There are a lot of ways to train for a career in the evolving field of geospatial. Soon, Missouri S&T will offer a new one: the nation’s first master’s program in geospatial engineering.
On Thursday, the University of Missouri Board of Curators unanimously approved Missouri S&T’s newest master’s track, giving students at the Rolla-based university a potential competitive edge in a field that’s hungry for skilled workers.
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While other schools—including, locally, Saint Louis University and the University of Missouri–St. Louis—offer programs with an emphasis on geographic information systems, Missouri S&T is focusing its master’s curriculum on technology development. The school’s project-based coursework will be geared toward applications like drones, autonomous robotics, remote sensing, and more.
Dr. Jeremy Maurer, the assistant professor of earth sciences and engineering coordinating the program, says he views the school’s geospatial graduate path as complementary to other training programs in the St. Louis region.
“We’re focusing on our strengths, that being the engineering focus,” Maurer says. “This is trying to fit into that whole ecosystem that’s in St. Louis, and doing so in a complementary way. Ours is definitely more on the engineering and technology side, and we’re trying to include that with everything else that’s going on.”
Why It Matters: Geospatial is among the region’s leading industries. According to Greater St. Louis Inc., the industry employs more than 10,000 people locally, with an approximately $5 billion economic impact. The launch of Missouri S&T’s program is a reflection of the work being done in St. Louis. “We’ll be technology-focused, while also focusing on some of the foundations of the technology and working toward developing new technologies,” Maurer says. “That’s the emphasis area there. We’re thinking about it from the context of big companies like Esri and Garmin, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and other kinds of government agencies as well. There are also a lot of startups in the geospatial area that are doing new satellite launches with different types of satellites.”
What’s Next: Pending program approval from the Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education, the university will admit students beginning with the fall semester. Maurer says the school plans to add an online component soon. “We’re hoping to target working professionals who may not want to take a couple of years to do a master’s degree, but who could still do the program while in their current career field and eventually move into a new area or learn new skills,” Maurer says.
