Workshop
The 21st Annual HBCU Summer Faculty GIS Workshop provided the basic training needed to utilize GIS in the academic environment for teaching, analysis and grant research. Over 20 years ago, the U.S. Geological Survey with the National Parks Service began a summer workshop to train less than a dozen HBCU faculties in GIS. Since 1999, Howard University Continuing Education's Urban Environment Institute has expanded the summer workshop with funding from various agencies and the partnership of numerous companies. Government agencies generate nearly a third of all GIS sales of technology products and services and greatly need GIS services. Over 40 or a third of all HBCU's have had faculty trained at this summer workshop.

GIS
Geographic Information Systems or GIS is a particular kind of ' software that runs like a database program that contains information about places, and physical features that can be linked to places. GIS is also a specialized field where people build geographic databases, perform analyses and create maps. People live, work, and play somewhere and GIS can show you where and information about them and their communities.