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Shalni Sundram, Class of 2023

Majoring in CS + GIS was inspired by my interests in the logical problem solving involved with computer science, coupled with a general interest in human geography. The major gave me a passion for the intersections of CS and geographic systems including geospatial cloud computing, high performance geospatial computing, and earth systems modeling.

Geospatial data is especially complex and dynamic and this area of problem solving taught me about networks, statistical applications, data visualization, and scalable architectures that are often used to process this data. With CS and GIS so tightly related, there are plenty of avenues to explore! However, the skills I've learned are highly applicable to all fields in software engineering and I'm sure I will use them in any area of industry.

If you are considering a major in GGIS, keep an open mind about what you would like to explore and the ways you would like to explore them! My interests over my years at UIUC are constantly evolving, and this is because of the wide variety of classes I've selected, internships, undergraduate research, and insight from professors and TAs. Explore as much as you can, and you will be even more confident about the interests you want to pursue.