State Cartographer's Office, UW-Madison
This is an EXPIRED job listing. Do not apply for this position!
Are you interested in helping develop the next edition of the Official Wisconsin State Highway Map? Do you have strong cartographic design skills and experience using GIS software such as ArcGIS Pro? Are you a student looking for a great internship opportunity to apply your skills to a real-world problem?
If you answered “yes” to these questions, this student internship opportunity might be right for you.
The State Cartographer’s Office (SCO) at UW-Madison is assisting the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) with the 2025 edition of the Wisconsin State Highway Map. For this edition, WisDOT will be migrating map production to a GIS-based production environment for the first time.
The SCO will develop the following layers for the map: hydrology (lakes and rivers); cities and villages; county boundaries; and the state boundary. These map layers will be created at a scale of about 1:800,000. We will be developing and applying cartographic generalization methods including line simplification and scale-based feature selection codes. All work will be done in a GIS environment.
This project will begin in the spring of 2023 and wrap up no later than June 30, 2024.
Students interested in this position should have the following skills and experience:
- Experience using GIS software, ideally including ArcGIS Pro.
- Experience developing and managing large geospatial datasets.
- Experience creating cartographic products.
- Demonstrable cartographic design skills.
- Ability to work collaboratively in an office environment.
- Reliable work ethic. Capable of completing tasks independently.
Duties and Skills Developed:
- Use GIS to manage and manipulate geospatial data in support of cartographic production.
- Apply GIS-based feature generalization tools such as line simplification.
- Develop and apply rules for scale-based feature selection coding.
- Ensure consistency and alignment between generalized features on different layers.
- Evaluate and use geospatial data sources.
- Apply cartographic design skills in GIS.
- Work collaboratively with staff from the SCO and WisDOT.