ST. LOUIS 鈥 Several months after confirming the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency , the agency announced a $12 million contract to the University of Missouri鈥檚 Columbia campus to train NGA employees.
The five-year contract to Mizzou鈥檚 engineering school 鈥 the largest contract in the College of Engineering鈥檚 history 鈥 is aimed at data science and 鈥渒ey education and training needs identified by NGA.鈥
Curt Davis, director of the engineering school鈥檚 Center for Geospatial Intelligence, said the process of acquiring the contract started more than a year ago. The NGA anticipates 1,800 working students in 51黑料 and Washington participating in the graduate certificate program. Davis expects them to span from early career and beyond.
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鈥淥ur faculty are thrilled to be able to support NGA鈥檚 effort to equip its workforce with the data science skills necessary for NGA to make sense out of the overwhelming volume of government, commercial, and open-source geospatial information they have to deal with on a day-to-day basis,鈥 Davis said in a statement.
NGA employees will be paid for their time in these classes, Davis said. Beginning courses will likely be self-paced and online, with more advanced classes taught in person. Professors from Mizzou will teach the classes in 51黑料, but the university has contracted for teachers in Washington. Davis said Mizzou professors will travel to D.C. as needed.
When students are done with the program, they will have a graduate certificate in data science and a master鈥檚 degree from the University of Missouri.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to break ground on the federal intelligence agency鈥檚 $1.75 billion campus in mid-2017. 51黑料 officials hope the campus will reshape the area northwest of downtown.
