Topic outline

  • Welcome to GIS Development

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

    The first pre-assignment can be found in the Course materials -page.

    • 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 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 project work 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:
      • General interest in spatial problem solving and spatial problems
      • Programming experience and interest
      • Familiarity with and interest in learning software environments, frameworks, libraries, and ability to learn new 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, 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. The pre-assignments typically consists of reading some material and preparing to discuss it on the session. Each pre-assignment should take 1-4 hours of work.

      For the pre-assignments you need to reserve from 6 to 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.

      Thus, in total, the course can take 100-150 hours of work. The total amount of work per student may vary a lot, depending on individual circumstances.

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  • Course Schedule

    Course schedule under construction

    course schedule is as follows.

    Week (dates)

    Learning session

    Exercise session

    9 (27.2-5.3)

    Learning session 1

    Introduction to course, working in groups, software projects

    No session (project not started)

    10 (6-12.3)

    Learning session 2

    Project management and budgeting

    Project kickoff session

    11 (13-19.3)

    Learning session 3

    Excursion to Finnish Geospatial Research Institute (Vuorimiehentie, Otaniemi)

    Support session (obligatory)

    12 (20-26.3)

    Learning session 4

    HPC tutorial by Samantha Wittke from CSC.

    Deadline session

    13 (27.3-2.4)

    Learning session 5

    Software development methods

    Support session (optional)

    14 (3-9.4)

    Easter Holiday

    Easter holiday

    15 (10-16.4)

    Learning session 6

    Finalizing and delivering a project

    Deadline session

    16 (17-23.4)

    Period IV assessment week (no more learning sessions) 

    No support session

    17 (24.4-30.4)

     

    Project mid-term presentation (Deadline session)

    18 (1-7.5)

     

    Support session (optional)

    19 (8-14.5)

     

    Deadline session

    20 (15-21.5)

    Ascension day

    Possibility to have a support session (post Ascension day Friday)

    21 (22-28.5)

     

    Project delivery & end seminar (26th)

    22 (29.5-4.6)

     

    Learning portfolio delivery (2nd) 

    22 (5.6-11.6)

     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) with one week of vacation around Easter, for a total of 11 weeks. The project will start early in period IV, and will last until late period V. Preliminary schedule is to start the project on the second week, and have the project delivery in late May.

    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 an obligatory SCRUM spring review session. Every other session will be an optional, 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 campus 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


  • Course materials, pre-assignment and learning diary submissions

    The learning session materials as well the pre-assignments and submission box for the learning diary can be found here.

  • Project topic(s)

    Optimization of cellular base station locations

     

    The goal of this work is to create a method for calculating good placements for a given number of cellular base stations in a given location, a method for assessing the goodness of a given placement, and a method for representing placements to end users.

    A good cellular base station (from now on: base station) placement uses the least amount of base stations to cover the biggest possible area, while wholly covering the area within the convex hull of the base station locations. The whole coverage means that there are no areas within the convex hull outside the reach of the base stations. Or in other words, mobile phones can find signal everywhere within the convex hull.

    In this work, coverage of base stations is governed by line-of-sight. Each base station is assumed to have a 360 degree broadcasting ability. Vegetation does not block the line-of-sight, but terrain features and buildings do.

    The areas being covered are large and the system must be capable of processing large numbers of base stations. Therefore, the implementation must support the use of high performance computing environments. In this project the HPC resources are provided by CSC – IT Center for Science (www.csc.fi).

  • Project deliverables and course grading

    The course grades are created using each student's learning portfolio, as well as the deliverables from the development project:  the development project report, the project expenses report and the project log.

    The learning portfolio will create 50% of the course grade and the project deliverables 50% of the course grade. Both are assessed using points so that maximum possible total for the course is 40 points. Grades are awarded according to points.

    Passing grade for the course is 20 points, with minimum requirement of 5 points from both the learning portfolio and the project assessment.

    Learning portfolio assessment

    In order to pass the course, the learning portfolio must be submitted and a minimum of 5 points must be gained from it. The maximum points for the portfolio is 20 points.

    The learning diary part of the portfolio can get a maximum of 9 points.
    The personal reflection part of the portfolio can get a maximum of 9 points.
    The timekeeping part of the portfolio can get a maximum of 2 points.

    Project assessment

    In order to pass the course, the project gorup must submit project materials such as data, source code and such with a project report, a expenses report and a project log and get a minimum of 5 points of them combined and a minimum of 1 point from each.

    The materials and project report is worth a maximum of 10 points.
    The expenses report is worth a maximum of 4 points.
    The project log is worth a maximum of 6 points.