then plotting out where the people are who need access to those clinics. GIS can inform policy on where clinics should be located, closing service gaps and increasing rates of early diagnosis.”
 
CMU-Q students studying GIS have been offered prestigious internships at the Center for GIS. One of the students, Farjana Salahuddin, said she appreciated studying the impact of GIS by looking at an investigation into accident rates in one U.S. county.
 
“We looked at accidents and then plotted out factors like speed zones, pedestrian crossings, weather and lighting,” Salahuddin said. “We saw that one area had a high number of accidents at night, and when we looked at the data, we realized there were no streetlights. Adding a streetlight is [a] simple solution that could prevent future accidents.”
 
Salahuddin and others are considering the internship offer.