Do you want to use AI to save lives after an earthquake, increase crop yields, improve public health and discover more ways to help society? If so, you’re in the right place. This unique major combines AI with the science of analyzing locations, and is perfect for people who want to study maps and use geospatial data from diverse sources such as drones, social media, satellites and weather observations to solve problems anywhere in the world. Keep reading about this exciting field of geospatial artificial intelligence (GeoAI) and see how AI and geospatial analytics can be integrated to help address important challenges facing our society, such as those related to sustainable cities, disaster management, environmental health and ecosystem conservation.
To understand how AI tools can be built by society and for society, you’ll start with an overview of different types of AI, the ethical issues involved, and how AI disrupts the environment and other parts of our lives. You’ll take a few math and statistics courses and learn about probability, machine learning and computational skills. In your geography classes, you’ll study our planet and the Earth system, the impacts of globalization on cities, human-environment interactions, geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial analysis. You’ll learn how to acquire, synthesize and critically use spatial data, as well as how to integrate AI and GIS to support disaster management, improve global health, protect communities and conserve important ecosystems. Finally, you’ll have a capstone course where you can bring together everything you’ve learned to develop potential solutions to real-world problems.
Take a hike in UB’s on-campus forest. Join your friends in a computer science competition. Work with a professor to develop new remote sensing systems. At UB, you’ll have plenty of opportunities.
Study abroad. The best way to understand different places is often to visit them—which you can do through UB’s extensive study abroad programs.
Student groups. If you’re interested in something, UB probably has a club for it—from AI and computer science to geography and hundreds of other areas.
Hands-on learning. Want an internship or research job? At UB, you can get real-world experience starting in your first year, so you’re even more prepared when you graduate.
When you combine these two in-demand skillsets, you might end up working for a big technology company with a geospatial business (e.g., Google, Apple, Microsoft and Esri), a start-up that analyzes satellite data, a public health nonprofit, an insurance company that analyzes location-related risks, a state or city planning office, or nearly any organization that needs to understand and analyze location-based information and trends.
Potential careers include:
You can also further your education with an advanced degree in a related area, including AI, geography, GIS, international trade and more.
Your professors will mostly be experts in AI and geography, including geostatistics, environmental modeling, the global economy, regulation and trade, and other relevant topics.
They’ve published their work in leading journals (including the “Annals of the American Association of Geographers,” “Applied Geography” and “Theoretical Computer Science”), served as the principal scientists on projects of national importance, and presented at conferences throughout the world. Of course, they’re involved in professional organizations, including the American Association of Geographers, American Geophysical Union, Ecological Society of America and Association of Computing Machinery.
In and out of the classroom, our faculty have been widely recognized for their commitment to students. They’ve received numerous accolades, including the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence and the UB Teaching Innovation Award. So if you’re looking for a trusted mentor and someone who can help guide you along the way, welcome to UB.