MSc in GIS and RS - SCSI Accreditation Event

It is great to be able to announce that the Maynooth University Department of Geography MSc in GIS and Remote Sensing is now formally accredited by the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI) and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). We had the event yesterday in Rocque lab and even the beautiful old maps by the entrance got an airing. That pic is taken beside the Manor of Maynooth survey by John Rocque in 1750 approx.

Accreditation opens alot of doors to students who go on to pursue it upon graduation and it have even backdated eligibility for the last three years of the MSc graduates so hopefully they will start down that route too. As for me my original motive was to get more juicy brains for the RS and EO working group but now I am back here teaching that changes my outlook somewhat!

Thanks to Colin Bray (CEO OSi and immediate past president of the SCSI) and Prof Maria Pramaggiore (Dean Graduate Studies) for coming along to speak at the event. A special thanks to James Lonergan from the SCSI for all his help in getting this over the line - his input really made a difference and delighted that he is in SCSI HQ helping us with going forward.

Out-suited again, I never seem to get that one right.

AR Sandbox

My dream of getting my hands on an AR sandbox become a bit less fantastic this week. I had decided by hook or by crook that I would get the hardware and start making one - some great online guides, even AutoDESK have one up there - but I was alerted via twitter of one that was already in Maynooth! The CS department 'Makers Club' had built one with some French interns a few years back. I will get my begging bowl out and see if they might let us borrow it for Geography Week which is coming up soon. If it is a hit we might look at making our own, we have most of the hardware except the Kinect sensor.

Drones and Motorway Mapping

I see Korec have won a contract with Transport Infrastructure Ireland to provide 2 drones and also map the motorways. The statistic that one drone can cover as much ground in an hour flight as a survey team does in 14 days is very impressive, although I wonder is that an area based measurement - whereas a road is a route corridor? Drones are limited by LOS still, and basic restrictions are 300m. Unless the operator will drive along underneath? Interesting all the same. Having worked on QBN surveys back in the boom I think the most survey points I captured in one day was around 2200 - and that was a busy busy day, so not hard to see how drones will speed things up, if not get the same level of accuracy. 

Poor Mobile Mapping Systems - they were just too expensive to catch on over here, drones are a fraction of the cost. I know Korec haver access to one of the Trimble ones - they brought it in for the IEOS in 2014.

Aerial surveys, drought and archaeology

The extremely dry conditions over the past 4 months really has resulted in perfect conditions for archaeologists to spot new sites of interest, usually via airplane, drone or even satellite. From drones spotting new info at newgrange, to abandoned farmsteads at the bottom of reservoirs appearing for the first time in generations spotted by aerial survey teams, to satellite finding new sites in the UK, there really is great potential for a change detection study using some HR imagery around the countries that had the worst of the drought. I wonder what Copernicus might pick up?