GEOSPATIAL VISUALIZATION OF STUDENT POPULATION

8/14/2019 GEOSPATIAL VISUALIZATION OF STUDENT POPULATION

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GEOSPATIAL VISUALIZATION OF STUDENT POPULATION

USING GOOGLE™ MAPS*

Hrvoje Podnar, Adam Gschwender, Robert Workman, Jian Chan

Computer Science Department

Southern Connecticut State University

New Haven, CT, 06515

(203) 392-5815

[email protected]

ABSTRACT

We present an application that delivers a visual geospatial overview of our student population location. Developed by our students, the application

showed benefits behind the classroom environment. The presentation includes

the application development details, the practical implications of the

application, together with the positive impact the student projects of this nature

have on our computer science program.

1. INTRODUCTION

Launching of Google™ Maps (beta: February 2005; alpha: October 2005) started

a new era of embedding geospatial information within web sites. As a Web Map Server,

Google™ Maps delivers easy-to-use mapping service with drag-and-drop andzoom-in-out functionality (Wikipedia 2005). Users interested in embedding such on-line

content are provided with JavaScript classes, also known as Google™ Maps API, that can

be readily called from users’ web pages. Through the Maps API, users can request maps

of their interest from the Map Server, and add additional content to the retrieved maps as

they see fit.

Given the JavaScript programming environment and well documented class

definitions, the Google™ Maps API can be easily adopted by any Internet Programming

class that focuses on client-side (browser) programming. The API is also suitable for a

more complex Internet Programming classes that introduce students to server-side



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programming, and even further, to the distributed programming classes that require

various types of connectivity such as calls to databases. As a visual tool, Google™ Maps

API can be used in database and data mining classes where visual representation of

geospatial information is crucial for the data interpretation.

Our presentation proceeds with the description of a project announced to students

in our Internet Programming classes. The project attracted our best students and was

planned to be completely student driven with faculty members interacting and providing

information only when needed.

2. PROJECT DESCRIPTION

The main focus of the project was to provide visual information about geospatial

distribution of student population in our Masters program.

The decision was made to limit our data set to our graduate students for a number

of reasons including: a) the population is smaller than the undergraduate one; b) the

graduate students have well-defined major; and c) the geospatial data is collected on twolevels: by the registrar and our graduate school.

In the first phase, only ZIP codes will be used to describe students’ locations. This

will simplify the data translation process from the original data (a ZIP code) to the

(longitude, latitude) pair required by the Google™ Maps. This feature will also assure

data privacy.

The project’s main steps are as follows:

• Data Collection: students’ ZIP codes, translation table from ZIP codes to (longitude,

latitude) pairs

• Database Creation and Loading: creating and populating the necessary tables

• Development of a PHP Script for XML document creation: that will contain markers

(<marker>) for the collected ZIP codes.

• Development of a PHP Script for the map visual display.

3. PREVIOUS WORK

There are multiple examples of applications developed especially for visual display

of students’ populations, but we will include only a couple.

In their iSPOTS project, the researchers from the MIT’s SENSEable City lab

developed a real-time application that computes the traces of individuals passing through

the MIT campus and using their wireless access points. Additional scientific

visualizations of the spatial and network utilizations were developed (MIT SENSEable

2005).

Central Michigan University developed a GIS application to track a multitude of

geospatial data and display it using ESRI’s ArcView. Some of the created maps depicted

the number of graduate students per county, percentages of specific majors per each

county, and the number of undergraduate students from the State of Michigan (GEO

World 2001).



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4. METHODOLOGY

Our students used Google™ Maps API that provides a set of JavaScript modules to

be embedded in third party web pages. The modules were specifically developed to

simplify the process of communicating with a Google Web Map Server.

In order to store local data such as ZIP codes with their frequencies and thetranslation table between ZIP codes and (longitude, latitude) pairs, the students were

granted access to our school’s mySQL server. They used phpMyAdmin script application

to perform administrative tasks within the database.

Finally the students developed a suite of PHP scripts in order to populate the

database, create an intermediate XML markers document, and finally display the maps

with the positioned markers.

The conceptual design of the system can be viewed in Figure 1.

4.1 Data Collection and Database Population

The ZIP codes with their corresponding latitudes and longitudes were downloaded

from the Census Bureau home page http://www.census.gov. New mySQL table is

generated (zip_location) and populated with the downloaded data. The population

is automated and performed by running a PHP script.

The graduate students’ ZIP codes were extracted from the university database and

stored into a file. The data is summarized and the number of students from a specific ZIP

code was recorded. The ZIP codes frequencies were entered into the database by running

another PHP script. The new table (grad_zip

) will be used to determine the color coding of the visual ZIP code representation. The two tables are depicted in Figure 2.

4.2 XML Document Generation

In order to use Google™ Maps API, the students needed to generate an XML file

that will hold markers. Our XML file might have the following markers:

<markers><marker lng=”-72.5608” lat=”41.8367” num_students=”4”payload=”4 students from 06074” icon=”marker-red.png”></markers>

Figure 1. Conceptual System Design



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This marker will be displayed at the specific longitude and latitude by a red pin pngimage. The XML generation is done by the PHP script outlined in Figure 3.

4.3 Visual Representation of the Data

The final display is done by a PHP script that will use Google™ Maps API. To

include this API JavaScript functionality one needs to include the following script in our

document:

<scriptsrc="http://maps.google.com/maps?file=api&v=1&key=..."type="text/javascript"></script>

Figure 2. The project’s mySQL tables

Figure 3. XML generator written in PHP




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where ... denotes the key received from Google after free registration. We are now ready

to use GMap, GIcon and GMarker objects. For more detailed description please refer to

(Google 2005).

4.4 ExampleBased on our school’s data the final display is shown in Figure 4. The pins are

placed at the corresponding ZIP codes, and are color coded. The color describes the

number of students within the corresponding ZIP code. The colors are determined based

on the following table:

red orange yellow green blue purple

only 1 1< <=5 5< <=10 10< <=20 20< <=50 51<

The map can now be zoomed in and out, revealing more details about where the students

are coming from. If one is to click on a pin, the exact number of students from the

corresponding pin will be displayed.

This specific example was developed by a team of only two undergraduate students intheir sophomore year of studies. The students received credit as a special project within

a 200-level internet programming class. One member of the team focused his efforts only

to data manipulation: data collection and automatic database population. The second

member of the team worked on the XML generation and visualization parts. Faculty

member responsibilities included: setting up the necessary server access accounts, and

overseeing weekly team meetings. At the end of the semester, both faculty and students

rated the project as highly positive learning experience.

Figure 4. Visual Representation of our student population



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5. BENEFITS TO THE CURRICULA

5.1 Introductory Internet Programming

Given the ease of using Google™ Maps API as a JavaScript extension, similar

assignment can be given to a class with only introductory knowledge of JavaScript.

5.2 Advanced Internet Programming

Advanced internet programming classes will require students to use server side

scripts for populating a map. Additional connectivity to a database can be required.

5.3 Data Mining

Scientific visualization is beneficial in interpreting data with no established patterns.

Visual overview of the data is valuable tool in pattern discovery.

5.4 Other Courses

The map could be used in discussions about student diversity. It can also be used in

classes with regional focus (local history). It is certainly useful in classes where team

effort is essential, where it can be used in team formations.

6. BENEFITS TO THE DEPARTMENT

6.1 New Student Recruiting

The mapping tool can provide information about the geographical areas where

majority of our students are coming from. The decision maker can overview the map and

decide to proceed with an ad campaign and /or outreach activities in promising areas.

7. FUTURE WORK

The data used in this project can be augmented by generating maps focusing on

different majors, SAT (GRE) scores, ethnicity and age. Instead of ZIP codes one could

focus on the specific high-schools/colleges where our students are originating from. The

student population granularity can be increased to reflect the seniority. The transfer

student population distribution together with their incoming GPA can provide information

about strengths of local community colleges.

8. REFERENCES

GEO World (2001) GIS in Education: Students Mapping Students. Retrieved on

November 20th 2005, from http://www.geoplace.com/gw/2001/0101/0101edu.asp.

Google (2005) Google™ Maps API . Retrieved on November 20th 2005, from

http://www.google.com/apis/maps/.




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MIT SENSEable City Lab (2005) iSPOTS project . Retrieved on November 20th 2005,

from http://ispots.mit.edu/.

Wikipedia (2005) Google™ Maps. Retrieved on November 20th, 2005 from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_maps.

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GEOSPATIAL VISUALIZATION OF STUDENT POPULATION