NOVA GIS Team Wins National Department of Energy GIS Contest

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO), in conjunction with Idaho National Laboratory (INL), was the host for the 2020 Geothermal Design Challenge™: GIS Mapping Student Competition. The design challenge focused on non-technical barriers to geothermal development to foster understanding and share the benefits of geothermal energy technologies. Student teams of two or three used geographic information system (GIS) mapping to create a compelling infographic/poster or interactive map to discover potential opportunities from this renewable energy source.

The NOVA entry, “Team Flying Squirrel,” consisting of Patricia Murer and Yvonne French, received First Place in the Print category of this national contest.

“I think I speak for all of the NOVA community when I say we are deeply proud of them and their accomplishments as students, as representatives of our GIS program and for representing women everywhere in the STEM fields,” said GIS Program Head, Michael Harman. “This was a truly remarkable accomplishment for a community college competing against some of the top research universities in the nation.”

Patricia and Yvonne placed first against other finalists from Universities like Reykjavik University (Iceland), University of Alaska – Anchorage, University of Montana, Stanford University and University of Maryland – College Park.

“While our program may be small in number, we continually have excellent students enroll in our program and we do our best to train them to be the best GIS practitioners they can be. For some of our students, it would seem their best, is the best in the nation,” Harman said.

From Provost Leidig, Dean Hitchcock, and the entire GIS Program, we would like to thank Patricia and Yvonne for their hard work and outstanding efforts.

Learn more about the 2020 Geothermal Design Challenge™: GIS Mapping Student Competition.