Biology

On Wednesday (Jan. 14), WKU hosted a Kentucky Association of Mapping Professionals (KAMP) quarterly meeting in Gary Ransdell Hall.

KAMP quarterly meetings are hosted throughout the state, bringing together local and regional Geographic Information Systems (GIS) professionals and land surveyors. During the event, KAMP had an open-to-the-public board meeting that included a discussion on this year’s annual GIS conference to be held in Owensboro. After lunch, mapping professionals shared their projects along with their ideas and thoughts about today’s mapping technologies and practices.

“It was said by many to have been an excellent meeting and at a superior venue,” said Lance Morris, KAMP President. “Kudos to the staff and educators at WKU as well as thanks to all who attended and coordinated the meeting.”

“This is a great opportunity for WKU to engage in the professional mapping community,” said Kevin Cary, Director of WKU’s Center for GIS. “Over 80 members were in attendance and graduates from WKU GIS programs that are now mapping professionals throughout Kentucky had a significant presence.”

“It was great coming back to WKU and hearing about all of the things the students and the GIS program are doing,” said Billy Moore, a 2012 GIScience WKU graduate and GIS specialist with Clark County GIS in Winchester. “I take great pride in knowing that I got my degree [at WKU] and from some of the greatest GIS teachers in the state.”

• Scott Dobler, Instructor of Geography and Co-Coordinator of the Kentucky Geographic Alliance (KGA), presented KGA K- 12 Esri [GIS] Site License and about Geography and Geology’s colonnade course Geotechnologies in a Global Society.
• Sarah Fielden, Geoscience graduate student from Louisville, presented GIS and GPS for Management of WKU’s Baker Arboretum.
• Ellen Barringer, Geoscience graduate student, presented GIS for Optimizing Routes for WKU’s Campus Sustainability Tours.
• Kianoosh Ebrahimi, Geoscience graduate student, presented A Spatial Analysis of Solid Waste Generation Streams at Higher Educational Institutes and Using GIS for Location Allocation Analysis of Waste Management Facilities (Bins) at WKU.
• Taylor Berzins, a senior GIScience major from Antioch, Tennessee, presented his GIS internship experiences with Warren County’s Department of Public Works, Division of Stormwater Management.
• Austin Williams, a senior GIScience major from Bowling Green, presented 3D Visualization of Bowling Green’s Civil War Fortifications Using GIS.

For information on GIS, visit http://www.wku.edu/gis or contact Kevin Cary in WKU’s Center for GIS at (270) 745-2981 or kevin.cary@wku.edu

Contact: David Keeling, (270) 745-4555