MS GIS students Cyrus Chimento and Elizabeth Read recently won runner-up for their submission in the 2020 Geothermal Design Challenge!  The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO), in conjunction with Idaho National Laboratory (INL), hosts this GIS Mapping Student Competition. The design challenge focuses on a non-technical barrier to geothermal development to foster understanding and share the benefits of geothermal energy technologies. Student teams of two or three use geographic information system (GIS) mapping to create a compelling infographic/poster or interactive map to discover potential opportunities from this renewable energy source.

The UMD team's entry, entitled “Visualizing Patterns of Geothermal Research,” focused on creating a tool that maps submissions to the Geothermal Data Repository. This tool helps users to understand where researchers have already studied geothermal energy resources and guides them to answer the question: where should we look for more?

Congratulations to Cyrus and Elizabeth for all their hard work in creating this insightful project!