Professor Wilson Secures Software Licenses for Geographic Information Systems Software

Dr. Harry J. “Jimmy” Wilson, visiting assistant professor of geography, has procured two different software licenses for use by the University. Ohio Northern University is the recipient of a Google Earth Pro Grant for Educators. With the help of ONU’s IT department, Wilson has secured 30 licenses of the software, estimated at a value of $9.000. Students in Wilson’s geographic information systems (GIS) course are using the software to create 3-D renderings of campus and village buildings and virtual tours and fly-throughs of campus. More information on the project can be found on the following ONU page. 

Also, Wilson’s efforts resulted in procuring 500 licenses of Business Analyst extension for ArcGIS, the GIS software used by the University and particularly those in the Dicke College of Business Administration. The extension comes with the most up-to-date census demographics, consumer trends, segmentation data, business locations and information. It also comes with a campus-wide subscription to the Business Analyst online utility, which can be used by anyone anywhere do to light analysis of consumer trends, drive-time analysis and business locations. The application, which retails at $5,000 per license, also allows users to create professional detailed consumer and demographic reports as PDF files. Wilson uses Business Analyst extensively in his GIS for Marketing courses as a valuable tool that helps prepare marketing students for capstone projects, internships, graduate school opportunities and jobs.

Congratulations Dr. Wilson!