In the course Health GIS, nine students used GIS (Geographic Information Systems) to analyze real-world problems in public health. 

Professor Eric Carter taught the course, in which students learned to use geospatial techniques to investigate environmental health; vector-borne diseases such as Lyme disease and malaria; the clustering of disease events such as rare cancers; and questions of health disparities. 

The course provided a valuable foundation that geography major Bo-Sung Kim ’17 (CheonAn, South Korea) built on in securing an internship. “I reached out to the GIS specialist at the Minnesota Department of Health and, with the help of Macalester’s Summer Internship Fund and the course, I secured an internship with the MDH’s Environmental Public Health Tracking Program.”

For their final projects, students analyzed an important public health-related issue of their choice and presented their findings on these topics: 

  • Wynonna Ardiansyah, “Residential Crime and Green Spaces in Minneapolis”
  • Xing Gao, “Sexual/Reproductive Healthcare Access Twin Cities Metro Area”
  • Lisa Hu, “Seasonality and Lead Poisoning in Twin Cities Metro Area”
  • Bo-Sung Kim, “Health Care Accessibility in West Bank, Palestine”
  • Kendra Komoto, “Identifying Areas of Social Vulnerability in Minneapolis”
  • Riccardo Maddalozzo, “Food Deserts in Saint Paul and Minneapolis”
  • Omar Mansour, “Clustering of Vaccine Refusal in Minnesota”
  • Jacob Ramthun, “Poverty and Domestic Hazards in North Minneapolis”
  • Asad Zaidi, “Vulnerability to Airborne Respiratory Infections in Minneapolis”

 

 

June 15 2015

Back to top