July 2005

What's Inside This Month's  Sensor:

Features:

• Company Spotlight: MAPSAT

• Image of the Month

• Training Opportunities

• Upcoming Events

• Legislative Corner

• Did You Know???

• EIGS Partner News

• Seen and Heard

• EIGS In the News

July Articles:

• Guest Corner

• Global Perspectives

• Citizens for Space Exploration visit DC

• New Collaboration to Inspire the Next Generation of Explorers

Edward Johnson NASA's Stennis Space Center

Guest Corner

Welcome to Guest Corner. As you may recall in last month’s Director’s Cut, we announced that we would be featuring guest columnists starting with this issue of The Sensor. We are so pleased to welcome Dr. Ed Johnson, Director of Applied Sciences at NASA's Stennis Space Center as the inaugural guest columnist. 

If you are interested in being featured in a future issue of The Sensor, please submit material to lstone@olemiss.edu for consideration.

I am honored to be a guest columnist in this newsletter. The timing is right; it has been almost a year since I became Director of Applied Sciences at NASA's Stennis Space Center. During that time I have learned a lot from the earth science community as a whole and from the earth science community represented so well by this newsletter. As such, I would like to share a theme on personalities that are needed for a community to thrive.

Within our earth science community, we play different roles that are sometimes competing and conflicting. (For the time being, I recognize but I am not addressing the normal and necessary business competition within our earth science community.) In a greatly simplified manner, and using roles from The Tipping Point: How little things can make a big difference by Malcolm Gladwell, we are mavens, salesmen, and connectors. Mavens are people who know things. Salesmen are people who know people. Connectors are people who can convince people. Keep in mind – this is greatly simplified and frequently we change roles or act in multiple roles simultaneously. A successful company or community needs all three. 

To further expand this theme, let me use NASA as an appropriate example. From limited observations, I propose that Mike Griffin, our relatively new administrator, is maven, salesman, and connector. There is no doubt that he knows things (engineering and business) and people (in government, industry, and academia) and he can convince people (to accept and move forward with his vision). His immediate task is to “explore” by returning the Space Shuttle to flight, returning to the moon, and going to Mars. Mike is a “connector” in that he melds and negotiates with “connectors” in congress, industry, academia, and elsewhere to form a national space vision. The national space vision is to return to the moon and go to Mars, but also to “improve life here” and “understand and protect our home planet” though robust earth science and aeronautical engineering. Mike is a “salesman” in that he draws on his connections with people he has worked with in the past to build his team. And finally, he is a “maven” in that he not only has impressive engineering knowledge and experience, but also business acumen gained through industry. 

Drilling down to the Stennis earth science community, it is our job to do the work to accomplish the vision. To start my discussion, how often have you heard a visitor to Stennis say, “Best kept secret”? When I hear it (and I have heard it often), I cringe, because the statement to me says, “Stennis has good mavens, poor salesmen, and poor connectors.” To be successful, we must have our mavens, salesmen, and connectors. We must have national and international impact, not just a local one! I ask the collective group the following questions –

• Who are the mavens and are they knowledgeable about the right things?

• Who are the salesmen and do they know the right people? 

• Who are the connectors and do they have the right vision to convince others?

• Do we have enough or too many of each category?

• How can our mavens work together while our salesmen and connectors compete?

From the Applied Science perspective at NASA Stennis, our role is to optimize the use of the wide range of NASA research data and products in solving national application problems and to evaluate solutions derived elsewhere for NASA use. A few of us are salesmen and connectors; most of us are mavens. We all are working with the community to develop a new tool, presently referred to as the “Rapid Prototype Capability” (RPC). RPC will be used to do sensitivity analyses in a quick yet robust manner. A community tool is needed; every scientist, engineer and operations analyst asks the question, “So what” or more politely, “What is the impact of my work?” We expect RPC to ingest data easily, run models and algorithms, and measure the effect upon decision support systems. We want RPC to be distributed, with the first at the Stennis Space Center. Locally, we will run the system as a tool for our own projects and maintain configuration management. With smart cooperative development that incorporates sound science, best business practices, and insight into the way decisions are made, we will have a capability at Stennis that our connectors and salesmen can use in influencing the world around us. RPC should draw mavens from all over the country as this is a tool for the earth science community, as part of a community engineering environment, to use in evaluating the impact of data and products upon decision support systems.

To close, I have used the term “community” because it is as a term of professional respect and personal endearment. As it “takes a village to raise a child,” it “takes a professional community to raise a scientist (engineer).” I am proud to be a part of the local earth science community! I look forward to connecting. In the meantime, “Good luck to Space Shuttle Discovery and its crew on their mission, STS-114!”

MapSAT, a member of Mississippi’s geospatial technology industry cluster for the past seven years, provides innovative solutions using remote sensing and GIS technologies for the public and private sectors. MapSAT offers economic solutions to their clients by developing innovative, multi-user applications including a full suite of GIS services for cities, counties, and other agencies. Services include property mapping, 911 addressing, emergency response, homeland security, Internet map applications, school bus routing, flood map automation, land use, zoning, redistricting, utility mapping, best site selection, insurance and real estate applications, medical and health applications, and GIS training. 

MapSAT’s local government applications are geared toward multi-user/multi-functional capabilities with the added benefit of meeting homeland security needs. Local governments that are responsible for creating detailed data at the grassroots property level can efficiently integrate other data useful for homeland security. Different divisions within a local government often require same base data for varied applications. But each division usually operates independently. Bringing the divisions together for developing common data not only makes the data development economical, but also makes the data updates easier and provides more efficient data analysis capabilities. For instance, an addressing application that is developed for the e-911 division to identify a caller’s location, closest fire station/ambulance, and shortest route with a hot link to the photo of the caller’s structure is the same data – streets and addresses – that are used in developing applications for other divisions. Circuit clerks can use these data to identify voters by precinct, supervisor/justice court/school/senate/house district. Additionally, street data are used in mapping gravel and paved roads maintained by the Board of Supervisors. Inventory of bridges with attribute information is added to the streets. The same street and address data are also used in delineating school bus routing for children in a specific school district. MapSAT has developed fast and accurate algorithms to convert hard copy tax parcel maps to create seamless vector layers that accurately match with digital orthophotography.

MapSAT is also developing address data applications that can be used in economic planning to identify best locations for new businesses or real estate developments. 

Another key focus area for MapSAT is training. Over 200 Mississippi university and college educators have been trained by MapSAT in the use of geospatial technology.

Additionally, MapSAT has worked on several research projects including a NASA-funded research project with Mississippi State University that consisted of a cotton yield study using multispectral satellite imagery and in-house algorithms. Other projects entailed image analysis of hyperspectral data and vectrorization techniques that are used in entomological studies with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

One of MapSAT’s current projects is the development of a mapserver application to interactively query and display maps and databases (www.mapsat.com/mapserver). For additional information about MapSAT, contact Dr. David Bandi, bandi@mapsat.com, 662-648-9115.

IMAGE OF THE MONTH

Image of the Arizona wildfires taken June 24, 2005. The fire, just northeast of Phoenix, was started by lightning.

This image provided by NASA.

LEGISLATIVE CORNER

Governor Haley Barbour brought lawmakers to the capitol to consider Momentum Mississippi for the third time this year. Momentum Mississippi is an economic incentive program designed to lure high-tech firms to Mississippi and help existing businesses expand. After three days of special session, the twenty eight million dollar Momentum Mississippi plan passed yesterday.  

Read the full text of the bill

EIGS PARTNER NEWS

EIGS extends congratulations to Greg Hinkebein, President and CEO of the MS Enterprise for Technology (MsET), for receiving a NASA Public Service Medal. The award is granted for exceptional contributions to the mission of NASA. Greg served as the partner point of contact for the Stennis NASA Shared Services Center (NSSC) proposal. The center will consolidate a large number of business functions in one location to support NASA and will result in cost savings and increased efficiency for the Space Agency. 

Congratulations are also in order for Talbot Brooks, Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Geospatial Information Technologies at Delta State University. He has recently been named to the Urban and Regional Information Systems Addressing Standards Committee which is responsible for developing addressing standards in partnership with the Federal Geographic Data Commission.

SEEN AND HEARD

"This will allow the department to 'work smarter.' We can maximize the use of our resources over time and geographic space."

- Charles Chandler, Crime Mapping Analyst for the Hattiesburg Police Department, referring to the new crime mapping system that will allow officers to easily track patterns of all crimes that are reported, from petty thefts to homicides.

Hattiesburg American, June 23, 2005

DID YOU KNOW???

On June 15, 2005, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled that electronically formatted maps, which allow journalists to plot geographically referenced statistical data in studying the adequacy of government programs and performance, must be released in electronic form to open records requesters. 

The maps, created from Geographic Information System data and showing city landmarks, including the location of "security-sensitive'' sites such as schools, public utilities, and bridges, must be open because officials in Greenwich, Conn., did not show that their release will violate a trade secret or threaten public safety, the high court ruled. 

Read the article

See the opinion

TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES

EIGS is pleased to announce that two of its partners are offering courses related to geospatial technology.

The Center for Interdisciplinary Geospatial Information Technologies at Delta State University is offering the following:

• Courses online for the user community. Many of the courses are offered
  at both the undergraduate and graduate level and are each worth 3 credit
  hours;

• Geospatial information technology degree tracks in the MBA and Master’s
  of Commercial Aviation program. A GIS track within a Master’s of Life
  Sciences is planned for the coming year.
  For more information, visit http://www.deltastate.edu

A three-year effort to develop a set of online courses on geospatial sciences recently came to fruition as the Institute for Advanced Education in Geospatial Sciences (IAEGS) unveiled its first ten courses. Funded by NASA for a total of about $9 million, this effort represents the largest infusion ever of training and education money into the geospatial community. IAEGS expects to have seven more courses ready by mid-July and another 10-12 by the beginning of October. The courses cover such topics as digital image processing, aerial photography, and geospatial data synthesis and modeling.

UPCOMING EVENTS

The Enterprise for Innovative Geospatial Solutions will be hosting the EIGS Research Symposium on August 10, 2005, starting at 9 a.m. at the John C. Stennis Space Center Visitor’s Center Auditorium. The purpose of the Symposium is to highlight EIGS research activities that have been funded through NASA support over the past two years.

The Symposium will include:

• University Research Presentations

• Graduate Fellow Poster Presentations

• Geospatial Extension Service Activities Overview 

• Reports on Campus Activities including the statewide software site license program

For more information, contact Lisa Stone, lstone@olemiss.edu.

MS-FAST, will be holding its second major SBIR/STTR Workshop this year on July 21st and 22nd at the Jackson State University E-Center in Jackson, MS.  This program will include on day 1 a Proposal Development workshop, presented by Dr. Robert Berger, former SBIR/STTR Program Manager for the Department of Energy. Day 2 looks to include information concerning business plan development and related technology commercialization issues and resources. Updates on this event, including the agenda will be included in future News Alerts! To register, e-mail your RSVP to Joe Graben at jgraben@ssc.nasa.gov. In the subject line include: "RSVP July 21-22 Workshop"

July 11-14, 2005
The Mississippi Municipal League Annual Conference
Biloxi, MS

July 21, 2005
Gulf Coast Sci-Tech Region: Integrating the I-10 Research Corridor
Stennis Space Center, MS

July 25-29, 2005
25th Annual ESRI International User Conference
San Diego, CA

September 7-10, 2005
The Eighth Annual Crime Mapping Research Conference
Savannah, GA

September 12–14, 2005
ESRI Homeland Security GIS Summit
Denver, CO

September 19 –21, 2005 
The 14th Annual GIS for Oil & Gas Conference & Exhibition
Houston, Texas

October 19-21, 2005
Mississippi Gulf Coast 2005 Geospatial Conference
Biloxi, MS

Global Perspectives

Leica Geosystems Rejects Takeover Bid
The board of mapping technology company Leica Geosystems on Monday rejected a takeover bid from Sweden's Hexagon AB, saying the cash offer of 1.1 billion was too low.

GIS Arrives in Bangkok
Bangkok will get its first nationwide geographic information system (GIS) by the end of the year, which will provide a detailed digital map of the country's resources and allow for better management across government agencies. Previously various government departments had their own GIS systems that were largely incompatible.

NASA chief expands leadership team
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin has added a chief operating officer and a strategic adviser to his leadership team as he continues reorganizing space agency management. Griffin named NASA Chief Engineer Rex Geveden to act as chief operating officer, with the title of associate administrator. Read the full story

Paris Air Show Showcases GIS
For the first time at the Paris Air Show, geographic information system (GIS) technology was featured in a geospatial showcase as part of the official U.S. Pavilion. The showcase demonstrated the increasing use of GIS in the aerospace community. This year’s Paris Air Show (www.paris-air-show.com) was held June 13–19, 2005, at the Le Bourget Airport in Paris, France. With more than 1,700 exhibitors, approximately a quarter of a million visitors, and a heritage dating back to 1909, the Paris Air Show is the leading international event for the aviation, aeronautics, and space industries. More information  

Citizens for Space Exploration visit DC

Pictured from Left: Chris Harvey (EIGS), Gracen McMillan, Michael L. McMillan (Deutsch, Kerrigan & Stiles, L.L.P.), Clay Harper (High Performance Solutions), Glade Woods (Partners for Pearl River County), Joyce Lawrence (Boeing), Greg Mitchell (Mayor of Picayune, MS), Congressman Gene Taylor, and John Hairston (Hancock Bank).

Chris Harvey, Assistant Director for EIGS, recently participated as a Mississippi member of the National Coalition for the Citizens for Space Exploration. Fifteen states, including Mississippi and Louisiana, delivered a grassroots message of support for America’s Vision for Space Exploration from the community perspective. Citizens for Space Exploration have visited Washington D.C. every year since 1992 to support continued funding for space and have become known as informed and credible NASA supporters. This year, almost one fourth of the total travelers participating represent Partners for Stennis, a regional grass roots advocacy organization of citizens and businesses for space, ocean and earth exploration from Mississippi and Louisiana.

The coalition that visited DC was comprised of individuals representing diverse areas of economic development, education, small business, county and municipal government and the aerospace industry. Representatives from the two state area of Mississippi and Louisiana who represent Partners for Stennis and the Louisiana Partnership for Aerospace included: Jason Brady, A-B Computer Solutions; John Chaszar, Casino Magic Bay St. Louis and President, Hancock Chamber; Daniel Ferrari, Lockheed Martin Space System Co, New Orleans; Paul Gravel, LSU System Office in DC; John Hairston, Hancock Bank; Clay Harper, High Performance Solutions; Chris Harvey, Enterprise for Innovative Geospatial Solutions; Tom Keenan, Keenan Staffing; Roy Keller, LA Business & Technology Center; Tommy Kurtz, Greater New Orleans, Inc.; Joyce Lawrence, The Boeing Company; Michael and Gracen McMillan, Deutsch, Kerrigan and Stiles; Greg Mitchell, Mayor of Picayune; Lee Reid, Adams and Reese; Tish Williams, Partners for Stennis & Hancock Chamber; Patrick Witty, CLECO Power, Louisiana; and, Glade Woods, Partners for Pearl River County.

For more information about Citizens for Space Exploration, see a recent article in BizNewOrleans.com.

New Collaboration to Inspire the Next Generation of Explorers

The NASA Science Mission Directorate, Applied Sciences Program is pleased to announce a new collaboration between the University of Mississippi’s Institute for Advanced Education in Geospatial Sciences (IAEGS), the University of Connecticut’s Center for Land use Education and Research (CLEAR), NASA’s Applied Sciences DEVELOP National Program and their partners. The partners include Fulton-Montgomery Community College’s Spatial Information Technology Center (SITC), the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) New York City Research Institute (NYCRI), and Cayuga Community College’s Institute for the Application of Geospatial Technology (IAGT). The collaboration is funded through a NASA Congressional Award to Dr. Dan Civco of CLEAR. Students at partner sites will access on-line geoscience education course work developed by IAEGS to educate and “inspire the next generation of explorers”. This three-year partnership will support over 500 students in an online applied sciences learning environment.

Dr. Pamela Lawhead and her colleagues at the University of Mississippi established IAEGS in 2003 under the auspices of a NASA Challenge grant. Their goal was the creation of an on-line, self-paced college-level geoscience technology curriculum to augment the pool of qualified persons who can use NASA data to impact decision support. Dr. Lawhead and her staff, in consultation with a national advisory board of geoscience educators, determined content selection for the geoscience course modules. Thirty instructional modules were selected as the ideal geoscience technology curriculum for both undergraduate and graduate students. Many outstanding geoscience educators and professionals from across the country authored the modules for IAEGS. The module titles include such titles as “Introduction to Digital Image Processing,” “Remote Sensing and the Environment,” and “Information Extraction using Microwave Data Modeling.” All modules were designed as self-contained instructional packages and require minimal student-instructor interactions. Additionally, the flexible level of instructor participation was one instructional strategy that added teaching options to the curriculum adopters. All courses are delivered online via a license agreement with academic institutions, businesses, or government agencies. IAEGS provides on-line support and updates as necessary and has ten courses ready for delivery with all of the courses due to be delivered by October 1, 2005.

CLEAR, led by Dr. Dan Civco, provides information, education and assistance to land use decision makers, in support of balancing economic growth and natural resource protection. To support this goal, CLEAR will utilize the IAEGS modules to enhance the geoscience education of students conducting remote sensing research addressing the NASA Applied Sciences National Applications of Invasive Species, Coastal Management, Ecological Forecasting, and Water Management. 

NASA’s Applied Sciences Program serves society through their partner agencies, such as NOAA, USDA and EPA, by collaboratively investigating how NASA research results can best be used to meet their operational goals to serve the citizens. NASA has established federal partnerships in twelve areas of national priority, including Agricultural Efficiency, Air Quality, Aviation, Carbon Management, Coastal Management, Disaster Management, Ecological Forecasting, Energy Management, Homeland Security, Invasive Species, Public Health, and Water Management. The partnerships work to benchmark the uses of NASA research results for decision support, quantifying the improvements partner organizations are able to make in their decision support systems by infusing NASA observations and model results. NASA engages public, private, and academic organizations in innovative approaches for using science information enabled by spacecraft observatories to provide decision support to serve society. The IAEGS curriculum will aid NASA sponsored students in addressing issues of community concern by creating rapid prototype solutions using NASA Earth-Sun system science research results. These prototype solutions may be used inputs to decision support systems for state, local, and tribal applications. 

Through this partnership opportunity, multiple NASA funded projects are working together to develop a cadre of human resources possessing real world experience associated with integrated systems solutions using results from NASA Earth-Sun system science research, systems engineering, and NASA partners’ decision support tools. Furthermore, IAEGS is further enabled to meet one of its goals: increasing the available professional workforce in the field of Geospatial Information Technology. IAEGS and the new modules will help accomplish this goal by integrating three substantial environments: expert-led on-line modules, self-paced on-line instruction, and the collaborative efforts of all partners. For more information please refer to the following web sites:

IAEGS: http://www.geoworkforce.olemiss.edu
NASA Applied Sciences: http://science.hq.nasa.gov/earth-sun/index.html 
CLEAR: http://clear.uconn.edu

EIGS in the News

NVision Solutions and FirstCall Network Join Forces to "Dial up"
State-of-the-Art Emergency Response System Directions Magazine, June 15, 2005

New Institute Begins Courses in Geospatial Sciences 
Earth Observation Magazine, June 2005 

To sign up to receive The Sensor, visit www.eigs.olemiss.edu
To unsubscribe please send an email to eigs-out@pfidc.com with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line and your email address in the body.