ETSU’s surveying and mapping program received a 2019 Education Award from The National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying.
The NCEES is a licensing organization for surveyors and engineers. Every year they give out $10,000, $15,000 and $25,000 Education Awards to surveying geomatic programs that best reflect the NCEES mission and have a strong curriculum. The award is juried by a panel of professionals and educators.
This year, ETSU’s surveying and mapping program received the $15,000 award for collaboration on the program by ETSU Surveying Program Coordinator Jared Wilson and Assistant Professor Jinseok Hong.
“We’ve been working diligently to bolster enrollment; get the notice out to students – I’m talking about college students as well as high school students – that land surveying and mapping is an awesome STEM science,” Program Coordinator Jared Wilson said. “There was actually an article ran by a federal surveyors’ magazine that said it’s the best kept secret in the STEM sciences. Nobody knows what we do. Nobody knows what we do.”
Wilson said they plan to utilize the 2019 award to branch out and push things further for distance students. This will include offering more online courses and getting heftier equipment such as GoPro cameras and 3D scanners to gather survey data.
Hong said they will use these new technologies to advance and update their curriculum, as well as create new courses that will use these technologies.
“That is where these industries are going, and we don’t want to stay behind,” Hong said.
ETSU received the $10,000 Education Award in 2018 on account of Hong’s work for the program. The program utilized the first award to purchase equipment such as drones to develop a new course which is being taught experimentally this semester: Introduction to Unmanned Aircraft Systems. Wilson said this course will be enrolled into their curriculum.
Hong said they are already thinking about adding two new major courses with the advanced technology that will be purchased with this new award.
“Hopefully we are going to grow, and based on those technologies, hopefully we can attract more younger generations into the program,” Hong said.
The Surveying and Mapping Science program at ETSU received its first accreditation by the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology in 1992. The program has received ABET accreditation every year since.
The program currently has 63 students, and Wilson said about 50% of them are distance students. All surveying and mapping science courses are offered online as a distance course, which makes the program available to students who live in other states across the country. Wilson wants to prioritize helping distance students because surveying and mapping programs are rare to find.
“Surveying and mapping programs are few and far between,” Wilson said. “There’s just not that many of them. It’s not like English or mathematics, where every college or university has some type of English or mathematics degree.”
Although this award means more recognition for the program, Wilson is more excited about how the award will benefit the students.
“I was very pleased,” Wilson said. “I was very excited. We have an excellent team – myself and Professor Hong – and we work very well together. And I was excited more for the ability to utilize the funds and the award to help students. That’s what the award is for. It’s not for the program. It’s for the students. And knowing that we received this award, it’s just going to help us gain more tools to help advance students in the technological foundational base and then hopefully help them grow and expand as future professionals.”
Wilson said the program will strive for the $25,000 award next year.
