News

Academy earns geospatial intelligence accreditation

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Vann Miller
  • Air Force Academy Public Affairs
U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. --  The Air Force Academy received its accreditation from the Geospatial Intelligence Foundation, Sept. 10 to offer a Geospatial Intelligence Certificate through the Economics and Geosciences Department to select graduates.

A special presentation to recognize the achievement took place in the Dean of Faculty's conference room here.

Presenting the certificate of accreditation was Keith Masback, president of the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation. Accepting the award for the Dean of Faculty was Vice Dean of the faculty Col. Tom Yoder.

The U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation was formed in 2003 when a small group of likeminded analyst and scientists choose to track intelligence data in the interest of national security.

Currently, only seven universities have received this accreditation. The Air Force Academy was the first service academy to earn this recognition, according to the USGIF website.

"Our geospatial science curriculum underwent a year-long review process with the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation," said Lt. Col. Matthew Tracy, director of geosciences.
Since that time, geospatial science cadets have been able to participate in unique opportunities with the intelligence community where they have applied their distinctive skills to solve real-world problems in the area of intelligence data analysis, he said.

During the summer of 2012, the Economics and Geosciences Department sent five geoscience cadets through separate five-week internships to the Air Force Institute of Technology, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, Tracy said.

Cadets in the geospatial intelligence program study areas including remote sensing, geographic information systems, geography and the structure of the intelligence community. Through the certification program, the Academy and its faculty educate cadets in the growing importance of geospatial intelligence and its associated technologies.