New to the board, GME, and CA...?'s w/in

[mcaanda]

Hello fellow surveyors!

I thought that this would be a great opportunity to finally be able to converse with those that are in the field that I am studying here locally at Fresno State.

I am looking to get some insight into where you as surveyors feel that the profession is going, and any pointers that you can give those of us that are up and coming into the field.
I know that according to those that are at the college, there are all kinds of advancement, and more opportunities than you can shake a Philly rod at in a week.
Is this the case, or is this nothing more than the administration trying to ensure that the degree does not die because of the lack of involvement?

Also, there are those of us that are going to be looking for summer internships after the first year of study, (I know that I will be ) and I was wondering if there are any tips that you can impart us with, so that when it comes down to making those important decisions of where to look, as well as who to talk to, that they will be easier with the guidance of those that have already been there?

Thank you for your time, and I'm sure that there will be more to come as time goes along, and I hope to see you here on the board, as well as at the next conference!

--Mcaanda

[Dave Karoly, PLS]

I believe our profession has a good future. The problems to be addressed, among others, are the insufficient new members of the profession and the need to better sell the need for our product and service to the general public. Land Surveyors traditionally are not good at promoting their profession.

[mcaanda]

Originally posted by Dave Karoly, PLS
Land Surveyors traditionally are not good at promoting their profession.

Man, you can say that again.
I totally stumbled upon the program at FSU, and didnt know anything about it until I really did some digging.

[kenwood]

As David Karloy pointed out there are several issues we Land Surveyor's are facing that will effect our profession in the not to distant future. I would refer you to a discussion topic on this web site on the subject. I would also encourage you to share this info with fellow students and facaluty at FSU.

For starters, the use of the title Geomatics Engineer in place of Land Surveyor says alot about the administrators of the program at FSU. The administration is not in close contact with praciting Land Surveor's in the Sate. I have been in the land sureying/civil engineering profession for 30 years (25 in CA) and I wouldn't know a Geomatrician from the perverbal hole in the ground. It seems they took in on their own to rename our profession without input from anyone except those in academia.

I would be interested in how you found out about the profession and why you decided on that course of study. Promoting land surveying as a profession has always been lacking. We don't do an adequet job of bringing new people into the profession.

As far as finding summer intern work, contact the local chapter of the California Land Surveyor's Association (CLSA) and join as a student member. Attend the monthly meetings and get your resume up to date to distribute to the land surveying and civil engineering companies in your area.

I would also encourage you to get as much field expierence early in your education as you can. Alot of new commers to our profession don't have an appreciation of the physical demands of the job. They find out after putting in a lot of time and spending a lot money at school they don't like to work outside in difficult terrain uner all kinds of weather conditions, which is what the job requires.

The land surveying profession is continuing to evolve with new technologies. Twenty five years ago three or four person survey crews were normal in the industry. With the introduction of edm's and total stations that number was reduced to two. Today with GPS and robotic total stations one person can do what it used to take three or four, in less time. New technologies brings with it several problems that we Land Surveyors will have to find solutions for in the near furture not the least of which is emphasis on education and training at the entry level.

[mcaanda]

Originally posted by kenwood
For starters, the use of the title Geomatics Engineer in place of Land Surveyor says a lot about the administrators of the program at FSU. The administration is not in close contact with practicing Land Surveyor’s in the Sate.

Updated sig, thanx for the input.

Originally posted by kenwood
I would be interested in how you found out about the profession and why you decided on that course of study.

Actually, I was planning to come to FSU, yet had really no idea what I was going to study. I thought that I might go the CE route, yet as soon as I happened upon the FSU GME site, I started to become very interested in the nature of the work.
As a child, my father used to take me with him out to his jobsites, he was in construction, and I always watched the surveyors and wondered about what it was that they were actually doing with all those tools that they were working with.
Many years pass...and I get here. After reading the FSU site, I did a lot of looking into the surveying field. Everything that I read sounded like just the position for myself. With in the surveying world, there is 2 worlds that are available to work in, The Office, as well as the field. This allows one not to become board with one aspect of the position.

Originally posted by kenwood
As far as finding summer intern work, contact the local chapter of the California Land Surveyor's Association (CLSA) and join as a student member. Attend the monthly meetings and get your resume up to date to distribute to the land surveying and civil engineering companies in your area.

Going to finish that this weekend, as soon as I get finished with this GME 15 homework.....ugh...not even trying to get into that....

Originally posted by kenwood
I would also encourage you to get as much field experience early in your education as you can. A lot of new comers to our profession don't have an appreciation of the physical demands of the job. They find out after putting in a lot of time and spending a lot money at school they don't like to work outside in difficult terrain under all kinds of weather conditions, which is what the job requires.

Good point, and one that I looked into before starting the course, good pointers to remember for that that have not although.

[Kan]

Originally posted by kenwood
For starters, the use of the title Geomatics Engineer in place of Land Surveyor says alot about the administrators of the program at FSU. The administration is not in close contact with praciting Land Surveor's in the Sate. I have been in the land sureying/civil engineering profession for 30 years (25 in CA) and I wouldn't know a Geomatrician from the perverbal hole in the ground. It seems they took in on their own to rename our profession without input from anyone except those in academia.

I am an LSIT and I have surveyed for the decade of the ‘80’s in the colonial states of Wash. D.C. and Maryland, utilizing the traditional (Transit & Chain) methodologies. As we can all attest to the modernization and technological advancements of our equipment and the adapted methodologies for their use today, and the rapidly growing use of GIS, the following theory is most likely an answer to your statement…

I refer to the textbook – Elementary Surveying: An Introduction to Geomatics, Tenth Edition, Wolf & Ghilani – which introduces and defines the term ‘Geomatics’.

Following is an excerpt from the preface and introduction respectively:
… Elementary Surveying: An Introduction to Geomatics, Tenth Edition has been updated to reflect the changing nature of modern surveying practice – currently often referred to as “Geomatics.” Since this new term is now generally accepted in English-speaking countries world-wide, and is consistent with modern practice as currently evolving in the United States…this new edition will not only serve the needs of its traditional surveying and engineering users, but that it will also be suitable for the expanding audience of spatial data users in various other disciplines.

The name – Geomatics – has gained widespread acceptance in the United States, as well as in other English-speaking countries of the world, especially in Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. In the United States, the Surveying Engineering Division of the American Society of Civil Engineers recently changed its name to the Geomatics Division… The principle reason cited for making the name change is that the manner and scope of practice in surveying have changed dramatically in recent years…as a result of new developments, many feel that the name surveying no longer adequately reflects the expanded and changing role of their profession.
END.


Originally posted by kenwood
I would also encourage you to get as much field expierence early in your education as you can. Alot of new commers to our profession don't have an appreciation of the physical demands of the job. They find out after putting in a lot of time and spending a lot money at school they don't like to work outside in difficult terrain uner all kinds of weather conditions, which is what the job requires.

As I am currently a Distant Learner in the GME program thought at CSUFresno, I could attest to the field experience gained from the LAB is comparable to a real world survey environment as one can get. That is to say, that the student is exposed to a rural sectionalized land of, to some degree, unfavorable terrain conditions requiring the student to endure the extremes. I come from an era where the training philosophy was to make you or break you as a surveyor and if a student succeeds and loves the LAB, he/she will have gained the necessary field experience to succeed in practice, in general.

Kan Henderson, LST 6320

[Paulifats]

It seems that there is 20,000,000 openings & opportunities based on the amount of calls for help from other surveyors and headhunters that I receive daily. Hurry up, graduate, get a great job and have a ball. I have been surveying since 1958 (gulp) & have never missed a payday. P.F.

[Brooski]

I'm older than the hills, well I'm at least over the hill, so to speak. I started out in Land Surveying in Frisco, Colorado, as a 28 year old in 1970, retracing old mining placer claims with a Brunton surveyors compass and a 200 foot steel tape (chain). No, it didn't actually have links in it, i.e., it wasn't a Gunters Chain! I'm not that old!! Anyhow, I've seen and experienced the wonderful evolution of electronics, in measuring distances, doing calculations, eventually the measuring of both angles and distances together, then later getting position fixes with first the old Navy Transit Satellite "Doppler" system and then still later on, with GPS-RTK. Robotic ETS's and single receiver GPS-RTS units, utilizing GPS CORS active networks, run by local government agencies, are making it now possible to survey all by yourself. But these are all simply novel tools of survey data measurement. What is truely a revolution happening around our limited field of surveying is the proliferation of multidisciplined approaches to the collection, storage, manipulation, display and dissemination of spatial information. Traditional surveying is only part of the modern picture. Today the venerable profession of surveying is going to have to share the Geomatics stage with soft-copy photogrammetry, satellite remote sensing, geodesy, geophysics, computer aided drafting, mapping, vizualization and modeling, GIS/LIS, you name it. By the way, the word "geomatics" has been used for some time now in many of the socially advanced nations comprising our global community. I think the University of New Brunswick was the first North American school to adopt the term with their Geomatics Engineering degree program, back in the early to mid eighties. Tomorrow our own geomatics engineers will help manage the ever enlarging global spatial infrastructure, including but not limited to the relatively narrow field of surveying and even the more narrow but still one of the most important fields, that of the cadastral engineer, or if you prefer the boundary surveyor.