Data Systems and Geomatics: Student Interns Contribute to Pandemic Intelligence at BlueDot
Over the summer, fourth-year Geographic Analysis students Sophie Antonyshyn and Chelsea Leung completed internship placements at BlueDot, a leading provider of infectious disease intelligence that has been recognized in the pandemic era as a cutting-edge geospatial analytics company. As Data Systems Intern, Chelsea was tasked with updating disease maps, database consolidation, and cloud management. “I was happy to add SQL and FME Workbench proficiency to my skills portfolio. FME Workbench was my most utilized and favourite program: that’s where all the map updates, data manipulation and data insertion took place. We fed updates from FME Workbench onto the organization’s ArcGIS Online portal, updating maps remotely without having to make manual changes, which would have been a much more time-consuming process.”
Sophie had an equally comprehensive experience at BlueDot in her role as Geomatics Intern. Sophie used skills gained in the “methods and techniques” course group offered by the Geographic Analysis program to provide geotechnical expertise. “I used the skills I learned from the core GIS courses, such as GEO644: Spatial Databases, to succeed in the role. I updated BlueDot’s inventory including their malaria, lyme, measles, and mumps disease maps at different levels of geography such as by county, province or state and country. This involved processing large amounts of data and we used programs such as ArcMap, SQL Server, Excel and FME Workbench as the software platforms. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to gain work experience and new skills that will make me more versatile and employable after graduation.”
Completion of a work placement is a degree requirement for the Geographic Analysis program. The placement ensures that students gain real-world experience in their field of study and offers an opportunity to hone skills learned in class and in the field while completing the program. Positions entail the application of key theories and concepts studied in the classroom, and students are required to translate their knowledge of the software tools used in the GIS labs to the platforms employed by their placement hosts.
