The Polis Center’s Director of Geoinformatics, Jim Sparks will be a keynote speaker at this year’s (2018) GIS conference in the State of Pennsylvania. The conference takes place May 14-16. Sparks will be speaking Tuesday, May 15 from 9:00 to 10:30 am.

Sparks is a highly-experienced geospatial information professional recently appointed the Director of GeoInformatics at The Polis Center at IUPUI. He served as Indiana’s first Geographic Information Officer with responsibilities that included the coordination of  statewide geospatial efforts and integration, creation and distribution of geospatial data. Sparks was also essential to the development of the Indianapolis Mapping and Geographic Infrastructure System (IMAGIS), serving as project manager for the data conversion component. One of his significant accomplishments was converting paper and digital data into GIS layers to a create geographic information system for Marion County, Indiana—the Indianapolis Mapping and Geographic Infrastructure System (IMAGIS). IMAGIS has been recognized as noteworthy for its size, complexity, level of benefit it delivers. To learn more about this year’s GIS Conference please visit here.