UCGIS Symposium 2026

Building a successful GIS career goes beyond technical skills—it also requires strong professional connections, continuous learning, and engagement with the broader geospatial community. This workshop is designed for students, recent graduates, emerging GIS professionals, and seasoned professionals who want to strengthen their professional network, expand their skillset, and discover new opportunities for career growth within the GIS industry. 
 
Attendees will hear directly from these organizations: 

• Geospatial Professional Network (GPN) 

• Esri Young Professionals Network (YPN) 

• American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) 

• Women in GIS (WiGIS) 

• GIS Certification Institute (GISCI) 

 
Join this workshop as they share how their organizations support professional development, networking, leadership opportunities, mentoring, certifications, and career advancement within the geospatial field. The workshop will end with an engaging networking activity designed to help foster meaningful professional connections and provide practical strategies for building their own GIS professional ecosystem. 

This panel session aims to engage both panelists and the audience in a critical dialogue about the challenges, opportunities, and paths forward regarding the relationship between humans and GIS/GeoAI. We seek to explore how to develop a human-centered vision of GIScience and GeoAI that is both socially responsible and cognitively informed.

Moderator: Shih-Lung Shaw, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Panelists:
Kathleen Stewart, University of Maryland
Xuebin Wei, James Madison University
John Wilson, University of Southern California
May Yuan, University of Texas at Dallas
Zhe Zhang, Texas A&M University
Bo Zhao, University of Washington