Geoinformatics is an emerging field catering to Societal, Industry and Scientific needs of the country and has attained a unique position in global space. Spatial analysis of data, positions itself in extracting information from among other focal and global interests such as Flood Management, Water Resources, Crime Management, Road networks, Bank locations including ATMs, Forestry, Oceanography, Urban development, Oil & Gas industry, Potential Fishing Zones, Marine and Coastal Environmental mapping and analysis, Crop yield estimation, Ocean Color, Coral Reef mapping, Tringulated Irregular Network-3-D analysis, Facility Management, Data management, Data Mining and Data Harvesting, Meteorology, EIA., EMP., Sea/Ship routing, Spatial Mapping of Marine Archeological Sites etc.  The focus is on Remote Sensing, Geographic Information Systems, Global Positioning Systems, Cartography, Data Management, Statistical Analysis, Computer Applications, etc. In short Geospatial Analysis and Solutions is the focal theme of Geoinformatics.

The Geoinformatics course reinforces the concept of creating not mere scientists but application scientists who are of direct use to society. Geoinformatics makes use of Geographic Information System (GIS), Remote Sensing (RS), Global Positioning System (GPS) for precise geographical co-ordinates, Cartography-for mapping population, resources, climate etc. Included here is also the Information Superhighway (including DBMS, for rapid data transfer). Oil and Natural Gas, Kimberlite and Diamond Exploration, Oceanography, Water Resources, Environmental Studies, Computer Applications, Numerical Analysis are some specialized areas deliberated in the syllabus. 

Our students are exposed to invited talks from scientists from ISRO, SAC, and CSRE-IIT, ESRI, GROUPE SCE  etc. Our students are trained during their dissertation foray in scientific institutes such as NIO-Goa/Cochin, ISRO-RRSSC Bangalore, INCOIS, and SAC-DOS etc. About 115 student projects have been completed in collaboration with ISRO, NIO, SAC-DOS, KSR-SAC, NCAOR-Vasco, CSRE-IIT, Sky Group, Magnasoft Geospatial Innovations, ERDAS, RMSI, Rolta, Core-Logic, Honeywell Technology Solutions, etc. ON CAMPUS INTERVIEWS involve many Geospatial Companies including Magnasoft Geospatial Innovations, Bangalore,  Group SCE Pvt. Ltd., First India Corporation, since the last few years.  Our former students have contributed skilled manpower to South America and East Africa.  Currently, we have students placed in Dubai-Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Oman, Kuwait, Doha, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and other areas of the Gulf. Our students also have placements in Canada, USA on long and short assignments.  We have students from various states including Maharashtra, Kerala, Gujarath, West Bengal,  etc.  About 99% of our students with Geoinformatics represent the Geoinformatic discipline as Application Scientists or Research Fellows in the private industry that includes Tech Mahendra, Group SCE Pvt. Ltd., Rolta, RSMI, ERDAS India Ltd., Data Collection InfoTech Ltd., First India Corporation, Navayug Spatial Technologies, Bangalore, Magnasoft, Genesis, Manthra Infotech Inc.,  SECON, Bangalore, ESRI, In-RIMT, Gujarat Ecological Society, ATREE Bangalore, Information Handling Systems USA, AND Data Pvt Ltd. Pune.,  CORE Logic etc.,  and scientific organizations such as CWRDM-Calicut, CESS-Trivandrum, INCOIS Hyderabad, KSR-SAC, Bangalore, S.O.I, Bangalore, SAC-DOS-Ahemadabad, etc.

Recognized Institutes: Other than research guides form the department, NATIONAL CENTER FOR ANTARTIC AND OCEAN RESEARCH, INDIAN NATIONAL CENTER FOR OCEAN  INFORMATION SERVICES-MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF OCEANOGRAPHY, SPACE APPLICATIONS CENTER-ISRO, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF SPICE RESEARCH-CALICUT are some of the top institutes recognized to carryout research leading to the Ph.D., degree in geoinformatics of the Mangalore University.

Project Work/Dissertation: Students of the 4^th Semester are encouraged to do their Project/Dissertation work either in the software application industry or in research institutes and they submit a dissertation on the work done.

LABS: Our Labs are equipped with state-of-art software and hardware and has largely been financed by the ISRO that assisted in establishing an ISRO-SPONSORED GEOINFORMATICS LAB.  Two other labs exist with equipment such as Hyperspectral Radiometers, Spectrophotometers, Mulitparameter Marine Hydrolab  Data Sonde,  Millipore Filtering Units, IKONOS images, IRS-IC/ID images, Stereoscopes Aerial Photographs,  IRS-P4 Digital Data Products, Naval Hydrographic Charts, Topographic Sheets, Trinocular Microscopes, etc.

FACULTY: Our teaching faculty are also Ph.Ds and are  trained in various aspects of Geoinformatics. Specialized Guest Faculty, and Visiting Scientist are from ERDAS India Ltd., CSRE-IIT-Mumbai, ISRO, SAC, NIO, Group SCE Pvt. Ltd., INCOIS-DOD, CESS., NCAOR, etc. The faculty also guides research students for their Ph.D., degree in Geoinformatics. About 13 researchers have either registered or are in the process of registering or have been awarded the Ph. D., degrees in Geoinformatics. Our former students have contributed skilled manpower to  North & South America, the Gulf countries.