The overall mission of the Department of Geography is to conduct theoretical and applied geographic research in a dynamic and responsive manner that educates and inspires students to become critical and committed citizens who contribute to solutions for our planet.
Understanding polarized political opinions, predicting Arctic Sea ice levels, and accelerating quantum computing with machine learning — these are just a few focuses of the dozens of new Penn State research projects that have been funded by Institute for Computational and Data Sciences seed grants, in conjunction with supplemental funding from the colleges of Arts and Architecture, Earth and Mineral Sciences; Information Sciences and Technology; Education; and Engineering.
Within days of the University's shift to remote learning, faculty, instructors and teaching assistants in the Department of Geography moved 35 resident instruction courses into remote delivery mode to teach 1,947 students.
With speed and ingenuity, more than 100 researchers across Penn State are shifting their research programs to address the COVID-19 crisis, thanks to funding from a seed grant initiative led by the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences.
The halls and classrooms of Walker Building are empty and silent but undergraduate and graduate students in the Department of Geography are finding ways to connect and support each other during remote learning.