ASPRS Student Volunteer Opportunities

Attention all student members of ASPRS!

If you have not already done so, plan now to attend this conference as a Student Volunteer and pay NO registration fee.

If you are a student at an accredited college/university and would like to attend this conference without paying the required conference registration fee, consider serving as a Student Volunteer.

The Conference Volunteer Coordinator is looking for Student Volunteers to help from Sunday, November 14 – Thursday, November 18, 2010. In exchange for the opportunity to attend the General and Technical Sessions, visit the Exhibit Hall, and enjoy the Exhibitor's Reception, Student Volunteers will be required to work at least 8 hours during the conference.

This is a great opportunity to learn more about the geospatial field, meet some of the top names in the industry, and explore job possibilities; you are encouraged to bring your resumé as a special area will be set aside for resumé postings. In addition, the ASPRS Student Advisory Council has organized a Special Session on The Hiring Process: Tips for Success and have organized informal evenings out for students during the conference.

If you are interested in attending as a volunteer, please visit the conference website for an application at http://www.asprs.org/orlando2010/volunteer.html.

Also, see the description of Volunteer Tasks at http://www.asprs.org/orlando2010/StudentAssistantandVolunteerGuidelines.pdf

All applications must be submitted by e-mail to the Conference Volunteer Coordinator, Rakesh Malhotra, at mailto:rmalhotr@uncfsu.edu. Please include ASPRS Volunteer Program in the Subject Line of all e-mail correspondence. Assignments will be made on a first come basis.

ASPRS Student Scholarships

The Northern California region of ASPRS has posted information on their website about the new student scholarships for the 2010-11 academic year. You can read the announcement here, and download the application here. In order to be eligible for consideration, the applicant must be an active student member of ASPRS. A completed application and current transcript must be submitted for consideration no later than December 15, 2010.

Mapping Pakistan Floods

From www.hydrology.nl

Late July 2010, heavy rain caused record flooding in Pakistan, especially along the Kabul River in the northwestern part of the country. The UN, governments and private organizations are joining forces to help. One of the means is to provide accurate and timely data about the situation on the ground. Maps, as supplied by many organisations, are very helpful for getting an overview of the problems, e.g. of the flood extension.

Pakistan_UNOSATThe main city of the area, Peshawar, is isolated by water. On the 31st of July, 800 deaths and thousands of affected people are reported by authorities. Material damage is also considerable and access to a lot of urban areas is impossible. The European Commission has allocated 30 millions euros to help people affected by this major disaster. In mid-August the state of emergency was reinforced in the southern province of Sindh due to the flood spreading in this region.

The United Nations, governments and private organizations are joining forces to help. One of the means is to provide accurate and timely data about the situation on the ground. Maps, as supplied by many organisations are very helpful for getting an overview of the problems, e.g. the flood extension.

Oil Spill History

For those of you wondering about the latest news on the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill there is a great KML file that a reader posted on the Google Earth Blog. It geolocates many significant oil spills, organizing them by the largest 50, and including others that are noteworthy. It includes great descriptions of how much oil was spilled and how it happened. For the BP Deepwater spill it even has a clock estimating the oil spill real time.


There is also a great comparison tool developed by Paul Rademacher showing the oil spill to whatever town you choose. Incredibly I compared it to HSU town Arcata, CA. Not only did it cover the complete area for the town, it pretty much covers the entirety of Humboldt County!

GeoStat

Geo-Stat is an interesting site creating visualizations of statistical information. It allows the user to choose data, and has the ability to create tables, graphics, and reports for the data. A user can also import their own data to use within the application.

CNN is spatial-clueless

CNN reporters believe that the recent Times Square attempted attacks caused higher-ups to blur Google Earth imagery. Obviously they are missing fundamental knowledge of satellite imagery and the workings of Google maps.

CalGIS Day 1

Huntington Beach, CA, oceanside at the Hyatt. A warm up of NOAA and open source technical sessions, $15 fruit bowls, and authentic Italian cuisine. The 13 hour drive down sort of taxed us, but Alex the bell boy gave us a great introduction to our next few days at the Hyatt. The next few days have a great lineup for all partakers to get their GIS on. Pictures to come soon.

Take 10 Challenge Map

The 2010 Census is upon us. On average only 73% of households fill out their census forms every 10 years. The Take 10 Map shows how your state currently stacks up in census participation.

Geospatial Speaker Series

The HSU Geospatial Club will be hosting it's semester speaker series on Monday, March 29th at 5pm. It will be in the usual location in room 135 of Science B on the HSU campus. Drinks and snacks will start at 5pm, and talks will start at 6pm.

We will have a total of three presenters for the event. Jerry von Dohlen from Humboldt County will be presenting on some recent projects. Brian Kang from the City of Arcata will be presenting his recent interactive Mapserver work.

Our headlining presenter is Joseph Toland, an HSU alumnus. Joseph now works for FEMA as the Geospatial Intelligence Unit Leader. He has been deployed to many locations dealing with emergency response situations and will present on his work for a couple recent events including Somalia and Haiti.

Ushahidi Haiti Project

Cool things are happening in the field of online interactive mapping. Increasingly, geospatial technology is being tested in it's application within crisis situations. The ability to crowdsource multiple data inputs (sms text, web, email) is crucial for data validity. The Ushahidi Haiti project has an interactive mapping platform for earthquake related emergencies. The application allows users to submit an incident based on a certain category, or to query out certain incidents based in a certain region. The open source project is a free download for use and development. Check out the Ushahidi website.