Full Name: Walther Rodriguez
Background:
1) What major(s), minors, and/or certificates you are working on at UMD?
Major: Geography: Environmental Systems and Natural Resources
Minor: Geographic information Systems (GIS)
2) What are your interests within your program(s)?
My interest within Environmental Systems and Natural resources is to find ways to be green yet still be efficient enough to meet our needs for more land, food and energy. Also that we only have one planet and I am interested in keeping it going without losing a lot if the natural places like lakes to swim in and forest to adventure in.
3) What previous jobs, internships, and volunteer experience have you had?
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Army National Guard
Internship:
1) Where you are interning?
NOAA Hydrographic Systems & Technology Programs
2) What are your internship responsibilities?
Updating ocean mapping data, dating from the past decade to now using python to compile hundreds of ocean mapping surveys. These surveys are conducted by dozens of military and civilian ships and I am converting the raw data into coherent data files that contain various information of the composition and depth of the ocean waters to help map out underwater hazards and the ocean floor.
3) What project(s) are you working on or contributing to?
Oceanic cartography and trade routes, basically making all the raw data useable for anyone how needs it
4) How is the internship experience relevant to your studies in Geographical Sciences?
The internship grants me practical use of programs such as Python and its many variations such as Ipython and Velocipy. It shows me how many projects and jobs rely on seemingly simple data.
5) What are your career goals after your graduate?
Switch from Guard to Active Duty and make a career out of my service, yet still be able to fall back to civilian work if need be with this degree.