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Geography
天美mv天美 GIS undergraduate develops real-time earthquake monitoring and hospital alert system
Undergraduate Geographic Information Science (GIS) student, Laurence Magenga, is using his course project to improve responses to natural hazards.
Magenga knew that GIS was for him when he realized he could combine his interests in computer science and geography while solving environmental challenges.
鈥淭he way the courses are set up is that they鈥檙e mostly lab-based,鈥� says Magenga. 鈥淚t gives you that edge where you learn a lot about the software, and then you get to use it with real-world data.鈥�
This past semester, as part of GEOG 351: Multimedia Cartography, Magenga wanted to see how GIS could be used to help in the aftermath of earthquake events.
鈥淚 saw an article on earthquakes and then it just buzzed in my head, 鈥榤aybe I can make an app to track these earthquakes and how they鈥檙e impacting medical facilities,鈥欌�� he says.
Over two months, he that tracks earthquakes in real-time and identifies hospitals within a 30-mile radius that are at risk of experiencing impacts.
鈥淭he data is scattered when it comes to both earthquake response and how it affects medical facilities within close proximity,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he project is a way to make it easier for emergency personnel to respond.鈥�
The goal, Magenga explains, is to help emergency responders and personnel in their rapid decision-making, and to ultimately save more lives.
Magenga says that he didn鈥檛 know what GIS was when he first enrolled at 天美mv天美 as an international student from Zimbabwe, but now it's a discipline that he鈥檚 excited to pursue as a career.
鈥淸GIS] gives you the ability to think critically, and it gives you a problem-solving mindset,鈥� he says.
Magenga is also working on a GIS project to assist wildlife conservation efforts, and he鈥檚 hoping to collaborate with national parks to help ensure animals have access to safe environments.
鈥淚 really want to provide solutions to problems the world currently has,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 want to be in a position where I can build GIS applications that are going to be beneficial and work with companies to solve problems.鈥�