Add-On Workshops

This workshop provides an in-depth look at the 2nd Edition of the ASPRS Positional Accuracy Standards published in 2024 to categorize positional accuracy of products derived from digital aerial cameras, manned and unmanned aerial systems, and all types of lidar including terrestrial, mobile, and airborne. The workshop will explain the basis for each accuracy measure adopted in the standards and will highlight important features of the six Best Practices Addendums.

Airborne bathymetric lidar is one of the most exciting and rapidly-advancing technologies in the geospatial sector. Its uses range from safety of marine navigation (i.e., hydrographic surveying and nautical charting), to sediment transport modeling, benthic habitat mapping and monitoring, marine ecological assessments, flood inundation modeling, river morphology, coastal engineering, and more. This workshop is designed for geospatial professionals, students, and even those new to the field who are interested in learning more about lidar bathymetry. We will start with a brief history and theory of bathymetric lidar, including terminology, system components, and acquisition principles. We will then cover operational concepts, including mission planning, data processing and workflows, calibration, QA/QC, and accuracy assessment. We will conclude with a view of the future of airborne bathymetric lidar, including emerging trends and anticipated advances over the next decade.

The workshop will focus in depth on Addendum VI of the 2024 ASPRS Positional Accuracy Standards: Best Practices and Guidelines for Mapping with Oblique Imagery. As oblique imagery continues to gain traction in applications such as urban planning, infrastructure management, and environmental monitoring, practitioners will play a pivotal role implementing an operational framework that ensures consistency, quality, and interoperability. This workshop will provide real world examples of the large oblique imagery projects with applications of the guidelines.

Lidar is becoming the backbone of the geospatial mapping production methods. Whether onboard a crewed or uncrewed aircraft, Lidar productivity and accuracy surpassed any current methods used to produce terrain data. Participants in the workshop will gain knowledge on durrent and emerging lidar technologies including lidar, Geiger, and Single Photon lidar; data quality, accuracy and accuracy standards, including ASPRS and USGS Lidar Base Specifications.

This workshop covers the common knowledge areas comprising a large portion of exam content for ASPRS Certification. It is valuable preparation for those who have never taken an ASPRS exam, as well as for those who have expertise in a particular specialty, such as lidar or UAS, but feel less prepared for the general knowledge component of the exam. This workshop will also explain the certification application process and the importance of certification in career development.

Digital Twins start with reality and the most effective way to capture it today is from the sky.  From drone flights and sensor payloads to high-altitude aerial surveys and satellite collections, data capture is the entry point into a larger system of truth. This workshop goes end-to-end showing flight planning and data capture, data processing,  insight extraction, and data sharing.

This workshop teaches the fundamentals of creating controlled map products and 3D models from UAS-mounted lidar systems. Participants will learn to successfully design projects in accordance with ASPRS Positional Accuracy Standards, including flight planning, ground control placement, lidar system calibration, point cloud processing, product generation, quality control, and accuracy assessment. These concepts will be taught with a software-agnostic approach that is applicable to any commercially available package. Topics covered in this workshop are representative of those included on the ASPRS Certified Technologist and Certified Mapping Scientist examinations.

This workshop clarifies Geo AI and its role in creating and maintaining digital twins. Participants will explore how artificial intelligence can transform geospatial data—from imagery and lidar to sensor feeds—into actionable insights for infrastructure, urban planning, and asset management. Through real-world examples and interactive discussion, attendees will gain a clear understanding of the tools, workflows, and opportunities driving the next generation of intelligent digital twins.

This workshop explores the utilization of advanced mobile mapping systems equipped with high-resolution imaging and lidar sensors to support the generation of digital twins across diverse domains. Participants will examine workflows for capturing, processing, and integrating geospatial data into accurate models that enhance decision-making in transportation networks, forestry management, and urban planning. Emphasis will be placed on data/product quality assurance and quality control, AI-assisted feature extraction, and cross-sector applications, highlighting how these technologies drive innovation, sustainability, and operational efficiency.

This workshop teaches the fundamentals of creating controlled map products and 3D models from UAS-mounted camera systems. Participants will learn to successfully design projects in accordance with ASPRS Positional Accuracy Standards, including flight planning, ground control placement, camera calibration, block adjustment, product generation, quality control, and accuracy assessment. These concepts will be taught with a software-agnostic approach that is applicable to any commercially available package. Topics covered in this workshop are representative of those included on the ASPRS Certified Technologist and Certified Mapping Scientist examinations.

$195 | MON FEB 16 | 3:30 PM – 5:30 PM MT

The workshop will focus in depth on Addendum II of the 2024 ASPRS Positional Accuracy Standards: Best Practices and Guidelines for Field Surveying of Ground Control and Checkpoints. It will address practitioner concerns regarding the collection methodologies for field survey data, as well as in-office processing and quality control. The workshop will provide attendees with detailed explanations for collection, processing, and reporting to ensure that ground control and checkpoints intended for use with aerial survey meet the published requirements. 

$215 | MON FEB 16 | 3:30 PM – 5:30 PM MT

This workshop will introduce participants to applying deep learning techniques for processing optical remote sensing data, covering the fundamentals of deep learning, building models from scratch, and leveraging pre-trained models for image classification with PyTorch Image Models (TIMM) and image segmentation with Segmentation Models PyTorch (SMP). Attendees will also learn how to create custom data loaders to train or fine-tune models on their own datasets, work on the free Google Colab platform, and set up a local deep learning environment. All code and datasets will be provided to ensure participants can continue practicing beyond the session.