Paige Brochu from University of Vermont joins us to talk about the influence of Jurassic Park, archeology in the Caribbean, mapping Lake Champlain shipwrecks, Benedict Arnold’s gunboat, the Spatial Analysis Lab (SAL) at UVM, interning with the Nature Conservancy in Rhode Island, a spatial connection via Strava that ended up in a Postdoc position, planetary health, meeting with policy makers on Capitol Hill, VermontView and Jarlath O’Neill-Dunne, drone imagery and the resources of the SAL used for disaster response in Vermont, GIS and remote sensing for addressing public health issues, spatial analysis related to drinking water, analysis of greenspace and green infrastructure, training the next generation of geospatial experts, and much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com

Tyler Erickson from VorGeo joins us to talk about foldable paper maps, working with remotely sensed data at a technology non-profit, the founding of MichiganView, open Landsat data, Google Earth Engine, Tyler’s time working at Google on the Earth Engine project, the founding of VorGeo and the work being done there, CTrees and above-ground biomass measurement, OpenET and water data, SAR data, SatCamp, advanced machine learning techniques, foundation models and embeddings, geospatial applications of large language modules, and much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com

Nancy French from the Michigan Tech Research Institute at Michigan Technological University joins us to talk about the Environmental Research Institute of Michigan (ERIM), SAR applications, field data in conjunction with radar remote sensing to analyze fire effects, the Bettles fire in Alaska, MichiganView, wildfires and remote sensing, wildfire smoke and health, estimating fuel consumption, fuel moisture monitoring, and much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com

JB Sharma from the University of North Georgia joins us to talk about JB’s transition from a physics background to geospatial technologies, grassroots STEM literacy, how to get students interested in remote sensing, JB’s work with AmericaView, AI-based techniques for handling the volume of remote sensing data, deep learning, GEOBIA for classifying UAS data, learning communities in online learning, ASPRS, and much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com

Joseph Kerski from Joseph Kerski LLC, University of Denver and Auburn University joins us to talk about growing up in a motel in western Colorado, making maps as a kid that included address ranges, working at USGS, being part of the Esri Education team, Joseph’s passion for teaching geography, spatial thinking concepts, multidisciplinary teaching, mathematics and spatial thinking, teaching with geospatial and developing a general public course, new education projects, and much, much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com

Lisa Wirth, the Program Director of AmericaView, joins us to talk about Lisa's graduate work in Fisheries in Alaska, tagging fall chum salmon on the Yukon River, having field instruments freeze up, tracking fish with radiotelemetry, thermal remote sensing of rivers, using SAR imagery in Alaska, using a FLIR camera on a Cessna, the Alaska Geobotanical Center, AlaskaView, Augmented Reality sandboxes, managing all of the StateViews of AmericaView, and much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com

This is Round Two of our special “Squared Circle” episodes, where a group of guests gets together to wrestle with a particular topic. For this episode, we're joined by Dr. Donna Delparte from the University of Idaho, Dr. Bruce Millett from South Dakota State University, and Dr. Lance Yarbrough from the University of Mississippi, and we're discussing all things drones. We talk about the state of the union of drones today, the impact of the National Defense Authorization Act (the NDAA) and the American Security Drone Act on drones, sensors, and data collection, the Blue List and the Green List for UAS and sensors, the future of drones in research and education, and much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com

Geoff Bland, Andy Henry, Lisa Ogiemwonyi, and Sallie Smith from the NASA AREN (Aerokats and Rover Education Network) team join us to talk about the beginnings of the AREN project, Aerokats and remote sensing via kites, flying the first educational UAS with sensors on the Channel Islands of California, RSESTeP, ICARUS, incorporating remote sensing into K-12 classrooms, place-based education, the development of Aeropods, the various camera systems and sensors that can be used on Aeropods, high resolution imagery from kites, looking at change over time in imagery, collecting air quality data, teacher training in the AREN workshops, local community projects, operations and teamwork, and much more. Show notes and photos are available at: https://americaview.substack.com