Preface from Proceedings Editors
The 2nd Annual University of Washington (UW) GIS Symposium was held on May 17, 2018 in the University of Washington Libraries’ Research Commons, an interdisciplinary space devoted to highlighting student research. This year’s symposium continued its mission of creating an opportunity for faculty, students, and staff across disciplines to come together and share their GIS-related research.
Dr. Simon Hay kicked off the symposium with a talk on IHME’s (Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation) work in Africa on child growth failure. Dr. Hay, the Director of Geospatial Science at IHME, spoke on the power of GIS and mapping to identify sub-national differences in child growth rates and highlight geographical inequities within countries.
After the keynote, UW students and staff from a wide variety of disciplines and departments presented lightning talks and posters. Presenters represented several different UW Seattle and UW Bothell campus departments including CEP (Community, Environment, and Planning), SEFS (School of Environmental and Forest Sciences), Polar Science Center, UW Libraries, Geography, Health Services, Oceanography, LSJ (Law, Societies, and Justice), and Built Environments. A total of 8 lightning talk and 10 poster proposals were reviewed and accepted by the conference committee. Each lightning talk presenter delivered a five-minute oral presentation supported by visual slides; each poster presenter attended the event and was on hand to answer audience questions. An open Q&A followed the lightning talk portion of the event. Abstracts from the lightning talks and posters are included in these Proceedings below.
This year’s symposium was open to all members of the UW community and the public and was attended by over 55 people. We would like to thank everyone who contributed to the success of this year’s UW GIS Symposium. Special thanks goes to members of the GIS Symposium planning committee for their numerous contributions, the staff of the Research Commons for being gracious hosts of the event, and to the UW Libraries for sponsoring refreshments.
Proceedings Editors
Kian Flynn, UW Libraries
Madeline Mundt, UW Libraries
Matthew Parsons, UW Libraries