Virginia Beach, VA (August 15, 2019) -- DroneUp, LLC, an end-to-end drone pilot service provider for aerial data collection, is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a contract for Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Services (RFP# E194-79435) by the Commonwealth of Virginia to provide UAS (drone) services to all state agencies, institutions of higher education, and other public bodies and entities in Virginia. The award is the first of its kind for the drone industry and a highly anticipated announcement after a competitive request-for-proposal process with multiple national drone organizations.

DroneUp’s award includes but is not limited to service categories for Emergency Services, Law Enforcement Support, Aerial Inspection or Mapping Data Services, Agricultural and Gaming, and Agency Media Relations and Marketing. The Commonwealth anticipates that the primary users will be the Departments of Aviation, Emergency Management, Transportation, Forestry, Mines, Minerals and Energy, and all Public Universities and Community Colleges.

The services under the award are available for use by all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the territories of the United States through the National Association of State Procurement Officials (NASPO) ValuePoint Cooperative Purchasing Organization. Participating states will be able to use the award for the benefit of state departments, institutions,...

University’s Geospatial Analysis and Intelligence degree becomes first undergraduate program to be accredited by USGIF

Herndon, Virginia (August 15, 2019)— The United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) is pleased to announce Delta State University in Cleveland, Miss., has earned USGIF Collegiate Accreditation^[1] for its Geospatial Analysis and Intelligence ( GAI^[2]) bachelor of applied science program. Delta State is the first undergraduate degree program to achieve USGIF accreditation, bringing the total number of colleges and universities the Foundation has accredited to 18.

The BAS-GAI degree can be earned on-campus or online and is offered through Delta State’s Center for Interdisciplinary Geospatial Information Technologies^[3].

“Accreditation of our degree program signals the formal birth of a new academic discipline: Geospatial Analysis and Intelligence,” said Talbot Brooks, Director of Delta State’s Center for Interdisciplinary Geospatial Information Technologies. “GEOINT was bundled up under geography and related disciplines for too long and its emergence as a discipline is overdue. Seeking both regional and professional accreditation was a long and difficult path, but we are glad to be the first and are committed to forever being the best.”

The Center works cooperatively with non-profit organizations such as USGIF and industry partners to deliver a curriculum of significant value to employers.

“Our students must...

Herndon, VA, Aug. 15, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

CIT, The Center for Innovative Technology, announced today a ground-breaking contract that will improve state agency access to unmanned aerial systems service providers. Virginia’s Department of General Service (DGS) and the National Association of State Procurement Officials (NASPO) led the contracting effort on behalf of all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the territories of the United States.

This initiative, a first for the UAS industry, now connects state agencies with approved vendors. These technologies will enable state agencies to have more affordable access to problem solving data and imagery. The four Virginia companies chosen in this historic initiative are:  

Draper Aden Associates, Richmond, Virginia, provides a depth of UAS services including aerial inspections and mapping data services.   www.daa.com^[1]

DroneUp, LLC, Virginia Beach, Virginia, is an end-to-end drone pilot service provider for aerial data collection. DroneUp received the Virginia Unmanned Systems Center at CITS’s highest humanitarian honor earlier this year for finding a lost couple in the Amboy Crater National Natural Landmark.   www.droneup.com ^[2]

ERUdyne, Inc, Lancaster County, Virginia, features a Drone Flight School to fill a gap in commercial drone operations training including crisis management and disaster response...

Small scale satellites are changing how we can acquire our data as geospatial analysts.

The post What the Rise of Small Satellites Means for Geospatial Data appeared first on GIS Lounge.

The Geopose SWG will work towards a standard that will provide an interoperable way to express, record, and share the location, position, and orientation of objects

15 August 2019: The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) seeks public comment on the draft charter for the new Geopose Standards Working Group (SWG).

The main purpose of this SWG will be to develop and propose a standard for geographically-anchored poses (geopose) with 6 degrees of freedom referenced to one or more standardized Coordinate Reference Systems.

The combination of position (up/down [z], left/right [x] and forward/backward [y]) and orientation (pitch, roll, and yaw) with 6 degrees of freedom for objects in computer graphics and robotics is usually referred to as the object’s “pose.” Pose can be expressed as being in relation to other objects and/or to the user. When a pose is defined relative to a geographical frame of reference or coordinate system, it will be called a geographically anchored pose, or ‘geopose’ for short.

An object with a geopose may be any real physical object. This includes objects such as AR display devices (proxy for a user’s eyes), vehicles, robots, or even a park bench. It may also be a digital...

VANCOUVER, Aug. 15, 2019 — (PRNewswire) — Pacton Gold Inc. (TSXV: PAC, OTC: PACXF) (the "Company" or "Pacton") is pleased to announce that it has received and analyzed the results of a recently completed Lidar Survey over its main Red Lake, Ontario gold properties. The results have greatly improved outcrop identification and accelerated the mapping process. This is of particular importance as Pacton is currently building a list of priority targets for the initial 2019 drill program.

Lidar is a fixed wing airborne survey technique that uses laser pulses to record extremely detailed ground elevation measurements. These results have been integrated with previously announced air magnetic survey results and other field data.

Madsen-Dixie Fault Corridor Location and Detailed Structural Data:  The new Lidar data confirms the presence, with high-resolution structural details, of the 50 km long fault corridor that hosts the new Great Bear Resources ("TSXV- GBR") Dixie gold discoveries to the southeast and Pure Gold's ("PGM – TSXV") Madsen area mines immediately to the northwest. The 7 km wide multi-fault corridor passes through the western portion of Pacton's Red Lake property, including the Carricona-Boyden area that is currently being mapped. (Figure 1). The importance of the Madsen-Dixie structural fault corridor is more fully...

USGIF Opens State-of-the Art Trajectory Event Center

The foundation’s new Herndon, Va., event space offers affordability and flexible design options

Herndon, Virginia (August 14, 2019)— The United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation ( USGIF^[1]) recently opened its own state-of-the-art event space, known as the Trajectory Event Center (TEC)^[2], in Herndon, Va. The TEC will be a year-round resource for the geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) community and any organization interested in hosting events in the Dulles Technology Corridor.

Featuring flexible meeting spaces for up to 300 people, cutting-edge audio-visual technology, and live streaming capabilities, the TEC is an ideal location to host corporate events, training sessions, sales meetings, product launches, receptions, table-top exhibits, hack-a-thons, and much more.

“Whether it is USGIF’s Young Professionals Group looking to combine networking and professional education, or providing a flexible space to accommodate the cadences of USGIF Working Groups, we recognized the potential for the TEC to help USGIF advance the GEOINT Community,” said The Honorable Jeffrey K. Harris, chairman of USGIF’s Board of Directors. 

The TEC is in proximity to Dulles International Airport and a four-minute walk from the planned Innovation Center Metro stop on the silver line. Ample complimentary parking is also available.

“The TEC is unlike anything I’ve seen in the Northern Virginia area,” said USGIF...

HUNTSVILLE, Ala., Aug. 14, 2019 — (PRNewswire) —  Digital Media Kit:  https://pr.cirlot.com/assure-announce-results-of-phase-ii-ground-collision-study/^[1]

 What could happen if a drone hit a person on the ground? What are the risks of serious injury from flying small unmanned aircraft over people, and are we doing everything we can to reduce those risks?

Through its continued research, the Alliance for System Safety of UAS through Research Excellence (ASSURE), has developed a standard methodology by which potential injury may be evaluated.

The ASSURE research team, led by The University of Alabama in Huntsville and including Mississippi State University, The National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) at Wichita State University, and The Ohio State University, will release the findings of its 18-month, Air to Ground Collision study of small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) at a press conference this afternoon at The University of Alabama in Huntsville.

The team's new research findings and data may help inform the FAA and industry of operational limitations for Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) when operating over people. It will also provide new data from which sUAS design specifications may be developed to further reduce risk to people and property on the ground.

"The research results...

New tools have been developed to facilitate the integration of deep learning tools within GIS applications.

The post Platforms for Making Deep Learning Easier for GIS appeared first on GIS Lounge.