Laboratory Facilities
The department uses state-of-the-art facilities located on the 3rd floor of Storm Hall. They include excellent computing and field equipment resources housed in laboratories within the Storm Hall North wing. The computing facilities include a cluster of high-end servers and workstations maintained by department’s technical staff, GPS and UAV equipment with specialized cameras, and a variety of software packages.
The Richard D. Wright Spatial Analysis Lab (SH 324)
This is the main teaching lab for the Department of Geography. The introductory and intermediate GIS, remote sensing and cartography lab sessions are conducted in this facility. Open lab time is utilized by students to finish assignments and also by the intro and intermediate spatial statistics classes.
The Center for Earth Systems Analysis Research (CESAR) Lab (SH 328)
CESAR is the computing hub of the department. In addition to high-end workstations, the CESAR complex houses the department server room consisting of numerous processing and storage devices linked to all department labs and offices through a Department of Geography administered LAN; a special projects room for student-accessible servers; a large work/equipment storage room; and the offices of the technical staff. A large format printer and scanner are also located here.
The William A. Finch Jr. Remote Sensing Lab (SH 331)
The laboratory is primarily utilized by students conducting research and/or working on laboratory exercises involving remote sensing and image processing. It is named after William Finch, a former SDSU Geography professor who was to teach remote sensing at SDSU. This laboratory primarily consists of 10 high-end workstation computers which have dual screens and enable display of three-dimensional images. It also houses a small collection of hard copy imagery and manual stereoscopic viewing equipment.
The Geography Physical Lab (SH 333)
This lab serves primarily as a teaching laboratory where eight sections (each containing 20 students) of a lower-division physical geography lab are conducted each semester. The physical geography lab contains a variety of apparatus and teaching aids essential for weekly completion of students' lab experiments. In addition, the lab is used to store hydrologic equipment and samples used by the Watershed Analysis group.
The Qualitative Lab (SH 337)
This area is used to analyze qualitative data collected by interviews and surveys.
The Visualization Lab (SH 339)
This is a graduate research area exploring new topics in Visualization.
Storm Hall 324
Monday - Thursday: 7:30am - 5:00pm
Friday: 7:30am - 3:00pm
Saturday: 9:00am - 5:00pm
Sunday: Closed
Storm Hall 328
Monday - Thursday: 7:30am - 4:00pm
Friday: 7:30am - 3:00pm
Saturday and Sunday: Closed
Storm Hall 331
Monday - Thursday: 7:30am - 5:00pm
Friday: 7:30am - 3:00pm
Saturday and Sunday: Closed
Storm Hall 333
Always locked. Access by RedID Card
Storm Hall 337
Always locked. Access by RedID Card
Storm Hall 339
Always locked. Access by RedID Card
All geography students are welcome to use the labs during these times whenever there are no classes scheduled. Graduate and Teaching assistants have 24 hour access via RedID cards to all lab facilities.
In addition, there are Open Lab times scheduled Monday - Thursday evenings from 5:00pm to 9:00pm in either Storm Hall 324 or 331 depending on class schedules for the semester. See signs posted on the lab doors for more information.
The following days and times are reserved for class instruction.
Storm Hall 324
Monday:
- GEOG 484: 8:00am - 9:40pm
- GEOG 581: 11:00am - 12:40pm
- GEOG 383: 2:00pm - 4:20pm
- GEOG 582: 5:00pm - 7:20pm
Tuesday:
- GEOG 381L: 9:00am - 10:20am
- GEOG 576: 11:00am - 12:15pm
- GEOG 591L: 3:30pm - 6:10pm
- GEOG 591L: 7:00pm - 9:40pm
Wednesday:
- GEOG 484L: 8:00am - 10:40am
- GEOG 581: 11:00am - 1:40pm
- GEOG 383: 2:00pm - 4:20pm
- GEOG 582: 5:00pm - 7:20pm
Thursday:
- GEOG 381L: 9:00am - 10:20am
- GEOG 576: 11:00am - 12:15pm
Storm Hall 331
Monday:
- GEOG 701: 1:00pm - 3:40pm
Storm Hall 333
Monday:
- GEOG 101L: 10:00am - 12:40pm; 2:00pm - 4:40pm; 5:00pm - 7:40pm
Tuesday:
- GEOG 101L: 9:30am - 12:10pm; 2:00pm - 4:40pm; 7:00pm - 9:40pm
Wednesday:
- GEOG 101L: 10:00am - 12:40pm; 3:00pm - 5:40pm; 6:30pm - 9:10pm
Thursday:
- GEOG 101L: 9:30am - 12:10pm; 2:00pm - 4:40pm; 5:00pm - 7:40pm
Friday:
- GEOG 101L: 8:00am - 10:40am; 11:00am - 1:40pm
All labs (excluding the Physical Lab) are equipped with high-end computer workstations. Each computer has extensive GIS, Remote Sensing, statistical and modeling software resources including ESRI ArcGIS and related products, GRASS, ERDAS Imagine, ENVI, SPlus, and SPSS. Graphics software includes Adobe products along with various software utilities.
The laboratories are supported by three (3) full time technical staff.