About me

Hello there! My name is Khawlah Ali and I’m excited to be one of the student associates for Esri Canada’s GIS Centres of Excellence on behalf of the University of Toronto. I am currently in my third year pursuing a double major in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Technology Coding & Society (TCS), and a minor in environment management. In my free time, I enjoy taking walks in nature, going to the gym, and swimming.

How I Navigated to GIS

Although I’m studying GIS today, it wasn’t always clear that this would be the path I’d take. What was clear, however, was my desire to make a positive impact on the world. I’ve always wanted to contribute to a meaningful change, whether it is driving development through fields like urban or environmental planning, or by identifying problems and providing solutions that simplify daily life such as the GPS systems in our cars. After spending hours researching programs that aligned with my passions and goals, I discovered GIS! It was exactly what I needed to pursue my vision. 

What is GIS?

For anyone who may be unfamiliar with the term Geographic Information Systems (GIS), simply put, Esri defines it as “The mapping and data analysis technology that’s powering business decisions, supporting government operations, and quietly changing the world” (Esri, n.d). It is this quiet but profound impact that drew me in.

GIS Domains and My Interests

The diversity of fields within GIS continues to amaze me, some of which I have explored throughout my academic journey thus far. This includes using remote sensing applications to collect environmental data and managing it within geodatabases to make it accessible and impactful, visualizing spatial data and identifying patterns by creating cartographic maps in ArcGIS, and applying geostatistics on data to turn numbers into valuable insights. My experience has proven to me the power of data especially in today’s data-driven world, which inspires me to explore research fields further as I continue my studies and in the near future.

I look forward to sharing my research projects, interests, GIS-related experiences, and other relevant topics on the ECCE blog.

Reference

Esri. (n.d.). What is GIS? Geographic information system mapping technology. Esri. https://www.esri.com/en-us/what-is-gis/overview