Category Archives: Professional Surveyor Archives

Australian Aerial Innovation

Airborne Research Australia brings unique capabilities—including powered gliders reported to be more economical than UAVs—to a wide range of research projects. Airborne Research Australia (ARA) is Australia’s National Research Aircraft Facility and is hosted within the School of the Environment at Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia. ARA’s capabilities are unique in terms of their...

A Rendezvous with Mason and Dixon

An annual gathering of surveyors took on special significance in Philadelphia this year as attendees retraced the Mason-Dixon Line and learned about the astounding men who established it.In November of 1763, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon arrived on the shores of Philadelphia with an epic task: once and for all settling a heated boundary dispute...

20,000 Chains Under the Sea

This look at an international company that provides hydrographic surveying supplies and solutions reveals how surveyors can also ride the maritime boom.This particular day in the field has been hard. Precise levels are always a challenge to run, and the surveyor is weighing his options. First, he sets his level down at the first point...

Editor’s Desk: Ordered to Shut Down

Note: The federal government is running once again; here Dave Doyle (former chief geodetic surveyor for the NGS and our geodesy editor) explains NGS’s role in the shutdown, work-arounds in case this happens again, and what you can do to help prevent a denial of access to essential surveying data in the future. Maybe Joni Mitchell...

Young Visions

PSM’s February and March 2013 issues feature essays by young surveyors about their visions of surveying’s future, many who are continuing to write for us into 2014. The Next Wave Talks about Their First JobsIn 2013 we began examining the future of surveying through the eyes of the next generation of surveyors by co-sponsoring a student essay contest (with Trimble)...

Update: Surveyors Relentlessly Innovating

PSM April 2013 We first write about Severn Partnership in PSM’s November 2012 issue when we explore their application of SnakeGrid, a dynamic, low-distortion projection for long corridor projects. In PSM’s April cover story, we examine how they applied their scanning gear and expertise to scanning ships.  UPDATE: One thing we have now learned about Severn Partnership, the multi-disciplined surveying...