An unusual new university center devoted to spatial reasoning and technologies in planning, research, and teaching will introduce itself to the campus with speakers and a reception on Thursday, May 29, say organizers. The free event, “Connecting Our Region Through GIS and Geospatial Technologies,” will welcome the public to the Corwin Pavilion, beginning with a poster session at 2 p.m.

Displays of more than 60 posters, each demonstrating applications of spatial technology and spatial thinking, will be featured during the Center for Spatial Studies inaugural. By “spatial” the center means “anything dealing with the arrangement of phenomena, including ways of thinking and problem-solving,” explains event organizer Don Janelle, research professor in geography.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is an example of a spatial tool. Attendees will hear about the uses of GIS from the speakers, which include UCSB geographer and center director Michael Goodchild, and guest speakers Shoreh Elhami, co-founder and chair of GISCorps, and Jack Dangermond, president of Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI).

Elhami, an adjunct professor at Ohio State University, will discuss the role of GISCorps’s volunteers in disaster response missions.

Dangermond is a recognized pioneer in spatial analysis methods and one of the creators of GIS technology. He and his wife, Laura, founded ESRI in 1969. ESRI spatial analysis software now serves more than a million clients in over 100 countries.

To learn about the center’s offerings, visit its Web site at <www.spatial.ucsb.edu>.