December 2004

What's Inside This Month's  Sensor:

Regular Features:

• The Director's Cut

• Company Spotlight: Applied Geo Technologies, Inc.

• Image of the Month

• Upcoming Events

• Legislative Corner

• Seen and Heard

• Did You Know???

• Graduate Fellow Feature

December Articles:

• Conference Report

• MS Business Journal Top 40 Under 40 

• ESRI’s Bill Davenhall Speaks at UMMC about GIS Applications in Medical Research

• Radiance Technologies Selected to Help with Future Space Exploration

• Air-O-Space Partnership with Picayune Police Department Using High Tech to Fight War on Drugs

Robin Buchannon Director, EIGS

The Director's Cut

It’s hard to believe that we are closing in on the end of 2004. This year has seen some exciting developments in Mississippi’s geospatial  community. Here’s a recap:

• Over 550 people were employed in Mississippi by EIGS geospatial companies

• The average annual salary of Mississippi geospatial employees grew to $50,000

• There were 4 woman-owned businesses in the cluster

• Delta State University established the Interdisciplinary Center for Geospatial Information Technology

• The Geospatial Technology Apprenticeship Program at the University of Southern Mississippi began its inaugural class of the pilot program

• NVision Solutions was named Technology Innovator of the Year in Louisiana

• Digital Quest’s GIS Certification was Recommended in Job Corps Report to the Department of Labor

• Concurrent Technologies Corporation was selected as the recipient of the Department of Navy’s eGovernment Award

• Forest One was selected for a USDA Forest Service research grant to address critical pine beetle infestations in the Southeast

• Planning Systems Incorporated won an Air Force SBIR Award and a NOAA SBIR Award to investigate polarization techniques

• Radiance Technologies won 2 DOD SBIR Awards

• Digital Globe and 3001, Inc. provided critical images for security at the 2004 Olympic Games

• Air-O-Space worked with the Picayune Police Department to Combat the War on Drugs using UAVs

• WorldWinds provided critical weather data for XM Satellite Radio’s subscription marine weather service

And the list goes on….. I encourage you to keep an eye on our companies and this industry as we will continue to see exciting developments and growth and we will continue to see the best and the brightest coming to and staying in Mississippi.
 

Applied Geo Technologies, Inc. (AGT), a member of Mississippi’s geospatial industry cluster since 2002, is the premier, tribally owned provider of digital mapping solution, high-tech manufacturing, and highly precise calibration and environmental laboratory services. AGT provides geospatial data products, aerial & satellite imagery production, digitizing & conversion services, as well as electronic repair, measurement standards and calibration, gas and materials analysis, and environmental laboratory services. Their customers include federal, state, local, and tribal governments as well as the commercial marketplace.

AGT is a tribally chartered corporation of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians (MBCI) with its corporate office located on reservation lands in Choctaw, Mississippi. Additionally, AGT has offices at NASA’s John C. Stennis Space Center and Kelly Aviation Center in San Antonio, Texas. Both offices support the calibration of customer’s equipment. In addition, the Stennis office supports NASA with a variety of activities including laboratory support of the Space Shuttle’s Main Engine Testing and environmental monitoring of water quality.

Extensive resources enable AGT to deliver complete geospatial mapping solutions including high resolution imagery & other data, cadastral mapping, vector extraction, image processing, cartography, GIS platform development, and customer training as well as other related professional services. 

Some of AGT’s project areas include timber management, parcel mapping, and community management. At the recent Gulf Coast Geospatial Conference, Adam Dunlap of AGT and Ivy Owen of MBCI demonstrated how the MBCI is the first American Indian tribe in the U.S. to adopt a smart growth zoning ordinance utilizing the latest geospatial technology to develop land use data layers and maps. The objective of this community management project was to map and attribute the community of Red Water (1 of 8 communities that comprise MBCI’s tribal lands). Using topographic maps, aerial photography, land ownership maps and vector layers, the project focused on identifying existing buildings, houses, roads, and land uses. The tribe will then use this information in a Tribe-wide GIS as they plan Red Water’s growth. 

AGT is certified by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) as a Tribally owned 8(a), HUBZone, and Small Disadvantaged Business (SDB). These designations significantly enhance AGT's position by enabling federal agencies to streamline their contracting obligations. AGT offers several contracting benefits that are unique to tribally owned businesses.

The SBA certifies small, disadvantaged businesses that are in good standing, to participate in the Tribally owned 8(a) program. The program empowers federal agencies to sole source contracts. Typical 8(a) businesses are restricted by award limits of $5 million (products) and $3 million (services). Tribally owned 8(a) businesses are exempt from this limit. Tribally owned concerns are exempt from the requirements for competitive bidding; any sized contract can be sole-sourced to tribally owned small businesses. This enables federal agencies to negotiate significantly higher award ceilings for sole source contracts with AGT. 13 CFR § 124.506(a)

Through their 70+ employees, AGT brings a wealth of education and professional experience to deliver high quality, proven solutions that best impact their customer’s decision-making and bottom line.

For more information, visit www.AppliedGeoTech.com
  

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IMAGE OF THE MONTH

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Fenway Park and Busch Stadium
Boston, MA and St. Louis, MO
Sites of the 2004 World Series
Images Collected September 10 and 
June 27, 2004

These images provided by DigitalGlobe, an EIGS member company.

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EIGS PRESS RELEASES

Radiance Technologies Selected to Help with Future Space Exploration

November 29, 2004, NASA Stennis Space Center, MS--- The Enterprise for Innovative Geospatial Solutions (EIGS) is pleased to announce that member company Radiance Technologies was recently selected by NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate to support their new vision for space exploration by developing a geospatial technology toolkit for a safe, efficient and effective human return to the Moon and Mars. In response to a Human and Robotics Technology Broad Agency Announcement (BAA), Radiance Technologies will develop a comprehensive Planetary Geospatial Exploitation Toolkit (PGET) that will enhance, apply and test geospatial technologies in support of sustained human space explorations to Mars and other destinations… ::MORE::

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Air-O-Space Partnership with Picayune Police Department Using High Tech to Fight War on Drugs

November 29, 2004, Picayune, MS --- The Enterprise for Innovative Geospatial Solutions (EIGS) is pleased to announce that member company, Air-O-Space International (a wholly owned subsidiary of GB Tech, Inc.), was recognized for their innovative high tech methods being used in their unique partnership with the Picayune Police Department in combating the “War on Drugs.” Picayune Police detectives recently attended the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in Los Angeles, California, and were named first runner-up for the Excellence in Criminal Investigations Award. The award was given to the department for its use of video surveillance using an unmanned aerial vehicle provided by Air-O-Space to gather drug intelligence. The department was one of only nine state and law enforcement agencies to be recognized worldwide…::MORE::

UPCOMING EVENTS

January 19-20, 2005
Mississippi Business & Technology Expo
Jackson, MS

January 19, 2005
Mississippi Business Journal’s Top 40 Under 40 Luncheon
Jackson, MS

EIGS Annual Meeting
TBA

March 6-9, 2005
GITA's Annual Conference 28: Crossing Boundaries
Denver, CO

March 7-11, 2005
ASPRS 2005 Annual Conference - 
Geospatial Goes Global: From Your Neighborhood to the Whole Planet
Baltimore, Maryland
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**Stay posted for the release date of the EIGS Annual Meeting.
**If you have any upcoming events that need to be posted, please email them to Johnna@pfidc.com.

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DID YOU KNOW???

GISuser.com has a guide to help in the search for free, downloadable GIS data. The guide can lead you to some of the finest FREE data repositories, State Clearinghouses, and spatial data libraries around. Some offer free DRGs, others offer free DEMs, many have free DOQQs and aerial photography. Data holding vary from State to State, however, all provide free, unrestricted access to plenty of data without the need for registrations.

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SEEN AND HEARD

From an article in the Mississippi Business Journal, November 8-14, 2004, InTime utilizes geospatial technology for ag producers:
“We have dramatically increased the tax base by hiring people for these high-tech, high-paying jobs,” said Kelly Dupont, director of sales and marketing for InTime. “We do business in all these other states, but all the pictures we take in those other states are sent over the Internet to our Cleveland office. All of the behind the scenes processing is done here in Mississippi. All that work and money comes back to the state. The technology was born at Stennis Space Center in South Mississippi, and the owner of InTime chose to keep that technology here in Mississippi... and [we] are very proud of the fact we are in Mississippi.”

Congratulations to NVision Solutions and Diamond Data Systems, EIGS members, who have been selected to negotiate NASA 2004 Phase I SBIR Awards. Diamond Data Systems' proposal, Algorithms and Software Architecture for the Production of DEM Data From LIDAR, and NVision Solutions' proposal, User Centric Data Acquisition and Delivery Systems for Precision Ag, are approximately $70,000 each.

LEGISLATIVE CORNER

Governor Haley Barbour called lawmakers to the Capitol for a Special Session to address a $103 million proposed bond package which includes $40 million for a Northrop Grumman expansion, $4.2 million in additional funds to recruit a NASA Shared Services Center and other economic development projects that secure more than 3,500 Mississippi jobs. During the Musgrove Administration, the State pledged to issue bonds for expansion and upgrading of facilities at Northrop Grumman Ship Systems in Pascagoula, and the legislature authorized $48 million in general obligation bonds for improvements at the Jackson County shipyard. Northrop Grumman pledged to match the State’s investment by a two-to-one ration and committed to creating 2,000 new jobs. For a year and a half, the State has failed to authorize additional bonds that were promised to Northrop Grumman as part of the multi-year agreement.

The Special Session convened on November 8, 2004 and after 11 days of heated debate, House and Senate Conferees hammered out a $456-million compromise bill. 

The bill includes $113.7 million for economic development, $108.8 million for state universities, $50 million for junior and community colleges, $153.1 million for state agencies, rural communities, infrastructure, arts and historical preservation and $30 million for the Ayers case. 

Barbour's original proposal was for $103.7 million in bonds, earmarked for economic development only. But the bill increased more than fourfold, and House conferees insisted on including the funding for the Ayers case. When Barbour finally agreed to the Ayers funding, the bill quickly passed the House by a vote of 107-2. The Senate vote was 48-2.

The Regular Session is set to convene on January 4, 2005. 

Conference Report

EIGS recently participated in the CIT.ms 5th Annual Conference on High Technology as an exhibitor and sponsor of a breakout session. Attending the conference were EIGS staff members Robin Buchannon and Lisa Stone as well as a number of EIGS member companies. U.S. Senator Thad Cochran (R-Mississippi), former U.S. ambassador to Portugal John Palmer and Mississippi Development Authority executive director Leland Speed were featured speakers 

The breakout session sponsored by EIGS, “SHHH, It’s a Secret: Mississippi Quietly Becoming a Leader in a High Tech Industry,” focused on how Mississippi is building a new high tech industry based on the projected $30 billion global market of geospatial technology. “The Geospatial industry is one of the fastest growing in our state and CIT.ms was proud to welcome them to our fifth Conference on High Technology. EIGS is leading the efforts in our state to harness the high technology activities for the companies that call Mississippi home. EIGS' breakout session was the most attended during our conference which indicates a true interest in the Mississippi-based products that will ultimately make our state and nation stronger,” said Heath Hall of the Mississippi Technology Alliance.

The session consisted of a 15 minute EIGS video, a brief presentation on the current status of the cluster, and a panel of four EIGS member companies:

• Eddie Hanebuth of Digital Quest: During this presentation, Eddie discussed the GIS Stars Certification that was recently recommended by the Department of Labor for Job Corps and the Geospatial Technology Apprenticeship Program. Eddie provided an excellent overview of the use of GIS; how you apply geospatial technology; and the numerous jobs, tasks, and professions using GIS and geospatial technologies. (www.digitalquest.com)

• Skip Wright of Air-O-Space: Skip provided the audience with a good understanding of the services and products provided by Air-O-Space, a wholly owned subsidiary of GB Tech. Among their products are Unmanned Aerial Vehicles that have been used for projects such as the Live Oak Study in Gulfport and in a partnership with the Picayune Police Department. The Picayune Police utilized the UAV technology in the “War on Drugs” to provide a standoff eye in the sky. Police officers are using video downloaded from UAV flights for real time viewing to advise raid teams about the lay of the land for drug busts. (www.gbtech.com)

• Clark Love of Forest One: Clark gave an overview presentation of his company whose vision is to provide innovative and economical technology solutions and services to forest products, land management, utilities, and government organizations. With key areas of expertise in forestry, vegetation management and mapping, state and local government, and utilities/power companies, Forest One serves a variety of public and private sector customers. Clark gave an extensive explanation of one of their products, Timber Age Map™ which is a complete inventory analysis and economic analysis for a basin that provides an up-to-date picture on fiber supply for an entire region. Additionally, he talked about Forest One’s work in vegetation management and right-of-way analysis, as well as about Lanworth, Inc., a subsidiary of Forest One that deals in land ownership data. (www.forestone.com) 

• Patrick Jackson of In-Time: Patrick’s presentation focused on how In-Time is making precision ag profitable for production agriculture using geospatial technologies. Many things contribute to poor yields including drought, flood, insect pressure, non-uniform growth, and rank cotton. To fight poor yields, In-Time works with its customers to develop unique prescriptions to be used in ground or aerial sprayers and to record “as-applied” data. Many of In-Time’s customers see as much as $6.48 an acre in chemical cost savings. And In-Time services much more than just cotton. Other products offered include rice, soybeans, corn, watermelons, forestry, peanuts, pistachios, almonds, tomatoes, and golf courses.

In addition to the well attended panel session, the EIGS booth saw a good bit of traffic. “Participating in the CIT Conference was a worthwhile investment for EIGS,” stated Robin Buchannon, Executive Director for EIGS. “Between the booth and the panel session, the conference really helped us achieve our goal of generating excitement about this industry in Mississippi.” Hats off to CIT.ms for an outstanding conference. For more information about the conference including downloadable files of the presentations visit the CIT.ms website.

Congratulations: EIGS member selected for Top 40 Under 40

Clark Love of Forest One, a member of the EIGS Geospatial Industry Cluster, has been named by the Mississippi Business Journal as one of Mississippi's most outstanding business leaders as a member of this year’s “Top 40 Under 40.” The publication recognizes exceptional achievement among professionals under 40 who are innovative leaders in business as well as the community. 

Love will be honored by the Mississippi Business Journal at their 12th Annual “Top 40 Under 40” luncheon to be held as part of the 2005 Mississippi Business and Technology Expo special events at the Mississippi Trademart in Jackson, MS on January 19, 2005 .

At the age of 32, Clark has earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Ole Miss, earned a Master of Management degree from the prestigious Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, and interned with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation which focuses on advancing educational achievement and entrepreneurial success. Just five years after completing his undergraduate degree, Clark successfully raised over $1 million in private equity/venture capital to launch his company Forest One, Inc. in 2000. 

It only took Clark two years to make Forest One profitable. With the company currently growing at 100%+ per annum, Clark has the admirable goal of increasing the availability of high tech jobs in Mississippi. 

Clark’s family has been involved in forestry/tree farming for more than 100 years. He successfully combined this family background with his engineering education to start Forest one, a business merging technology and forestry. Forest One competes in a global market serving a wide range of clients including Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and private corporations.

A native of Kosciusko, Mississippi, Clark has lived in Memphis, Ft. Lauderdale, Miami and a few other places along the way. But he has chosen to come back home to Mississippi to live, raise his family, pursue professional opportunities, grow his business, and serve his community. Clark is contributing to Mississippi’s growth and its future, working to ensure that future generations have jobs to come home to.
 

ESRI’s Bill Davenhall Speaks at UMMC about 
GIS Applications in Medical Research

Dr. David Powe, right, associate vice chancellor for institutional affairs at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, and Dr. Fazlay Faruque, left, director of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) at UMC, listen as Bill Davenhall, global manager of heath and human services at ESRI in California explains a medical GIS medical application program.

On November 4, 2004, the Office of Research at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) in Jackson, MS hosted a seminar with Mr. William Davenhall, global manager of health and human services at Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI). The seminar, “GIS Applications in Medical Research,” focused on a growing body of evidence that links geography to health status and addressed the academic interests of GIS to the public's need for GIS-centric programs, such as disease surveillance, population health tracking, and advocacy. The capability building strategy of GIS programs across academic and research units of a multidisciplinary health sciences university was also discussed. 

With over 5,000-plus health users world-wide, Mr. Davenhall provided a snapshot of GIS users in the medical field including: Public Health Organizations, Hospitals and Medical Centers, Academic Health Science Centers, Managed Care Organizations, Medical Suppliers, Pharmaceutical Organizations, Medical Research Organizations, Health Insurance Organizations, Medical Review Organizations, and Social Service Agencies.

These organizations are addressing critical needs with GIS including: Policy Analysis; Disease Tracking; Market and Strategic Planning; Routing of Health Workers; Clinical Data Visualization; Environmental Health Monitoring; Site Location Analysis; Facility Care Management; Birth/Death/Tumor/Immunization/STD Registries; Location Services (web based); Service/Provider Network Analysis; Bioterrorism Preparedness; and Fraud and Abuse Detection.

To illustrate the growing importance of GIS in Medical Applications, Mr. Davenhall discussed the Duke Center for Geospatial Medicine which is being launched by Duke University through a $1.78 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. Scientists at the new center will combine expertise in psychology, geospatial technology, molecular biology, genetic epidemiology, genomics, behavioral science and spatial statistics to craft powerful new tools to study the interplay of genetic, environmental and social factors that drive children’s health outcomes. A key component of the new methods will be their use of advanced spatial statistical techniques and Geographic Information Systems applications. (http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/news/geospatial_1004.html) 
Being the first GIS program in an academic medical center in the U.S., UMMC has become a focal point of the Health GIS industry. “UMMC is on the leading edge and is part of the pioneering effort in the medical services industry,” said Bill Davenhall of ESRI, who has the major software market-share in the GIS industry. ESRI has established an active partnership with UMMC including awarding a software grant to UMMC to conduct population-based research in its GIS lab. For more information about the GIS program at UMMC, contact Dr. Fazlay Faruque, Director of GIS at 601-984-6267 or ffaruque@son.umsmed.edu.

Jason Zangari is currently pursuing a Master’s of Science degree in the Sociology and Anthropology program at The University of Mississippi. Under the guidance of Dr. Jay Johnson, Jason’s project, “Mound Exploration for the 21st Century: A Geophysical Exploration of Mississippian Mounds” is developing a non-intrusive mound exploration technique. This technique will speed up the process of cultural resource management, and provides a low-cost alternative to large-scale excavations. This research will integrate one of the standard 3-dimensional exploration techniques, ground penetrating radar, with bore hole magnetic susceptibility, a more experimental research tool. The objectives are to: 1.) Test an integrated mound exploration technique using Ground Penetrating Radar and magnetic susceptibility; 2.) Expand the use of magnetic susceptibility to cover a broader range of archaeological uses; and 3.) Develop a graphical presentation of magnetic susceptibility data. 
The Clarion Ledger recently featured an article about remote sensing archeological research being conducted by University of Mississippi students. Visit this link to read the full article.
 

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