Marble-Boyd Award for GIScience Undergraduates

The Association of American Geographer’s Marble Fund for Geographic Science is pleased to announce the call for nominations for the 2011 Marble-Boyle Undergraduate Achievement Award. The award promotes and recognizes excellence in academic performance by undergraduate students in the United States and Canada who bridge geographic science and computer science in their studies. Deadline for application is October 15, 2010.

For more information on the eligibility criteria and application instructions, visit the following website:

http://www.aag.org/cs/marble-boyle

Recreating Remote Sensing Technology

Sometimes in order to understand lectures from the classroom, you have to get outside and apply the theories. That is what a group of junior undergraduates did in their remote sensing course at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, New York. A design made up of a helium weather balloon attached to a protected digital camera and cell-phone with GPS capabilities was lifted more than 80,000ft (24,000m) above the earth with a maximum horizontal speed of 120 mph (190 km/h). The camera was set to automatically take pictures of the earth, and the trajectory was mapped using the cell-phone; the sensor traveled from Syracuse to Poughkeepsie, NY (a distance of about 150 miles/240km). This project shows that behind all of the technology we are exploring, there is a way to (relatively) reproduce the process. I hope this keeps you down to earth... or not.

To check out more on the story and see images of the launch and those taken by the sensor, click here.

Free Intermap Webinar

Intermap Technologies will have a couple of educational opportunities in July and August. This is part of their Terrainscapes series of webinars with a program that examines the use of digital elevation models in oil and gas production, and another event that focuses on geospatial Web services.

Wednesday, July 21: Oil and Gas Production, presented by Lorraine Tighe of Intermap and Brian Thompson of New Century Software, will explain how digital elevation data and images are used in this critical energy market.

Tuesday, August 3: Web Services, presented by Rick Eagle, Josh Parker, and Kevin Thomas of Intermap, will examine the many ways in which geospatial data is delivered and used online.

Both of the Webinars are free, and you can register for either or both of the events by clicking here.

Student Advisory Council Positions Open

The ASPRS Student Advisory Council (SAC) is looking for talented and motivated students to join us in being the student voice of ASPRS!

The SAC is a group of students committed to serving all of the student members of ASPRS. Our goal is to ensure that ASPRS is a society that both benefits from student involvement and creates opportunities for those students.

We currently have 3 positions open: (for full descriptions please click here: SAC Positions)

Deputy Chair (serves for 2 years, one as deputy chair, one as chair)

Educational Development Councilor (serves for 1 year)

Professional Development Councilor (serves for 1 year)

If you are interested in joining the SAC please fill out the application form and send it with a cover letter and your resume to our current chair, Meghan MacLean (ASPRS.chairSAC@gmail.com) and Kim Tilley (kimt@asprs.org), our ASPRS Staff Liaison. The applications are due by July 15^th, 2010.

Trimble Student Paper Competition for Surveying

Win a Trip to Las Vegas and a Trimble R8 GNSS System for Your Class

Trimble is holding its 2010 Surveying Student Paper Competition. The
winning student author will have the opportunity to present their survey
application paper at Trimble Dimensions 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The
winner will receive a trip to the conference plus 3 nights'
accommodations to take part in Trimble's internationally recognized
conference with surveying professionals from around the world.

In addition, the winning student's school will also receive a Trimble(r)
R8 GNSS System.

Entries will be accepted from June 14 - August 15. Judging will occur
from August 16 - September 21. The winner will be announced on September
22, 2010. For more information about the competition and to how to
submit a paper, visit: www.Trimble.com/StudentPaper.

3S 2010 (International SUMMER STUDENT SEMINAR)

The International Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) and the Siberian State Academy of Geodesy would like to welcome participants to the “3S 2010” - International SUMMER STUDENT SEMINAR Novosibirsk, Russia, 21- 25 September, 2010.

The aim of the Seminar is the intensification of international and youth scientific contacts focusing on geo-sciences issues. The program of the 3S has been designed to give visitors the maximum opportunity to enjoy attractions of Novosibirsk, as well as providing a rich cultural and technical program.

The 3S will cover aspects of Remote Sensing, Photogrammetry and Spatial Information Sciences related to disaster management. This five days seminar is a joint project of ISPRS, SSGA, MIIGAiK and WU as a combined international students event that will be a part of the INTERRA seminar and conference supported by the administration of the Novosibirsk region.

The program of the “3S 2010” includes:

• lectures and master classes by world known scientists;
• reports and round-talk tables of post-graduate students, masters and bachelors representing various countries and scientific schools (Austria, Belarus, China, Germany, Israel, Italy, Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, USA);
• сultural program;
• SSGA will provide free lodging and food for all the students coming for 3s seminar

3S focuses on the following topics:

• Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry
• Disaster management
• Automatic updating of spatial databases.

For more details about the mission of the 3S, please visit the http://www.ssga.ru

Important dates:

June 01 - 30, 2010: Registration at http://www.ssga.ru

July 10, 2010: Acceptance notification

August 1, 2010: Booking accommodation

June 21-25, 2010: “3S 2010” Student Summer Seminar and Conference

Program:

The program of the seminar will be presented at (http://www.ssga.ru) 01 June 2010. For any questions on the submission, please contact the scientific committee (http://www.ssga.ru)

Volunteering at the ASPRS 2010 Annual conference in San Diego, CA

Eighteen students from many different universities and backgrounds were selected to volunteer at the ASPRS annual conference at San Diego, CA. The volunteering tasks ranged from assisting at the registration desk to helping session moderators. However, the benefits of volunteering far outweighed the time spent doing these tasks. First, the registration fees were waived for each volunteer and student assistants were given lodging and a small stipend. Second, it was a great opportunity for volunteers to learn about the geospatial field, network and showcase themselves to their potential employers, and meet and catch-up with new and old friends ;)

The Volunteering team: Can we have a little warmer San Diego ?

Finally and most importantly, volunteers had a great time sightseeing and eating at some hand selected San Diego attractions led by Boris Skopljak (Networking Councilor for the Student Advisory Council) and his team.

Young-Jin, PhD Student, Ohio State University: Can I fly back to Columbus?

Khae and Laura: we need101 on flying old helicopters..

Also, Rose Kearney (Chair), Meghan Graham (Deputy Chair), and Lisa Wedding (Educational Development Councilor) organized sessions specifically designed for student learning needs such as: Student and Employer “Meet and Greet”, Speed Networking, Exhibit Hall Guided Tour, and Academic Publishing. Other student sessions were organized to get feedback on how Student Advisory Council (SAC) and ASPRS can best help the student community.

This post would be incomplete without talking about the venue. The Town and Country resort and convention center offered a great place for the ASPRS conference. Different session halls were spread across the property, which meant attendees had to walk a little bit between sessions, but wait, it was great strolling across the paths with beautiful roses of different colors/varieties growing everywhere around the center.

Many individuals worked in the background to ensure that the volunteers were organized and had a fun experience. It would be hard to name everyone in this blog post, so a big THANK YOU to all. Special “thumbs up” to Dr. Rakesh Malhotra (Student Volunteer Coordinator) and Dr. Doug Stow (Conference Co-chair) for keeping volunteers on track for their duties and arranging for breakfasts :). Kim Tilley (Associate Executive Director) ensured that we kept our balance between fun and performing volunteering duties (for which we were there!) : )

ASPRS student members are encouraged to apply for volunteer positions at future ASPRS conferences after reading this post.

ASPRS on Twitter

You can now follow the ASPRS on Twitter at:
http://twitter.com/ASPRSorg

11th International Circumpolar Remote Sensing Symposium

The 11th International Circumpolar Remote Sensing Symposium(http://alaska.usgs.gov/science/geography/CRSS2010/) will be held in September 2010 at Cambridge's Scott Polar Research Institute. Prior to the conference (Monday, 20 September 2010), there will be a one day UK Polar Network Workshop on Circumpolar Remote Sensing.

The conference deals specifically with remote sensing applications in the polar environments, both Arctic and Antarctic. It will provide an international forum for the discussion of work currently being carried out in the circumpolar regions. Topics that have been discussed at previous CRSS meetings have included environmental monitoring, the cryosphere, resource prospecting, vegetation measurement, LiDAR, RADARSAT, polar GIS applications, and many others. The deadline for abstract submission is 31 May, 2010.

Prior to the conference, the UKPN Workshop is directed at graduate students and other early career researchers. Sessions in development include Open source remote sensing and GIS, Imaging climate change, and Innovating new techniques; suggestions from potential participants are encouraged. The day will also feature a career mentoring panel and will culminate with the CRSS Icebreaker Reception.

Further details of the conference and workshop are under development - please contact Allen Pope at allen.pope@polarnetwork.org with questions and input.