Topic outline

  • Welcome to GIS Development

    • Not available unless: You are a(n) Student

      Join the course Team with the Team code p4w6k4f.

      Learning sessions and other course meetings will be held in the Team, on the general channel.

      You can join the course learning sessions by using this link: Click here to join the meeting.

    • Due to the ongoing Covid-19 epidemic GIS-E4030 GIS Development course will be held 100% on-line. This requires adjustments to the learning sessions, as well as in how the students on the course work in their group work projects. I urge especially those students who are uncertain of their technical expertise to reserve some extra time for the course activities. When a tool or a framework does not work as it should, it can take quite some time to get everything running.


      This year, the course will span two periods for the first time. Thus, there is a lot of flexibility in how we conduct the course. More on this on the first learning session.

      The courses uses MS Teams for learning sessions and for daily discussion for matters related to the whole course. Details how to join the team for the course will be added here later.

      Goal of the course

      The goal of this course is for the students learn how methods required for GIS application development work. After the course, the student has an understanding how software development projects work, how spatial data is developed, how services are set up, and how databases can be maintained, and used in GIS analysis. Depending on the exact project topic as well as the student's role in the project group, they are likely to focus on some of these topics more than others.

      In addition, the students familiarize themselves and practice with the technological tools required in GIS software development and management of GIS data sets, and make a short GIS development project. In the project, the students will practice how to keep track of the amount of work done on a software project, and compare this to the amount of resources assigned.

      The project will be done in groups. The groups will have 3-5 people, with group of size 4 being the optimal. A group of this size can continue to function, even if one person needs to drop out of the course. A group of four is also sufficiently large that the participants can divide work between them, and people can specialize in different tasks. However, in a group of four, there aren’t too many people, and therefore everyone will find work they need to do in the project.

      The amount of time a student should dedicate for work outside the learning sessions is approximately 100 hours. This comes to approximately 10 hours of work per week during the 10 weeks of the project work. This number includes both the work done for developing the group project, as well work needed for individual studying.

      After the course, the students are familiar with the practical work and tools used in software projects, and have practiced working in a software project group.

      Prerequisites 

      For masters' students in geoinformatics the GIS-E1070 Theories and techniques in GIS is a prerequisite course. Geoinformatics students who have not finished the course should contact the course staff before the first session.

      In general, the following skills are useful on the course:
      • Programming experience and interest
      • Familiarity with and interest in learning programming environments, frameworks, libraries, and ability to learn new programming languages and environments
      • Interest in group work and willingness to work on projects
      To those students who feel hesitant after reading the prerequisites: remember that in your working life you are very likely to encounter all sorts of project work you need to do. In those projects you will encounter new tools, new concepts, and new technology you need to master. This course is a chance to practice that in a safe environment. You will learn things, and there is no a external customer here.

      Learning and exercise sessions and use of time on the course

      There will be no traditional lectures on the course. Instead, on every Thursday during period IV, there will be a learning session in MS Teams, where we will discuss the topics related to the course. The sessions can include also brief lectures, but the work methods will also include different kinds of group discussions and such. The maximum time for individual learning session is 4 hours. Approximately 3 hours likely to be closer to the mark.

      The learning sessions will be complemented by self-study material. The material is to be read before the session. In order to emphasize this, there is a pre-assignment for each learning session, which are obligatory part of the course. In order to do the pre-assignment, you need to read the material, consider it, and write a short report. Each pre-assignment should take 2-4 hours of work.

      The deadline for each pre-assignment is on the evening before the learning session. This is in order to give the course staff time to read through the submissions before the session.

      For the pre-assignments you need to reserve 6*4=24 hours and for the learning sessions you need to reserve approximately 18 hours. Most likely to the total amount of work used for these parts of the course will be less than 48 hours, total.

      In addition, on Fridays every student group on the course can have a session with the staff for discussing their project.

      These sessions can either be support sessions or deadline sessions. In the support sessions, the purpose of the session is for the group to be able to bring problems they have to the course staff. In the deadline sessions, the group can demonstrate the current state of their project, and discuss with the course staff what will be the next steps.

      For these sessions you need to reserve 10 hours.

      For project work and individual learning (with pre-assignment work excluded) you should reserve approximately 100 hours.

      Thus, in total, the course can take 140-150 hours of work. The total amount of work per student may vary a lot, depending on individual circumstances.

      Course grading

      The course grade is based on the grade of the project, adjusted by the grade of the learning portfolio. The pre-assignments need to be submitted before each session, and should also be included in the portfolio.

      The project is graded from 0 (failed) to 5, a grade of 0 from the project will mean the whole course is failed.

      The learning portfolio is graded either failed, or from -1 to +2.

      A failed learning portfolio will mean the whole course is failed; otherwise the learning portfolio grade is used to adjust the project grade to get the full course grade (maximum of 5). To give an example, a project grade of 2 and a portfolio grade of -1 will give the student the course grade 2-1=1, and a project grade of 3 and portfolio grade of 0 will give the student course grade 3.

      A portfolio grade of -1 cannot fail the course, thus if the project grade is 1 and the portfolio grade is -1, the course grade will be 1.

      Project grading

      Both the project result (the software and/or service delivered) and the project documentation including the final report will be graded from 0 (failed) to 3.

      Grade 3 is given for very good or excellent work.

      Grade 2 is given to a work of good quality.

      Grade 1 is given for a functional work of low quality.

      Grade 0 is given for not returning the work, work with significant omissions, or really low quality. A grade 0 will fail the project.

      The final project grade will be the sum of these two grades minus one. Thus, if a group gets 2 from their project and 2 from their documentation, their final grade will be 2+2-1=3.

      Portfolio grading

      Failed: no portfolio has been returned, or the returned portfolio is significantly incomplete.

      Grade -1: The portfolio is missing parts, or is of low quality. The portfolio does not demonstrate how the student has participated on the course, how they now understand the course topics, and how they have learned on the course.

      Grade 0: The default grade; the portfolio contains all the required elements, but does not show any significant merits, or does not demonstrate how the student learned and absorbed the course contents.

      Grade +1: A good portfolio that contains all the required elements, and shows that the student has focused on the course and the portfolio, and has been able to learn and analyze their learning.

      Grade +2: An excellent portfolio that delivers all the required elements in a praiseworthy manner, as well as goes beyond the requirements in analyzing what the student now understands and what they have learned on the course.


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  • Course schedule

    Preliminary course schedule is as follows.

    Week (dates)

    Learning session

    Exercise session

    9 (1-7.3)

    Learning session 1

    Introduction to course, working in groups, software projects

    No session (project not started)

    10 (8-14.3)

    Learning session 2

    Spatial web services

    Project kickoff session

    11 (15-21.3)

    Learning session 3

    Agent-based modeling

    Support session (obligatory)

    12 (22-28.3)

    Learning session 4

    3D models

    Deadline session

    13 (29.3-4.4)

    Learning session 5

    Software development projects

    Good Friday, no session

    14 (5-11.4)

    Learning session 6

    Project delivery and finalizing a project

    Deadline session

    15 (12-18.4)

    Period IV assessment week (no more learning sessions)

    Support session (optional)

    16 (19-25.4)

     

    Project mid-term presentation (Deadline session)

    17 (26.4-2.5)

     

    eve of Wappu, no session

    18 (3-9.5

     

    Deadline session

    19 (10-16.5)

     Ascension day

    Support session (optional)

    20 (17-23.5)


    Project delivery (21st)

    21 (24-30.5)

     

    Portfolio delivery (30th)

    22 (31.5-6.6)

     Period V assessment week

     

    During period IV, there will be a learning session on every Thursday starting at noon (12:15, to be exact). There will be no such events on period V.

    The course project will last 10 weeks (5 SCRUM sprints). The project will start early in period IV, and will last until late period V. Preliminary schedule is to start the project on Friday, March 12th, and have the project delivery on Friday, May 21st. The schedule may be adjusted by one week, if necessary.

    During both periods IV and V, there will be short (max 1h) chance for to meet the course staff regarding the project on Fridays between 10 and 12. Every other of these meetings will be a SCRUM spring review session. Every other session will be a more general session, where the project group can discuss any issues they have with the course staff.

    In the beginning ov period V, there will be a mid-project presentation, where the project groups will describe their project and their work to the whole course.

    At the end of period V, there will be a project delivery seminar, where the groups will present their projects and formally submit them.

  • Course practicalities and the portfolio

    In order to pass the course, you need to do the following:

    1.      Do the project as part of a group

    2.      Make a learning portfolio

    An overview of the project is given on the GIS development project page. Details of the learning portfolio are given below.

    Learning sessions (lectures) on the course

    On each week, we will hold a four-hour learning session. These learning sessions are not traditional lectures. Instead, we will look at the issues important to the course (such as working in a project, data management for a web service, etc.) together. The sessions will contain some lecture-like elements, but also group work, presenting your group work results, etc.

    The learning sessions will be held on MS Teams on Thursdays at 12-14.

    Exercise sessions on the course

    Also, once per week each project group will have a one-hour session with the course staff to discuss the current state of their project. The sessions are either support sessions, or deadline sessions.

    In support sessions the group can bring forth problems they have had and ask for advice, or otherwise discuss what they need in order to move forward with their work.

    In deadline sessions the current state of the group’s project is reviewed, and the course staff will compare the state to the current Sprint Goals.

    Each group needs to reserve the time for their session beforehand.

    The Learning portfolio

    The learning portfolio consists of the following elements:

    1. A learning diary focusing on your work in the project, but also covering the learning sessions (lectures)
      1. Focus the diary on your part of the work in the project. You can, for example, include some of the following topics in your learning diary: what did you do, how much did you know beforehand and how much did you learn during the project, what did you consider particularly challenging, or particularly enjoyable, and what parts of your own work are you most proud of.
      2. Make sure to write the learning diary so it reflects on your own learning during the project, as well as remember to cover the whole project
      3. One way to structure the diary is also to take into account how the project is structured: the starting phase, two Sprints, and finally finishing the project
      4. The size of a good learning diary can be anything from 5 to 15 pages, depending on your writing style and the level detail you are using
    2. The time keeping you did for the project. You can also keep track of the time you used on the course that was not part of the project work.
    3. Your personal reflection on the project and the group work: what did it feel like working in a software project group, did your group work well together, were there things you think you succeeded particularly well, or things you failed at, etc.Appropriate length for this part of the protfolio is between 1 and 4 pages, depending on how much you feel you need to say, as well as how much you think you need to go into details

    You can also give course feedback in the learning portfolio, but this part is not required and will not affect the grading. You can also give feedback using the course feedback form if you wish for your feedback to be anonymous.

    If you want, you can further structure your learning diary using things like the Gibbs’ reflective cycle. The following web resources might be useful:

    https://www.ocnlondon.org.uk/news/how-to-produce-a-reflective-learning-diary

    https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/reflective-cycle.htm

    https://my.cumbria.ac.uk/media/MyCumbria/Documents/ReflectiveCycleGibbs.pdf




  • Materials, pre-assignment and portfolio submission

  • The development project topics

    The description of the software development project done on the course will be added here.

    There will be two project topics for the course. Both will be done by at least one project group duringt he course.

    Agent-based modeling of COVID-19 transmission in grocery stores

    The first topic is modeling COVID-19 transmission in a grocery store setting with Agent-Based Models (see https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.07868 and https://github.com/fabianying/covid19-supermarket-abm). The group, which takes this topic, will start with existing ABM implementation (in Python). Their initial task is to implement an existing grocery store (A Bloc K-Market) on top of the existing implementation and be able to run the model with that data.

    After the model is running, there are at least two further development paths that should be followed. First, a simple web service should be established, where the model (either the original model with the synthetic store, or the A Bloc K-Market store) can be run with different parameters and the results will be reported to the user. Second, the model should be further developed to take into account, for example, rush hours, store staff, etc. 

    Specific elements to be included in the project will be discussed later.

    Outside view from buildings in Helsinki using 3D city model

    The second topic is creating a "view from a window" -service for Helsinki. Helsinki city has created a freely available 3d city models that cover the whole city (see https://www.hel.fi/helsinki/en/administration/information/general/3d). Using this model, it is possible to create a simulated view from a window from practically every window in every house in Helsinki. The view would be similar to what could be seen from the actual window.

    The initial task in this project would be create meathod for creating a simulated window view for a given address on a given floor, and to a given direction. Thus the parameters would not actually be for a specific window, but for a more generic but "close enough" simulation of such.

    After the initial window view creation works, then it needs to be turned into a web service. Furthermore, using the 3d model, the window view can be analyzed and different characteristics of the view can be calculated. In this project, the following characteristics are focused on:
    1. The farthest distance visible in the view
    2. Visibility and amount of some specific elements, such as the sea, vegetation, or other buildings
    3. Sunlight hours and total amount of sunlight on the window
    Specific elements to be included in the project will be discussed later.