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December 1998 NewsletterSteve Reutebuch As we begin 1999 here in the Pacific Northwest we can look forward to an interesting year for the Puget Sound Region. On Friday, February 26th, we'll have our first joint Information Exchange technical meeting with the Canadian Institute of Geomatics (CIG) in Vancouver. This meeting will highlight two of the new and exciting technologies that are developing for topographic mapping: airborne laser scanning and radar mapping. In conjunction with the Info Exchange, we'll be holding our 1999 Annual General Meeting during the luncheon. We'll be installing new regional officers and getting an update from National President-Elect, Mike Renslow, on the latest activities and changes that ASPRS has undertaken. So I hope you can join us for a great day in Vancouver! Then in May (see calendar of events), the PNW will be hosting the national ASPRS Annual Convention in Portland, Oregon. Our sister region to the south has been working for over a year to put on a terrific event for all of us. So again, please mark it on your calendars. Finally, in September, we again plan to host the joint Columbia River/Puget Sound Regional Information Exchange Meeting in Vancouver, Washington. The 1998 joint meeting on September 17th included nine presentations from local members. These included overviews of a wide variety of unusual and interesting photogrammetric and remote sensing projects from around the region. I believe these 1-day technical meetings are an extremely effective forum for getting to know what capabilities and expertise is available here in our own backyard. Some of you may wonder why we are not jointly sponsoring the Land Surveyors of Washington's (LSAW) annual convention this year. There are two reasons. LSAW is rolling their annual convention into the national ACSM convention in Portland in April. This is 2 months later than we usually hold our Annual General Meeting (AGM). Secondly, the meeting is being held outside our regional boundaries. Given this, we chose to organize a technical meeting in Vancouver, BC and have our AGM in conjunction with it. And, through the efforts of our newsletter editor, CIG was very keen to join in with us for this meeting. However, we fully plan to re-kindle our long staying relationship with LSAW and jointly sponsor the 2000 LSAW annual convention out at Ocean Shores, Washington. On the people side of things, we've had a good year. Tracie Luthi took up the load of Secretary from Bryan Foley, who dearly desired a break. Gord Shields took over from long-serving Chris Hansen (formerly Greer) as our hard-working newsletter editor. Alan Walford, President-Elect, has done a great job moving our website over to a server he maintains from its original creator, Jeff Morrow, our Past-President. Kamal Ahmed, Vice President, did a great job representing us on the Chittenden Award scholarship selection board at the University of Washington. Terry Curtis, PSR National Director, as always, has represented us superbly at national meetings throughout the year. And Kathie Muhlbeier, Treasurer, once again has paid all the bills, acted as registrar for our technical meetings, and put together the notebooks for our Info Exchange Meetings. Kathie has decided to step down as Treasurer at the end of this year. We'll really miss her positive, uplifting, and extremely competent contributions to running the region. Have a good break Kathie, but remember, we'll be looking for a good vice president one of these days! Finally, I regret to tell you that Professor Sandor Veress, one of our finest photogrammetric educators and a great friend to many of us, passed away suddenly this fall. Sandy guided many of us both here in the PNW and around the world into the marvelous world of photogrammetry. I hope you all had a great holiday break and will come join us in 1999 at one, two, or all of our up-coming events! SANDOR ALEXANDER VERESS, Ph.D. Sandor A. Veress was born in Hungary, March 13, 1927. Sandy had a B.S.E. (1951) from Josef Nador Technical University, an M.S.E. (1956) from Sopron University, and a Ph.D. (1969) from Laval University in Quebec. His academic career included teaching from 1951 to 1956 at Josef Nador and from 1956 to 1959 at the University of British Columbia. He then moved to Purdue University where he taught Adjustment Computations, Photogrammetry, and Electronic Surveying. Sandy joined the University of Washington, Department of Civil Engineering faculty in 1965 after teaching at the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Geometronics Institute held at the University of Washington. With this background, he brought new breadth to the University's surveying programs. Over time, his students won many national photogrammetric awards, and the program was highly regarded nationally. While at Washington, Dr. Veress had many consulting jobs with local professionals. As a consultant to the US Army Corps of Engineers, Seattle District, he developed photogrammetric systems for monitoring deformations in bridges, dams and the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks. Also, he had research activities with the Washington State Department of Transportation dealing with motion of retaining and gabion walls and development and analysis of terrestrial and aerial photogrammetry for structural modeling. In the medical field, Dr. Veress did research for NSF on photogrammetric measures on the musculoskeletal system and for the Veterans' Administration on development of X-ray photogrammetry. Sandy published over 35 papers and reports after 1977 including Close Range Photogrammetry and Surveying State of the Art Manual in 1984. He was also a contributing author to the ASPRS's 4th Edition of Manual of Photogrammetry and X-Ray Photogrammetry. He presented invited papers in 1988 on "X-Ray Photogrammetry, State of the Art" in Kyoto, Japan and in 1992 on "Establishing Standards for X-Ray Photogrammetry" in Oxford, England. Sandy was an active member in not only ASPRS, but also the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping (ACSM), and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). He received Presidential Citations from ASPRS in 1977 and 1979 and from ACSM in 1980 and had the ASPRS President's Award for the Best Practical Paper in 1981 and Second Best in 1988. Sandy left his native Hungary with his first wife and their first child in 1956, during the short-lived Hungarian Revolution in a harrowing episode of crossing the border into Austria and freedom. Sandy was an avid fisherman and often spent his holidays in remote Alaska - "where the big ones are." He retired in 1996 and moved to acreage with a great garden in Oregon on a fishing stream and with good hunting nearby - all the pursuits he loved. Sandy died on October 22, 1998, and is survived by his wife of six years JoAnn Veress; his first wife Stefania Veress and their son Alexander Veress and daughter Andrea Veress Robertson; and their three grandchildren. Submitted by Professor Joseph Colcord, University of Washington, Civil Engineering Puget Sound Region Sustaining Members By: Terry Curtis The Puget Sound Region extends a resounding "THANK YOU! to our Region's seven "Sustaining Member" organizations, their proprietors, and staff for providing ongoing support of the National (and Regional) ASPRS, and for their contributions to and/or advancement of the mapping sciences through the products and services they provide. These organizations pay annual dues at the National level in exchange for several Sustaining Member benefits including reduced advertising rates, 4 copies of the PE&RS Journal, reduced rate and preferential exhibit space at conferences, company profile in annual "Directory of the Mapping Sciences", and listing in the "Products and Services" section of the ASPRS homepage. Shouldn't YOUR company name be included here ?! For more information contact ASPRS Membership Dept. at (301)493-0290 or email at members@asprs.org, or download an application form from the ASPRS website at http://www.asprs.org/asprs/society/membership/memcorp.html ! In grateful recognition of all the Puget Sound Region's Sustaining Members:
Terry Curtis, Membership Liaison Puget Sound Region would like to extend a warm WELCOME! to its newest members (July through December 1998): ACTIVE: STUDENT: We're glad to have you all aboard and look forward to meeting you at one of our next Puget Sound Region functions! Why not bring a friend and encourage them to join also! If you have a news item of interest to your fellow readers, please send it (preferably via e-mail) to the Newsletter Editor. We would particularly like to feature short articles which focus on ne w projects or new technologies . All contributions of professional interest will be considered for publication!! Send your news to: By Terry Curtis, Director I hope everyone had a happy holiday season have started the new year out right by renewing your membership! It promises to be a good year for ASPRS.....the financial situation is well in hand, and we're all looking forward to a great National Meeting in Portland this May. There are already 9 workshops and 6 user's conferences booked, as well as receipt of over 300 technical papers and a majority of the exhibit space. It will also feature a golf tournament and a 50's-60's themed social event. Make your plans now for May 17th to the 21st at the Doubletree-Lloyd Center and Oregon Convention Center. ASPRS's financial situation is much improved over the past few years, much to the credit of Mike Renslow and the other National Officers. We are not swimming in dollars, but all the bills are paid and we're keeping "food on the table" without having to dip into the reserve fund nor utilize the society's line of credit. Things are looking up!! The Fort Worth GIS/LIS meeting last November was the last GIS/LIS that will be held under that regime. All three participating societies voted to dissolve the GIS/LIS corporation due to steadily declining attendance and interest.. The meeting had become stale and simply a recurring "clone" since 1989, plus GIS has "matured" and has migrated out into and is being addressed in the specialty fields. Attendance at Fort Worth was only about 1500, representing a steady decline from the 3000-5000 or so attendees at the early conferences. ASPRS plans to use the "Land Satellite in the Next Decade" meeting scheduled for Denver in December 1999 as a backup meeting for ASPRS Fall 99. It's also being co-sponsored by a half dozen or so Federal Agencies, and will be at the Doubletree - Stapleton Hotel. For fall 2000, possibly a joint ASPRS-MAPPS sponsored meeting themed as "Softcopy III". Year 2000 and 2001 Annual (spring) Conferences are planned for Washington D.C. and St. Louis respectively. National's computer systems have been upgraded through generous donations from two of our sustaining members....Intergraph provided the computers and Microsoft provided the software suites (total value of $40-50K). ASPRS spent about $30K for network and communications, and for conversion of the data/programs to the new system. Thank you Intergraph and Microsoft!! This may be the last PSR newsletter for our Idaho members. The Puget Sound Region, in cooperation with Columbia River and Intermountain regions, proposed a boundary change to move the Idaho portions of both PSR and CRR into the Intermountain Region in order to better serve those members. For Puget Sound, we have only 5 members in the Idaho panhandle, and we simply cannot "reach" them or serve them well with Regional activities. A recent email vote of the National Board approved the boundary adjustment. Additional tidbits from the Fort Worth meeting include: Membership renewal (for new members) will now be on an "anniversary date" basis rather than a calendar year basis. This is to spread the renewal workload out for National staff, as well as eliminate the need to keep back issues of the journal on hand for those joining in mid year. ASPRS has a new logo! The Executive Committee and National Officers created and implemented a new, modern-style logo for the Society designed to more easily identify our presence and niche. The "wings" are still the official "seal" of the society, but expect the new logo to predominate in most external publications. It's a nice design, but I don't like the shade of green used - I guess I'm used to more naturally occurring colors with all the green we have here in the Northwest (although the green chosen may occur naturally in some varieties of pond scum)! For those interested in digital orthophotos (and who isn't?), Digital Orthophoto Standards are available from the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) website at http://fgdc.er.usgs.gov/fgdc.html. Those are the highlights of the Board, and Officers and Directors meetings from Fort Worth (although there was much more). I'm looking forward to seeing all of you in Vancouver for the Information Exchange, and in Portland in May! Happy 1999 to all! Your License Please.....chapter 3 By Terry Curtis Well, here's the latest on the efforts of the Washington State Board of Registration for Engineers and Land Surveyors (BOR) to license photogrammetrists in this state as Land Surveyors. (For the background on this issue, see: "Your License Please..." chapters 1 and 2 in previous PSR newsletters) I spoke with George Twiss, the Executive Director for the BOR, last week and he brought me up to date on the status of the proposal by the Ad Hoc committee, composed of photogrammetrists and surveyors from Washington, for the Board to change administrative rules to allow current practitioners to be grandfathered" in, and for subsequent applicants to take a written "Fundamentals of Surveying", plus a specialized "Photogrammetry" test in order to become licensed. The BOR obtained an opinion from the Attorney Generals Office that it was not within the scope of their authority to make the proposed changes. The primary obstacles are that, without legislation, they could not create a new branch of "Photogrammetric Surveyors", and that under current law, the experience requirements and written tests MUST BE THE SAME FOR ALL APPLICANTS. They cannot have a separate exam for photogrammetrists. At present, this means that for a photogrammetrist to become licensed as a Land Surveyor, they must pass both the current Federal fundamentals exam, plus the Washington State boundary law exam (2 days total). The BOR does have the authority to expand the eligibility requirements to allow photogrammetric experience to "count" towards eligibility, but there are no current plans to do so. The bottom line for now is that the issue is in a temporary holding pattern while the Board reviews it options and gathers more information. They plan to meet with the Boards from other states considering similar action (Florida, North Carolina, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania) this spring to compare notes. They also plan to review the newly modified "Model Law" issued by the NCEES to determine it's applicability in Washington. George assured me that in the meantime, they don't plan to start writing citations for currently practicing photogrammetrists who are not also licensed Land Surveyors. ASPRS has had a task force studying this issue at the national level for the past 2 years, and recently was successful in becoming a recognized member of the Professional Organization Liaison Committee (POLC) to the NCEES so we now have an official "voice" for influencing the model law. The task force has already been successful in getting NCEES to modify the previously issued model law to include a "savings" clause (essentially grandfathering), and to consider altering the nomenclature for photogrammetric surveyors. You can see the task forces report on the ASPRS (national) web page. I plan to stay on top of this issue and will keep you informed as new information becomes available. Be sure to visit the PSR webpage at http://www.photogrammetry.com/ASPRS-PSR to keep up to date (and read your newsletters!). OUTREACH PROGRAM TO LINK SPACE AGE, PRIVATE INDUSTRY By David Stauth CORVALLIS, Ore. - A $232,000 annual program has just begun at Oregon State University to help Pacific Northwest private industry tap into the powerful new tools of remote sensing, geographic information systems and global positioning systems, and in the process create new products, services, technology and jobs. OSU has been named an "Affiliated Regional Center" by NASA, to operate one of only nine such programs in the nation and the only one in the Pacific Northwest. It's part of the space agency's Commercial Remote Sensing Program for technology transfer, designed to help link everything from satellite data to soil maps into useful, profitable products. "Remote sensing and geographic information systems are maturing technologies, poised for a period of exponential growth," said Greg Gaston, a researcher with the OSU Department of Geosciences. "NASA and OSU are now teaming up to help move these advances out of the laboratory and into real-world applications, creating valuable products and services that frankly never existed before." The beneficiaries of this program, Gaston said, may literally be any business or industry in the Pacific Northwest that has a good idea for a new product or service, but may need some expert help to turn it into a marketable reality. Businesses will be expected to support their own employees who work as "affiliated investigators" on projects, but the aid of university laboratories and graduate students will essentially be free, as will initial consultations with faculty experts. And the doors are now officially open - businesses seeking more information or wishing to develop a research project can call ARC Co-Directors Gaston at (541) 737-7013 or Joe Means at (541) 750-7351. According to Means, an assistant professor of forest science, geographic information systems are a way to use sophisticated computer systems and merge data from diverse sources - satellites, radar, land form maps, the Global Positioning System, geological surveys, soil samples or census data. "The whole can become far greater than the parts when all of this data is brought together in the right way to create a new product or service," Means said. Right now, some of the earliest commercial products
tapping into this concept are fairly simple, like global
positioning receivers that help surveyors do their work
or a fisherman relocate a favorite fishing hole, Means
said. But far more sophisticated uses have already been
developed in university laboratories and are just on the
horizon of commercial marketing. Those are just a few ideas that have popped to mind, the researchers said. More important are the ideas that private industry will develop in the future, in which they see definite marketing possibilities but may lack the full expertise to bring a finished product to market. In this new program, businesses will be able to come to OSU, set up a research project, and work with university scientists, graduate students, laboratories, and business consultants to explore new products, processes and do pilot studies in a fairly low-cost environment. "With this program, we're not just sitting in the university saying we have all the answers," Gaston said. "What we're offering is to work with private industry as collaborating scientists and consultants and help them explore possibilities. If and when a new product or service can be created, they will handle all the actual commercial production, and we'll go on to the next project." Students will benefit greatly from participating in real-world applications of fundamental research, Gaston said, and university faculty will use these studies and consultations to stay at the forefront of developments in their field. About four projects a year lasting six to nine months each are envisioned in the new program, Gaston said. No commitments have yet been made and the university is open to proposals. The departments of Forest Science and Geosciences are officially running the new program, he said. OSU was chosen for this program and its associated NASA funding because of the university's broad expertise and research in these areas, and its past history of successful collaborations with business and industry. Contributed by Joe Means |