Spatial Signals

Tracy Shane from the University of Nevada-Reno joins us to talk about her backpacking trips with her grandmother as a kid, learning to read topo maps at age seven, the Nevada Youth Range Camp, Tracy’s time as a Student Conservation Employment Program (SCEP) student, the Society for Range Management, the Drone Rangers, a drone named Betty White, working with drones in outreach and a 4-H program, range management, the use of virtual fencing in ranching, the scale of the Great Basin, hyperspectral analysis with drones for biomass estimation, and pairing drone data with NAIP imagery.  Show notes and photos are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Yuting Zhou from Oklahoma State University joins us to talk about a long trip where flat land turned into mountains, tools for understanding landscape changes, studying ecology and agriculture applications, Yuting’s journey from China to Oklahoma, OklahomaView and the national network of AmericaView, the climate and agriculture of Oklahoma, studying agriculture at different scales, UAS filling the gap between satellite data and in situ measurements, invasive species detection with UAS, Red Cedar mapping, GIS Day in Oklahoma, flash drought analysis, and much more.  Show notes and photos are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Jan Eitel from the University of Idaho joins us to talk about going from plot scale to landscape scale, the McCall Outdoor Science School, introducing K-12 students to lidar measurements, STELLA, teaching outdoors and winter research, IdahoView, engaging students in data collection, point dendrometers, a Tree EKG, NISAR imagery and analyzing plant water status, data fusion, AI and extracting meaningful information regarding forest growth and forest health, the response of forest ecosystems to hotter and dryer conditions, lidar and forest management, and much more.  Show notes and photos are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Paige Williams from Virginia Commonwealth University joins us to talk about traveling to the Esri conference in San Diego with her mom while in high school, being inspired by Will.i.am, working in software distribution, maxing out on GIS classes, collecting data and mapping as part of a water study team in Burkina Fasa, flying drones in research at NASA Goddard, forestry analysis at spatial and temporal scales, and Paige’s work at VCU, a student-driven drone class, teacher training with UAS, hands-on learning, working with STELLA and using STELLA on a drone, and much more.  Show notes and photos are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

John Millard from Miami University joins us to talk about the career of Keanu Reeves, becoming a librarian from a business program, technology based jobs for librarians, Dad Lore, Mosaic, building your own digital library of information, a collaboration that would become OhioView, licensing of Landsat data, the cost of data storage, OhioLink and the process of satellite imagery transfer, technology training for librarians, metadata, data storage, the first file cabinet, how AI is changing the game, AI deriving meaning out of disparate data, award winning chili recipes, and much more.  Show notes and photos are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Mary O’Neill from South Dakota State University joins us to talk about a work study job in the plant science department, the Remote Sensing Institute (RSI) at SDSU, remote sensing from a retrofitted WW2 aircraft, SADE (Signal Analysis and Dissemination Equipment), watching the first scenes from ERTS / Landsat 1 come off the printer, Mary’s participation at the start of AmericaView and her time with the consortium, the establishment of a Geospatial Science Center of Excellence, workshops for K-12 teachers, why EROS was established where it was, Mary’s second retirement, SouthDakotaView, and much more.  Show notes and photos are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Mike Taylor from NASA’s Landsat Project Science Support Team joins us to talk about job fields merging computers and the outdoors, a life-changing 14-day geography field study course, the work of the Landsat Science Team, continuity of Landsat imagery, levels of imagery resolution, the development of STELLA, applications of STELLA in relation to satellite imagery, approachable and affordable STELLA instrumentation and technology, the democratization of instrumentation, the Landsat 9 launch, geocaching at Lompoc to tell the story of Virginia Norwood, EarthLens, and much more.   Show notes and photos are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Mary Schorse from the University of Delaware joins us to talk about her background in education and how it connects with geospatial technologies, the expansion of geospatial technologies into a multitude of fields, the Delaware Center for Geographic Education (DCGE), inserting GIS and remote sensing into K-12 lessons, Mary’s collaborations with Tracy DeLiberty, Mary’s work with environmental impact assessment in Trinidad, payment for ecosystem services and applications and issues of scale with that, inserting geospatial technology tools into instructor resources, summer education outreach programs for students, the challenges of working with K-12 students and teachers, dual enrollment courses, and much more.  Show notes and photos are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Parinaz Rahimzadeh from the University of Maine joins us to talk about finding GIS and remote sensing on her first day of university, creating map layouts and band combinations, Parinaz earning her doctorate in Japan, and the birth of MaineView, forest health, detecting the severity of pathogen-induced damage on the landscape, forest susceptibility, applied research with GIS and remote sensing, pest monitoring, defoliation detection, the abundance of forests in Maine, worksforce training for GIS and remote sensing forest health monitoring, creating products for decision making, and much more. Show notes and photos are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

This is Round Five of our special “Squared Circle” episodes, where a group of guests gets together to wrestle with a particular topic. For this episode, we're joined by Ms. Robbyn Abbitt from Miami University, Dr. Forrest Bowlick from University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Dr. Courtney Poirier Chicola from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and we’re discussing all things about teaching GIS today. We talk about approaches to teaching GIS, mixing fundamentals and application, students working on local projects, producing tangible products, incorporating topoquads and remote sensing, students taking on different roles in projects, relevancy of tasks, incorporating maps from current events, the challenges of online GIS courses, showing why things are happening, collaboration on GIS problems, fundamental changes in what’s been taught in GIS courses, data handling challenges, GeoAI, and much more.  Show notes and photos are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com