Wednesday 26 September 2012

ASPRS - Remote Sensing Application Division - MonthlyTeleconference - Monday, October 1, 2012



Remote Sensing Application Division
Monthly Teleconference
1 October 2012 from 4:15 - 5:15 pm EDT.

Phone bridge information:

USA Toll Free Number : 1-866-228-1482
Participant Passcode: 5265802

The ASPRS Remote Sensing Application Division respectfully requests your participation in the newly-established monthly teleconference.  This time, we will begin the meeting 1 October 2012 from 4:15-5:15 EDT.

Final Agenda:
1)    Call to order / Introductions  (4:15-4:25)
2)    RSAD operating procedures review (4:25 – 4:30)  See website for overview
3)    2013 Spring Conference Special Sessions and Hot Topics (4:30-4:40) See website for overview
4)    RSAD Academic Engagement Committee report
5)    RSAD Climate Change Committee report (4:40-4:50) See website for overview
6)    Open discussion (4:50-5:15)

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Final agenda is posted on the RSAD Web page http://www.asprs.org/RSAD-Division.html

Mark your calendar and I look forward to hearing your input!

Thanks,

POC Stuart Blundell, Assistant Director RSAD
Stuart (dot) Blundell (at) exelisvis (dot) com

Monday 24 September 2012

September 28 -- Deadline for Student Volunteer Applications for ASPRS/MAPPS Fall Conference


ASPRS/MAPPS 2012 Fall Specialty Conference
October 28-November 1, 2012
Tampa, Florida

 

Attention all student members of ASPRS!

If you have not already done so, plan now to attend this conference as a Student Volunteer and pay NO registration fee.

If you are a student at an accredited college/university and would like to attend this conference without paying the required conference registration fee, consider serving as a Student Volunteer.  Note, volunteers are responsible for all other expenses including travel, accommodations and meals.

The Conference Volunteer Coordinator is looking for Student Volunteers to help from Sunday, October 28 – Thursday, November 1, 2012.  In exchange for the opportunity to attend the General and Technical Sessions, visit the Exhibit Hall, and enjoy the Exhibitor's Reception, Student Volunteers will be required to work at least 8 hours during the conference.

This is a great opportunity to learn more about the geospatial field, meet some of the top names in the industry, and explore job possibilities; you are encouraged to bring your resumé as a special area will be set aside for resumé postings.  In addition, the ASPRS Student Advisory Council has organized a Student-Employer Meet and Greet and informal evenings out for students during the conference.

If you are interested in attending as a volunteer, fill out an application and send it in.

Also, see the description of Volunteer Tasks.

All applications must be submitted by e-mail to the Conference Volunteer Coordinator, Rakesh Malhotra, at  rmalhotr (at) uncfsu (dot) edu.  Please include ASPRS Volunteer Program in the Subject Line of all e-mail correspondence.  Assignments will be made on a first come basis.

Here is a timeline for the Student Volunteer process:
Application Deadline:  September 28, 2012
Student Volunteer work schedules announced:  the last week of October 8

Please note:  This message is being sent to all ASPRS Student Members and faculty.  If you have already submitted a Volunteer application, please ignore this email or pass it along to a friend.

Friday 21 September 2012

ASPRS Scholarship Applications Deadline is Wednesday, October 17th




STUDENTS AND FACULTY MEMBERS
PLEASE NOTE THE EARLY DEADLINE FOR ALL
ASPRS SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATIONS

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 17th 2012

All applications for scholarships and awards must be received at ASPRS headquarters by WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 17th due to the early conference date.

The ASPRS Annual Conference will be held in Baltimore, Maryland
March 24-28, 2013

http://www.asprs.org/Conferences/Baltimore-2013/blog

A complete description of the awards offered and an application (in PDF format) can be obtained at the ASPRS web site at http://www.asprs.org/ASPRS-Awards-and-Scholarships.html

For more information on the ASPRS Awards and Scholarships Program, contact scholarships@asprs.org
_____________________________

General Application Instructions
· Please note that all applications must be submitted in electronic format.
· Submit application form and all supporting materials or documents IN ONE PDF for each separate award.
DO NOT SEND MULTIPLE APPLICATIONS IN ONE EMAIL.
· If you include a copy of a published article or research sample, it should not exceed five (5) pages; if longer, submit the article in text format or submit an abstract and article highlights.
· The total size of the PDF should not exceed 5MB.
· Send the file as an email attachment to scholarships@asprs.org with the SHORT name of the award and your last name and a short description of the contents in the subject line IN UPPER CASE as indicated below. The application form PDF should also be named this way: AWARD SHORT NAME_YOUR LAST NAME_CONTENTS OF FILE; For example: FISCHER_SMITH_ APPLICATION
· A fill and save version of the application form can be accessed at http://www.asprs.org/ASPRS-Awards-and-Scholarships.Html and should be sent via email with supporting documents added to the application PDF. Sign the application. The digital signature feature of the PDF format is acceptable.
· Letters of reference must be sent directly to ASPRS by the person writing the reference as an email attachment. A separate email is required for each reference for each application
· Copies of official transcripts must be submitted electronically as part of your application. One original official transcript (only) should be mailed or emailed directly to ASPRS by the educational institution. That will serve to verify the copies submitted.
· Foreign language transcripts or documents must be translated by an official translating agency

Additional Information
· Applications for ASPRS scholarships and awards must include the ASPRS application form unless indicated otherwise.
· You may apply for more than one award, but you must submit a separate application for each award requested.

All Applicants MUST
· Be active or student members of ASPRS for most awards. (Visit the ASPRS website (www.asprs.org) or contact the membership department at the address or phone number below for information about the benefits of ASPRS membership.)
· Submit the required number of letters of reference with each application from faculty members who have knowledge of the applicant’s capabilities.
· Submit a separate application for each award

ALL COMPLETE APPLICATIONS, INCLUDING REFERENCE LETTERS AND
TRANSCRIPTS, MUST BE RECEIVED AT ASPRS NO LATER THAN MIDNIGHT, EASTERN TIME ON THE DUE DATE.

DELAYS IN CYBER SPACE WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED.

Final note: Most awards call for specific additional information, such as applicant statements, research descriptions, etc. to complete the application. Please read the award descriptions carefully for details.

Incomplete applications will be disqualified.

The awards will normally be made annually, as long as sufficient funds are available. If the committee deems there are no applications of sufficient quality to warrant approval, no award will be given that year. Any application that does not comply in its entirety with the terms stated above and/or with the terms of the specific award(s) applied for will be ineligible. The contact information for ASPRS awards and scholarships is:

ASPRS
Scholarship Administrator
5410 Grosvenor Lane, Suite 210
Bethesda, MD 20814
scholarships@asprs.org
301-493-0290 xt-101

Application deadline is Wednesday, October 17th

The ASPRS Student Advisory Council Invites Your Participation


Dear ASPRS Student Member,

On behalf of the ASPRS Student Advisory Council (SAC), I want to welcome you to the 2012-2013 school year and introduce you to the SAC. The SAC was created in 2006 to give ASPRS Student Members an opportunity to voice their opinions and discuss ways ASPRS as a Society can serve them best.

To ensure that the relationship between SAC and student members is as productive as possible, we encourage all of you to get involved. Student involvement can range from being a student volunteer at one of the semi-annual conferences to writing an email to a Student Advisory Councilor on a webinar topic that would be pertinent to student needs. Faculty involvement is also necessary for the formation of strong student chapters and the grooming of future ASPRS leaders. Professional involvement is welcomed as there is a consistent need for student mentors, volunteers, and participants in student-run conference activities such as the Student Employer Meet & Greet sessions and geospatial workforce panels at ASPRS conferences.

The goal for the 2012-2013 Student Advisory Council is to reinforce our commitment to ASPRS Student Chapters. Student Chapters are necessary for the formation of local geospatial communities where students can collaborate on projects and receive collective guidance on future steps in academia and the workforce. The SAC is interested in sharing what you do at your university with other student members through our social media outlets. This sharing promotes learning from each other’s experiences. Thus, if there are local geospatial events at your school or in your area, I encourage you to contact us so that we can help promote these events.

If your college or university does not have an ASPRS Student Chapter, I encourage you to talk to your colleagues about forming one. The instructions can be found here. Should any questions or concerns arise, ASPRS staff would be glad to assist you with this process.

The SAC needs ideas from the student body concerning what benefits they desire from a professional society both in the short term and the long term. The SAC serves as national representatives for student members to make sure your experience within ASPRS is the most beneficial.  Current SAC initiatives cover a broad range of areas including:

  •   Developing technical sessions for ASPRS annual and specialty conferences;
  •   Organizing student networking receptions at conferences;
  •   Reviewing geospatial books and software;
  •   Creating and maintaining a student blog on the ASPRS website;
  •   Stimulating information exchange among members of student chapters nationwide;
  •   Organizing a Summer Student Education Assembly;
  •   Creating and participating in GeoLeague Challenge competitions; and
  •   Providing career information for graduating students. 

The Student Advisory Council has evolved and improved over the last 6 years to include the initiatives listed above. However, there are many more areas that we would love to get involved with. Please let us know where else the SAC could improve your student experience. As you become more involved in our ASPRS student efforts, we look forward to continuing this forward progress with you.

Lastly, if you are able to attend the conferences in Tampa and/or Baltimore, please stop and say hello. We look forward to meeting you and hearing your ideas.  You can find the list of SAC Councilors online.

Regards,

Adam Benjamin
Chair, ASPRS Student Advisory Council (2012-2013)
abenjamin1 (at) ufl (dot) edu

ASPRS Photogrammetric Applications Division Conference CallInvitation - Thursday, September 27, 2012

ASPRS Photogrammetric Applications Division
Conference Call Meeting
Date: Thursday, September 27, 2012
Time: 1 p.m. - 2 p.m. Eastern Time (10 a.m. - 11 a.m. Pacific Time)
Dial-in Number: (712) 432-1620
Access Code: 526443

******************

The meeting is open to any ASPRS members interested in providing input or participating in PAD activities
Meeting Topic: Photogrammetry in the Modern Age.

A general discussion of activities PAD should undertake to address new and current technologies in photogrammetry applications, including mobile mapping, 3D point cloud generation from non-metric cameras, automation in large format cameras and other topics.

Agenda:
1) Spring Conference (Baltimore) Special Session Planning for sessions on Mobile Mapping and 3D point cloud generation
· Session content
· Suggestions for speakers and/or moderators


2) Open discussion for suggestions on other activities PAD should undertake to help support the membership

3) Next meeting time/place

If you are interested in participating, please respond with e-mail contact information to: doug@davidsmithmapping.com

(Please respond by 9/26 if you are interested in being placed on the e-mail contact list for this meeting. The e-mail list will be used as to send out reference materials or other information prior to the conference call. If you cannot attend the call, but would like to participate in the activities indicated on the agenda, receive the meeting notes or have other suggestions for PAD activities, please send an e-mail to that effect and we will contact you).

Doug Smith
Photogrammetric Applications Division Director
doug@davidsmithmapping.com

Robert Thomas
Photogrammetric Applications Division Assistant Director
rthomas@integrity-apps.com

8th ISPRS Student Consortium and WG VI/5 Summer School



Dear all,
The 8th ISPRS-SC summer school will be held at Burapha University (BUU), Chonburi, Thailand from Nov 30 to Dec 4, 2012.This event will take place after the 33rd Asian Conference on Remote Sensing (ACRS) organized by the Asian Asociation of Remote Sensing (AARS). The registration for the summer school will open on Oct 15, 2012. If any of you would like to attend this event, please mark it down on your calendar.


Chaoyuan Lo (ISPRS-SC board member)





Thursday 13 September 2012

Apply now to Volunteer at the ASPRS-MAPPS Fall 2012 Conference

Attention all student members of ASPRS! 
ASPRS Student Assistantship and Student Volunteer Program 


If you are a student at an accredited college or university, ASPRS invites you to attend and assist with the MAPPS/ASPRS Fall Specialty Conference between October 28 and November 1, 2012, in Tampa, Florida.

Application deadlines:
  1. Student Assistantship applications are due September 19, 2012.
  2. Student Assistants will be notified by September 25, 2012.
  3. Student Volunteer applications are due September 28, 2012.
  4. Student Volunteers will be notified by October 2, 2012.
http://www.asprs.org/Conferences/Tampa-2012/Presenter-Volunteer/Volunteering

Benefits for Student Assistants:
  • Complementary student registration
  • Lodging accommodations (two to a room)
  • $100 stipend when work hours are completed
  • Orientation Dinner
  • A small meal stipend (7.5+ hr. shifts only)
  • A certificate for your portfolio
  • Opportunity to network
  • Chance to learn more about the geospatial field
  • Meet some of the top names in the industry
  • Explore job opportunities
Benefits for Student Volunteers:
  • Complementary student registration
  • Orientation Dinner
  • A small meal stipend (7.5+ hr. shifts only)
  • A certificate for your portfolio
  • Opportunity to network with other ASPRS members
  • Chance to learn more about the geospatial field
  • Meet some of the top names in the industry
  • Explore job opportunities
Student Assistants and Volunteers are required to:
  • Attend the online orientation on Monday, October 22nd at 7:30 pm Eastern Time
  • Be available for the duration of the conference – Sunday, October 28 – Thursday, November 1
  • Arrange their own transportation and necessary documents for travel to and from Tampa, Florida
How to become a Student Assistant or Student Volunteer:
  • Submit a cover letter describing: Your interest in ASPRS; If you are a member of ASPRS; Your academic and professional experience in the geospatial field; What you hope to gain from this experience
  • Include a resume with your mailing address, telephone number, and e-mail address where you can be contacted through November 2012. 
  • Complete the relevant application found at http://www.asprs.org/Conferences/Tampa-2012/Presenter-Volunteer/Volunteering.
  • Send your application package via e-mail to the National Volunteer Coordinator (include ASPRS Volunteer Program in the Subject Line of all e-mail messages).
NOTE: If any of the above are not included with your application package, then your application will not be considered.

SA Program Coordinators:

Dr. Rakesh Malhotra
ASPRS National Volunteer Coordinator
rmalhotr (at) uncfsu (dot) edu

Kim Tilley
ASPRS Associate Executive Director
kimt (at) asprs (dot) org



Wednesday 12 September 2012

Double activation of the SBTF *call for action*


 HI MAPSTERS!

We have two deployments approaching in the upcoming weeks, and everyone is invited to participate. We especially encourage new members to take parts of these deployments to get some training and have a better idea of what we do.

1) ACAPS DEPLOYMENT WITH THE DIGITAL HUMANITARIAN NETWORK


ACAPS (www.acaps.org) have activated the SBTF to help improve the data their NGO partners use to assess and analyze the impact of emergencies on populations. Our role is to collect secondary data (ie, information obtainable from the Internet).  We’ll be working on one country (the Democratic Republic of Congo), and using what we learn from it to write preparedness data collection guidelines for other disaster-prone countries.

ACAPS creates the Disaster Needs Assessments (DNA) that go into the field with the deployers immediately after a disaster.  A DNA is a 15 to 20 page document produced during the first couple of days after a (natural) disaster occurs or a protracted crisis escalates. This deployment is important because ACAPS currently takes a couple of days to build a DNA for a crisis. Every hour counts during the DNA process, and we’re helping to speed up that process, by helping ACAPS create pre-crisis “Preparedness DNAs” from the data and processes generated by this deployment, and by helping ACAPS gather live DNA data during future crises.

This is an important deployment for both the ACAPS and the SBTF as it will help us define and set standards for data-intensive deployments. We’d like to call it the “mother of all data deployments”! We look forward to your maximum support and participation in this deployment.

The deployment starts on September 24th (11am GMT/London) with the bulk of the work completed at the end of the day September 30th (11pm GMT).  To join in, please join the deployment’s Ning group. If you are unable to access Ning, please sign up here.

The coordinators of this deployment are Sara (Skype ID: sj.farmer), Estella (Skype ID: brandwood-reeds) and Bharathi (Skype ID: bharathi.ram23) and you can ask them to add you to the dedicated ACAPS Deployment Skype Chat.


2) UCHAGUZI DEPLOYMENT IN COLLABORATION WITH USHAHIDI

Our colleagues at Ushahidi have activated the Standby Volunteer Task Force for an important pilot on the election that Kenya will hold on March 4 next year. This will be the first general election held under the new constitution and a historic event for the country.

The deployment is scheduled on September 17th UTC, starting at  3.00 a.m. UTC ( 06 a.m. Nairobi time, 11 p.m. EST time September 16th) until 9 p.m. UTC (11 p.m. Nairobi time, 4 p.m. EST time) and will cover a real event:  the election in 3 constituencies in Kenya. The amount of data will therefore be limited, but the pilot will be critical to scaling-up the system in March 2013 when the country will face the first presidential elections after the post-election violence in 2007.

The Uchaguzi platform will receive inputs from 200 electoral monitors on the ground and from the crowd through a short code.  A smaller team (around 30 people) in the iHub Nairobi  will help us to process incoming information (most likely via SMS, the Ushahidi mobile app, web forms and media monitoring).

The teams we are activating are Media Monitoring, SMS, Geolocation, Translation (Swahili), Verification and Report.

We definitely encourage you to participate in this one-day pilot if you are available. We also particularly encourage people from time zones GMT + (Europe, Africa and Middle East and Asia) to participate since the first 5 hours of the deployment are happening during the night for people living in the USA.

Ushahidi was first developed to map reports of violence in Kenya after the 2007 election, and the platform has come a long way since then.  This will be a unique opportunity to learn, refine our skills, and contribute to improve election monitoring processes.

To participate in the Kenya Election 2012 Pilot deployment, please join the deployment’s Ning group here. Please make sure you sign up here so we can create the schedule for the day.

The coordinators of this deployment are Anahi Ayala (SkypeID: anahiii), Marta Poblet (mpoblet) and Kirk Morris (km5050). You can ask them to add you to the dedicated Kenya Election 2012 Pilot Skype Chats.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We are aware that in September there are three deployments going on, so we encourage all of you to participate in at least one, but not to overcommit yourself.

Also, this will be the only email we are sending to the all SBTF members. If you want to receive updates on the deployment you want to be part of you need to join the  Ning group deployment (the list is here). To do so, follow the links in this email and then click on 'join' in the Ning group page. Once done, you will receive all the updates we sent for that specific deployment in your Ning inbox.

We also encourage you to please bear in mind that if you commit to a deployment it is important that you participate in it. Scheduling volunteers’ time can be very tricky for us sometimes and, even if we do understand that we are all volunteers and that sometimes it is difficult to schedule time in our busy life, we encourage you all, before signing up, to make sure that you will respect your commitment, because this can make our life much easier!

One Map, One Love!

The SBTF Core Team

Visit Standby Task Force at: http://standbytaskforce.ning.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network

ISPRS Student Consortium Newsletter


The latest issue (August 2012) of the ISPRS SC Newsletter is now online: http://www.isprs-sc.org/newsletters/read/6/2.


Here are spotlights:

  • The View by Ian Downman
  • The ISPRS 2012 Technical Program
  • Interview with Prof. Clive Fraser

Thursday 6 September 2012

Looking for tech support for SBTF deployments



Dear all,
the SBTF is recruiting people for the technology team.

We are looking for people that are willing to support the SBTF deployment in the following tasks:
- deploying and customizing Ushahidi platforms
- maintaining it during active deployments
- integrating the platform with additional other platforms
- support the deployment of other platforms (like OSM, FLSMS, GeoFeedia, atc)
- support the Core Team in looking into additional technologies to be deployed by the SBTF

If you are a member and are willing to help out, please get in contact with me, anahi (at) standbytaskforce (dot) com, or kirk (at) standbytaskforce (dot) com.

You can find additional information on the tech team here: http://standbytaskforce.ning.com/group/techteam

Cheers,
Anahi

--
Anahi Ayala Iacucci
SBTF Volunteers Coordinator

anahi (at) standbytaskforce (dot) com
SkypeID: anahiii
Twitter: anahi_ayala
Website: blog.standbytaskforce.com

Announcement of FIG Foundation Grants and Scholarships




The FIG Foundation will be providing scholarships of up to 4,000 euros to PhD students.

Applicants shall:
1. be studying for a PhD degree and registered solely in a surveying/geomatics academic programme that teaches surveying in a country listed by the World Bank as a low-income, lower-middle or upper-middle income economy,
2. must have had a paper accepted by a peer reviewed international journal based on their doctoral research project; applicants should be the lead author, and the paper should be co-authored with their supervisor,
3. should not have submitted their final thesis at the application deadline.

Applications will be judged on the quality of the application and need. In the event that two excellent applications are judged to be of equal quality, applications from low-income and lower-middle income countries will be preferred.

Applications are to be sent to fig (at) fig (dot) net with "FIG Foundation PhD Scholarship Application" shown in the Subject Line.

Complete details can be found at: www.fig.net/figfoundation

Deadline: November 1, 2012

Information on the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship for 2013 Now Online




If you are interested in applying for the National Science Foundation's (NSF) 2013 Graduate Research Fellowship Program, please visit the NSF website:

http://www.nsfgrfp.org/

This fellowship provides three years of support, a $30,000 annual stipend, opportunities for international research and profession development, and TeraGrid Supercomputer access.

Please keep these deadlines for different disciplines in mind if you are applying:

  • November 13, 2012: Engineering; Computer and Information Sciences and Engineering; Materials Research
  • November 14, 2012: Mathematical Sciences; Chemistry; Physics and Astronomy
  • November 16, 2012: Social Sciences; Psychology; STEM Education and Learning
  • November 19, 2012: Life Sciences; Geosciences


If you have any questions, please e-mail info (at) nsfgrfp (dot) org directly.

Esri Announces Imagery Grant Program



The Esri and PCI Natural Resources Imagery Grant Program fosters innovative approaches to solving natural resources management problems by using GIS, image processing, and remote-sensing technologies.  Projects that emphasize fusion between radar and optical sensor imagery will be given preference in the review and selection process. Projects must establish increased efficiencies, productivity, or accuracy in detecting and analyzing land-cover change using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery from RADARSAT-2 and RapidEye 5m multispectral imagery.

Twenty organizations will be awarded GIS and imagery software, training, satellite and aerial image processing, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery, and multispectral imagery valued at $2,000,000.

Grant Award
Natural Resources Imagery Grant awards are valued at $100,000 each and include the following:

  •     Esri GIS software and training
  •     PCI Geomatics software tools for processing and analyzing imagery in GIS
  •     MDA RADARSAT-2 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery
  •     RapidEye 5m multispectral imagery

Eligibility Requirements
Eligible organizations include all types of companies, educational institutions, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), state and regional governments, or tribal governments in the United States.

Candidate organizations must have the following:

  •     An established GIS or imagery program.
  •     Existing geospatial infrastructure including suitable hardware, software, and databases.
  •     Ability to communicate an understanding of the imagery and GIS technologies used.
Project Requirements
To qualify, the proposed project must meet these requirements:

  •     Include objectives to measure land-use change
  •     Access information from remotely sensed images beyond the visible spectrum
  •     Move the organization forward using both GIS and imagery technologies

Additional consideration will be given to projects that develop data and applications for enhancing decision support, extending GIS throughout the enterprise, and improving the operational use of imagery.

Please review Common Questions for more details.

The Esri and PCI Natural Resources Imagery Grant application deadline is November 16, 2012.