All posts by Gavin Schrock

The Value of Location Tech

The term “location tech” has been around for a long time, but recently it seems to have been co-opted by Silicon Valley and the makers of consumer technologies. This is epitomized by the most prevalent tech that has rudimentary but ubiquitous location capability: phones. It’s estimated that as many as 65% of cellphone apps access...

Future of Surveying Forum

On January 22, 2016,  the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) kicked off a national initiative to examine the future of the surveying profession in a face-to-face forum with representatives from 18 key surveying associations, educational institutions, and practitioner constituencies. As one of the media outlets invited (to help with outreach), xyHt will be providing...

The Long Drive

Topcon Positioning Systems’ president and CEO Ray O’Connor talks about automation, integrated solutions, smart phones, golf, and the coming era of continuous representation of reality.  The occasion of our conversation with Ray O’Connor was a visit to the headquarters of Topcon Positioning Systems in Livermore, California, which included a tour of their manufacturing facility, a...

Upcoming Young Surveyors Network North American Meeting

Register now for the  Young Surveyors Network (YSN) 2nd North American Meeting – Minneapolis MN – Feb 10th 2016 The FIG Young Surveyors North American Network will hold its next meeting in conjunction with the Minnesota Society of Professional Surveyors (MSPS) Annual Conference. The 2nd FIG Young Surveyors North American meeting will be held on...

Eva-Maria Unger

Outlook 2016: 40 Under 40

In this annual issue focused on the future, we offer “40 under 40” (or “40<40”): a collection of profiles of motivated and noteworthy young professionals under 40 years of age. It is our wish that these profiles will honor those who work tirelessly to promote geospatial fields and to provide inspiration for young people considering...

A model of the California Academy of Sciences, on display in the Autodesk Gallery.

The Extended Entity of Autodesk

Has Autodesk become too large? Too diverse? Did the software get too complex? Or are those concerns missing the point? We’re far from the day when we can think of something we’d like and it simply materializes: there’s still a long path between ideation and realization. But, for more than three decades the path between...