Geospatial Intelligence - GEOINT

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If you have already graduated but not yet received the USGIF-issued GEOINT certificate, please click here for the certificate.


Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) is defined in the United States Code, Title 10, section 467 as follow: "The term 'geospatial intelligence' means the exploitation and analysis of imagery and geospatial information to describe, assess, and visually depict physical features and geographically referenced activities on the earth. Geospatial intelligence consists of imagery, imagery intelligence, and geospatial information." GEOINT is a rapidly emerging field where human intelligence and geospatial technologies are both crucial to solve multiple geographic problems that are found in both military and non-military affairs. Students graduating from a GEOINT program will become GEOINT professionals working in both government and commercial environments.

Given its close distance to Fort Liberty, the largest military installation in the world due to its active personnel, located only 10 miles away from the campus, Fayetteville State University has participated in the Geospatial Intelligence Certificate Program, accredited by the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF, http://www.usgif.org), and offered the GEOINT undergraduate certificate as well as minor program to provide GEOINT professionals to the highly demanding national geospatial job market. USGIF is the sepcial organization aiming at bringing together government, industry, academia, professional orgainizations, and individuals who are interested in GEOINT to exchange their ideas and practices as well as to promote GEOINT education. USGIF has proposed the GEOINT Essential Body of Knowledge as an accademic standard for accredited institutions to follow to ensure that their GEOINT graduates meet the requirements of the geospatial market. Among many of its activities, USGIF publishes the monthly Trajectory journal, awards thoundsands of dollars in scholarships every year, and holds annual GEOINT symposia.

Why Choose GEOINT @ FSU?

What Will You Learn?

  • Understand fundamental and advanced concepts in geospatial intelligence
  • Conduct imagery analysis and geospatial analysis
  • Perform database design and programming

What Will You Do?

GEOINT refers to the use of geospatial technologies to extract information for decision advantage in humanitarian response, strategic defense, security or investigative analysis. Therefore, becoming a GEOINTer you will be hired by national security and defense organizations, national policymakers, military, navy, defense agencies, intelligence agencies, homeland security/law enforcement agencies, global humanitarian agencies, emergency response systems, investigative & forensic analysis consulting firms, and security consulting firms or agencies.

Faculty
  • Dr. Ademiluyi Adegoke
    • PhD, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
    • Interests: urban spatial analysis, urban planning
  • Dr. Sambit Bhattacharya
    • PhD, State University of New York at Buffalo
    • Interests: machine learning, its applications in robotics & computer vision, geospatial analysis, and cybersecurity
  • Professor Thomas E. Cox
    • Oklahoma State University
    • Interests: GIS, geo-archeology, UASs, structure from motion (3D imaging), Paleo-American research
  • Dr. Bogdan (Denny) Czejdo
    • PhD, Warsaw Technical University (Poland)
    • Interests: geospatial database design, database languages and interfaces, machine learning, geospatial analysis
  • Col. (ret) William (Fitz) Lee
    • MS, Industrial College of the Armed Forces, Fort McNair, Washington, DC
    • Interests: national security planning, policy and operations, national intelligence, national resource strategy, information operations
  • Dr. Trung V. Tran, GISP
    • PhD, University of Oklahoma
    • Interests: GIScience and geovisualization, remote sensing, UAV/UAS (drones), spatio-temporal analytics, land change, coupled human-environment systems
Courses

21 Credit Hours total *. Courses include:

  • GEOG 317 – Geoprocessing Workflow Design and Automation (prerequisite GEOG 311 or GEOG 320)
    • Alternative: CSC 205 – Programming for GIS (prerequisite CSC 105)
  • GEOG 311 – Spatial Thinking and Data Visualiazation
  • GEOG 314 – Introduction to Remote Sensing
  • GEOG 320 – Introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
  • GEOG 325 – Applied GIS (prerequisite GEOG 311 or GEOG 320)
  • INTEL 320 – Intelligence and Military Operations (prerequiste INTEL 200)
  • GEOG 485 – Capstone Seminar in GEOINT. Note that this course is required for the USGIF certificate and cannot be supplemented by any other courses.

Descriptions of the courses can be found from our course catalog.

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(*) This does not include the prerequisite credits.

Job Outlook

National Median Wage (2016): $78,120/year

National Employment (2016): 111,000 employees

National Projected Growth (2016-2026): 5 - 9%

NC State Employment Trend (2014-2024): +5%

(*) The data was derived for the Intelligence Analysts title (SOC 33-3021.06), provided by the Association of American Geographers and O*NET Online as of 3/23/2018

Job Titles and Industries

Job Titles

  • Geospatial Intelligence Analyst
  • Terrorism Analyst
  • CounterIntelligence Officer
  • Criminal Intelligence Analyst
  • Emergency Management Specialist

Job Industries

  • Homeland Security
  • Law Enforcement
  • Investigative & Forensic Analysis Consulting Firms
  • Security Consulting Firms
  • Emergency Response Systems