Beginning in August 2013, the Georgia Tech School of City and Regional Planning will offer a new professional degree program: the Master of Science in Geographic Information Science and Technology (MS-GIST).  Geographic information science (GIS) is an emerging field of study centered on the acquisition, management, analysis, and dissemination of information that is spatially-referenced to locations on, above, and below the surface of the earth.  This field is highly transdisciplinary with substantial and growing importance in a number of traditional academic disciplines and related professions including city and regional planning, architecture, civil and environmental engineering, earth and atmospheric sciences, environmental science, demography, logistics, management, public policy and sustainability studies.

The new degree adds considerable depth to the School of City and Regional Planning, according to SCaRP Chair Bruce Stiftel, and it does so with extreme efficiency, by leveraging existing resources already in place in the College of Architecture. That is particularly significant given the overall budget reductions that have been imposed system-wide this year.  The program intends to recruit students from professionals in practice in a broad array of fields as well as the military.