ISPRS-SC Newsletter Vol. 7 No. 2 October 2013

8/14/2019 ISPRS-SC Newsletter Vol. 7 No. 2 October 2013

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Table of Contents

2 SPOTLIGHTS

Interview with Dr. Dewayany Sutrisno3 Interview with Dr. Hussein Farah4 Zamani Project - Africa6 Filed experiments at Qinghai Lake China

7 PAST EVENTS REPORT

Aerospace Futures 2013

8 ARTICLE.EDU

Geospaal Data Mining

9 GIVEAWAY Satellite Imagery Contest Winners10 STUDENTS CORNER

The Indirect Path11 Exchange Story from Turkey to Florida

12 TRAVEL INFO

13 FUTURE ISPRS RELATED EVENTS

INTERESTING LINKS

Dear ISPRS SC Newsleer readers,

We are entering the season of SummerSchools. Although only the names of ourmain events will be summerlike, we will tryto make them both as memorable as thesweetest summer memory. (Or we coulddefend the name and say that the aver-age between southern hemisphere springand northern hemisphere autumn could be

called global summer). First, the 9th SC Summer School for studentsand young professionals will be held in Bali , Indonesia, from 25th to30th of October, just aer the 34th ACRS. Almost at the same me,the 10th SC Summer School will take place in Addis Ababa, Ethio -pia, just before the Africa GIS conference, and will last from 29thof October to 2nd of November. The current number of registeredparcipants is astonishing and again, both events will most prob -

ably be unique in program and style. In these two summer schoolson two dierent connents, around 100 students will be listening tointeresng classes led by well-known professors, going on eld tripsand technical visits, and aending social events; and we hope all willgain a lot of new acquaintances and connecons.

Because this version of the SC Newsleer will be printed and dis-tributed to people aending any of the above menoned events,we have dedicated this issue to both happenings and will try to sumup some of the impressions from both regions. For all those readerswho will not aend either of the two Summer Schools, we promise

we will inform you about what is going on there as it happens viaour social media plaorms and we promise that all new materialfrom both events will be waing for you on our web page soon aerthe events nish. And for all those who will aend any of two sum-mer schools - take the best from these events and do not forgetthey are organized for you! And most importantly: enjoy!

Ura Kanjir,ISPRS SC Chair
http://www.isprs-sc.org/


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SPOTLIGHTS

Interviewby Chao-Yuan Lo

Dr. Dewayany Sutrisno

Could you briey introduce your professionalcareer path?

My name is Dewayany Sutrisno, PhD and I am asenior spaal informaon researcher. I studiedremote sensing as an undergraduate at BogorAgricultural University. Aer that I connued myremote sensing studies at the University of NewSouth Wales, Australia, and then came back tomy university to study marine management us-

ing remote sensing, GIS and modeling, whichis the experse that I share with students now.Beside my status as a researcher, I am also aninvited lecturer at Bogor Agricultural University,where I can meet students and young profes-sionals.

As the local organizers of Bali SS, could you

give us some movaons based on your pro-

fessions point of view?

I realized the importance of remote sensing therst me I looked at aerial photographs in anundergraduate class. The world is too big to ob-

serve and map just with a terrestrial approach.Through remote sensing, we can feel as if theworld and its contents are in our hands. We cango around the world, geng to know each oth-er through remote sensing. As an Indonesianscienst who lives in the archipelagic state anduses spaal informaon in my professional ca-reer, I think that remote sensing tools providethe best way to map, to learn, to exercise, toanalyze and to give input to our decision makers

for the development and planning that hope-

fully will give us a beer life. These are thingsthat I hope will be the same for the students.Remote sensing is a technology with which all ofthe earth sciences or any people who like naturewill fall in love.

How important is it for students to take part in

this internaonal event?

Youth is our future. Remote sensing technology

is also our future. We live in the world that isalso our future. Inving students to this interna-onal event will broaden their communicaon

with other young professionals all around theworld, advance their knowledge, and help themappreciate dierences amongst themselves.Hopefully the similarity of interests that arisefrom this internaonal socializing will makethem live in harmony and manage the worldbeer in the future.

What kind of achievements will you expect of

Bali SS?

We hope through this SS: More young people will become interested

in remote sensing More scienc innovaon will be developed More friendship and cooperaon will be

formed And, last but not least, bring harmony into

the world through the advance of friend-ships in remote sensing.

Indonesian Society For Remote Sensing (ISRS/MAPIN) President/ ACRS 2013ChairpersonThe director of the 9th ISPRS Student Consorum & WG VI/5 Summer School
http://www.acrs2013.com/http://www.acrs2013.com/side-events/summer-school.htmlhttp://www.acrs2013.com/side-events/summer-school.htmlhttp://www.acrs2013.com/


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SPOTLIGHTS

Interviewby Chao-Yuan Lo

Dr. Hussein Farah

Could you briey introduce your professional career path?

I am a land surveyor by profession. I studied surveying, photogramme-try, geography and water resource survey using remote sensing at dif-ferent universies in Kenya, Canada and the Netherlands. I worked withthe Kenya Naonal Mapping Agency as a senior surveyor for eight years,then joined Moi University in Kenya as a researcher and senior lecturefor twelve years. I am currently the Director General of a regional map-ping organizaon serving nineteen countries in Africa. I have been inthis posion for four years now.

As the local organizers of Addis Ababa SS, could you give us some mo-

vaons based on your professions point of view?

The Summer school will help the parcipants to appreciate and be in-terested in the applicaons of remote sensing sciences to solving chal-lenges facing the world and in parcular Africa such as environmentaldegradaon, food security and disasters. It will also help students fromdierent backgrounds and countries to know each and form networksand communies that can share common interest and experiences.

According to your perspecve, how important is the youths joiningHow important is it for students to take part in this internaonal

event?

Youth are the leaders of tomorrow who will lead science and the dif-ferent professions. We must prepare, expose and excite students fromenvironmental and earth science backgrounds about remote sensingscience and its applicaons so that they can move forward and advanceremote sensing sciences and the mapping profession in the next gen-eraons to come.

What kind of achievements of Addis Ababa SS will you expect?

There will a number of achievements. The most important one is to in -crease the number of future professionals who will work in the area ofremote sensing and use it to solve praccal problems facing our societ-ies. Currently few students in Africa are studying remote sensing relatedand therefore every eort must be made to increase their numbers.

Director General RCMRDThe director of the 10th ISPRS Student Consorum & WG VI/5 Summer School

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http://www.rcmrd.org/http://www.rcmrd.org/index.php/isprshttp://www.rcmrd.org/index.php/isprshttp://www.rcmrd.org/


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SPOTLIGHTS

Many of Africas cultural heritage sites are under threat from direct or indirect hu-man impact in the form of uncontrolled development, civil unrest, climate changeand unmanaged tourism, as well as environmental hazards and natural disasters.This is in addion to the natural aging processes of building materials, invadingvegetaon and the lack of funding for conservaon and restoraon.Recent developments in spaal data acquision instrumentaon andmethods have made it possible to spaally document cultural heritagesites with high precision and authencity. Heritage sites can benet from

such documentaon in the form of Geographic Informaon Systems,maps, diagrams, elevaon and ground plans and especially geo-referenced 3Dcomputer models of structures and terrain. The 3D models, in conjuncon withfreely available 3D viewing soware, can be used by researchers and conservatorsas well as non-technical sta to visualize details of sites in 3D, plan conservaonintervenons or as interacve displays in tourist centres.The African Cultural Heritage Sites and Landscapes Database, developed by the Za-mani research group within the Geomacs Division of the University of Cape Townin South Africa, was created in response to these needs and aims to capture spaalinformaon to create permanent records of African heritage sites for restoraonand conservaon purposes and to serve as a record for future generaons. In ad-dion the project seeks to provide material for educaon, research and site man-agement and to increase internaonal and naonal awareness of the importanceof African heritage. The Zamani iniave was conceptualized by Professor HeinzRther in 2001.To date, some 40 African sites with well over 100 structures in 15 Countries havebeen documented successfully by the team.Among the documented sites are the Great Mosques of Djenne; the DjingareyberMosque of Timbuktu and the rock hewn churches of Lalibela; rock shelters withrock art in Uganda and in the Drakensberg and Cederberg mountains in South Afri-ca; the Swahili sites of Gede, Lamu, Kilwa and Songo Mnara; and the Musawwarat-

es-Sufra temple complex in Sudan. All sites are scanned with a resoluon of 1 3cm for structures and 0.5 to 1 m for terrain. This results in huge datasets such as 7billion surface points for the St Sebasan Fortress on Mozambique Island and the

churches of Lalibela and close to 20 billion points for the structures and the terrainin Petra, Jordan. At the beginning of the project, sites were recorded with a fewhundred setups while more recent projects are based on between 1000 and 2000instrument set-ups. In response to the tendency to view archaeological and histori-

cal sites in the context of their environment, not only 3D models of build-ings but also of the surrounding terrain are documented by fusing ter-restrial scanning with DTM derived from aerial photography or airbornescanning. In a somewhat dierent applicaon of the same technology,

the enre Valley of the Queens in Luxor was documented by the Zamaniteam for the Gey Conservaon Instute. The 3D model of the valley was requiredfor the design of ood migaon measures. Local condions prohibited the use ofaerial data acquision method and the model of the valley was generated, in muchdetail, based on terrestrial scans only.

The Zamani iniave - an African Cultural Heritage Documentaon Project

Prof. Heinz RutherDepartment of Geomacs, University of Cape Town

Textured 3D model of Al Kazneh-The Treasury- in Petra

40 African Sites

100< Structures

15 Counes


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SPOTLIGHTS

Each of the documented sites is covered by numerous photographic panoramas,typically 50 to 100 and in some cases more, per site and these are combined intopanorama tours. Flythrough videos of selected structures are rendered from the 3Dmodels. These can be found on the website www.zamaniproject.organd on You-tube.com under the keyword za-maniproject. Improved Structure-from-Moon soware has recentlyadded this technology to the tool-box of the Zamani team, where itis primarily used for texturing.The completed models are usedto produce secons, diagrams andground plans and a GIS for each sitecombines the various data types.Extensive metadata with informa-on about the technical details of

individual scans, panoramas, pho-tographs and GPS reference points

are incorporated into the data base.The Zamani project owns the Leica HDS 3000, one of the early me-of-ight scanT-he Zamani project owns a Leica HDS 3000, one of the early me-of-ight scanners,which aer eight years of awless operaon is sll fully funconal and providesexcellent results. However, technological advances in scanning technology haveresulted in the group turning to the new generaon of fast scanners. Over thepast eight years, Leica Geosystems, Trimble, Faro and Z+F have generously providedscanners on short loans for individual documentaon projects. Evidence of the dra-mac advance in scanning technology becomes obvious when comparing the eld

performances of the early me-of-ight instrument with the latest phase based Z+Fscanner, the Imager 5010C. In 2005 the team completed an average of 10 to 12 fulldome scans per day with a resoluon of 2cm over 20 m. Recently the same teamacquired 80 scans in a day of scanning under similar condions with the same orhigher resoluon including full HDR photography. On a complex site which requiredset ups at close distances, a new daily team record of 161 full dome scans wasachieved and only empty baeries prevented an even higher record. However, thiswas without taking photography.Similar developments can be noted in data processing. During the rst years ofscanning, a day in the eld required ve to ten days of subsequent processing. Now

the introducon of automated registraon has reduced the processing me. Duringthe recent documentaon of one of the castles of the UNESCO world heritage sitelisted as Forts and Castles, Volta, Greater Accra, Central and Western Regions in

Ghana, it took only one day to scan a signicant part of the castle from 130 scanposions and create a preliminary textured model based on automated registraonand HDR soware. However, compleon of the models sll requires ne registra-on and signicant me is required for cleaning unwanted objects from the scans.

During the Ghana project, rst ex-periments with a mul-rotor un-manned aerial vehicle for the ac

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quision of aerial images were alsocarried out. It is intended to usethis UAV plaorm as a means ofacquiring detailed aerial imageryfor modelling roof detail in regionswhere terrestrial data acquisionis not feasible.One of the most challenging proj-ects undertaken by Zamani is the

documentaon of the UNESCOWorld Heritage site of Petra. The

rockhewn tombs, tricliniums anddwellings of Petra, as well as its freestanding palaces, colonnades and templeshave already been partly destroyed by catastrophic earthquakes and oods. Natu-ral weathering causes further slow destrucon and the more than 2000 touristsvising Petra on average every day add a further destrucve element. This makesdocumentaon essenal and the UCT team was tasked with scanning and photo -grammetrically recording the 1.2 km long access canyon to Petra as well as the mostimportant architectural structures in Wadi Musa and Wadi Farasa, the two principalvalleys. This resulted in the largest point cloud and the most complex model gener-

ated by the project to date. The data will be used for a variety of applicaons, suchas slope stabilisaon and for a virtual tour through Petra.One of Zamanis eld campaigns planned for early 2014 focusses on Timbuktu andGao in Mali. Malis heritage is under severe threat and some irreplaceable tombsand documents have already been completely destroyed or damaged as a resultof recent war, invasions and terrorism. The only remaining records of these sitesexist in the form of photographs and verbal descripons. The Zamani project there-fore took the iniave to solicit funding for documentaon work in Mali and it isintended to scan and document the Sangkore mosque in Timbuktu, the Tomb ofAskia in Gao and whatever other historically relevant buildings can be recorded in

the region within the limitaons of the budget. It is also intended to create a MaliHeritage GIS for a risk assessment.Besides the creaon of geo-spaal data Zamani also contributes to capacity build-

Un-textured model of a Swahili Palace in Gede, Kenya
http://www.zamaniproject.org/http://www.zamaniproject.org/


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PAST EVENTS REPORTS

Aerospace Futures 2013 was held in Adelaide, Australia in early July. The annual naonal event of the Australian Youth AerospaceAssociaon hosted nearly one hundred delegates from across the naon and featured a comprehensive speaker program of pre-sentaons from around the world. Aerospace Futures has been running for four years and has been hosted in Australian ciessuch as Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne. The conference is aimed at undergraduates and young professionals and aims to givedelegates an insight into local and internaonal developments in the aerospace industry and facilitate networking amongst del -egates and speakers.Aerospace Futures was planned during a myriad of other space acvies taking place in Adelaide, including the Australian SpaceDevelopment Conference, which focuses on policy and commercial development. Other public events included presentaons re-garding the excing Scramspace scramjet project and the Space Industry Associaon of Australias Inaugural Disnguished Lecturefeaturing Dr. Yasushi Horikawa, Chair of UNCOPUOS. The conference is also surrounded by social and networking events such asthe Ocial Launch Night and an industry sponsored cocktail event.The three day speaker program was rich, excing, and included ve speakers via teleconference. Presentaons covered o-Earthmining, remote sensing, telecommunicaons, aircra structures & maintenance, commercial spaceight, purchase of Australiasnew air combat capability, real air crash invesgaons, unmanned aerial vehicles, opportunies in postgraduate research, andmore. Most topical was discussion regarding the recent release of Australias Satellite Ulisaon Policy (hp://www.space.gov.au/SpacePolicyUnit).Aerospace Futures is an unparalleled opportunity for young people and prospecve leaders making their way into the aerospaceindustry. Why not check it out and nd out more?

Report on Aerospace Futures 2013

by John Furness

Dr. Horikawa presenng to delegates

Ayaa.com.au

Facebook.com/AeroFutures
http://www.space.gov.au/SpacePolicyUnithttp://www.space.gov.au/SpacePolicyUnithttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_3/Ayaa.com.auhttps://www.facebook.com/AeroFutureshttps://www.facebook.com/AeroFutureshttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_3/Ayaa.com.auhttp://www.space.gov.au/SpacePolicyUnithttp://www.space.gov.au/SpacePolicyUnit


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ARTICLE.EDU

The term Data Mining, (somemes known as Knowl-edge Discovery), appeared around 1990 in the data-base community and although it is a relavely newterm, this is not the case with the technology it de -scribes. It has become an acve area of research sinceit combines methodologies from database manage-ment, stascs, machine learning, high-performancecompung and informaon retrieval [1], [2]. The goalof data mining is the process of analysing data fromdierent perspecves in order to extract useful infor-maon, paerns and trends that were previously un-known and then transform it into an understandable

structure for further use [3].From a technical point of view, data mining is the pro-cess of nding correlaons or paerns among manyelds in large relaonal databases. Apart from the rawanalysis step, it involves database and data manage-ment aspects, data pre-processing, model and infer-ence consideraons, complexity consideraons, post-processing of discovered structures, visualisaon andonline updang [4]. The actual data mining task is theautomac or semi-automac analysis of large quan-es of data to extract previously unknown interesngpaerns such as groups of data records (cluster analy

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sis), unusual records (anomaly detecon), and depen-dencies (associaon rule mining).Geospaal data mining is a subcategory of data miningaimed at discovering paerns in geospaal databases.This typically requires powerful soware with a num -ber of analycal tools with respect to the geospaalapplicaon. It allows users to analyse data from manydierent dimensions or angles, categorize it and sum-marize the relaonships idened. Typical geospaal

operaons include: length, area, overlap and intersec-on. Spaal Informaon Sciences such as the GIS have

employed relaonal database management systemsfor years and more recently they have begun to useobject-relaonal database management systems [2].Tradional data mining techniques applied to geospa-al data can result in paerns that are biased or thatdo not t the data. Moreover, geospaal datasets arelarge and the data mining techniques may be quitecomplex. Chawla and Shekhar [5] highlight three rea-sons that geospaal data pose new challenges to datamining tasks. Classical data mining deals with numeri-cal and categorical variables, whereas spaal data ismore complex and includes extended objects such as

points, lines and polygons. Another dierence is thatclassical data mining works with explicit inputs, where-as spaal predicates (e.g. overlap) are oen implicit.The third reason is that classical data mining treatseach input as independent of other inputs, whereasspaal paerns oen exhibit connuity and high auto-correlaon with nearby features.According to Gunopulos [1], there are two dierentmodes of interacon in data mining. The ExploratoryData Mining includes the forming and tesng of a hy-pothesis, the data query and the understanding of thedata structure, whereas the Batched Data Miningincludes such goals of the data mining process as clus-tering, classicaon outlier detecon, feature similar-ity, spaal associaon rules and trend detecon. Fourof the most common geospaal data mining tasks are:clustering, classicaon, associaon rules and outlierdetecon [2].Clustering aempts to idenfy natural clusters ina dataset. It does this by paroning the enesin the data such that each paron consists of en-

es that are close (or similar), according to some dis-tance (similarity) funcon based on enty aributes.

Whereas clustering is based on analysis of similariesand dierences among enes, classicaon con-structs a model based on inferences drawn from dataon available enes and uses it to make prediconsabout other enes. Various classicaon methodshave been developed in machine learning, stascs,databases and neural networks; one of the most suc -cessful is decision trees. Associaon rules aempt tond correlaons (actually, frequent co-occurrences)among data. Spaal associaon rules include spaalpredicates such as topological, distance, or direconalrelaons in the precedent or antecedent [6]. Outlier

detecon involves idenfying data items that are nontypical or unusua. The representaon of the geospa-al data in the outlier analysis remains a dicult prob-lem.In all, data mining is quite a dicult and complex eldof research. With reference to geospaal data espe-cially, it is almost impossible to say with certainty thata parcular technique will always be eecve in prob-lem solving. A high level of experse and experienceis required to analyse and interpret the vast amountof geospaal data being captured, in order to reach areliable and validated outcome.

Geospaal Data Mining and its Contribuon to Spaal Informaon Sciences

by Thanasis MoysiadisDepartment of Planning and Regional Development, University of Thessaly

credits:hp://www.educaonaldatamining.org
http://www.educationaldatamining.org/http://www.educationaldatamining.org/


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This year, ISPRS SC held its rst Satellite Imagery contest, through which Student Consorummembers sent their proposals for use of satellite imagery in dierent applicaons and had achance to receive satellite images from DMCii to use in their research.

High quality proposals were submied by ISPRS SC members, with a wide range of applica -ons for DMCii imagery. Aer careful evaluaon of all submied proposals, the following win-ners were selected:

Riccardo Torni from Michigan Technological University is using DMCii and Landsat imag-ery to detect and quanfy harvesng of forests in the Western Upper Peninsula of Michi-gan (USA).

Fabian Enle from the University of Freiburg is using DMCii and Landsat images to detect

changes in forest cover in the Democrac Republic of Congo (DRC) within the EU fundedReCover project.

Shridhar D Jawak from the Naonal Centre for Antarcc and Ocean Research is workingon mapping Polar Regions to gain a beer understanding of the dynamic processes ofseasonal snow cover and assess its response to global warming.

Ram Avtar from the United Naons University in Japan is using DMCii satellite images ofSri Lanka to monitor changes in vegetaon as an indicator of changes in its groundwater,which plays a crical role in agricultural producon.

Kuan-Hsun Cho from the Naonal Chiao Tung University in Taiwan is looking at cloud de-tecon over Taiwan. DMC satellites very wide 650km imaging area allow the whole ofTaiwan to be imaged in just one pass. By compiling a sequence of images of the same loca-on over a short period of me, the project will detect and remove cloud cover to compilea complete, cloudless image of the island.

The contest winners have received all the requested images and are now hard at work ontheir projects. We hope this will be the rst of a series of similar contests, and we are lookingforward to seeing the results of the ground-breaking work that ISPRS SC members are devel-oping.

The rst Satellite Imagery contest for ISPRS Student Consorum Membersby Elena Lobo

ARTICLE.EDU

References

1. Gunopulos, D. Data Mining Techniques for Geospaal Applica-ons, White paper, prepared for a Commiee of the Computer Sci-ence and Telecommunicaons Board.2. Commiee on Intersecons Between Geospaal Informaon andInformaon Technology, Naonal Research Council, 2003. IT Road-map to a Geospaal Future, Chapter 3, Geospaal Databases andData Mining, Naonal Academies Press, 136 pages.3. Hand, D., Mannila, H. and Smyth, P., 2001. Principles of Data Min-ing. MIT Press, Cambridge, 584 pages.4. Knowledge Discovery in Data Special Interest Group/SIG of theAssociaon for Compung Machinery, hp://www.sigkdd.org

5. Chawla, S. and Shekhar, S. 2001. Modeling Spaal Dependenciesfor Mining Geospaal Data: An Introducon, Geographic data min -ing and Knowledge Discovery (GKD) Conference.6. Miller, H.J., and Han, J, (eds.), 2001. Geographic Data Mining andKnowledge Discovery, Taylor & Francis, London.

GIVEAWAY
http://www.sigkdd.org%20/http://www.sigkdd.org%20/


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STUDENTS CORNER

The geospaal sciences are very much a discovered ca-reer path in the United States. Geospaal professional

is not an occupaon that is at the forefront of youngstudents minds when selecng an undergraduatecollege major or picking courses based on future em-ployment opportunies. Students gravitate towardsmedicine, law and business. This trend toward highpaying, rewarding careers is natural. However, thereare many people, especially here in the United States,who would enjoy a career as a photogrammetrist, re -mote sensing specialist, surveyor, or GIS professionalbut who have never been or never will be exposed tothese rewarding professions. Fortunately for myself,aer a very circuitous route, I was able to nd the geo-spaal sciences.As an undergraduate student, I graduated with a de-gree in mathemacs and a minor in economics fromElon University in North Carolina. I was set on join-ing the ranks of the mathemacal nance profession.Shortly before entering graduate school for this career

path, I had a change of heart. I returned to my naveRhode Island and was intent on geng into the realestate profession. I tried my hand as both a real estatebuyers agent and a mortgage oce assistant in SouthFlorida. Both opportunies came to a screeching haltwhen repeated hurricanes slammed the state of Flori-da in the fall of 2005.I returned to Rhode Island to regroup and nd my nextopportunity. I was fortunate to nd this opportunity ata small civil engineering and surveying rm where myjob was a mix of oce and eld work. Searching chainof tle at the town halls, mapping coastal parcels for

land development, and designing sewage treatmentsystems for our clients was a rewarding endeavor thatI wanted to connue to pursue. The Great Recession of2009 led to a slowdown at the oce but it also deliv-ered an opportunity to aend graduate school in myfound career path, geospaal science.Given that the United States has limited educaonalvenues in surveying and mapping, I felt very fortunateto receive an assistantship for a Master of Sciencedegree in Geomacs at the University of Florida inGainesville, Florida, especially in light of the economicmes. My graduate assistantship provided hands-onexperience with a variety of topics including LiDAR,ineral navigaon, mobile mapping, unmanned aerialvehicles, and photogrammetry that I had only previ-ously read about in trade publicaons. I knew that thiswas the profession for me.Since graduaon in 2011, my journey has taken me tothe University of Florida Fort Lauderdale Research andEducaon Center about ve hours drive away from

the main campus in Gainesville. As the GeomacsSpecialist, I teach Geomacs courses, collaborate ongeospaal research, advise students, develop Geomat-ics distance educaon curriculum, and promote thegeospaal profession through community outreach.My research interests connue to evolve as my currentPhD program research emphasizes the use of LiDARin coastal science. My anity for the ocean has beencombined with the rapidly evolving technologies of ourprofession.As a fellow student member of the ISPRS Student Con-sorum, I aended the ISPRS Summer School in Fay-

eeville, North Carolina in the summer of 2011. At the2011 summer school, I was glad to be invited to par -cipate in the ASPRS Student Advisory Council. For twoyears, I had the privilege of working with a great groupof students from the U.S. and Canada as the DeputyChair and then Chair of the Naonal ASPRS StudentAdvisory Council. I have met an extraordinary group ofpeople through my acvies over this just concludedposion. I would encourage anyone who has the op-portunity to volunteer at a conference, to parcipateon a council, or to form a geospaal student group todo so. The rewards from your eorts will more thanoset the me spent on these acvies.Like many of you, my career trajectory has been a veryindirect path. However, I would not change the experi-ences along the way as they have helped me appreci-ate where I have come from and where I may be goingnext.

The Indirect Path

by Adam Benjamin


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Im a master student working as a research/teachingassistant in the Geomac Engineering Department atYildiz Technical University in Turkey since 2011. Lastyear, one of my colleagues informed me of a schol-arship given by the Turkish Government to graduatestudents working as research assistants at Turkish uni-versies/colleges to conduct research as part of theirmasters thesis. While I was deciding which universityto apply to, professor Dr.Ayazli from Cumhuriyet Uni-versity suggested that I conduct research in the USA.So I made a list of professors in the USA who had aresearch laboratory where they could host me and the

projects I could be involved in. They were from dier-ent departments and backgrounds such as electronics,

geomacs, computer sciences, urban planning, geog-raphy, biology and environmental sciences. I wantedto choose the one best matching my research and in-terests. The topic I am currently interested in is the

dierent applicaons of machine learning algorithmsto remote sensing data (opcal, SAR, LIDAR, etc.)analysis in many domains such as environmental andeconomical issues. Therefore I applied to the Univer-sity of South Florida, St. Petersburg (USFSP) to studywith Professor Dixon. I was accepted there as a visit-ing scholar at USFSPs Geospaal Analycs Lab fromMay to June 2013. Now, I can easily say that I madethe right choice.In this laboratory, there is a research group comprisedof research assistants and graduate students comingfrom dierent perspecves and dierent countries.

They work regularly with key government agenciessuch as U.S. Geological Survey, the Florida MarineResearch Instute, and others, in data gathering andanalysis pertaining to key environmental issues intheir region. Furthermore, they have completed manyresearch projects with NASA, EPA and USGS, such as

predicon of ground water vulner-ability, soil moisture mapping, dier-ent applicaons of machine learningalgorithms and much more. I concen-trated my research on the analysis ofmachine learning tools for classica

-

on of remotely sensed data. Thishelped me to enhance my thesis. Fur-thermore, this research enriched myacademic skills and helped me under-stand dierent points of view whiledoing research and wring a sciencpaper.Imagine vast, endless beaches whereyou can swim almost every day.

What city would have these beau-ful beaches and palm trees? Yes, this

is St. Petersburg, FL! When you rst

hear the name of this city, it is quite normal to guessit is in Russia. However, it is in the Sunshine State ofFlorida, in the southeastern region of the USA. It isknown as Floridas Sunshine City and is famous forthe St.Pete Beaches. Im sure that Miami rst cameto your mind when you think of Florida since that cityis famous for nightlife and its beaches as well.Can you imagine I got the opportunity to study in sucha place? This is why I would like to share my researchexperience at University of South Florida, St. Peters-burg (USFSP). It was such a long ight from Istanbulto Florida, about sixteen hours. The USFSP has a spec-

tacular campus nestled on the waterfront in the citycenter. It was like a small family welcoming you withits friendly and helpful students and sta. Perhaps be-cause of the balmy weather or the relaxing city atmo-sphere, the people living there are mostly smiling andhappy. This city is also one of the most bicycle friendlycies of the USA, which is why I usually biked to school.This sunshine city gave me the opportunity of meengnew people with dierent perspecves and learningsomething new about their culture and lifestyle.To sum up, everything was totally awesome during theme I spent at USFSP and I am glad to have had suchkind company during my two months there. I stronglyencourage anyone to see or visit this city and univer-sity .My special appreciaons go to my supervisors Dr.Sanli and Dr. Dixon for their guidance throughout myresearch; my friends Dr. Kazar from Oracle and Dr. Ak-kus from University of Memphis, and Veronica, Paula,and Kat for their help regarding some issues in theUSA. Furthermore I would also like to thank my friendsDr. Unal, Zeynep, Kadife, Michele, Camielle, Jordan,

Mark, Steven, Christa and Jason from USFSP for theirwarm welcome and good company.

Exchange Story from Floridas Sunshine City St. PetersburgBy Mustafa Ustuner

Yildiz Technical University, Turkey

STUDENTS CORNER


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TRAVEL INFO

Do you remember your childhood when your parents open up a book and beganto read once upon a me ..., while you were tucked up in bed? You were takento deserts made of gold, castles made out of crystal, places where women woreplates for jewelery, hynenas begging for tbits from the hands of men, emperars

turning soil rock into churches, a queen known as Sheba seduced a king namedSolomon... All those fairy tales took place in Ethiopia where our next summerschool will be held.This magical country is home to more than 80 million people speaking more than80 languages. As the second-most populous naon in this connent, it is alsothe oldest independent country in Africa and the second-oldest ocial Chrisannaon in the world. Historians believe that Ethiopia may well be the beginningof mankind. The fossils of the oldest living mankind or Lucy was discovered inthe the northern secon of Ethiopia. Lucy, who is esmated to have lived 3.2million years ago.

Addis Ababa is menoned among the top 10 cies to visit by lonely planet. Whilein Addis Ababa dont miss: Ethiopian Naonal Museum - a world-class museum with the replica of Lucy Red Terror Museum - learn about the horrors of the Derg that led to the well

known famine of the 1990s Mercato - the largest outdoor market in the world (Dont forget to bargain) Shiromeda Market - Nicer alternave to mercato Eat injera - (tradional food ) at least once. it is yeast-risen at bread with a

unique, slightly spongy texture Drink tej - the naonal drink of Ethiopia brewed from honey Drink tela - Ethiopian beer

Drink & buy coee - Ethiopia is where Coea arabica, the coee plant, origi-

nates.Be careful while preparing your luggage for Addis Ababa. Everybody thinks thatAfrica is hot, but its not always what people think of. Even though Addis Ababawas voted as the city with the best and the most stable weather in the world, beprepared for day and night me dierences in temperatures.If you have a few more days to stay in Ethiopia consider Lalibela (home to 11astonishing rock-hewn churches), Aksum (home of ancient tombs and stelaeelds), Gondar (some of East Africas only castles), Simien mountains naonalpark, Churches of Tigray, Lower Omo Valley and Harrar to see your childhoodfairytales.

Ethiopia - Addis Ababa

Bali is one of more than 17,000 islands in the Indonesian archipelago, alsoknown as The Island of the Gods. It is also called as the Last Paradise on Earthand is the most popular tourist desnaon in the world. Spectacular beacheswith great surng and diving, varied landscape of hills and mountains, deeply

spiritual and unique culture with combinaon of friendly and hospitable people80% of Balis economy depends on tourism.Indonesia is a Muslim country, but the main religion in Bali is Hinduism and it isconsidered one of the largest outpost of Hindus outside of India. Be preparedto see temples everywhere you turn your head. In Bali they also have a dier-ent calendar that has its origins in the Hindu religion which consists of 10 weeksmade of 10 days that has only 210 days.Dont miss: Visit the incredibly stunning black volcanic sand beaches Eat Babi Guling - (tradional food) a local version of suckling pig

Try some tropical fruits - snake fruit, pineapples, strawberry, apples, bananasof dierent grades, tangerines, papaya, wood apple, passion fruit, jackfruit Visit Mount Agung - highest mountain in Bali and the mother temple of Be-

sakih which is also an acve volcano and is believed to be the dwelling placeof the Hindu gods

Visit Bukit Peninsula - the southernmost p of Bali, with world class surng,great beaches, and the cant-miss cli-hanging Uluwatu Temple

Watch tradional dances - Barong or lion dance, Calonarang, Kecak ormonkey dance, Legong Keraton

Join a fesval - There are an esmated 20,000 temples (pura) on the island,each of which holds fesvals (odalan) at least twice yearly

Try Kopi Luwak - coee beans which have been eaten by the Asian PalmCivet, and then passed through its digesve system. It is the worlds mostexpansive coee.

Enjoy Bali with its sunshine shining throughout the year, with pleasant day tem-peratures.

Indonesia - Bali

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Referances: lonelyplanet, wikitraveland hp://blog.villa-bali.com/2013/03/8-fun-facts-bali
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/http://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_3/wikitravel.orghttp://blog.villa-bali.com/2013/03/8-fun-facts-balihttp://blog.villa-bali.com/2013/03/8-fun-facts-balihttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_3/wikitravel.orghttp://www.lonelyplanet.com/


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FUTURE ISPRS RELATED EVENTS INTERESTING LINKS

RESOURCES

Map of the Earths Vegetaon Arkgishp://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/green.php hp://www.arkgis.org/

EDUCATION

Tus Universityhp://ocw.tus.edu/

FREE SOFTWARE

CloudCompare Shapele Viewerhp://www.danielgm.net/cc/ hp://lsi.iiit.ac.in/lsi/lsiviewer

JOBS, CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

GISjobs.comhp://www.gisjobs.com/

JOURNALS

Geomacs, Natural Hazards and Riskhp://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tgnh20#.UcNG8ZzcCsh

Internaonal Journal of Engineering and Innovave Technology (IJEIT)hp://www.ijeit.com/

RELATED ORGANIZATIONS, ASSOCIATIONS

The Naonal Maphp://naonalmap.gov/

eBook

Coastal erosion monitoring: A network of regional observatories - Results fromResMar Projecthp://www.res-mar.eu/upload_docs/Coastal_erosion_monitoring_light.pdf

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3D Indoor Modelling and Navigaon Acquision and Modelling of Indoor and

Enclosed Environments Cape Town 2013

Cape Town, South Africa, 11-13 December 2013For more info visit: hp://indoor3d.net/

Annual Challenger Society and RSPSoc - Marine Opcs Special Interest Group

Meeng

Plymouth, UK, 16-17 December 2013For more info visit: hp://www.pml.ac.uk/accessible_science/events_page/ma -rine_opcs_event.aspx

WG VI/2: Innovave Learning Tools 2013 With specic emphasis on Strategies

for Earth Resources Management

Ahmedabad, India, 20-21 December 2013For more info visit: www.isprs2013-cept.in

GIS Ostrava 2014

Ostrava, Czech republic, 27-29 January 2014For more info visit: hp://gis.vsb.cz/gisostrava

SPIE Photonics West 2014

San Francisco, USA, 1-6 February 2014For more info visit: hp://spie.org/photonics-west.xml?WT.mc_id=RCal-PWW

10th Interexpo Geo-Siberia

Novosibirsk, Russia, 16-18 April 2014For more info visit: hp://expo-geo.ru/

ISPRS Technical Commission IV Symposium: Geo-spaal Databases and Loca-

on Based Services

Suzhou, China, 14-16 May 2014For more info visit: hp://www.isprs.org/2014tc4symposium/

EuroCOW 2014: the Calibraon and Orientaon Workshop

Castelldefels, Spain, 12-14 February 2014For more info visit: hp://www.eurocow.org/
http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/green.phphttp://ocw.tufts.edu/http://www.danielgm.net/cc/http://lsi.iiit.ac.in/lsi/lsiviewerhttp://www.gisjobs.com/http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tgnh20%23.UcNG8ZzcCshhttp://www.ijeit.com/http://nationalmap.gov/http://www.res-mar.eu/upload_docs/Coastal_erosion_monitoring_light.pdfhttp://%20http//www.pml.ac.uk/accessible_science/events_page/marine_optics_event.aspxhttp://%20http//www.pml.ac.uk/accessible_science/events_page/marine_optics_event.aspxhttp://%20http//www.pml.ac.uk/accessible_science/events_page/marine_optics_event.aspxhttp://www.isprs2013-cept.in/http://gis.vsb.cz/gisostravahttp://spie.org/photonics-west.xml%3FWT.mc_id%3DRCal-PWWhttp://expo-geo.ru/http://www.isprs.org/2014tc4symposium/http://www.eurocow.org/http://www.rspsoc-wavelength.org.uk/wavelength2013http://www.eurocow.org/http://www.isprs.org/2014tc4symposium/http://www.cirgeo.unipd.it/geomatics4risk/http://expo-geo.ru/http://spie.org/photonics-west.xml%3FWT.mc_id%3DRCal-PWWhttp://gis.vsb.cz/gisostravahttp://www.isprs2013-cept.in/http://%20http//www.pml.ac.uk/accessible_science/events_page/marine_optics_event.aspxhttp://%20http//www.pml.ac.uk/accessible_science/events_page/marine_optics_event.aspxhttp://%20http//indoor3d.net/http://www.res-mar.eu/upload_docs/Coastal_erosion_monitoring_light.pdfhttp://unoosa.org/http://nationalmap.gov/http://www.ijeit.com/http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tgnh20%23.UcNG8ZzcCshhttp://www.gisjobs.com/http://www.postgresql.org/http://lsi.iiit.ac.in/lsi/lsiviewerhttp://www.danielgm.net/cc/https://www.academyapp.com/http://ocw.tufts.edu/http://www.arkgis.org/%20http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/green.php


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ISPRS-SC Newsletter Vol. 7 No. 2 October 2013

Documents

Transcript of ISPRS-SC Newsletter Vol. 7 No. 2 October 2013