Category Archives: Surveying

What Is South Surveying and Mapping Instrument Co.?

South Surveying and Mapping Instrument Co., LTD. holds a substantial share in the largest single market for such products. Until recently, it was not well known in the Americas; a sleeping giant may be awakening. Years ago, I started seeing South’s booths at trade shows like Intergeo and Conexpo, but in recent years I’ve begun...

Technology to Buy Into: Riding High on AI

Artificial intelligence is making huge waves in the geospatial industry, changing how location information and BIMs are created from big data. Meet three startups at the forefront. (Image above: By applying computer vision to street imagery, Mapillary detects map data at scale.) Startups in the AEC realm have skyrocketed over the last decade. The availability...

George Zhou

Growth from China: an Interview with CHCNAV’s George Zhou

George Zhou has long been a figure in GNSS integration and product development, but he’s best known for founding and growing CHC Navigation from a startup in 2003 to a major global developer and producer of GNSS and geospatial hardware and software. As a follow-up to our November 2019 recap of our recent visit to...

Positively Surveying: A 2020 Vision for Geospatial Professions

I’m imagining a world. It’s not a dream. It’s coming, and soon. One in which we bring data from the field and step into a virtual reality (VR) environment made by our data points that we uploaded to the cloud. Where we’re crafting and sharing our surveys in 3D and real-time, in collaboration with surveyors...

Outlook 2020’s 40 Under 40

The following is xyHt’s 2020 collection of 40 under 40: profiles of motivated and accomplished young professionals under 40 years of age. Click on each name to view their profiles below. Kwabena Obeng Asiam Researcher & Lecturer – Leibniz University Published PhD candidate in land administration; FIG Young Surveyors Ghana Evaluating the evidence and making...

What’s Your BHAG for 2020?

It just dawned on me: 2020 isn’t just a new year but the start of a new decade. Now is a perfect time to start planning for it. Let’s start with that cryptic headline: Just what the heck is a BHAG? A Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) is a concept developed by acclaimed business researcher...