Undergraduate Emily Boyle earned first place at a statewide GIS research conference

Emily Boyle, a senior in Pitt’s School of Computing and Information, won first place in the humanities poster competition at the 2026 Pennsylvania GIS Conference, hosted by Keystone GIS in State College, Pennsylvania. Boyle is also completing a Geographic Information Systems Certification from the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Geology.

Boyle’s award-winning poster applied the influential framework of urban planning theorist Jane Jacobs to analyze neighborhood conditions across Pittsburgh. Jacobs, whose 1961 book “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” remains a foundational text in urban planning, argued that vibrant neighborhoods share four key conditions: a mix of residential, commercial and other uses; varied building ages; sufficient population density; and short city blocks.