All posts by Gavin Schrock

Educational Partnerships

Two unique surveying programs develop partnerships with professional associations and industry, for the benefit of all. “We need to prepare students for their future, not our past.” —Ian Jukes, educator and futurist   PSM has had the pleasure of profiling many fine surveying programs and schools over the years. Every time we explore an aspect of...

Creating the Futuristic Worlds of 3D

We interviewed Autodesk’s technology futurist Jordan Brandt, appropriately, in the Autodesk Gallery at their One Market offices in San Francisco. The Gallery, open to the public and the venue for monthly techie events, is a showcase for eye-popping examples of the types of innovation Autodesk’s customers have been producing for more than three decades. It...

ROPOS: ROV Cool

I recently accompanied a film crew working on a documentary on maritime technologies to the NOAA facility in Newport, Oregon to catch a glimpse of what is widely celebrated as the “coolest ROV in the world.” The Remotely Operated Platform for Ocean Sciences (ROPOS) is the flagship research ROV of the Canadian Scientific Submersible Facility...

Open Source

The door to open source geospatial software has been unlocked. It’s time to take a peek inside.   The open source geospatial movement is not purely about “free” (as in no cost). There truly are other aspects of “free,” as in “free to develop without constraints,” and free access to public geodata without necessarily having...

What is xyHt?

Stand in the place where you live Now face North Think about direction Wonder why you haven’t before “Stand” – R.E.M. Why an obscure geodetic expression? It’s not all that obscure—it represents a foundational element requisite to nearly all human endeavor. It touches your life explicitly and in the abstract. All of the ways that...