On February 24, the University of Southern California (USC) Dornsife Spatial Sciences Institute, home to a USGIF-accredited GEOINT degree program, hosted the 2023 Los Angeles Geospatial Summit. Students from Southern California colleges and universities participated in technical workshops, attended keynote and panels discussions, and participated in student lightning talks. One of the highlights of the day was a student research competition, sponsored by Esri, during which 23 student groups presented their geospatial analysis projects as story maps. Prior to announcing the winning entries, Andrew Haglund, Esri higher education manager, noted that this year’s competition was a departure from prior years’ poster-oriented formats. He highlighted that in shifting to the cloud-based story map presentations, student projects were able to have greater reach and accessibility for users interested in the research.

We at trajectory are thrilled to further the reach of these student projects. This entry, “Finding Climate Refuge: A Preliminary Analysis of the Joshua Tree Forest in California, USA” won the Most Compelling Communication Using Maps category.

Check out the other Student Competition winners here and here.