The Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies (CAST) was established at the University of Arkansas in September of 1991. CAST is an element of the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences but has a campus-wide role with the active involvement of the Fulbright College Departments of Anthropology, Biological Sciences, Geography, and Geology; the Dale Bumpers College of Agriculture, Food and Life Sciences Departments of Agronomy, Rural Sociology, and Entomology; the College of Architecture Department of Landscape Architecture; and the College of Engineering Departments of Civil Engineering and Industrial Engineering. A Board of Associate Directors, composed of representatives of various colleges, provides guidance to CAST. Dr. Thomas Graff represents Fulbright College, Dr. Don Scott represents Agriculture, and Professor Karen Hanna represents Architecture. 

The National Center for Resource Innovations-Southwest (NCRI-SW) has been an integral part of CAST since September of 1991. NCRI-SW was established in 1990 as the result of a federal grant through the Cooperative State Research Services (CSRS), U.S. Department of Agriculture, to the Dale Bumpers College of Agriculture, Food and Life Sciences. NCRI-SW is one of seven regional centers located throughout the United States whose mission is to transfer GIS technology to state, county, and local governments. The association of NCRI-SW with CAST has been beneficial to both. The NCRI-SW mission has formed extensive ties with state, county, and local government agencies (an important segment of potential GIS users) and the resources available through CAST has greatly enhanced the NCRI teaching and public service programs. The benefits to NCRI-SW include access to technical expertise from a number of fields, more coordinated support for expanded communications networks (both among campus departments and in the state and region), and formal agreements to share in the acquisition, accessing, and cataloging of new digital data for use in research. 

CAST focuses on research, undergraduate and graduate education, spatial data distribution, technology transfer, professional education in geographic information systems (GIS), global positioning systems (GPS), digital photogrammetry, remote sensing, and interoperability. Many of CAST’s research efforts involve new approaches to spatial data and the development of new methodologies for analysis of these data, thereby providing products to a variety of audiences. Cooperative programs developed by CAST bring together the benefits of academic research and development, the resources of state agencies, federal agencies, and the private sector to provide the state and region with effective spatial technologies, trained practitioners, and low-cost digital data. 

Corporate Sponsors. 

Oracle Corporation. In January of 1998, Oracle Corporation announced its designation of CAST as its first Center of Excellence for Spatial Data Management. Oracle is the world’s largest developer of database management software, with annual revenues of more than $14 billion. CAST is also a member of Oracle’s Academic Alliance Program and a founding member of Oracle’s Spatial Research Laboratory. Oracle Corporation provided CAST software and technical support totaling $1.8 million. A press conference announcing Oracle’s support, held on January 16, 1998, was attended by Steve Hagan, Vice President, New England Development Center, Oracle Corporation; Steve Cooperman, Executive Director, Spatial Data Management Programs, Oracle Corporation; Jack Pellicci, Vice President, Global Public Sector, Oracle Corporation; J. C. Dean, SUN Microsystems; Sharon Priest, Arkansas Secretary of State; Michael Hipp, Director, DIS; Chancellor White; Dean Bernard Madison; many other UAF officials; and dignitaries from other state, county, and local governments. Articles ran in several newspapers. Oracle Corporation continues to support CAST and its mission. 

Intergraph Corporation. The Intergraph Corporation, a Fortune 500 firm and the world’s leading vendor of geographic information systems software, selected CAST as one of only four National Centers of Excellence in the Mapping and GeoSciences. As a result, CAST has to date received more than $5 million in hardware, software, and support services. As an outgrowth of this cooperative effort, short-courses in Intergraph MGE Foundations-Windows NT and in Introduction to GeoMedia were offered by CAST.

Trimble Navigation Ltd. Trimble Navigation Ltd. is the world’s largest manufacturer of GPS hardware. Trimble selected the CAST as one of two U.S. Centers of Excellence in Navigation and GPS. As a result of the selection, CAST has to date received more than $250,000 in Trimble hardware and software. Professional short-courses in the use of the most current Trimble equipment and software are offered each year.

SUN Microsystems. SUN Microsystems recently provided CAST with a high-performance server computer system. The server is an Ultra Enterprise 5000 with four CPUs, one gigabyte of RAM and 600 gigabytes of disk. This server will be used to host the Center’s proposed Statewide Arkansas GeoData system which will provide geodata to agencies and others throughout the state. Development of the systems will also involve significant research opportunities, since such a system will be the first of its kind. 

Other Corporate Support. CAST has received a combined total of seven million dollars in hardware and software support from vendors including Informix, Digital Equipment, Okidata Systems, Raster Graphics, and others.

Since GIS applications encompass a wide range of knowledge from many fields of study, a conscious effort has been made to insure that CAST staff are not only proficient in GIS software, but also represent a broad spectrum of disciplines. CAST staff members represent diverse backgrounds in areas such as architecture, archaeology, agronomy, landscape architecture, surveying, engineering, geology, computer science, remote sensing, photo interpretation, historic preservation, geography, forestry, wildlife biology, and the social sciences (see Appendix A and Appendix B for listings of staff publications, demonstrations, workshops, etc. and Appendix C for a list of CAST staff).

Facilities and Equipment. 

Facilities. CAST occupies ten offices, five labs and a library/reading room area in more than 6,000 square feet of Ozark Hall. The facilities include the Rural America 2000 Lab, the Advanced Projects and Interoperability Lab, the Mapping and GeoSciences Computer Lab, the Spatial Technologies Research Lab, the Multipurpose Computer Lab, and other areas. All facilities are carpeted, climate-controlled, and equipped with high quality furnishings through funding provided by Fulbright College.

Rural America 2000 Lab. During the next decade, computer technologies will become key elements of rural America's county and local governments. These computer systems will be used to maintain tax records, plan community development, and respond to federal environmental regulations. They will be a critical element in almost all local governmental actions. In the same period, USDA farm service agencies (FSA, FmHA, and NRCS) will also be developing similar capabilities to aid in their missions. It is clear that local and rural governments and these farm service agencies could benefit from cooperation in the area of GIS technologies. The Rural America 2000 laboratory is a model facility that provides a working example, today, of what such a cooperative facility might look like by the end of this decade. It is designed to provide local governmental units, the Cooperative Extension Service, and USDA units an opportunity to participate in cooperative projects in a state-of-the-art facility similar to the ones that will be widely available in the next few years. The system has both UNIX and NT systems and a wide range of peripherals including 36-inch ink-jet plotter, and color dye-sublimation and black and white printers.

Advanced Projects and Interoperability Lab. This lab features some of the highest performance computing systems currently available. These systems are used for state-of-the-art research and to provide a test-bed environment for demonstration of the Open Geodata Interoperability Specification (OGIS) software. OGIS is a developing international software specification that allows software from different vendors to easily access data from other vendors and from a variety of federal and other sources. In addition to the OGIS effort, this facility is used for a variety of other research efforts such as softbench (digital) photogrammetry. In softbench photogrammetry, aerial photography or other stereo photography is digitally converted to a digital elevation model (DEM). In a DEM, individual elevation values are computed for the entire surface of the photo. The system also allows the extraction of feature data from a stereo photo, for example, the height of a building or the route of a highway. These data can then be used in geographic information systems, for maps, other planning, and engineering purposes. In addition to the traditional uses for such photography, the photogrammetry systems are being used in other research projects to document detailed features of human bones and the characteristics of prehistoric pottery and stone tools. Other systems include digital video, extensive remote sensing capabilities, 3D visualization hardware, and large NT server.

Mapping and GeoSciences Computer Lab. The Mapping and GeoSciences Laboratory provides a facility for undergraduate and graduate education as well as professional short-courses, demos, workshops, etc. The facility consists of 12 workstations in a classroom configuration. The lab also includes an NT based server, a dual-headed digitizer, a 36-inch scanner, and black and white and color output devices. 

Spatial Technologies Research Lab. This facility is a general-purpose laboratory housing a number of CAST researchers and graduate students. A range of computer platforms (both UNIX and NT) are available, as are high performance graphics workstations, flat-bed color scanners, and a wide range of GIS and remote sensing software is available in the laboratory.

 Multipurpose Computer Lab. This lab provides access to a number of different computer hardware and software systems for purposes of student access and professional courses. The particular configuration and systems available are flexible and dependent on current training and educational needs, but include UNIX and NT systems, digitizers, dye-sublimation, and electrostatic printers. 

Equipment. The Center is equipped with 40 NT and 15 UNIX high performance workstations and three large multiprocessor servers on a fiber optic network. CAST has more than three-quarter terabytes of online disk storage with additional optical and tape juke-boxes and a full range of tape drives and CD-ROM systems. There is a full complement of peripherals including dual-headed digitizers, scanners, large format (up to E-sized) color and black and white plotters and printers. 

Network Upgrades. The Center is one of the highest consumers of network bandwidth on campus with our remote sensing and GIS applications that often incorporate disk files that exceed one gigabyte in capacity. For several years, our aging computer network infrastructure has impeded progress in many areas. We were fortunate this past year to receive National Science Foundation funds from the Dean of the UAF Graduate School that enabled us to completely rework the network infrastructure in all of the Center's facilities. Beginning in late winter and continuing through the first part of the summer, each desktop was rewired with class-5 cabling that will enable internal transmission speeds of up to 1 gigabit. Working in conjunction with Craig Brown, Director of Network Services at UAF Computer Services Department, we were able to obtain high capacity network cards and switches that support high speeds and the delivery of complex data (voice, video, and data) over a single connection. These new Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) capabilities open the door for video conferencing and improved distance learning from the Center's facilities. In addition, with new access to the Internet II community that has come on line this past year, Center researchers can now acquire and share data with colleagues at other Internet II sites at speeds up to 145 megabits per second.