As mentioned in previous posts, Purdue’s 11th annual GIS Day took place at Purdue’s Stewart Center on Thursday November 7th and featured a variety or subject matter experts from local, state, and federal companies. For roughly eight hours, I spent my time either presenting, questioning, or listening to a variety of people talk about their backgrounds in GIS and noted what deliverables they have been able to produce as well as learning why their deliverables were considered cost effective.To help further promote the UAS presence in GIS applications, I volunteered to present in front of an audience as well as enter a poster competition. Despite being my first-time attending GIS day, as well as being the only independent researcher, I earned second place in the Poster competition as shown inn Figure 1.
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| Figure 1: Myself (Right) Earning 2nd Place for Purdue's GIS Day Poster Presentation |
The material that I learned from this conference ranges from using GIS to survey census data to using GIS as a tool to survey erosion. In an effort to keep this content UAS related, I felt particularly interested in a presentation by Dr. Carly Sakamura from Maxar Technologies. Although this blog post fails to describe the amount of information in her presentation, she provided a unique perspective of showcasing the interest of the satellite data, and the challenges that the Maxar experiences when mapping the planet.
Although Unmanned Aerial Systems differ greatly from satellites, I was able to relate to her emphasis on the importance of collecting and interpreting accurate data let alone the data collection storage challenges that Maxar had to address. From a privacy standpoint, I found it fascinating that although satellite imagery cannot expose more than 30-centimeter accuracy, it is not because the technology cannot rather it is because the government “will not allow it”. This leads me to reflect and believe that below 30-centimeter accuracy satellite data exists, but not for the general public.
Without harping on the above statement too much, I wonder how UAS mapping will accommodate national security interests, let alone who will be able to legally obtain highly accurate UAS data given the fact that UAS data a has potential to redefine the way we see the world. Will accurate UAS data produce the same challenges that below 30 meter satellite accuracy does? Or will the technology one day enable people to inexpensively purchase a UAV that can compete with satellite data?
Critiques and Conclusion
From a career development standpoint, I will be sure to go out of my way to participate in further GIS Day Conferences. Although my overall GIS day experience at Purdue was extremely meaningful, I hope that I can participate in future GIS day conferences where sensor specific subjects are discussed more openly. Due to the fact that I currently work with a variety of different sensors with a plethora of different applications, I think that learning about the sensors used to collect data can greatly improve my lexicon of factors to consider while planning UAS missions.
Furthermore, I hope to make it a priority to explore more open sourced software because not only is it free, open sourced software can provide solutions to problems that could otherwise cost thousands of dollars in licensing. Taken learn.g2.com, clicking on Figure 2 is a lexicon of 10 free different open source websites to consider. It looks like I will be starting there…
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| Figure 2: Access to learn2.com |
Nice Job!
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