About the GIS Lab Facilities

The GIS Lab offers separate teaching and research facilities with a variety of current hardware and software resources. Both facilities are located in the Interdisiplinary Science Building (ISB) on the UC Santa Cruz campus. Please refer to descriptions and map below for the specific location. These facilities are available to students, faculty, staff, and non-profit organizations working on GIS related research or projects. Please refer below for details on how to access these facilities.

Teaching Facility

Located in the ISB Room 486 (Interdisplinary Science Building), the teaching facility is primarily used for Environmental Studies 115A , GIS and Environmental Applications. This is an introductory GIS course that focuses on environmental applications and is currently being taught by Brian Fulfrost with the use of ArcView 9.2 with spatial analyst. Environmental studies students are given priority for course enrollment, however it is open to the campus community.

The facility hosts 15 PCs, digital projection, internet, and white boards for teaching purposes. Other supporting software is available such as MS Office (MS Access), WS FTP, and WinZip. The machines all contain a 100 MB Ethernet network connection and CD ROM burner. For a complete list of hardware and software please see below. The facility also contains hard copy maps for use in the lab, including USGS topoquads for California. Additionally, the lab offers GIS related books, magazines, and manuals for in-lab use only.

Access to the facility is available Monday thru Friday 9am-5pm via door code. Please contact Monica Tydlaska or Brian Fulfrost to gain access. Access is available for graduate and undergraduate students and others involved in GIS and related research or projects.

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Research Facility

Located in the ISB Room 450 (Interdisplinary Science Building), the research facility is designed for upper division undergraduate and graduate students, staff, faculty, and non-profit organizations who are involved in GIS or related research/projects. A mixture of Windows and UNIX systems are available for research purposes, all with internet connectivity on campus and the wider conservation, non profit, and government community. The facility hosts up-to-date hardware, software, and a 100 MB Ethernet network. There are 4 Windows and 2 UNIX workstations with dual processing capabilities. A whole suite of software tools are available including ArcInfo 9.2 desktop and workstation, ERDAS Imagine, ENVI, and SAS statistical software. For a complete rundown see below. There are also excellent printing capabilities available including large scale plotting, color, laser and ink jet.

Access to the facility is available Monday thru Friday 9am-5pm via door code. Please contact Monica Tydlaska or Brian Fulfrost to gain access.

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Hardware, Software and Other Resources

Hardware

Research Lab

• 3 - Dual Xeon 2GHZ w/ 2GB RAM PC's with 20in flat panel monitors and • CD-ROM Burners
• 2 - Sun Blade 2K (Solaris 8.0, 9.0)
• 1 - G4 Macintosh w/ DVD Burner

• HP 42in Plotter 5500PS
• Color LaserJet 4600dn
• Color Inkjet 1700ps

Teaching Lab

• 15 - Pentium 4 2GHZ w/ 1GB RAM PC's with 20in flat panel monitors and • CD-ROM Burners
• CalComp 36in x 42in Digitizing Table
• Xerox Phaser Color 8560DN
• Black & White HL-5170DN

Software

GIS/ Remote Sensing

Research Lab

• ArcInfo 9.2 Desktop and Workstation. (3D Analyst, ArcScan, Spatial Analyst, ArcPress, StreetMap USA, Geostatistical Analyst)
• Erdas Imagine 8.6.
• GPS Pathfinder Office 2.8.
• ENVI 4.0 w/IDL
• Surfer 8.0
• Terrasync
• ArcView 3.2

 

Teaching Lab

• ArcView 9.2 w/Spatial Analyst.
• Arc View 3.2
• GPS Pathfinder Office 2.8.

GIS Database and Statistical Tools

Research Lab

• SAS
• Sigma Plot.
• MS Access
• MS Excel
• FileMaker Pro

 

Teaching Lab

• Matlab
• MS Access
• MS Excel

Image and Graphic

Research Lab

• Adobe Photoshop 6.0.
• Adobe Acrobat 5.0.
• Adobe Illustrator 10.0.

Office and Data Management

• EndNote
• WinZip
• Secure Shell 3.2
• BoxCar 3.7

• Active Sync 3.5
• Populus 5.3
• Distance 4.0

• WSFTP

UNIX

• ArcInfo Workstation
• Erdas Imagine 8.6
• ENVI w/IDL
• SAS

Printers

Research Lab

• HP 42in Plotter 5500PS
• Color LaserJet 4600dn
• Color Inkjet 1700ps

Equipment Available for Loan

GPS units:
• 1 - Trimble GEOXH
• 2 - Trimble GEOXT
• 3 - Trimble GEOExplorer I & II
• 2 - Trimble ProXR DGPS
• 1 - Waist pack Unit with TDC1 data logger
• 1 - Backpack Unit with GEOXT/GEOXH or IPAQ as data logger

• 3 - IPAQ PDA’s for field Data Collection w/ Terrasync and ArcPad 6.0
• 1 - Laser Tech Impulse 200 Laser Range Finder w/magnetic compass

Scanning Station

• UMAX PowerLook 2100XL Flatbed Scanner
• 11in x 17in
• 9,600 dpi
• Slides and Negatives

Expertise Available

GIS and Environmental expertise within the Department of Environmental Studies covers plants, insects, and animals. Particular areas include bio-control, fisheries, native plants, and landscape utilization by carnivores. The GIS Laboratory is an ideal situation to draw on the expertise of the many researchers available. Available personnel include GIS specialists and Programmers with many years of experience in GIS development, graduate student researchers, and undergraduate assistants working on internships. Students are available to work on projects with a Faculty PI or under one of our staff Research Associates.

Data Holdings

Data Holdings in the GIS Laboratory include over 100 gigabytes of networked online data concentrating on California and California’s Central Coast. Available data includes census, political boundaries, biological inventories, high resolution imagery, scanned topoquads for California, parcel layers for select counties, and data acquired through MOUs with agencies such as NASA, California Coastal Commission, USGS, and County Planning Departments. The GIS lab is dedicated to maintaining an active spatial data library which our projects can incorporate and draw on.

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Using the Lab

The UCSC GIS Laboratory (located in ISB Bldg, Rm 450 & 486) is a campus-wide facility, available to students, staff, faculty, and members of the larger intellectual community. The Laboratory also serves as a regional resource through data and technology exchanges with agencies such as NASA, California Coastal Commission, NOAA, USFS, and local government associations.

There are many levels at which you can interact with the Laboratory:

1. You can use the Laboratory workstations, peripherals, manuals, or staff resources to help accomplish your project goals which may include incorporating new software into our system.

2. If you use, or are thinking of using ArcInfo, Imagine, or SAS and want a dedicated license, you can save significant license fees by coordinating your licensing agreements through the Laboratory

3. The GIS Lab acts as a source or repository for data that is useful for your projects.

However, there are costs to maintaining the GIS Laboratory. Consistent with its academic mission, we encourage exploration of the options available at the GIS Laboratory in a learning environment. Thus, there are no hourly fees. In particular, agreements to use the facilities are specified on a per-project basis. For each project, you can contribute to the lab through suitable purchases of supplies and equipment and/or allocating money towards software license support, or other ways that we can discuss.

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Staff and Location Information

Brian Fulfrost M.S., UCSC GIS Coordinator, teaches the GIS course in the Environmental Studies department and spends the rest of his time managing the GIS Laboratory. GIS services are available to the campus community as well as to government, community and research institutions in the Monterey Bay area. Brian provides consulting on GIS projects, maintains Lab hardware and software resources, and interfaces with GIS interested organizations in the Monterey Bay Region.

In addition to the Lab Manager, the Laboratory operates in a friendly atmosphere, where information and skills are readily shared.

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Website designed by Tiffany Fast 2004