At 12:30 p.m. the lights dimmed and a frenetic techno mix began to fill the room. The music escalated and all eyes turned to the big screen as a slideshow presentation began. The photos showed students pouring over world maps and crowds in 3-D glasses looking at maps of the ocean floor - all pictures celebrating the 10th anniversary of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Day at UNH.
To the sounds of an intense, industrial thump, the slideshow demonstrated how the event has grown since 1999 from a few tri-folds and posters to a planetarium show and a collection of 200 maps.
GIS Day is an annual event in Morse Hall. The event's attractions include professional geo-spatial science vendors, a cartographic exhibition, a driving simulator, a NASA photo exhibit, the Earth as Art collection and a college fair.
This year's event, which coordinator Michael Routhier said brought in about 700 people, attracted an eclectic group.
A diverse crowd gathered at the event, including a bearded man in plaid and Birkenstocks eating a carrot stick, antsy 13-year-old middle schoolers, an artist in a hot pink beret, curious UNH students and businessmen in suits and ties.
Lori Hickey, a science teacher, brought most of Biddeford (Maine) Junior High School to the event.
She wanted to give the students a chance to look at how GIS is being used, to learn about different careers and to hopefully interest them in attending college.
"They had a good time," said Hickey. "We had a large group, so it was crowded at times, but I think most of them were quite impressed."
Nick Kostis, a UNH senior, was particularly interested in the NASA photo exhibit. Kostis had heard of the event in a marketing class where he's involved in a project to create a new branding strategy for NASA. Attending the event wouldn't really help with the project but Kostis decided to check it out anyway.
UNH junior Andrew Middleton is an environmental conservation studies major. He was at the event because he said it's likely he'll have to work with these types of technology in his field. He attended the event last year and was impressed with what he saw, which prompted him to return this year.
"There's just a lot of cool things going on here," said Middleton. He said he found resources for a future job without even actively looking.
Christine Crombie was at the event observing the Earth as Art collection. Crombie is an artist from Canada who describes herself as a "colorist." She was attending the event not as a science exhibition but as an art exhibition.
"I'm interested in the maps as an artist," said Crombie. "I'm intrigued by the use of color. It might be natural or it might be not."
Routhier considered the day's event a success. What started out as a small map exhibition designed to show the rest of the university Morse Hall's activities has grown into an event that people return to year after year.
Routhier said a lot of people enjoy maps for many different reasons.
"There are so many components to maps," said Routhier. "There is the scientific aspect, because it is a representation of data. But then there is also the art side."
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