CNM Students Place First in National Society of Professional Surveyors Competition
The National Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS) held its 18th Annual Student Competition on April 11 as part of the 2019 NSPS Spring Meetings in Arlington, VA.
CNM students Emiliano Salazar, Lonnie McKnight and Justin Archuleta along with faculty from the Surveying Technology program represented the college and aced the competition, bringing home the first-place prize in the Associate Degree Division.
The 2019 competition topic was “Utilizing remotely sensed data in a modern surveying practice.” Each team completed a project, prepared a technical report and poster, and gave a formal presentation to a panel of judges. Thirteen schools with undergraduate degree programs in surveying, mapping or geomatics participated in this year’s competition.
The CNM project was to provide detailed mapping of the very rugged Guadalupe River Canyon and the Gilman Tunnels along the road through the canyon. To accomplish the canyon and mesa mapping, the students chose to use aerial mapping techniques incorporating CNM’s fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).The entrances and interior of the tunnels were mapped using CNM’s terrestrial Lidar equipment.
"Justin, Lonnie, and Emiliano powerfully demonstrated the hard work and dedication found at Applied Technologies and were a wonderful example of the excellent educational opportunities provided here at CNM. I am very proud of their accomplishments," says Ronald Forstbauer, full-time instructor in the School of Applied Technologies.
Surveying engineering is a growing field across the nation and CNM continues to equip students with the outstanding education, skills and hands-on training to meet the workforce need. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), employment of surveyors is projected to grow 11 percent from 2016 to 2026. That’s faster than the average for all occupations in general.
“Surveyors will continue to be needed to certify boundary lines, work on resources extraction projects and review sites for construction,” states the BLS.
NSPS is the national organization representing the entire Land Surveying profession in the United States.