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Mapping Information
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| Oregon’s InfoGraphics Lab |
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| Director Jim Meacham and Ken Kato. |
Maps are for one thing, right? They tell you how to get from Point A to Point B. Well, according to the folks at Oregon’s InfoGraphics Lab, maps can do much more than that. They can track immigration patterns, review Oregon’s salmon recovery effort, and highlight family-friendly services on campus.
In fact, according to Jim Meacham, the lab’s director, this is all part of a day’s work. Through cutting-edge technology and design, the lab mirrors the university’s mission. “We provide research, teaching, and public service,” Meacham noted. “Many times our projects achieve all three at once.”
Often, projects are collaborations with faculty outside the lab. Dr. Susan Hardwick has been working with Meacham’s staff of students to map Russian and Southeast Asian refugees in the Portland metro area. “Through this project, we now have more than thirty full-color maps that show the residential and commercial patterns of each group,” Hardwick said.
In addition to scholarly research, the lab regularly works on public service projects with state agencies such as ODOT and the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board (OWEB). In fact, this is how the lab began.
The lab’s current work with OWEB, which tracks the state’s salmon recovery effort, is an offshoot from their work on the awardwinning Atlas of Oregon. “In many ways we are acting as a research and cartographic extension of OWEB, and using the expertise and technology developed with our atlas mapping to present information in a comprehensive, yet accessible way,” Meacham said.
Working both within and outside academia is a bonus for Meacham. “This way we get to cross-pollinate ideas is one of my favorite things about working in the InfoGraphics Lab,” Meacham noted. “It’s a way to use the tools of geography for several types of disciplines.”
And though the InfoGraphics Lab is known for mapping information in innovative ways, they still know how to knock out a good directional map.
For example, Infographic’s program manager, Ken Kato, coordinates the campus mapping project, which overlays useful information about the university with the conventional campus map. The recently released “Campus at Night” map details lighted routes and public safety call boxes.
“We are continually striving to present information in new ways so that people can understand the university in new ways,” said Kato.
Not only does the Infographics Lab benefit the university by providing this service, but it also provides GIS students with valuable research and design experience.
“Through creating and designing these maps, students get to try new mapping techniques as well as new graphic designs,” Kato said.
Overall, the lab is continually trying to “do what we do better,” he said. “We’ve got a great tradition of cartographic excellence, and we want to build on that.”
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1245 University of Oregon • Eugene, OR • 97403-1245
(541) 346.3950 • FAX (541) 346.3282 • alumnidev@cas.uoregon.edu
Copyright © 2004 University of Oregon
Updated June 1, 2004
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