Category Archives: Professional Surveyor Archives

Guest Essay: Change is Hard, But It’s Not the End

Chances are that students currently enrolled in surveying and geomatics programs are familiar with the writings of Dr. Charles Ghilani, author of such reference/textbooks as Adjustment Computations: Spatial Data Analysis and Elementary Surveying (An Introduction in Geomatics). Dr. Ghilani is a professor of engineering in the Surveying Engineering Program at Pennsylvania State University. He received his PhD...

Guest Essay: A Spatial Science

This young PhD candidate from “down under” offers his insights into the role of surveying in what he sees as a boom in “geospatial sciences.” Grant Hausler is completing his PhD at The University of Melbourne and Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information (CRCSI). His research explores technical, commercial, and governance issues affecting the development...

Guest Essay: Absolutely Exciting

If you ask Jeff Baldwin about the future of surveying, he will respond with wide-eyed enthusiasm. Licensed in both New Jersey and Pennsylvania and a licensed engineer in New Jersey to boot, Jeff has three decades of multi-disciplined experience in dealing with the sometimes-harsh realities of our profession, but that doesn’t stop him from looking...

Guest Essay: Build the Future

In seeking views on the future of surveying, who better to ask than those who will shape that future? Here is a response from Eva-Maria Unger, the current secretary of the FIG Young Surveyors Network. Eva-Maria is 26 years old and from Vienna, Austria. She graduated with a master’s degree in 2011 in surveying and...

NAVCEN

Take a tour of the real-time resource for civilian GPS. “Semper Paratus” (“Always Ready”) —United States Coast Guard Motto If you use GPS for surveying, you might have heard of NAVCEN. If not, then I highly recommend getting to know this valuable resource.  As a land surveyor, you are accustomed to having a fair amount of...

Business Angle: Where Have All the Mentors Gone?

For the past two years, my travels have taken me to numerous places across the country to speak with great surveyors. I’m always listening to their complaints (many), opinions (also many), and positive comments (not as many) on our profession. From all those comments, I’m addressing here the apparent lack of mentors and training that...