Geographic Data Science (MSc)

Birkbeck's MSc Geographic Data Science will provide students with advanced scientific and technical training in capturing, analysing and visualising geospatial information. The increases in computing power and availability of GPS enable humans to record and store an unprecedented amount of information about the world. Geographic information plays an increasingly crucial role in our society, transforming sectors as diverse as transportation, insurance, banking, telecommunications, logistics, energy, retail, agriculture, healthcare, urban planning and scientific research. Students will learn how to analyse and extract insights from geospatial data, uncovering hidden patterns that can help address the big challenges that we face in the twenty-first century. On this programme, students will work with real-world data on a number of domains and problems, such as simulating the dynamics of change in the natural and built environment, spotting good locations for renewable energy plants, predicting crime hot-spots, and producing effective maps to visualise natural and human phenomena. This programme emphasizes on developing students’ skills that have real-world applications for their work and career. Students will acquire key data science skills that are in high demand in industry and important tools for research in the field: geographic information systems, such as ArcGIS and QGIS; scientific programming in Python; geo-statistical and modelling in R; map-making and cartography; big data management with spatial databases, such as SQL and NoSQL; web mapping and development; remote sensing and analysis of satellite imagery; simulation and agent-based modelling.