Experiencing the Esri Developer Summit as a Student Assistant: A Journey of GIS Discovery and Personal Growth

[JingHu]

The 2024 Esri Developer Summit (Dev Summit) provided me with an eye-opening experience showcasing what GIS can do in reality beyond mapping and visualization.

My name is Jing, a senior at the University of North Carolina At Chapel Hill. I am a geographer, statistician, and modeler by training who enjoys the beautiful complexities of the human-environmental system we see through the lens of GIS. This article is about my experience as a student assistant at the 2024 Dev Summit.

With a sense of excitement being a first-time student assistant, I flew from North Carolina to Palm Springs, California, visiting the for the first time. Little did I know, years ago before I came to the USA for a Bachelor of Science in Statistics and operational research, GIS would be evolving into the cornerstone of my academic and research endeavors. Here I was on a plane flying to a conference with global leaders in the developer community that showcased cutting-edge apps and advanced mapping technology.

First Day at Dev Summit

Photo of the Plenary at Dev Summit, 2024.Upon meeting fellow student assistants, initial nervousness and shyness faded fast. There was a tribe that spoke the language of spatial awareness, where 'nerdy' was the norm and technical jargon was the lingua franca. It was obvious we were all there for the love of GIS, a common ground where technical talk was the norm, and my inner nerd felt right at home.

The first day of work, right after getting off the plane, was intense and exhilarating. In addition to working at the Esri register and Store, I got to explore various sessions and the Expo during time off shifts. This conference was unlike any academic conference I had been to in the past. It’s tailored for a community of GIS users and developers, and it was exhilarating to find myself among them, engaging in dialogues that directly addressed the challenges in my research. As a researcher and a student who has used ArcGIS Esri's products for almost four years in college, I conversed with developers who resolved my research challenges.

Visiting the Expo Hall

During my time off shift, I ventured into the Expo, getting a fresh taste of everything that was going on. Setting up the conference as a student assistant allowed me to have an inside view and appreciation of what it takes to organize events on this scale. I had the opportunity to speak with many GIS professionals at the expo about my research methodology and findings in search of suggestions and insights.

My conversations in the expo hall ranged from urban vegetation unsupervised classification using lidar data, reality mapping principles and its future market, the concept of multi-dimensional raster and update of area solar radiation tool, choosing random forest classification instead of multi-scale GWR due to my research data structure and purpose, and integrating statistical and programming languages (R and python specifically) with ArcGIS Pro in my research.

(Left) Josiah taught me how to integrate R into my research while working on ArcGIS Pro (Right) Nawajish helped me with calculating potential solar radiation in my CCW_Wassi Model and intro to ArcPy

Connecting with Other Student Assistants

During my time as a student assistant, there was a spontaneous trip to Vista Point that brought our group together. We watched the sunset and the city night lights slowly awaken in the desert where I experienced a connection with people and place. It was geography in its most vivid form, I thought to myself. During this time we shared laughs, trying to dodge the ubiquitous cacti that threatened to turn us into hedgehogs as we navigated the rugged terrain. In the end, a friendly game of dodgeball on the last day transformed us from colleagues into a close-knit community.

(Left) The 2024 Dev Summit Student Cohort (Right) Our great dogeball team only lost to the winner this year!

Blending Professional Growth and Personal Discovery

Being a student assistant at Dev Summit brought about many memorable experiences. It afforded me the chance to grow professionally and develop in my personal discovery. Not only did I advance my research methodology and learn ways of integrating ArcGIS Pro operations into Python via ArcPy (which I never heard of and learned from my instructors or researchers), but I also found my tribe within the GIS community.

Apply to Become a Student Assistant at the Next Esri Conference

You can apply to be a student assistant on the Esri Careers website. Simply click “Search jobs” and type in ‘student assistantship.’

The Esri conferences you’re able to become a student assistant are:

• Esri User Conference in San Diego, California
• Esri Developer Summit in Palm Springs, California
• Esri Federal GIS Conference in Washington, DC

[mschappert]

What are some tips to keep in mind when applying for the next conference?

[HereignsChika777]

• Can you apply for the next conference from an African country, for instance Nigeria?

[JingHu]

@HereignsChika777 I believe that is not an issue at all! Go for it! 

[JingHu]

@mschappert One tip I found helpful from Logan in the Esri YPN team, who helped me revise my resume, is highlighting how your skills and experience connect with the conference content and what you can bring and learn from such an opportunity. I hope this helps!