Geographic Software Design

Geographic Software Design is an online course offered by the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, focusing on the development of open-source Python packages for geospatial analysis and interactive mapping. The curriculum provides an immersive journey into creating robust software, emphasizing practical skills through hands-on experience with popular development environments such as Visual Studio Code, Jupyter Notebook, and Google Colab. Students learn to streamline the development, packaging, and distribution of their code, leveraging existing geospatial libraries as models for best practices. The course actively fosters contributions to the broader open-source community.

Throughout the program, participants learn essential topics including version control with Git, writing clean and reusable code, generating comprehensive documentation, and effectively sharing projects within the Python ecosystem. A key outcome is the ability to design a fully functional Python package, complete with an accompanying documentation website hosted on GitHub. The course also covers deploying Python packages to platforms like PyPI and conda-forge, ensuring projects are accessible and maintainable.

By the course's conclusion, students will have developed their own Python package, acquiring highly valued skills for technical roles such as GIS analyst, data scientist, and software developer. These practical abilities are designed to enhance employability and position graduates competitively in the job market for cutting-edge geospatial and software development opportunities.