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Advanced Certificate in: Transportation / Business Geographics

The Department of Geography offers a new Advanced Certificate in Transportation and Business Geographics (T&BG). This non-degree program is designed to serve as a component of a Masters or Doctoral program or to be a stand-alone professional development experience. The certificate program is open to UB masters and doctoral students, as well as non-degree graduate students. The goal of the Certificate is to offer graduate students the opportunity to develop specialized expertise in Transportation Analysis and Business Geographics.

Dominant themes of study, research, and inquiry in this specialization include:

  • Relationships between the organization of the space economy and transportation;
  • Freight and passenger transportation systems;
  • Flow of people, commodity, information, and ideas at different scales of observation --from the small picture (urban transportation) to the global picture (international transportation);
  • Mobility and accessibility issues in every day life and in the economy;
  • Optimal routing and facility location;
  • Transportation infrastructure, efficiency, and safety;
  • The transportation-land use link;
  • Transportation logistics, distribution, and business location;
  • Spatial information technologies and location-based services;
  • Activities and travel in a city environment;
  • Information and communication technologies in society;
  • Transportation planning and policies; and
  • Transportation systems and sustainability.

The use of pertinent information technologies (intelligent transportation systems, geographic information systems, wireless communication systems) will be emphasized throughout the curriculum of this advanced certificate program.

The purpose of this certificate specialization is to increase students' understanding of the use of transportation systems in contemporary societies and of their impact in structuring the geographic space of cities, regions, and the world at large. This specialization provides students with an understanding of public policies as they relate to transportation. It also aims to enhance students' knowledge of theories, techniques, and models of transportation analysis and business geographics used by practitioners in the public and private sector of the economy.

To receive the Advanced Certificate in Transportation and Business Geographics, the student is not required to enroll in a graduate program at the University at Buffalo.

To fulfill the requirements of the Advanced Certificate in Transportation and Business Geographics for, a student must take a core of four required courses composed as follows:

____ GEO 519 Transportation (3 credits)

Three of the following four courses:

____ GEO 520 Transportation and Spatial Information (4 credits)
____ GEO 554 Network and Location Analysis (4 credits)
____ GEO 564 Mobility and Flows (4 credits)
____ GEO 574 Urban Transportation and Land Use Modeling (4 credits)

Descriptions of each of these five courses are available in the Geography Department graduate course list. Core courses include a total of 15 credit hours. These courses may have pre-requisites that a student enrolling in the certificate program must satisfy. For instance, a pre-requisite of GEO 519 is GEO 509, Multivariate Statistics in Geography, or a course determined to be equivalent by the instructor. GEO506, Geographic Information Systems (or equivalent), is a prerequisite of the following core courses: GEO 520, 554, 564, and 574.

Each student in the T&BG Advanced Certificate program who is also enrolled in a graduate degree at the University at Buffalo must meet the minimum number of course credit hours currently required for graduation in his/her home academic department. It is expected that the 15 credit hours core to the T&BG Certificate program can be taken as electives towards most degree program at the University at Buffalo.

In addition to the academic course requirements described above, the following conditions also apply:

To receive an Advanced Certificate in Transportation and Business Geographics, a student must:

  • Be admitted to the T&BG Advanced Certificate program by the T&BG Program Committee. Please submit the completed application form.
  • Students enrolled in a graduate degree program at the University at Buffalo must register their intent to pursue the T&BG Advanced Certificate with the T&BG Program Committee no later than one semester before graduation from their home department.
  • Certificate applicants who are not, and will not be, enrolled in a UB degree program, must apply for non-matriculated status with the Geography Department. Please submit your application on line.
  • Students enrolled in a graduate degree program at the University at Buffalo must conform to all other regulations and requirements of their home department, the T&BG certificate program, and the Graduate School of the University at Buffalo.
  • Students not enrolled in a graduate degree program at the University at Buffalo must register for 3 semester credits Geo 631, Project Guidance, for the research component of the certificate requirements.
  • Successfully complete either a capstone research project (MA thesis or project, PhD dissertation) or a competency portfolio as described below. Upon registration, the student must elect to follow the "research project" option or the "competency portfolio" option by notification to the T&BG Program Committee.
  • Maintain a minimum B average in the curriculum followed towards the T&BG Certificate.

Submission of a research project by a student enrolled in a graduate degree program follows the rules and regulations governing such submission in the student's home department. Submission of a research project by a non-degree student follows the rules and regulations governing such submission in the Geography department. The T&BG Program Committee will establish that this piece of research has enough of an emphasis in Transportation and/or Business Geographics to meet the requirements of the T&BG Certificate program.

Students selecting the "competency portfolio" option are required to compile a set of materials that summarizes and displays his or her knowledge, skills, and problem-solving capabilities in transportation analysis or business geographics. Unlike the "research project" option that requires research in a focused area of Transportation and/or Business Geographics, the "competency portfolio" option assesses the student's competence along several facets of transportation analysis and/or business geographics. This option also emphasizes the student's ability to handle, analyze, and report on geo-spatial transportation and business data within the confines of a project, as both technical and project management skills are typically required for professional employment in this field. The portfolio itself may even serve eventually as part of a student's application package when he or she is seeking professional employment. The portfolio option also maintains a strong research component because the student must develop research projects and write research papers in selected transportation courses. This work will provide the student with the necessary research experience and allow the student to develop a balanced intellectual growth both in practical skills and in critical thinking.

The portfolio should contain the following items:

  1. A resume and a short summary (2 pages) of the student's interests, professional and academic experiences, and career goals.
  2. A primary research paper (15 pages or more) on a topic of transportation analysis or business geographics. The paper should include the basic elements of a research paper such as introduction, literature review, analysis, results and discussion, and conclusions.
  3. An original application study of transportation analysis or business geographics at the local, regional, national, or international scale. The case study will include the collection of primary or secondary data, their management and storage in a suitable spatial database environment, statistical and/or GIS analysis, spatial and/or graphic illustrations, and the necessary textual explanation. This application study may be coupled with the research paper mentioned above.

The materials in the portfolio must be assembled in a manner that achieves a professional appearance. All elements within each required item must be organized cohesively and be self-explanatory. Although the paper and application study may be initially developed in courses, it is anticipated that further revisions will usually be required in order to ensure the quality of the portfolio at a level satisfactory for graduation.

 

For Additional Information

Please contact a member of the T&BG Program Committee:

Irene Casas, Assistant Professor, icasas@buffalo.edu


Department of Geography University at Buffalo