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USM Snapshots

• A new center of community outreach
• USM Arboretum - Planting for the future
• New and improved Mitchell Center
• Spring Break redefined!
• Rare books enhance University's special collections
• Muskie School making their mark
• Shedding light on New England's poorhouses
• Southworth Planetarium shines at USM
• Creativity in bloom
• Students gain hands-on GIS experience
• We’re in the lead—LEED, that is.
• It’s all our fault—no, really…a geological fault!
• Shoot for the moon—and land at NASA!
• It’s for the birds—and the squirrels and the students!
• Going the distance- three nautical miles.
• Money talks - and interest pays off.
• Flying the coop and feathering his nest.
• Class act - USM Class of '77, in fact




Students gain hands—on GIS experience

Using sea kayaks filled with digital surveying gear, radio transmitters, and GPS satellite receivers, two USM professors and nine students mapped the rock fabric of the Maine coastline during the summer of 2004, and analyzed their data at the USM Geographical Information Systems (GIS) lab in Gorham. Initial findings revealed an undiscovered fault zone at Harbor Island, eastern Muscongus Bay.

USM Professor of Geology Mark Swanson and USM Associate Professor of Geography Matthew Bampton have been providing training and networking opportunities for young researchers since 2002 with the help of funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Recently, the team received additional NSF funds to continue the project, which combines geoscience studies and GIS technology in this unique way, through 2007. Read more about this project.