Welcome to the Program’s arsenal of tools that we cover in your education. Whether you’re plotting city grids, automating spatial workflows, or crafting data‑driven visuals, our list here shows how hard the rubber hits the road in developing your skills. We’ve rested our curriculum on a foundation of industry standards in the heavy hitting software out there in both the commercial and open-source worlds… to give you the versatility to show your employers that you can solve geospatial challenges at any turn. Because in it’s not just how well you can tool, but how dynamic you are in offering flexibility with precision that will make you stand out.
In our program, you’ll go beyond the main tools and standard tutorial assignments by having you working the way professionals do in, solving complex problems with proprietary and open-source tools built for serious decision-making.
Tools at the Core of the Program:
ArcGIS Pro – Professional Grade Toughness
ArcGIS Pro is the most widely adopted GIS platform across sectors such as urban planning, environmental consulting, and public infrastructure. In our program, you’ll gain in-depth proficiency with Esri’s robust toolset, including 3D analysis, network modeling, and geoprocessing automation. Learn to deliver spatial insights in enterprise environments and become fluent in the platform trusted by governments and global firms. Our program ensures that you will be a power-user in the use of ArcGIS Pro and other ESRI tools.
QGIS – The Underdog with a Visualization Backbone
QGIS is an open-source GIS platform embraced worldwide by NGOs, municipal governments, and development agencies. Through hands-on training, you’ll learn to leverage QGIS for spatial analysis, mapping, and plugin-based customization — all without licensing barriers. Our curriculum prepares you to operate confidently across platforms and deliver professional-grade results in any work environment. Use of QGIS will be covered with a focus on geo-processing, cartographic output, and connecting with programming languages for seamless integration,
Python – Process Geographic Data the Way it Was Meant to Be
Python is the backbone of automation and data wrangling, including geographic data. You’ll learn to build reproducible workflows using libraries like GeoPandas, Numpy, scipy.stats, seaborn, shapley,and matplotlib —skills applicable across urban, environmental risk, and social trends. Whether streamlining data pipelines or developing custom GIS tools, our training in Python enables you to process data more efficiently than through manual operation of software interfaces.
R – Visualize, Model, and Make It Count
R is the premier language for spatial statistics, high-quality data visualization, and reproducible research. With packages like sf, sp, dplyr, data.table, Markdown, knitr,and ggplot2, you’ll learn to conduct geographic data processing and spatial analyses to build compelling, data-driven vignettes that demonstrates profession quality in analytical and programming products. R is especially valuable for professionals in analytical fields such as public policy, health, housing and other academic-related research where analytical rigor and documentation are essential.
GitHub — Make Your Work Speak Volumes
GitHub isn’t just for coders —it’s can be your digital portfolio, version control system, and professional calling card rolled into one. In the UMBC GIS Program, you’ll learn how to build and maintain your own GitHub page to showcase the projects, maps, code, and workflows you develop across the program. It’s not about showing off —it’s about showing up to the game ready to get down. Employers want to see what you’ve built, how you think, and how you solve problems. A polished GitHub repo tells that story before you ever walk into the interview.
Beyond the Core — The Extended Loadout:
ArcGIS Ecosystem — Pro Isn’t the Whole Story
ArcGIS Pro might be the heavyweight, but Esri’s broader toolkit is where the real-world work happens. Dashboards that track change in real time. StoryMaps that turn data into narrative. Survey123 and Field Maps that collect frontline intel straight from the source. ArcGIS Online that keeps your whole operation connected in the cloud. These aren’t extras —the Esri ecosystem lets you move fast without breaking the spatial thread. It’s the part of the platform that doesn’t always get the spotlight—but keeps the whole show running.
Pix4D — Converting the Real World into 3D
A versatile software suite that doesn’t just stitch photos together—it reconstructs reality. Whether you’re flying a drone over a construction site, walking a scene with a handheld scanner, or pulling thermal data from a field, Pix4D turns raw imagery into georeferenced maps and 3D models that hold up under scrutiny. It’s the tool you grab when measurements actually matter. Volume, slope, structural shift—whatever you’re tracking, Pix4D translates pixels into decisions. It plays nice with LiDAR, multispectral, RGB, fisheye, and more/ It’s just built to get the job done right.
Apache Tomcat — The Quiet Engine Behind the Curtain
Tomcat isn’t loud. It doesn’t show off. But if you’re running Java web apps, odds are it’s doing the heavy lifting behind the scenes. It’s the kind of tool that doesn’t care about headlines—it just shows up, takes the hits, and keeps the application running. Lightweight, reliable, and battle-tested, Tomcat handles servlets and JSP like its muscle memory. It boots fast, plays well with others, and gives you just enough to stay in control without getting in your way. You won’t win style points for using it—but you’ll win uptime.
JavaScript — The Language That Runs the Streets
JavaScript is fast, unpredictable, and everywhere all at once —running the front end, sneaking into the back end, powering dashboards, web maps, buttons, and pop-ups you didn’t even know were alive. It’s the language of the browser, the Swiss Army knife of the web, and the glue that holds together a thousand duct-taped interfaces. You want custom interactivity? Real-time data updates? Embedded maps that move? JavaScript’s already there, boots on the ground, no questions asked. It may not be pretty—but it works. And it doesn’t wait for permission.
PostGIS — Spatial Without the Drama
PostGIS doesn’t care about flashy interfaces or color ramps. It lives in the database, deep in the backend, quietly doing the hard work that makes real spatial analysis possible. It takes raw geometry and turns it into answers. It’s the spatial engine that plays well with big data, messy workflows, and people who know their way around a query. With spatial indexing, topological functions, and the power of SQL under the hood, PostGIS handles complexity without flinching. It’s not built for show—it’s built to work, at scale, with precision, and without cutting corners.
PostgreSQL — The Backbone Behind Real GIS
PostgreSQL is the database that doesn’t need a hype campaign. It’s stable, fast, and brutally capable—built to handle complex data structures, run tight queries, and scale without losing its cool. It’s open-source, yes—but built like something you’d pay top dollar for if you had to. And when plugged in to PostGIS? It stops being just a database and becomes a spatial workhorse. Geometry becomes queryable, geography becomes precise, and spatial joins stop being fragile hacks. PostgreSQL brings the structure, PostGIS brings the spatial logic.
Quarto — The Studio Where Code Becomes Story
Quarto doesn’t just publish notebooks—it builds narratives. It’s the tool you reach for when you’ve got code, data, and visuals, and you want them all to walk in lockstep. Reports, slides, dashboards, academic papers—it handles them all with the same cool precision, weaving together Markdown, R, Python, SQL, and a little bit of flair. It’s built for people who want to own the whole pipeline. Clean syntax, cross-format publishing, and zero tolerance for bloated exports. Quarto gives the stage, the lighting, and the mic for your own show —clean, composable, reproducible work.
ESA SNAP — Satellite Data, Straight No Chaser
ESA SNAP isn’t built for flash—it’s built for focus. When working with raw satellite data, this is the toolbox that doesn’t flinch. Sentinel, MODIS, Landsat—SNAP pulls them in, preprocesses like a machine, and gets you to analysis without holding your hand or slowing you down. It’s modular, scriptable, and unapologetically deep. You want cloud masking, spectral indices, radar backscatter, or atmospheric correction? For analysts who live in the remote sensing trenches, SNAP is the quiet operator that keeps the mission clean and the data sharp.