Celebrate GIS Day 2026 at UNC Charlotte!
The Center for Applied Geographic Information Science (CAGIS) invites students, faculty, staff, and community partners to celebrate GIS Day 2026!
AI is opening up new possibilities for creating maps, discovering spatial patterns, and communicating research. This year’s theme explores how human creativity and AI-powered geographic tools can work together to address real-world challenges—and help students across disciplines turn their ideas into meaningful spatial stories.
Whether you already work with GIS or are exploring it for the first time, we welcome you to join us for exhibitions, demonstrations, student competitions, and opportunities to connect with the geospatial community. Students from all departments and all levels of GIS experience are welcome!
Free pizza will be available at noon for all registered attendees.
Register for GIS Day 2026 and sign up to volunteer
Student Volunteers Wanted!
Help make GIS Day a success! We are looking for student volunteers to assist with event setup, check-in, competition activities, and other event support. Volunteering is a great opportunity to meet fellow students and GIS professionals while contributing to our campus community.
Please indicate your interest in volunteering on the registration form, or contact Tianyang Chen.
The Day at a Glance
| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
| 10:00 AM–1:00 PM | GIS exhibitions and demonstrations |
| 11:00 AM–12:00 PM | Invited presentation — to be confirmed |
| 12:00–1:00 PM | Free pizza and networking |
| 1:30–2:15 PM | Awards and closing |
| Times to be announced | Student competitions |
The schedule is tentative. Final session details will follow.
Student Competitions
This year’s planned competitions offer several ways to share your ideas and explore geospatial technology:
- AI Interactive GeoVisualization Competition: Explore how AI and interactive maps can help communicate spatial ideas, reveal patterns, and tell compelling stories.
- Poster Competition: Share your research through a poster and a prerecorded presentation video submitted in advance. This format combines the previous poster and lightning talk competitions.
- Rover Ground Robot Competition: A new competition is being planned. Details about the format and participation will follow.
Competition guidelines, submission instructions, deadlines, and session times will be announced separately. The current registration form is for event attendance and volunteer interest.