2005: 20^th North American Surveying Educators Conference

Texas A & M, Corpus Christi, TX

June 8 to 11, 2005

Professor Gary Jeffress, Conference Chair

Theme: Surveying and Mapping Education in 2020

The conference took place in June 8-11. The theme of the conference was: “Surveying and Mapping Education in 2020.” The conference’s chair was Dr. Gary Jeffress. There were more than 70 attendees and the conference included about 20 presentations, organized into five sessions. The presentation topics included (Dee 2005): The changing profession, Curriculum design, New measurement technologies, Distance learning, Articulation with Community Colleges, The digital revolution in surveying, Teaching business skills to surveyors, Attracting students to replace the graying surveying profession. In addition, a change compared to previous conferences, was the inclusion of a day with workshops on aspects of digital surveying for practicing surveyors. A total of eight workshops were conducted. The workshops were approved by the Texas Board of Professional Land Surveying for eight hours of continuing education credits. This initiative allowed for surveyors to socialize with conference attendees over lunch on Friday and at the Friday evening social event on the Captain Clark cruising on Corpus Christi Bay. Furthermore, the conference committee gave the opportunity for vendors to setup booths; thus, the three groups (educators, surveyors, and vendors) had a unique opportunity for interactions (Dee 2005). On the final evening participants had a traditional south Texas Barbeque.

References

Bolkas, D., Olsen, M. J., & Ghilani, C. D. (2022). SaGES and the National Surveying Educator's Conferences: History of Surveying Education and Future Challenges. Surveying and Land Information Science, 81(2), 97-126.

Dee, E. 2005. General Report on the 20th Surveying and Mapping Educators Conference. Surveying and Land Information Science 65(3): 133.