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February 2007 Welcome to The Sensor -- the newsletter of the Enterprise for Innovative Geospatial Solutions (EIGS) bringing you the latest developments from Mississippi’s emerging geospatial industry cluster. Please feel free to share this with friends and colleagues. To subscribe, visit www.eigs.olemiss.edu For further information, or to submit story ideas, please contact Lisa Stone - lstone@olemiss.edu |
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Guest Corner by Ann Johnson ESRI Higher Education Solutions Manager A little over 10 years ago, Towson University surveyed colleges and universities across the nation concerning programs related to geographic information systems (GIS). In that survey, less than 10 community colleges reported that they had GIS programs. Today, there are hundreds of colleges offering modules, courses, certificates or degrees relating to geospatial technology (GIS, remote sensing and Global Positions Systems (GPS)). Some are using geospatial technology as a tool for teaching while others are focusing on teaching the technology in specific disciplines such as forestry, environmental science or geography. In 1994, the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS) formed as an outgrowth of the National Science Foundation (NSF) supported National Center for Geographic Information & Analysis (NCGIA). The NCGIA and UCGIS have helped universities develop and expand their education and research related to GIS. The recently published Body of Knowledge produced by the UCGIS, is helping define the knowledge areas for GIS and provide a frameworks for program development. The community colleges have no such supporting organization. Currently, no NSF Advanced Technological Education (ATE) Center or Resource Center specifically addresses geospatial technologies even though geospatial technologies are becoming essential to many of the economic sectors that existing ATE Centers address. Each year NSF funds new GIS-related projects under numerous directorates, but coordination among the Centers and projects involved in GIS/geospatial technology is limited. As a result, efforts are often duplicated while emerging areas of opportunity are often overlooked. Each college program has had to develop their curriculum based on local needs assessments and support from their college. It became clear that community colleges needed some type of organization to help them as NCGIA and UCGIS has helped universities. Deidre Sullivan, Director of the MATE (Marine Advanced Technology Education) Center, Terry Brase, Director of AgrowKnowledge Center of Excellence at Kirkwood Community College and Ann Johnson, Higher Education Solutions Manager at ESRI applied to the NSF for funding to look at the issues surrounding the need for and structure of a National Geospatial Resource Center. These principle investigators, with a large group of advisors from education, are currently researching eleven issues critical to geospatial technology education and working toward reaching consensus on the need for and role of a NGRC. The primary goals of this grant were to develop a vision and plan for a NGRC in order to facilitate the development of curriculum, network technical expertise and serve as a clearinghouse for products and services that will meet the needs of students, educators, government, business and industry across a wide spectrum of disciplines. It was envisioned that the NGRC would be able to provide cooperative linkages between NSF ATE projects and Centers, other geospatial-technology related NSF grants, academic programs, Department of Labor workforce projects, businesses, industry, government agencies, professional societies and organizations, in the field of geospatial technology. Questions arose as to how such an organization would be managed, structured and the functions it would perform. A steering committee of leaders in geospatial education met in Denver to research issues critical to industry and education. They determined that a survey of a broader audience should be made and ask the participants to each develop materials as background information for the eleven issues which are:
The project website -- http://geotechcenter.org -- includes all of the materials developed on each issue. A survey, which will be available at the NGRC site, was sent out to gather more information and help select participants for a national forum. More than 45 college and university faculty from across the United States with varying levels of expertise in geospatial technology program development attended the Forum at Monterey, California. During the meeting, each issue was discussed in depth in small focus groups and then presented to the larger audience for consensus. Results of the discussions for each issue are being sent out for validation by the forum participants and will then be compiled in a report to NSF. One of the first outcomes was the apparent need for this to be a Center of Excellence rather than a Resource Center. A National Geospatial Center of Excellence (Center) would be needed to perform the identified functions relating to the issues including the need to support college efforts to supply diverse fields — that are enhanced by geospatial technology —with informed, qualified, and appropriately educated technicians by providing broad access to educational resources for workforce development. The Center would also serve to promote geospatial technology literacy to a broad array of audiences at secondary schools, two-year colleges, and universities by providing a central clearing house for sharing educational materials on geospatial technology, best practices for program development and sustainability, curriculum, workforce needs and assessments, articulation agreements, and methods for using geospatial technology to enhance critical thinking skills. One of the other functions of the Center would be to represent and voice community college interests and issues to other organizations involved with geospatial technology education, research and workforce development, serving as a national proponent of geospatial education at community colleges. For more information, please contact Ann Johnson, ajohnson@esri.com. |
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IMAGE OF THE MONTH
Originally developed to serve more serious business and government purposes, the satellite imagery industry is eager to broaden its reach into more whimsical uses. A new way of advertising is known as "astro-tising" or "astrovertising," a creative way to use space-based technology. As part of its rebranding effort, KFC Corp. recently worked with an event-marketing company to have its 87,500-square-foot Colonel photographed from space by GeoEye's Ikonos satellite as it passed over the site. Image from the January 21 edition of the Denver Post
SEEN AND HEARD “Today’s innovation concerning geospatial content, imagery and applications is just the tip of the iceberg. To ensure the continued growth and maturation of the market, providers must invest to make the content more current, cost-effective, and easier to access and integrate into applications, across all devices. As content becomes more available, we can expect providers to continue to invest in new technologies to make geospatial data richer and more interactive, including virtual 3-D and 4-D imagery and change detection. At the same time, distributors and application providers can be expected to continue to innovate, leverage Web technologies and architecture to enable new ways to use geospatial content.”
- Jill Smith, CEO, DigitalGlobe |
UPCOMING EVENTS
February 12 - 13, 2007 LEGISLATIVE CORNER
On January 15, 2007, Governor Haley Barbour delivered his State of the State address to a joint session of the Legislature. The Governor praised the state's economic progress since Hurricane Katrina while pledging more money for schools and fighting crime. The Legislature is considering a bill that would hike the cigarette tax and reduce the grocery tax. Onlookers are predicting with this year being an election year, this proposal promises to be one of the 2007 legislative session's most contentious battles. Senate Bill 3098, almost identical to one that failed last year, would hike the cigarette tax to 80 cents the first year and $1 the next year, while slicing the 7 percent grocery tax in half. Mississippi is one of only 15 states that tax groceries and charges the highest rate at 7 percent. DID YOU KNOW Geospatial Solutions magazine and TerraGo® Technologies conducted a survey to determine the demand for geospatial data in today’s workplace. The co-branded survey polled GIS professionals around the world to obtain details about how they’re collecting and sharing geospatial data at the enterprise level. Results and analysis from this survey are available free of charge from TerraGo's website. |
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Conference Spotlight: 17th Annual SCAUG Conference
You are invited to participate in the South Central Arc User Group (SCAUG) 17th Annual Conference. If your organization is involved in Geographic In¬formation Systems or is planning to implement GIS you can benefit from attending this years conference. Membership with the South Central Arc User Group gives you access to resources in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Attendees have the opportunity to attend ESRI classes at a discount, find out about the latest ESRI technologies, get access to member-only resources at the SCAUG website, and to network with other GIS professionals. Additionally, exhibiting opportunities are available. For more information, visit www.scaug.org. |
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Global Perspectives
Iran Set to Try Space Launch |
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EIGS and IHL
Geospatial Council Host Official Kick-Off of
On January 26th, EIGS and the IHL Geospatial Council hosted the official Kick-Off meeting for the Mississippi Area Remapping Strategies (MARS), a high school adoption program with Mississippi high schools from Water Valley, Batesville, Cleveland, Enterprise, and Claiborne County. The event had 50 attendees including students, teachers, university mentors, state agency representatives, city officials, and private industry. The Kick-Off included presentations from:
“We were glad we could participate in the
Kick-Off. This project is an extremely important endeavor for the future of
Mississippi and for the future growth of geospatial technologies in the
state,” said Larry Cowart with Michael Baker Jr., Inc., an EIGS member
company. |
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Item of Interest: The Fourth "R?" Rethinking GIS Education
Below is an excerpt from
an article by Michael F. Goodchild that appeared in the
When Ross Newkirk and I started a course in GIS at the University of Western Ontario in Canada in 1975, we hoped to introduce some of the students in the undergraduate geography program to a new kind of computer application, one that seemed to have enormous promise. Thirty years later, that promise has been realized in spades. GIS courses are available at almost all universities and colleges and are enthusiastically received by students in majors ranging from geography to criminology, from environmental studies to civil engineering. It would be hard for anyone majoring in any of the sciences dealing with the earth's surface to avoid at least hearing about GIS, and courses are even available in some of the humanities—at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), for example, one can learn about GIS applications from a professor interested in the sacred meanings of space in Japanese culture. The number of students taking GIS courses each year in the United States alone is certainly in the tens of thousands and worldwide may exceed 100,000. Read the full article |
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The 2007 Business & Technology
Expo |
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MDA Seeking companies for Geospatial Trade Mission to Europe
The Global Trade Division of the MS Development Authority is currently
recruiting Mississippi geospatial companies for a Trade Mission to
Europe, May 26-June 2, 2007. Participating companies will attend GNSS'07
(European navigation conference) in Geneva, Switzerland and have
opportunities to meet with European geospatial companies in one-on-one
meetings as well as attend networking events. |
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Space Law Round Table Draws Participants from Around the Globe
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To
sign up to receive The Sensor, visit www.eigs.olemiss.edu Enterprise for Innovative Geospatial Solutions - 125 Old Chemistry - University, MS 38677 |
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was
held January 17-18, 2007, at the Mississippi Trade Mart in Jackson. EIGS
participated as an exhibitor at the largest business-to-business networking
event in the state. This was the 24th year for this event which is a special
project of the Mississippi Business Journal. The Expo featured almost 200
exhibitors with thousands attending.
On
January 18, 2007, EIGS partner, the National Center for Remote Sensing,
Air and Space Law hosted a round-table discussion focused on "Space Law
in The Era of Globalization." The round-table discussion, which was
webcast live on the center's website, included discussions on the
establishment of a world space agency, the efficacy of the current
treaty regime, the U.S. national space policy, newly emerging
space-faring nations, legal aspects of the Space Exploration Initiative,
space tourism, peaceful uses of outer space and policies governing
access to earth observation data. Representatives from dozens of space
law organizations participated in the event including representatives
from the Polish Space Office & Centre for Science and Security at King's
College in London, Mahidol University International College in Thailand,
Office for Programme Matters in the European Space Agency, George
Washington University Space Policy Institute, Space Law Practice Group,
Brazilian Association of Air and Space Law, U.S. Office of International
Aviation, University of Leiden in the Netherlands and City University of
Hong Kong. Also attending were two former general counsels for NASA, a
former commissioner on the Arizona Space Commission and representatives
from several U.S. law firms dealing with space law issues.