Blog
sUAS at Fort Atkinson Farmers Market
On Saturday, we participated in the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) event at the Fort Atkinson Farmers Market. Great chance to show kids and families (and even grandmas!) how we’re both teaching and researching drones for mapping at the GIS Center.
Seeing how the drone tries to level itself
Drone presentation at Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium
On 12, Aug 2017 | In Field mapping, News, UAV/drone | By gis_admin
As part of our Research Infrastructure Grant, we presented the results of our biomass mapping from the 2016 and 2017 seasons at the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium 2017 Conference. Thanks to Jeff Smyczek for all his help on this project!
Fox River Summit
On 16, Mar 2017 | In News, Water quality | By gis_admin
Thanks to Thomas Slawski for the opportunity to present our water array project at the 2017 Fox River Summit. We made connections with several area groups and identified potential sites for semi-permanent installations of our device.
Water array presentation (video)
On 03, Mar 2017 | In News, Water quality | By gis_admin
Thanks to the Fairhaven Lecture Series, we were able to share some of the work we’re going with the water quality array.
Here’s the video:
Read more…
New “survey grade” GPS equipment
On 06, Dec 2016 | In Field mapping, GPS | By Eric Compas
For many of our mapping projects and contracts, from mapping storm sewers to electrical networks, we’ve needed more accuracy than our “resource grade” Trimble GPS units can provide. This has been particularly true for our UAV imagery. Since we’re producing images with resolution of between 1-5 cm, we need ground control that’s as accurate or better than this resolution. Our Trimble units under ideal conditions can provide 15-30 cm horizontal accuracy — not good enough. Plus, we’re hearing more about local government units purchasing higher-accuracy devices which our students need exposure to. Read more…
Yellowstone area field trip
On 21, Nov 2016 | In Cartography, Greater Yellowstone | By Eric Compas
As part of my research sabbatical this year, I’ve recently returned from the first of two research trips to the Yellowstone region. The goal of this trip was to visit the archives at both Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks to collect information about ecosystem management and private lands and to acquire more information from the US Forest Service about their acquisition and exchange of private lands. I was able to collect over a 1,000 pages of archive documentation on the Greater Yellowstone Coordinating Committee, the parks’ role in ecosystem management and influencing adjacent private lands, and related correspondence. For the GIS analysis, I was successful in acquiring data from the USFS to recreate forest ownership for the last 40-50 years.
Comparing water array with conventional unit (YSI Professional Plus)
On 02, Oct 2016 | In Water quality | By Eric Compas
One of the requirements of the Testing the Waters’s grant with WI DNR was to conduct a comparison of our array with a conventional, trusted unit. We finally got access to a professional-grade unit, a YSI Professional Plus (thanks Dr. Dale Splinter!). This unit is around $3,000 for the dissolved oxygen, conductivity, temperature, and pH probes that it has with it.
Here’s a link to the full analysis: Comparison of array with YSI unit. Read more…
Initial analysis of Testing the Waters data
On 02, Oct 2016 | In Water quality | By Eric Compas
For the latest Rock River Coalition newsletter, I finally got around to doing an initial analysis of the Testing the Waters data that we collected over 11 days of paddling. The full article is available here: Testing the Waters: What did we learn? Read more…
sUAS vegetation mapping: Dean’s Advisory Board poster session
On 30, Sep 2016 | In UAV/drone | By Jeff Smyczek
As part of the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF), I am obligated to present my research at multiple poster sessions throughout the year including the Fall and Spring Undergraduate Research Days. I had never presented at a poster session before and was experiencing the uncertainty that goes along with doing something for the first time. How do I fit a whole summer’s worth of information onto a poster? How are these posters typically formatted? Who will I have to present my research to? Well, with help from the UW-Whitewater Undergraduate Research Program (URP), ideas on these questions started circulating through my head. With help from Dr. Compas, I put together a poster that reflects the progress I have made on my research project and uncertainties were clarified.
Read more…
New video about our “Testing the Waters” project
On 19, Sep 2016 | In News, Water quality | By Eric Compas
Jeffrey Pohorski, one of the video producers in Media & Marketing at UW-Whitewater, did a great job telling the story of our adventure down the Rock River this May:
Link to full YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBet7Do_KdI
Read more…
