CMSC 725: GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND SPATIAL DATABASES Fall 2019 COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course will cover topics in geographic information systems and spatial databases. The field of geographic information systems is becoming increasingly important as the basis of spatially-based decision systems and location-based services. It overlaps many areas of computer science research. The aim of the course is to tie together related results from databases, cartography, geography, computer graphics, file access methods, solid modeling with applications in robotics, computational geometry, image processing, and data structures. Some related material in image databases and similarity searching will also be discussed, as will be some recent work in spatial networks and spatiotextual databases. In addition, the architecture of some existing spatial databases and geographic information systems will be examined in greater detail. TOPICS TO BE COVERED (not necessarily in this order or depth): Principles of cartography Projections (on your own but responsible for it) The raster vs. vector debate Cartographic modeling Geometric operations and algorithms Database principles (on your own, if needed, but responsible for knowing it) Object representations Region quadtree algorithms Representations of topology for solid modeling and robotics Point representations Line segment representations Rectangle representations Digital terrain models and triangulations Plane-sweep methods Nearest neighbor finding Embedding methods Distance-based indexing Spatial networks such as road networks Spatiotextual databases and geotagging Mapping Apps with a focus on smartphone form factor PREREQUISITES: CMSC 420 and CMSC 424 or consent of the instructor. CAUTION: The class meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11AM to 12:15PM. I may have a bit of travel scheduled in the Fall semester. In order not to miss too many lectures, we will either have some guest lectures or makeup lectures at a time convenient to you. Ideally, this could be on a Tuesday or Thursday sometime between 3:30PM and 6:15PM depending in part on when most students can come. This might be on Mondays or Wednesdays as well. For now, I know that I will miss lectures on October 1, November 7, and December 3 and 5. I may also try to present the missed lectures over Skype. We may do 15 minute presentations on the projects at the end of the semester depending on how many people are in the class and how many different projects were attempted. WORKLOAD: Occasional homework problems One individual project/paper and writeup (generally one person/project but open to groups). A set of project descriptions is posted and is constantly being updated. Note that some of the projects may have been attempted in the past but this does not necessarily preclude them from being chosen again. Class participation in discussions Occasional pop quizzes at the start of the class spanning the material to be discussed in class in the following lecture or in a past lecture. A midterm may be given depending on the frequency of the quizzes (i.e., if not enough were given) in which case the date will be announced some time in advance. Final Exam Grading: Midterm and Quizzes and Homework: Between 25 and 33% Final: Between 25 and 33% Project: Between 33 and 50% The weights will be adjusted according to which one gives you the highest score. MS Comp Requirement: Final exam grade for credit in Databases and Geometric Computing Fields. Required Texts: 1. Copy of lecture note slides titled ``GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS (GIS): A TECHNICAL APPROACH'' which will be available on the class web site in segments. You should print them out in advance of class and review them before the appropriate lecture. The above slides will also be available at the Engineering Copy Center for $60 which is a very low price for 850 pages. You should call (301) 405-3875 to make sure that a copy is available for you when you go there. http:/ /www.eng.umd.edu/copycenter/index.html 2. H. Samet. "Foundations of Multidimensional and Metric Data You can purchase it at the University Book Center, at Amazon.com currently at $48.02, or $50.37 at the Elsevier web site if you enter the promotion code ATRBTS19 which reflects a 40% discount if you do this by August 30, 2019. Otherwise try the code COMP319 to get a 30% discount. In any case, when buying at the Elsevier web site, the shipping is free. 3. H. Samet. "Applications of Spatial Data Structures: Computer Graphics, Image Processing, and GIS". Addison Wesley, Reading, MA, 1990. This book is out of print, but an updated spiral-bound version of the most recent version is available for sale at the Engineering Copy Center for $30 which is specially negotiated as it is over 500 pages long. Used or slightly used copies may be available from some vendors on the web but the version at the Engineering copy center is the latest. You may want to call (301) 405-3875 to make sure that a copy is available for you when you go there. http://www.eng.umd.edu/copycenter/index.html Recommended Texts: 1. K. C. Clarke, ``Analytical and Computer Cartography'' Second Edition, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1995. 2. C. D. Tomlin. "Geographic Information Systems and Cartographic Modeling", Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1989. This book is out of print but the copies of the lecture note slides cover the relevant material in sufficient detail; so there is no need to purchase this book although you may want to look at it for historical reasons.