The Engineering Society at York (ES@Y), in collaboration with the GeoIDE Students’ Network, recently held a symposium on geomatics entitled “What’s So Special about Spatial?” The featured speaker was York Prof. Vincent Tao, (below, right) Canadian Research Chair in Geomatics Engineering.
Geomatics Engineering is a rapidly developing field that involves gathering geospatial data from a wide variety of sensors on land, in the air and in space for use in a broad range of applications. For instance, farms can now take advantage of automated, GPS-controlled fertilizing. Similar techniques can be applied in the fields of navigation and transport, and in retailing, urban planning and management of the environment. (For more information on geomatics engineering, visit http://www.eas.yorku.ca/Earthgeom.htm.)
Tao’s presentation touched on the many different fields that geomatics incorporates, from tracking devices the size of coins to LIDAR and global positioning system applications.
The purpose of the symposium was to educate current and prospective geomatics engineers on the vast use and application of geomatics; describe geomatics to those unfamiliar with it; and demonstrate how this elite stream encompasses aspects from numerous fields, including computer and software engineering, mechanical and civil engineering, physics, and earth and atmospheric science.
