Cutting-edge technology enhances real-world experiences
OXFORD, Miss. – Professor Waheed Uddin’s civil engineering students at the University of Mississippi have participated in national and international research projects with hands-on work such as placing sensors on emergency vehicles to study traffic flow and walking major airport runways to examine construction materials.
And thanks to a $4.6 million software donation, the students can enhance such real-world experiences right on their computers.
Recognizing Uddin’s commitment to innovative teaching, IAVO Research and Scientific of Durham, N.C., has contributed 150 licenses of its GeoGenesis image-processing software, with 20 of the licenses designated for the UM School of Medicine.
The gift will help prepare not only engineering students but also students in an array of disciplines with cutting-edge technology through 3-D visualization and remote sensing – technologies the U.S. Department of Labor has identified as high-growth industries in the 21st century.
“Mastering these tools provides great marketability for all students,” said Matt Heric, CEO of IAVO. “In fact, understanding GIS – or geographic information systems – has become a tangent to what it means to be literate.
“The software applications of GeoGenesis are endless, and we have been impressed with Waheed Uddin’s ideas for involving disciplines across the Oxford and Medical Center campuses in what we consider to be a universitywide gift.”
The software will allow students, as well as the university’s research community, to fully realize the value and impact of 3-D visualization and remote sensing on earth sciences, environmental concerns, engineering, architecture, societal issues, business, education, archaeology, history, geo-politics and more. Professors at the School of Medicine will explore the software’s applications with medical imaging analysis.
“Today’s Ole Miss students are so thoroughly immersed in technology, and we need to provide them with leading technological tools as part of their education,” said UM Provost Morris Stocks. “Our thanks go to IAVO Research and Scientific for this generous software gift, which will more completely prepare our students for careers in the 21st century. We also anticipate a great deal of collaborative research coming from the amazing applications of this software.”
Traditional geospatial analysis and geographic information systems provide only a 2-D view of the planet. The latest 3-D technology of GeoGenesis comes from the development and use of satellite imageries, laser terrain mapping, global positioning systems and GIS, said Uddin, director of the UM Center for Advanced Infrastructure Technology Transportation Modeling and Visualization Laboratory. He will manage UM’s GeoGenesis gift and implement it in the CAIT laboratory. The gift arrives as CAIT celebrates its 10th anniversary.
“The implications of the GeoGenesis gift for our university are truly remarkable,” said Deborah Vaughn, UM assistant vice chancellor for development, who worked with Uddin to secure the gift. “We are grateful to Dr. Heric and IAVO for this generous commitment to our students and researchers, and to the state of Mississippi.”
Besides contributing to student education and collaborative research, the gift will be used in outreach to the state in planning effective emergency preparedness and responses. Three-dimensional visuals of buildings, critical life-line infrastructure assets, terrain, highways and vehicles provide a more in-depth look at the impact of such crises to those studying potential and actual disasters.
The value of such tools was illustrated in 2005 when UM engineering professors and graduate students worked alongside Mississippi Emergency Management Agency officials around the clock during Hurricane Katrina’s approach, landfall and aftermath. The engineers’ GIS software was crucial to search, rescue and recovery efforts along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, where most street signs and structures were destroyed.
Potential applications in outreach assistance also include 3-D re-creation of transportation accidents and crime scenes, Uddin said.
University communities respond to the GeoGenesis technology with a “refreshing vision” for applications, Heric said. IAVO Research and Scientific – an engineering and software firm founded in 2000 – recently initiated gifts to higher education, when Heric said he and senior vice president Eric Lester recognized schools would have challenges purchasing expensive software during the economic downturn. IAVO also has made major gifts to the universities of Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina, and East Carolina University.
“The University of Mississippi in general and its School of Engineering in particular seem to be such positive forces of energy and innovation,” said Heric, who added that his view of education was affected by frustration he experienced as a college student (at another institution) due to the lack of resources for physics and computer programming.
“If we are asking students to study, grow and succeed, they must have adequate resources. IAVO is pleased to provide the opportunities for Ole Miss students through this gift.”
For more information on contributing to initiatives at the University of Mississippi, go to http://www.umfoundation.com/home/ .