Global geospatial workforce development is central to the World Geospatial Industry Council (WGIC) mission. As part of this goal, WGIC recently engaged with Xploor—an internship and innovation program launched by Deepspatial, a WGIC member company.
Xploor is designed to nurture emerging professionals by bringing together student teams from around the world to tackle real-world challenges using geospatial data and artificial intelligence (GeoAI). The initiative is unique in combining academic learning with industry exposure, ensuring participants gain technical skills besides developing the ability to address complex societal problems through geospatial thinking.
WGIC’s engagement with Xploor focuses on facilitating mentorship and industry guidance, helping students refine their ideas, grounding projects in real-world contexts, and exposing them to how geospatial tools and thinking can be applied across sectors. By engaging in initiatives like Xploor, WGIC continues to strengthen the link between academia and industry, preparing students to meet workforce needs with technical expertise and practical insight. Through Xploor, students work on projects that span climate resilience, public health, agriculture, and urban mobility. These challenges encourage them to practise geospatial thinking, systems reasoning, and ethical decision-making while producing tangible outcomes.
Kuhelee Chandel, WGIC’s Advisor for Industry-Academia Committee, represented the organization in this year’s cohort and mentored the student teams. Kuhelee supported them in refining project ideas, shaping deliverables, and navigating the complexities of applying geospatial thinking to real-world problems. The experience underscored the importance of exposing students to both technical and ethical dimensions of GeoAI.
Sharing her experiences, Kuhelee noted, “If we are serious about addressing the geospatial workforce gap, programs like Xploor are essential. They immerse students in real-world complexity, help them work with meaningful data, and build their capacity to think spatially and ethically. This is how workforce development becomes not just aspirational, but actionable.”
Dr Rahul Kushwah, CEO of Deepspatial, highlighted the program’s growing impact:
“The Xploor Program provides a unique opportunity for emerging innovators to gain hands-on experience, receive world-class mentorship, and develop the technical expertise needed to tackle complex global issues. With the GeoAI market projected to grow at a 34.2% CAGR from 2024 to 2030, Xploor is positioned to meet the rising demand for skilled professionals in this space.”
Emphasizing the evolving partnership with WGIC, Saurabh Tyagi, Chief Marketing Officer at Deepspatial, noted, “With WGIC’s involvement, Xploor is not only emerging as a project-based learning program but also as a thought leadership platform that connects academia, industry, and innovation. We see WGIC as a strategic knowledge partner, helping shape narratives that will inspire and prepare the next generation of geospatial professionals.”
As part of this growing relationship, the two organizations are shaping Xploor by Deepspatial in a strategic knowledge partnership, to strengthen the program’s role in preparing the next generation of GeoAI professionals.
For WGIC, this engagement is part of its broader mission to advance workforce development in the geospatial sector. By supporting experiential learning opportunities that bring academia and industry closer together, WGIC continues to support initiatives that equip the next generation of professionals not just with technical tools but also with the insight and agility needed in today’s dynamic geospatial ecosystem.
