12
January 2015
PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
PROFESSIONAL
INSIGHT
How can ASPRS better assist their student chapters?
Chris — I like the idea of making funds available to support
hosting local/regional events such as speakers or workshops
- anything to facilitate interaction between the student
chapters and the regional membership.
Su — I support the idea of allocating more “resources” to
support the growth the student chapters. For example, an
officer could be designated to interact with student chap-
ters to listen to the special needs of a specific chapter. In
addition, ASPRS could help student chapters interact with
the industry by exposing members to more opportunities. It
would also great if we could get free state-of-art technology
training routinely to prepare the students to be ready for
various challenges.
Will the student chapter plan any activities to expose local
elementary and high school students to the industry?
Su — We are planning to do a series of events on the
next GIS Day to expose local elementary and high school
students to the industry. We are also planning to organize
a field trip to Blue Skies Aerial Survey firm to provide a
unique geospatial exposure to local students. Students will
be able to experience the procedures used when acquiring
aerial photography and the post-processing that leads to the
final products. We hope such activities will arouse interests
in local elementary and high school students for learning
geospatial knowledge.
What do you feel should be the student chapters role in
the Society?
Chris — I believe student chapters can act as the “boots
on the ground” in between meetings. What I mean by that
is they can organize events that are open to the regional
membership, which serves both the chapter’s members and
the regions. More practically, student chapter members are
literally the future of the society, and obviously warrant the
larger societies’ support. Supporting them in their role as
regional facilitators of events serves everyone’s interests.
What is the future of ASPRS in your opinion?
Chris — ASPRS plays a critical role in the remote sensing
and the GIS community; its established track record at
the intersection of industry, academia, and government,
independent from any particular corporate entity, and
explicit relationship with the international society make it
unique and, I believe, well positioned to foster and represent
the larger geospatial community.
Su — The 21
st
Century is a century of “Digital Earth”.
Significant progress towards Digital Earth has been
achieved over the last couple of decades. Geospatial tech-
nologies are the fundamental elements of Digital Earth
and I think ASPRS will play a signifcant role in promoting
Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing, and GIS knowledge
to the general public to prepare them to be ready for the
Digital Earth Century. In addition, ASPRS plays a critical
role in collaborating with other international geospatial
groups across the world representing the U.S. geospatial
community.
UNM ASPRS student chapter members with Rio Grande Chapter
board members at the Rio Grande Chapter Fall meeting.
GeoBytes!
ASPRS GIS
D
ivision
—
F
ree
O
nline
S
eminars
The ASPRS GIS Division,
in cooperation with
CaGIS and GLIS, is
sponsoring free online
live seminars throughout
the year.
Attention those seeking ASPRS
Certification: ASPRS Online
Seminars are a great way to gain
Professional Development Hours!
/
GISD-Division/Online-
Seminars.html
