The University of Pennsylvania, through its Penn Institute for Urban Research, has launched a Master of Urban Spatial Analytics degree to teach the application of spatial technology to business and public-sector decision-making.

Students enrolled in Penn's MUSA program will learn the technical skills of geographic information systems and spatial statistics and develop a program of learning in an urban content area from Penn's urban-related course offerings. The program will train students to use GIS in such fields as health care, criminology, transportation, utilities, marketing, and real estate development.

The MUSA is a one-year, nine-course professional degree program. Required analytics and methodology courses include modeling geographic space, spatial analysis in urban studies, statistics, and spatial data analysis with GIS. Students may select urban content field courses from criminology, design, economic development, education, local and state government, public health, real estate, social welfare, transportation, or urban demography. Students will demonstrate mastery of new skills by applying spatial analytics to a specialized real-world topic.

MUSA students also will have access to courses in the University's other schools and may pursue internship opportunities in the city.

Sponsored by Penn IUR, a University-wide initiative to foster excellence in urban research, instruction, and civic engagement, the MUSA program welcomes applicants from all backgrounds, including new graduates and current professionals with or without prior training in GIS. Applications for the Fall 2005 inaugural class are currently being accepted. A boot camp in GIS for novices will be offered this summer.

Related Link: Penn's Master of Urban Spatial Analytics homepage

For more information contact:

Rosalie Guzofsky
College of General Studies, University of Pennsylvania
3440 Market Street, Suite 100
Philadelphia
PA 19104-3335
USA

Phone: 215-898-3109
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.sas.upenn.edu/CGS/graduate/musa/