The New York City Department of Education (DOE) was recently recognized for its work with geographic information systems (GIS).

Alex Robinson, who was named executive director of the DOE's Office of Pupil Transportation in December 2011, told SBF that in addition to the more than 8,000 school buses on routes daily, "we couldn’t do what we do without amazing mapping technology and GIS experts."

At the Esri International User Conference in San Diego in July, the DOE received a Special Achievement in GIS award.

"This award is given to user sites around the world to recognize outstanding work with GIS technology," Esri said. The DOE "stood out from more than 100,000 others."

The DOE's Office of Pupil Transportation has been building ArcGIS into its enterprise architecture for managing all of its spatial data, such as bus stops and routes, used in different applications.

Also, the Office of Pupil Transportation has developed external web-based map applications, like a pre-K school bus contract bid portal, as well as internal applications, including one for determining transportation eligibility by calculating walking paths to schools.