|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
 |
|
A key benefit of the HARLS-CS system is its use in a variety of research teaching settings. The equipment has been selected with an eye towards ease-of-use, safety and ruggedness so that use by students is appropriate. In addition to involvement in various graduate research projects, one new advanced undergraduate/graduate course will be added to the curriculum to prepare students in this area. Existing courses in a number of departments will be expanded. The new course will focus on the method and theory of digital photogrammetric solutions and laser scanning. Existing courses in remote sensing will include new sections that utilize data from the HARLS-CS and discussions of operational issues. A continuing effort has been underway to recruit underrepresented groups particularly into the geospatial curriculum. These efforts have involved specialized summer camps for underserved groups, participation in campus minority recruitment and involvement at the high school level in presenting new options in career paths. In Spring 2003 a new facility was created specifically to attract underrepresented high school student populations both to campus and, hopefully, to higher education. The HARLS-CS will be used in demonstrations and to create data sets to be used in these aggressive recruitment efforts. The following U of A classes will directly benefit from the use of this equipment and software: · Geography 4653: Advanced Raster GIS, · Architecture 5016: Architectural Design, · Anthropology 4633: Archaeological Prospecting and Remote Sensing, · Biological Engineering 5110: Agricultural Remote Sensing and GIS, · Civil Engineering 563X: Advanced Hydrology and Hydrological Modeling, and · Environmental Dynamics 5043: Spatial Analysis and Modeling. The Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department offers one graduate level course in Agricultural Remote Sensing and GIS, and an undergraduate level course in Precision Agriculture. The HARLS-CS suite of equipment will be very useful for teaching both of these courses, offered by Bajwa. The Agricultural Remote Sensing course goes into great depth on sensors, sensor models, data models, data calibration, georeferencing, and data processing. The HARLS-CS equipment will allow students to get hands-on experience with different types of sensors, sensor calibration, image acquisition, collection of ground control points, ground truthing and all the data calibration and processing steps associated with each type of image. The precision agriculture course includes topics such as sensors, GPS and remote sensing. This course will benefit from the availability of this equipment to demonstrate field data collection. Acquisition of the HARLS-CS will help teach state-of-the-art technology to undergraduate/graduate students and train graduate students in using this equipment to address water quality research problems. This will greatly enhance the quality of graduate education. The spectral radiometer will allow students to better see and understand in field and lab situations how reflected light properties vary with materials and form the basis of classified maps from space. Field data collected by the laser profiler, total station, and multispectral camera can be used as GIS class data sets to illustrate the capabilities and uses of these technologies. The advanced HARLS-CS instrumentation will allow superior graduate research capabilities, improving the quality of theses and dissertations. Instruction in the College of Architecture will take specific advantage of the capability of the HARLS-CS to create high-resolution digital representations of buildings. These data will be used in architectural visualization training as well and as training in as-build documentation in such areas as historic preservation. Short courses will be offered annually to train new graduate students on the practical field use of the equipment prior to their use in research projects.
|