In October, UW Cartography Lab faculty, students, alumni, and affiliates met up with other members of the cartographic community in scenic Tacoma, Washington for the 2024 North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS) Annual Meeting.

The annual NACIS gathering provides an opportunity to engage with cartographers, academics, professionals, and enthusiasts alike, sharing projects, techniques, designs, and knowledge in a collaborative space. This year’s meeting brought current and former Cart Lab students front and center in several ways, showing the tremendous reach of our unique makerspace.

Two current students received special acclaim for the maps they submitted to the Student Map and Poster Competition. Voted on by all conference attendees, the awards given in this competition celebrate achievement in cartographic design quality and cartographic research quality.  Atlas Guo’s “The United States of Natural Disasters” won the Best Research award, while Brynn Patrello took home the Best Design award for her UV reactive map “As Above, So Below.”

Many students submitted to the Map Gallery, showing their unique points of view. Cartographers featured included Yanbing Chen, Natalie Correa, Ashmita Dhakal, Will McAllister, Helen Tosteson, Maggie Lehane, and more.

Conference attendees were treated to presentations from five current UWCL students:

• Gareth Baldrica-Franklin reviewed a multi-layered process involving collaboration and flexibility in “Creating a Digital, Indigenous Walking Tour of UW-Madison: Reflections on Collaboration, Justice, and Place”
• Kela Caldwell drew from participant surveys, mapping creations, and her own reflections from last year’s UWCL Design Challenge in “Atlas in a Day: Imagining a Black Counter-Atlas of Abolition”
• Yanbing Chen discussed an ongoing project that aims to create a multiscale visualization approach for rendering big geospatial data on the web in “Raster-to-Vector Heat Maps: Multiscale Visualization Approach to Mapping and Interacting with Big Geospatial Data”
• Natalie Correa investigated using sketch mapping to understand perceived realities in “Coloring Outside the Lines: Sketch Mapping Fear, Safety, and Community for LGBTQ+ Students Amidst Anti-LGBTQ+ Legislation”
• Atlas Guo taught a mappier way to play with LEGO bricks & tiles in “LEGO Topographic Mapping”

Our students weren’t the only ones sharing. Cart Lab leadership also stepped up to present. Dr. Alicia Cowart, Creative Director, facilitated a conference-wide project called “Make an Atlas in a Day with Guerilla Cartography,” which asked conference attendees to contribute to an atlas centered around a theme word—”flow”—revealed at the beginning of the conference. Conference attendees ran with the assignment, contributing a wide variety of maps by the time the conference ended. (See the first draft of this atlas on the Guerrilla Cartography website!)

Dr. Bill Limpisathian shared insights on pedagogy in a panel titled “Updating the Cartographic Curriculum” and discussed how to effectively prepare students for the multifaceted demands of modern map production in a talk, “Teaching Atlas Project Management: Lessons and Reflections.” 

Attendees left the conference inspired and fueled for another year of cartographic exploration. See you next year in Louisville, NACIS!