Category Archives: Education
Recording Earth’s Changes
Looking Forward What could you do if the entire world was remapped every 12 days? How would that impact your sector of the geospatial world? I pose the question because it is in the process of being answered, though not necessarily from the geospatial professionals’ point of view. So, it is important that we all...
A Happy Loneliness
Finding My Boundaries As a college freshman, my American lit professor assigned the class to read Walden by Henry David Thoreau. I was excited about the assignment, largely because I had already read the book and enjoyed it so, figured I could cruise through this section of the class while others struggled to comprehend Thoreau’s...
New Digital World Needs Data
Next-generation surveyors require specialized education and training to fill the role of geospatial data specialists. Many emerging geospatial applications, such as digital twins, 3D modeling, monitoring, virtual reality, and autonomous vehicles, are based on big digital datasets. Building a 3D digital world starts with accurate data that ties to a point on the ground, so...
Inspiring the Next Generation of Surveyors
Looking Forward White, middle-aged men in high-vis jackets—what most people visualize when they think of surveyors—isn’t a very appealing career option for our youth, especially compared to idolized professions of actress, athlete, doctor, or even YouTuber. In fact, ask any child what they want to be when they grow up, and chances are they’ve probably...
Supporting Free and Open-Source Software
Free and open-source software (FOSS) is sweeping across the IT industry, everywhere from office programs (LibreOffice) to GIS software (QGIS, R, Python). It is also being used extensively by large companies such as Microsoft, IBM, Amazon, and Netflix for their internal services as well as being used as building blocks to offer services to clients. ...
Training as Incentive for Recruitment and Retention
It would be stating the obvious that finding qualified surveying staff right now is challenging. Offering training as recruitment/retention incentive is difficult if such opportunities are limited. A renewed focus on creating more training opportunities, within the profession and supporting industries, is changing this. Training/education as an incentive to recruit and retain survey staff is...