PHILADELPHIA -- The University of Pennsylvania, through its Penn Institute for Urban Research, has launched a master of urban spatial analytics degree to teach the application of spatial technology to business and public-sector decision making.  

Students enrolled in Penn MUSA program will learn the technical skills of geographic information systems and spatial statistics and develop a program of learning in an urban content area from Penn urban-related course offerings.  The program will train students to use GIS in such fields as health care, criminology, transportation, utilities, marketing and real estate development.

The MUSA is a one-year, nine-course professional degree program. Required analytics and methodology courses include modeling geographic space, spatial analysis in urban studies, statistics and spatial data analysis with GIS.  Students may select urban content field courses from criminology, design, economic development, education, local and state government, public health, real estate, social welfare, transportation or urban demography.  Students will demonstrate mastery of new skills by applying spatial analytics to a specialized real-world topic.

MUSA students also will have access to courses in the University's other schools and may pursue internship opportunities in the city.

Sponsored by PennIUR, a University-wide initiative to foster excellence in urban research, instruction and civic engagement, the MUSA program welcomes applicants from all backgrounds, including new graduates and current professionals with or without prior training in GIS.  Applications for the inaugural class will be accepted beginning this month.  A boot camp in GIS for novices -- open to non-applicants will be offered this summer.

Additional information and an application are available at www.sas.upenn.edu/CGS/graduate/musa/.  Those wishing to be added to the mailing list should contact Rosalie Guzofsky at 215-898-3109 or guzofsky@sas.upenn.edu.