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GIF News Feed

Welcome to our new GIF Faculty Director: Dr. Iryna Dronova!

The GIF team is thrilled to welcome Dr. Iryna Dronova as our new Faculty Director! Dr. Dronova is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management (RCNR) and Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning (CED). Her research combines field ecological methods with remote sensing, geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial analysis to perform analyses of multi-scale structure of ecosystems, to facilitate scaling of ecological processes from local to regional levels, and to develop remote sensing-based monitoring approaches for vulnerable areas and sites with limited field access.

We look forward to working together on our mission of bringing cutting-edge mapping technology, training, and research support to the UC Berkeley network of students, staff, faculty, and the public.

New Geospatial Workshops Announced!

The GIF team is excited to announce a new series of online geospatial workshops! We're collaborating with our partners at UC ANR's IGIS this semester to bring you these great hands-on training opportunities. Please take a look at our workshop page to see what's available and to register. Also, stay tuned for more announcements about IGIS workshops and other events around campus, including at the D-Lab.

We also want to extend a big thank you to all our GIF users for being responsible and following our COVID protocols for working in the computer lab this semester! Things seem to be going smoothly so we appreciate everyone's help and support in keeping each other safe.

GIF Lab Facilities Update March 2020

I hope everyone is doing well and staying healthy in these trying times. As you have already heard, the Bay Area counties and UC Berkeley are under "shelter in place" guidance in response to the COVID-19 threat. At the current time, we expect to be sheltering in place until at least April 7th.

As per campus guidance, the GIF lab facilities are currently closed and Mulford Hall, along with other campus buildings, is locked as well. We hope to be able to reopen as normal on April 7th. We are still providing student services, so you can still go to http://gif.berkeley.edu/ to sign up for our remote office hours or to download a free student license for ArcGIS software.

The GIF team is pleased to announce that we are now offering our upcoming workshops online! We’ll be using Zoom conferencing instead of in-person training for these hands-on geospatial workshops. Attendees will be required to download and install (free) data and software on their own computers to follow along with these activities. Please register here for any workshops you'd like to attend this semester!

Please do get in touch directly with us if you have any questions, or if you need access to specific software. The GIF team is committed to working to make sure you have the resources you need.

Looking forward to Fall 2019!

Welcome back to UC Berkeley for the Fall 2019 semester! We have an exciting line-up of geospatial events here at the GIF and across campus. To start off the semester, we're opening up the registration for our always popular Introductory Workshop Series. This is a great opportunity to learn how to use geospatial data tools and techniques interactive and intensive hands-on workshop format. Learn how to access data in ArcGIS, query data by location and attributes, and make your own map! You can learn more details and register at: http://gif.berkeley.edu/support/workshops.html

Happy New Year to the GIF community!

Happy New Year! Welcome back to UC Berkeley for the Spring 2019 semester. We have an exciting line-up of geospatial events here at the GIF and across campus. To start off the semester, we're opening up the registration for our always popular Introduction to GIS workshops. This is a great opportunity to learn about these exciting tools in an interactive and intensive hands-on workshop format. Learn how to access data in ArcGIS, query data by location and attributes, and make your own map! You can learn more details and register at: http://gif.berkeley.edu/support/workshops.html

Welcome to the Fall 2018 semester!

Welcome to our new and returning students! The GIF is scheduling our upcoming geospatial workshop series for the fall semester. We're happy to announce our first workshop which will take place next week, on Friday, September 7th, from 9am - noon in Room 124 Mulford Hall. GIF workshops offer hands-on applications oriented training in a variety of geospatial topics. Workshop fees are available FREE of charge for all UC students (graduate and undergraduate), faculty, and staff. Workshop fees are now $150 for all non-UC affiliates.

The workshop on September 7th is our Introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS): Social Science Focus. This hands-on workshop has been designed for participants interested in social science with little to no experience in GIS. The presentation will get you up to speed on what kind of analyses GIS may be used for, as well as the basic structures of spatial data. After the lecture you will follow an interactive exercise that has been designed to introduce you to ArcGIS Desktop software while analyzing street and census data around the City of Berkeley. If you're interested in attending please sign up here.

Our full fall workshop schedule will be announced soon!

First Geolunch: January 25

Our first Geolunch of the semester will be held on Thursday, January 25th at 1pm in Mulford 103. We're excited to welcome James McBride from Ceres Imaging as our first speaker. Ceres Imaging is an Oakland based company that provides imagery to farmers to help guide agricultural management decisions. This talk will describe work at Ceres using thermal and visible near infrared imagery to improve water and fertilizer management, including experimental results obtained using remote sensing for water management in nut tree orchards managed by the UC Cooperative Extension.