2007: 21^st North American Surveying and Mapping Educators Conference

Ferris State University, Big Rapids, MI

July 11 to 14, 2007

Professor Sayed Hashimi, Conference Chair

The conference was held on July 11-14 and Dr. Sayed Hashimi was the Department Chair and conference Chair. The keynote address was given by John D. Bossler, Rear Admiral of NOAA.

The conference had 24 presentations and it was organized into the following main sessions: (i) surveying curriculum and professional development, (ii) distance learning and on-line education, (iii) Geodesy, GIS, and Surveying, (iv) advanced topics and surveying curriculum; (v) continuing education. The second day of the conference there was also a panel discussion on ABET EAC criteria.  The third day there was a workshop on “use of WBK-Basic and the global spatial data model (GSDM).” In addition, there was a panel discussion on criteria for ABET/ EAC surveying engineering programs (Schultz 2007b). The panel moderator was James Plasker, former president of ACSM, executive director of ASPRS and the ACSM representative on the ABET Board of Directors. Members of the panel included: Curt Sumner, ACSM, James Crossfield, CSU, David Gibson, University of Florida, Steve Frank, NMSU, and Mike Falk with ASCE. Despite keeping the name “North American” presenters were predominantly from US institutions, with few exceptions as one presenter was from the University of West Hungary, Hungary and two others from the Sheffield Hallum University, UK.  In this conference, there was a lot of discussion about forming an official organization that would help with organizing the conference, as in previous years it seemed that each university would start from scratch. In addition, educators wanted to increase the number of participating faculty and institutions, and have an entity that would be able to represent the educators to other organizations. A general planning committee and a constitution and by-laws committee were created to work on the creation of the organization. A resolution was also passed to create a working group and develop the Body of Knowledge (BOK) of surveying / geomatics. This conference led to the creation and formation of SaGES in the next conference.

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.

Schultz, R. J. (2007b). Education in Surveying: Surveying and Mapping Educators Conference Rises Again. Professional Surveyor, 27 (6).