INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Geomatics NewsD E P A R T M E N T O F G E O M A T I C S E N G I N E E R I N G

WINTER 2014 · Volume 11, Issue 2

Message from the Head

Awards & Recognitions

Other News

Alumni Voice

Department Activities

COMING EVENTS

Capstone Design FairTuesday, April 8, 2014

MacHall AB

ENGO 500 ProjectsApril 9-11, 2014

June Convocation 2014Schulich School of Engineering

Monday, June 9, 2014 2:00 pm

Jack Simpson Gymnasium, Kinesiology Complex

ENGO 501Geomatics Field SurveysKananaskis Field Station

August 18-27, 2014

Find us on

Facebook schulich.ucalgary.ca/geomatics

Dear Valued Reader,

Greetings. The winter semester has thus far seen a number of important events in Geomatics Engineering. The Geomatics Exposition was again a very successful event. I had the chance to talk with many of the exhibitors and was glad to learn that there seems to be a healthy job market for both graduating students and stu-dents seeking summer employ-ment. Congratulations to Geoff and his team for a well-orga-nized, successful exposition. Read more about this event in-side this newsletter.

Meetings of the Geomatics Engineering Liaison Committee (GELC) and the Geomatics En-gineering Advisory Committee (GEAC) took place this semes-ter. As key links with industry and government stakeholders, these committees serve very im-portant roles in providing advice on developments in Geomatics and on the future directions for our degree programs. I thank the members of both GEAC and GELC for devoting their time to serve on these committees and

@UofC_GeomaticsSCHULICH SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING · UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY

2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 1N4Phone: 403.220.5834 · Fax: 403.284.1980

www.geomatics.ucalgary.ca

Find Yourself Here

Department Activities

Calgary Science Olympics

1st Year Coffee Break

Awards Night

Saturday, February 22, 2014 Stampede Park, BMO Centre, Hall D

Science Olympics is an inter-school, hands-on science competition involving up to 500 students from Grades 1-12.

Teams participate in events that highlight how science affects our everyday lives.

Thrursday, March 13, 2014 MacEwan Centre Cassio AB

Geomatics scholarship donors and industry guests were invited to the annual Geomatics Award Night to celebrate with the award recipients from the Geomatics students in 2nd, 3rd and 4th year of the program. The Geomatics Award Night was enjoyed by all and we wish to extend all of the award recipients our sincerest

congratulations on their achievements.

Friday, March 7, 2014 SSE Engineering Lounge

An opportunity for 1st year engineering students to learn more about Geomatics Engineering with industry partners and

research deomonstrations.

StudentAwardsNightMarch 13, 2014 · 5:30 pm

Cassio AB, MacEwan Student Centre

for their valuable input.On 7 March the 1st year

coffee break event was held to provide an opportunity for students to learn more about careers in Geomatics engineer-ing. My sincere thanks goes to ALSA for initiating the event, the many sponsors and the ex-hibitors, undergraduate and graduate students and postdoc-toral fellows who devoted their time as volunteers.

An annual event we can all be very proud of is the Geomat-ics Engineering Awards Night. This is a very special occasion when we recognize the excel-lent undergraduate and gradu-ate students in our department. This event would not be pos-sible without the many donors and sponsors, whom I thank for their generosity and foresight

for their contributions to rec-ognize academic excellence. Thanks also to the host for the evening, GESS president Laura Norman, all the award present-ers and the department office staff (Ms Courtenay Canviet in particular) who contributed to this successful evening.

Finally, it is with some sad-ness that I announce the retire-ment of two of the cornerstone personnel of our department. After 35 years of service, Dr William F (Bill) Teskey will retire effective 31 December 2014. I’d like to thank Bill for his dedicated service to the Division of Surveying Engi-neering and subsequently the Department of Geomatics En-gineering. Our department has benefited greatly from his com-mitted contributions in teach-ing, scholarship and service.

After 22 years of service (9 in her current role), our Admin-istrative Manager Marcia Rem-pel will retire effective 30 April 2014. Marcia is the key person who ensures the office functions as smoothly as is possible. Her dedication to the department and her unparalleled competence and compassion will be terribly missed. We will miss both Mar-cia and Bill, but are glad that they can now look forward to enjoying life in retirement.

Derek LichtiProfessor and Head

page 2 G E O M AT I C S N E W S page 3W I N T E R 2 0 1 4 · V O L U M E 1 1 , I S S U E 2

• PhD student, Jacky Chow, receives the Robert E. Al-tenhofen Memorial Schol-arship. The scholarship ad-ministered by the ASPRS Foundation is to encourage and commend college stu-dents who display excep-tional interest and ability in the theoretical aspects of photogrammetry.

• Dr. Ruisheng Wang re-ceives the Google Re-

Alumni VoiceAWARDSRECOGNITIONS&

Other News

Geomatics Exposition

2014

Geomatics Engineering Liaison Committee (GELC)

Geomatics Engineering Advisory Committee (GEAC)

An Adventure from Surveying Engineering to GIS

Gary Zhang, Founder and President, MRF Geosystems Corporation

by Geoffrey StrandbergGESS, Geomatics Exposition Commissioner

The 2nd annual Geomatics Expo-sition hosted by the Geomatics Engineering Students’ Society (GESS) was held on January 23rd, 2014. Last year the re-branding of our Geomatics Ca-reer Fair to the Geomatics Ex-position resulted in the largest showcase of the Geomatics En-gineering profession at the Uni-versity of Calgary we have seen in our history. We continued this overwhelming success as we again welcomed more than for-ty companies and associations. This full day event provides opportunities for students to explore potential careers, learn about companies and organiza-tions involved in the industry. It also allows students to network with potential employers. As such the exposition is a key tool in developing awareness and promoting the Geomatics Engi-

I graduated from the Uni-versity of Calgary, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Surveying Engineering in 1989 with a M.Sc degree, specializing in Land Information Systems. I then went to work in Toronto as a GIS Developer for WILD LEITZ CANADA LTD which later on became Computervi-sion GIS. I totally enjoyed the design of advanced spatial in-dexing and data manipulation algorithms and the development of a new spatial overlay analysis package for SYSTEM 9.

GIS was becoming very popular in the 1990s. I became more curious about the role GIS plays in various organizations. That curiosity lead me to a con-sulting position at TransAlta Limited where I designed an in-tegrated landbase to support elec-tricity distribution design. The experience at TransAlta taught me a very important lesson: GIS is a tool to solve some problems. It may and may not be the best tool for a particular spatial data management problem. The expe-rience at TransAlta transitioned me from a technology enthusiast to a problem solver.

Through networking with many GIS professionals, I identi-fied a need for a better map clean-

neering profession. It also pro-vides an invaluable environment to bring together current and future alumni. The continued support of the department and industry sponsors is crucial to the success of the event, and we consider ourselves privileged and proud to have the amazing industry relationships we do. It is our hope that future GESS councils build on the established success and reputation of our

annual exposition, and continue to provide this incredible expe-

ing software. It took me about a year to develop my first commer-cial software product package – MRF Clean for MicroStation. I sold many licenses of MRF Clean to all the major users of MicroStation in Alberta, includ-ing Intergraph Canada. In 1995, Intergraph Corporation signed an OEM agreement with my com-pany to resell MRF Clean world-wide. More than 6,000 licenses of MRF Clean was sold in more than 40 countries.

The success of MRF Clean encouraged me to develop more GIS tools such as MRF Polygon, MRF Buffer, and MRF Overlay. It became clear that I needed to hire employees to help with the development. I became more and more involved with propos-al writing, project management, and employee training.

Today, MRF is a well-estab-lished GIS software and service provider with customers in Cana-da, US, Europe, China, and India. Our main line of business is GIS website design, systems integra-tion, field GIS, and multi-sensor integration with GIS.

While I did not do much traditional surveying engineer-ing work, my venture into GIS has been very exciting, chal-lenging, and rewarding.

search Award which cov-ers tuition for a graduate student by providing both faculty and students the opportunity to work direct-ly with Google researchers and engineers.

• PhD student, Ivan Detchev, will receive the 2014 Z/I Imaging Scholarship from the American Society for Photogrammetry and Re-mote Sensing (ASPRS) for his graduate work ap-plying photogrammetry to real-world techniques.

• The Head of the Depart-ment, Dr. Derek Lichti, is

pleased to announce the promotion of Drs. Michael Collins and Kyle O’Keefe to Professor and Dr. Quazi Hassan to Associate Pro-fessor as of April 1, 2014.

• MRF Geosystems, found-ed by Geomatics Engineer-ing graduate alumni, Gary Zhang, was awarded the Outstanding Commercial Achievement in Alberta Science and Technology, 2013 ASTech Award.

• Dr. Danielle Marceau joins a nationally and interna-tionally recognized Expert Management Panel with

rience to students, alumni and industry alike.

The City of Calgary - River Flood Mitigation Program to develop the overall miti-gation program and recom-mendations, on Watershed Management, in response to the floods of June 2013.

• Dr. Ruisheng Wang was 1 of 15 academics chosen to be part of the Global Fac-ulty Program at Technógi-co de Monterrey, Guadala-jara, Mexico. The program is aimed at gathering to-gether faculty members from all over the globe for an international academic experience.

Back Row L to R: Al Jamieson, Paul Dixon, Arlin Amundrud, Andrew Hunter, Michael Barry, Jason HollowayFront Row L to R: Jean-Noel Lechasseur, Nathan Dennison, Valerie Lethbridge, Derek Lichti

Back Row L to R: Irwin Natt, Andrew Hunter, Daniel Boudreault, Barbara Bell, David Parker, Nathan Pugh, Michael SzamesFront Row L to R: Belai Beshah, Landra Travis, Marcia Rempel, Danielle Marceau, Joanne Skyes, Derek Lichti

The Geomatics Engineering Advisory Committee (GEAC) has the responsibility of ensuring that the department’s undergraduate, graduate and research programs are kept up to date with changing technology and to meet the needs of the country. It is a very import-ant advisory body that helps keep our degree programs relevant to industry and government and to maintain their internationally-rec-ognized high standard. It has representatives from many Geomatics engineering disciplines from the private and public sectors, from Alberta and outside Alberta (both Canadian and international), li-cenced professional surveyors and licenced professional engineers. At the 14 March meeting, GEAC members were briefed on cur-riculum, accreditation and research developments by Drs Hunter, Marceau and Lichti. There was much discussion focused developing professional skills for our students and outreach strategies were also discussed at length.

The Geomatics Engineering Liaison Committee (GELC) serves as an important forum for representatives from the Department of Geomatics Engineering and Western Canadian provincial and feder-al Land Surveyors’ Associations to consult each other on matters of mutual interest. At this year’s 22 January meeting, the department representatives (Drs. Hunter, Barry and Lichti) provided updates on curriculum changes and its renewed Canadian Board of Examiners for Professional Surveyors (CBEPS) accreditation. Relevant devel-opments in the land surveying industry were presented to the depart-ment. Strategies for outreach activities to attract young people into the profession were also discussed to conclude a very productive and informative meeting.

page 2 G E O M AT I C S N E W S page 3W I N T E R 2 0 1 4 · V O L U M E 1 1 , I S S U E 2

• PhD student, Jacky Chow, receives the Robert E. Al-tenhofen Memorial Schol-arship. The scholarship ad-ministered by the ASPRS Foundation is to encourage and commend college stu-dents who display excep-tional interest and ability in the theoretical aspects of photogrammetry.

• Dr. Ruisheng Wang re-ceives the Google Re-

Alumni VoiceAWARDSRECOGNITIONS&

Other News

Geomatics Exposition

2014

Geomatics Engineering Liaison Committee (GELC)

Geomatics Engineering Advisory Committee (GEAC)

An Adventure from Surveying Engineering to GIS

Gary Zhang, Founder and President, MRF Geosystems Corporation

by Geoffrey StrandbergGESS, Geomatics Exposition Commissioner

The 2nd annual Geomatics Expo-sition hosted by the Geomatics Engineering Students’ Society (GESS) was held on January 23rd, 2014. Last year the re-branding of our Geomatics Ca-reer Fair to the Geomatics Ex-position resulted in the largest showcase of the Geomatics En-gineering profession at the Uni-versity of Calgary we have seen in our history. We continued this overwhelming success as we again welcomed more than for-ty companies and associations. This full day event provides opportunities for students to explore potential careers, learn about companies and organiza-tions involved in the industry. It also allows students to network with potential employers. As such the exposition is a key tool in developing awareness and promoting the Geomatics Engi-

I graduated from the Uni-versity of Calgary, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Surveying Engineering in 1989 with a M.Sc degree, specializing in Land Information Systems. I then went to work in Toronto as a GIS Developer for WILD LEITZ CANADA LTD which later on became Computervi-sion GIS. I totally enjoyed the design of advanced spatial in-dexing and data manipulation algorithms and the development of a new spatial overlay analysis package for SYSTEM 9.

GIS was becoming very popular in the 1990s. I became more curious about the role GIS plays in various organizations. That curiosity lead me to a con-sulting position at TransAlta Limited where I designed an in-tegrated landbase to support elec-tricity distribution design. The experience at TransAlta taught me a very important lesson: GIS is a tool to solve some problems. It may and may not be the best tool for a particular spatial data management problem. The expe-rience at TransAlta transitioned me from a technology enthusiast to a problem solver.

Through networking with many GIS professionals, I identi-fied a need for a better map clean-

neering profession. It also pro-vides an invaluable environment to bring together current and future alumni. The continued support of the department and industry sponsors is crucial to the success of the event, and we consider ourselves privileged and proud to have the amazing industry relationships we do. It is our hope that future GESS councils build on the established success and reputation of our

annual exposition, and continue to provide this incredible expe-

ing software. It took me about a year to develop my first commer-cial software product package – MRF Clean for MicroStation. I sold many licenses of MRF Clean to all the major users of MicroStation in Alberta, includ-ing Intergraph Canada. In 1995, Intergraph Corporation signed an OEM agreement with my com-pany to resell MRF Clean world-wide. More than 6,000 licenses of MRF Clean was sold in more than 40 countries.

The success of MRF Clean encouraged me to develop more GIS tools such as MRF Polygon, MRF Buffer, and MRF Overlay. It became clear that I needed to hire employees to help with the development. I became more and more involved with propos-al writing, project management, and employee training.

Today, MRF is a well-estab-lished GIS software and service provider with customers in Cana-da, US, Europe, China, and India. Our main line of business is GIS website design, systems integra-tion, field GIS, and multi-sensor integration with GIS.

While I did not do much traditional surveying engineer-ing work, my venture into GIS has been very exciting, chal-lenging, and rewarding.

search Award which cov-ers tuition for a graduate student by providing both faculty and students the opportunity to work direct-ly with Google researchers and engineers.

• PhD student, Ivan Detchev, will receive the 2014 Z/I Imaging Scholarship from the American Society for Photogrammetry and Re-mote Sensing (ASPRS) for his graduate work ap-plying photogrammetry to real-world techniques.

• The Head of the Depart-ment, Dr. Derek Lichti, is

pleased to announce the promotion of Drs. Michael Collins and Kyle O’Keefe to Professor and Dr. Quazi Hassan to Associate Pro-fessor as of April 1, 2014.

• MRF Geosystems, found-ed by Geomatics Engineer-ing graduate alumni, Gary Zhang, was awarded the Outstanding Commercial Achievement in Alberta Science and Technology, 2013 ASTech Award.

• Dr. Danielle Marceau joins a nationally and interna-tionally recognized Expert Management Panel with

rience to students, alumni and industry alike.

The City of Calgary - River Flood Mitigation Program to develop the overall miti-gation program and recom-mendations, on Watershed Management, in response to the floods of June 2013.

• Dr. Ruisheng Wang was 1 of 15 academics chosen to be part of the Global Fac-ulty Program at Technógi-co de Monterrey, Guadala-jara, Mexico. The program is aimed at gathering to-gether faculty members from all over the globe for an international academic experience.

Back Row L to R: Al Jamieson, Paul Dixon, Arlin Amundrud, Andrew Hunter, Michael Barry, Jason HollowayFront Row L to R: Jean-Noel Lechasseur, Nathan Dennison, Valerie Lethbridge, Derek Lichti

Back Row L to R: Irwin Natt, Andrew Hunter, Daniel Boudreault, Barbara Bell, David Parker, Nathan Pugh, Michael SzamesFront Row L to R: Belai Beshah, Landra Travis, Marcia Rempel, Danielle Marceau, Joanne Skyes, Derek Lichti

The Geomatics Engineering Advisory Committee (GEAC) has the responsibility of ensuring that the department’s undergraduate, graduate and research programs are kept up to date with changing technology and to meet the needs of the country. It is a very import-ant advisory body that helps keep our degree programs relevant to industry and government and to maintain their internationally-rec-ognized high standard. It has representatives from many Geomatics engineering disciplines from the private and public sectors, from Alberta and outside Alberta (both Canadian and international), li-cenced professional surveyors and licenced professional engineers. At the 14 March meeting, GEAC members were briefed on cur-riculum, accreditation and research developments by Drs Hunter, Marceau and Lichti. There was much discussion focused developing professional skills for our students and outreach strategies were also discussed at length.

The Geomatics Engineering Liaison Committee (GELC) serves as an important forum for representatives from the Department of Geomatics Engineering and Western Canadian provincial and feder-al Land Surveyors’ Associations to consult each other on matters of mutual interest. At this year’s 22 January meeting, the department representatives (Drs. Hunter, Barry and Lichti) provided updates on curriculum changes and its renewed Canadian Board of Examiners for Professional Surveyors (CBEPS) accreditation. Relevant devel-opments in the land surveying industry were presented to the depart-ment. Strategies for outreach activities to attract young people into the profession were also discussed to conclude a very productive and informative meeting.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Geomatics NewsD E P A R T M E N T O F G E O M A T I C S E N G I N E E R I N G

WINTER 2014 · Volume 11, Issue 2

Message from the Head

Awards & Recognitions

Other News

Alumni Voice

Department Activities

COMING EVENTS

Capstone Design FairTuesday, April 8, 2014

MacHall AB

ENGO 500 ProjectsApril 9-11, 2014

June Convocation 2014Schulich School of Engineering

Monday, June 9, 2014 2:00 pm

Jack Simpson Gymnasium, Kinesiology Complex

ENGO 501Geomatics Field SurveysKananaskis Field Station

August 18-27, 2014

Find us on

Facebook schulich.ucalgary.ca/geomatics

Dear Valued Reader,

Greetings. The winter semester has thus far seen a number of important events in Geomatics Engineering. The Geomatics Exposition was again a very successful event. I had the chance to talk with many of the exhibitors and was glad to learn that there seems to be a healthy job market for both graduating students and stu-dents seeking summer employ-ment. Congratulations to Geoff and his team for a well-orga-nized, successful exposition. Read more about this event in-side this newsletter.

Meetings of the Geomatics Engineering Liaison Committee (GELC) and the Geomatics En-gineering Advisory Committee (GEAC) took place this semes-ter. As key links with industry and government stakeholders, these committees serve very im-portant roles in providing advice on developments in Geomatics and on the future directions for our degree programs. I thank the members of both GEAC and GELC for devoting their time to serve on these committees and

@UofC_GeomaticsSCHULICH SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING · UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY

2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 1N4Phone: 403.220.5834 · Fax: 403.284.1980

www.geomatics.ucalgary.ca

Find Yourself Here

Department Activities

Calgary Science Olympics

1st Year Coffee Break

Awards Night

Saturday, February 22, 2014 Stampede Park, BMO Centre, Hall D

Science Olympics is an inter-school, hands-on science competition involving up to 500 students from Grades 1-12.

Teams participate in events that highlight how science affects our everyday lives.

Thrursday, March 13, 2014 MacEwan Centre Cassio AB

Geomatics scholarship donors and industry guests were invited to the annual Geomatics Award Night to celebrate with the award recipients from the Geomatics students in 2nd, 3rd and 4th year of the program. The Geomatics Award Night was enjoyed by all and we wish to extend all of the award recipients our sincerest

congratulations on their achievements.

Friday, March 7, 2014 SSE Engineering Lounge

An opportunity for 1st year engineering students to learn more about Geomatics Engineering with industry partners and

research deomonstrations.

StudentAwardsNightMarch 13, 2014 · 5:30 pm

Cassio AB, MacEwan Student Centre

for their valuable input.On 7 March the 1st year

coffee break event was held to provide an opportunity for students to learn more about careers in Geomatics engineer-ing. My sincere thanks goes to ALSA for initiating the event, the many sponsors and the ex-hibitors, undergraduate and graduate students and postdoc-toral fellows who devoted their time as volunteers.

An annual event we can all be very proud of is the Geomat-ics Engineering Awards Night. This is a very special occasion when we recognize the excel-lent undergraduate and gradu-ate students in our department. This event would not be pos-sible without the many donors and sponsors, whom I thank for their generosity and foresight

for their contributions to rec-ognize academic excellence. Thanks also to the host for the evening, GESS president Laura Norman, all the award present-ers and the department office staff (Ms Courtenay Canviet in particular) who contributed to this successful evening.

Finally, it is with some sad-ness that I announce the retire-ment of two of the cornerstone personnel of our department. After 35 years of service, Dr William F (Bill) Teskey will retire effective 31 December 2014. I’d like to thank Bill for his dedicated service to the Division of Surveying Engi-neering and subsequently the Department of Geomatics En-gineering. Our department has benefited greatly from his com-mitted contributions in teach-ing, scholarship and service.

After 22 years of service (9 in her current role), our Admin-istrative Manager Marcia Rem-pel will retire effective 30 April 2014. Marcia is the key person who ensures the office functions as smoothly as is possible. Her dedication to the department and her unparalleled competence and compassion will be terribly missed. We will miss both Mar-cia and Bill, but are glad that they can now look forward to enjoying life in retirement.

Derek LichtiProfessor and Head