MUSA GIS Day: The Intersection of Geography, Real Estate, and Civil Rights

Penn GIS Day, held in conjunction with the National GIS Day celebration, focuses annually on real-world applications and innovations stemming from uses of Geographic Information Systems.This year, speakers discussed how the role of spatial analytics is advancing in the fields of real estate and housing. Speakers included Al Parker, Research Associate, The Reinvestment Fund; Alan Lightfeldt, Senior Data Analyst, Zillow & StreetEasy; and Robert Renner, Social Science Analyst, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. We will also be celebrating the 10th anniversary of the MUSA program with a MUSA alumni panel to highlight cutting edge geospatial technologies, and a student poster presentation. Susan Wachter, Albert Sussman Professor of Real Estate, and Professor of Finance; Co-Director, Penn IUR, moderated the panel. The afternoon panel, which consisted of alumni working in GIS in Philadelphia, celebrated the 10th anniversary of the MUSA Program. Alumni presenters included, Guy Thigpen, Director of Data Analytics, the Redevelopment Authority; Ken Steif, Lecturer, University of Pennsylvania; and Sarah Cordivano, Project Manager, Data Analytics, Azavea. Following these events there was a data visualization workshop hosted by Ken Steif, MUSA Lecturer, PennDesign and Karl Dailey, MUSA Lecturer, University of Pennsylvania; and Randy Olson, Post-Doctoral Fellow, University of Pennsylvania. The event is co-sponsored by the Master of Urban Spatial Analytics program, the Cartographic Modeling Lab, the Wharton GIS Lab, PennDesign.                              

MUSA GIS Day 2015: The Intersection of Geography, Real Estate, and Civil Rights