Every Pixel Has A Story with Peder Nelson

This is Round Six 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. Aaron Maxwell from West Virginia University, Dr. JB Sharma from the University of West Georgia, and Dr. Qiusheng Wu from the University of Tennessee and we’re discussing all things about GeoAI today. We talk about applying AI to image classification in a variety of applications, computer vision approaches to AI, GEOBIA, open source Python packages for GeoAI, image segmentation for water imagery, training models with a text prompt, deep learning, Google Earth Engine, AI instruction and applications in the classroom, lowering the barrier to using GeoAI, the accuracy of the products generated by AI, the impact of AI on geospatial science and reproducibility, and much more.  Show notes and photos are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Tim Stryker from Hudson Passage, LLC joins us to talk about the Presidential Management Fellows Program, Tim’s time being a guide for a traveling exhibit in the former Soviet Union, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the US Group on Earth Observations, Tim’s time at the USGS, connections with international remote sensing programs, NOAA and international coordination of weather satellites, remote sensing ground stations across the planet, the impact of Landsat, public data and imagery and its multiple applications, Tim’s consultancy Hudson Passage LLC, and much more. Show notes and photos are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Tim Warner from West Virginia University joins us to talk about enjoying the view from above as a kid, a career-defining course in photogeology and remote sensing, Spectral Africa, studying patterns in aeolian sand, a chance meeting on an airplane that changed the direction of Tim’s life, traveling by canoe, geological mapping with remote sensing and GIS, the origin of WestVirginiaView as the second StateView program, developing a statewide consortium, Tim’s time as an editor for multiple journals, hiking in the Italian Alps, advice for new geospatial professionals, and much more.  Show notes and photos are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Peder Nelson from Oregon State University joins us to talk about his father's time working at EROS in Sioux Falls, Landsat as Peder’s other sibling, simulating with cameras what digital Landsat images would be like, being part of a tech migrant family, graffiti from space, the development of digital sensors, stewarding data to make it useful, planning for the future of remote sensing, people’s first light to connect with remote sensing, the GLOBE program, the GLOBE Observer App, a need to collaboratively continue remote sensing and data into the future, and much, much more.  Show notes and photos are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Tracy Shane from the University of Nevada-Reno joins us to talk about her backpacking trips with her grandmother as a kid, learning to read topo maps at age seven, the Nevada Youth Range Camp, Tracy’s time as a Student Conservation Employment Program (SCEP) student, the Society for Range Management, the Drone Rangers, a drone named Betty White, working with drones in outreach and a 4-H program, range management, the use of virtual fencing in ranching, the scale of the Great Basin, hyperspectral analysis with drones for biomass estimation, and pairing drone data with NAIP imagery.  Show notes and photos are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Yuting Zhou from Oklahoma State University joins us to talk about a long trip where flat land turned into mountains, tools for understanding landscape changes, studying ecology and agriculture applications, Yuting’s journey from China to Oklahoma, OklahomaView and the national network of AmericaView, the climate and agriculture of Oklahoma, studying agriculture at different scales, UAS filling the gap between satellite data and in situ measurements, invasive species detection with UAS, Red Cedar mapping, GIS Day in Oklahoma, flash drought analysis, and much more.  Show notes and photos are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Jan Eitel from the University of Idaho joins us to talk about going from plot scale to landscape scale, the McCall Outdoor Science School, introducing K-12 students to lidar measurements, STELLA, teaching outdoors and winter research, IdahoView, engaging students in data collection, point dendrometers, a Tree EKG, NISAR imagery and analyzing plant water status, data fusion, AI and extracting meaningful information regarding forest growth and forest health, the response of forest ecosystems to hotter and dryer conditions, lidar and forest management, and much more.  Show notes and photos are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Paige Williams from Virginia Commonwealth University joins us to talk about traveling to the Esri conference in San Diego with her mom while in high school, being inspired by Will.i.am, working in software distribution, maxing out on GIS classes, collecting data and mapping as part of a water study team in Burkina Fasa, flying drones in research at NASA Goddard, forestry analysis at spatial and temporal scales, and Paige’s work at VCU, a student-driven drone class, teacher training with UAS, hands-on learning, working with STELLA and using STELLA on a drone, and much more.  Show notes and photos are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

John Millard from Miami University joins us to talk about the career of Keanu Reeves, becoming a librarian from a business program, technology based jobs for librarians, Dad Lore, Mosaic, building your own digital library of information, a collaboration that would become OhioView, licensing of Landsat data, the cost of data storage, OhioLink and the process of satellite imagery transfer, technology training for librarians, metadata, data storage, the first file cabinet, how AI is changing the game, AI deriving meaning out of disparate data, award winning chili recipes, and much more.  Show notes and photos are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com

Mary O’Neill from South Dakota State University joins us to talk about a work study job in the plant science department, the Remote Sensing Institute (RSI) at SDSU, remote sensing from a retrofitted WW2 aircraft, SADE (Signal Analysis and Dissemination Equipment), watching the first scenes from ERTS / Landsat 1 come off the printer, Mary’s participation at the start of AmericaView and her time with the consortium, the establishment of a Geospatial Science Center of Excellence, workshops for K-12 teachers, why EROS was established where it was, Mary’s second retirement, SouthDakotaView, and much more.  Show notes and photos are available at:  https://americaview.substack.com