The Global Positioning System and GIS

Michael Kennedy's principal expertise lies in the application of computers to interesting problems and is deeply involved in the growing area of Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Since the early 1970s he has conducted work on "making a computer believe it's a map." In 1991 he founded the GIS program in the Department of Geography at the University of Kentucky. Professor Kennedy is the author of several textbooks and "Introducing Geographic Information Systems with ArcGIS -- A Workbook Approach to Learning GIS, Third Edition" published by Wiley, is one of them. Over the years Professor Kennedy has had a wide range of experiences relating computers and environmental matters. Primarily to be able to talk to planners about the newly emerging field of GIS he became certified as a planner by the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP). He was Director of the Computer-Aided Design Laboratory at the University of Kentucky for several years. He has been invited to teach GIS and/or programming at Simon Fraser University and several state or provincial universities: North Carolina, Florida, and British Columbia.

Alexander Kennedy is a Software Engineer, Data Visualization Engineer, and Data Journalist who specializes in interactive data storytelling for environmental and public health issues. His public-facing work has been published in People Magazine and Undark Magazine. In 2022 his interactive feature Below Dozens of Aging Dams a Potential Toxic Calamity (co-authored with James Dinneen) was awarded the ASJA Donald Robinson Memorial Award for Investigative Journalism, nominated for ASME's National Magazine Award in the Reporting category, and nominated for the NIHCM Foundation's Digital Media Journalism Award. Alexander has led data visualization workshops, including a D3.js workshop at Impact Labs. Alexander is an active advocate for open data policies and civic data art. From 2019 to 2021 he co-curated and co-organized Data Through Design (DxD), an annual exhibition celebrating tangible, multimedia expressions of New York City's Open Data. DxD is produced in partnership with the NYC Mayor's O?ce of Data Analytics, BetaNYC, NYC Open Data Week, and the US Census. In his spare time, Alexander loves to make music and dance.