November is Geographical Information Systems (GIS) month, and Lake Land’s Geospatial Technology program, which falls under the GIS realm, is being highlighted. Geospatial Technology includes things like Google Maps in its career description. Geospatial Technology courses on LLC’s campus have been taught by Dr. Mike Rudibaugh since 1999. 

Dr. Rudibaugh received a Bachelor’s of Arts degree in Psychology from Eastern Illinois University in 1993, a Master’s of Arts degree in Economic Geography in 1995 from Indiana State University and a Doctorate in Economic Geography in 2006 from Indiana State University. 

Dr. Rudibaugh feels that students should take Geospatial Technology courses since it’s an expanding field along with numerous industries needing skilled technicians utilizing the technology in law enforcement, military, agriculture, healthcare and energy all across all departments in local, state and federal governments. Recently, Dr. Rudibaugh petitioned for the State of Illinois through the Illinois Articulation Initiative (IAI) to add Geospatial Technology and related courses as a General Education (Gen Ed) courses in the Social/Behavioral Science area. 

Furthermore, Dr. Rudibaugh states that students should take the courses that he currently teaches in order to understand how maps, places, space, time and movement are connected to each other. He further emphasized how the aforementioned items are critical to understanding our modern workplace and economy. One example that Dr. Rudibaugh gave was Amazon’s ability to utilize geography to locate and connect with customers in order to get their orders. Dr. Rudibaugh had his students use various Geospatial Technology software and Trimble, which is a hand-held device used in the Geospatial Technology field used for surveying, to learn more about the Geospatial Technology field.

When Dr. Rudibaugh is not teaching any courses on campus or involved in activities within the Science Department at Lake Land College, he serves on a couple of boards relating to economic and business development in the region. One such board is the Illinois Geographical of Information Systems Association (ILGISA). The mission statement for ILGISA is to serve GIS professionals from both the public and private sector in the state of Illinois. ILGISA offers technical training and educational opportunities, awards for services, an annual student scholarship and map competition. 

When Dr. Rudibaugh retires, he wants to retire to his hometown of Evansville, Indiana to spend more time with family and close friends that live in the area.