July 8, 2020
2020 Global Engineering Experience
The inaugural global experience trip to Denver, Colorado for the department of geomatics engineering took place in February 2020. It involved a faculty advisor, a graduate student chaperone, and ten second year geomatics engineering undergraduate students.
Denver is the technological hub for the Mountain West states. There are many geomatics engineering related companies in the area. Some of these companies employ UCalgary geomatics engineering alumni. Stephanie Michaud (employed by Trimble Inc. in Westminster, Colorado and a UCalgary alumna), was a key figure in the trip planning. The trip incorporated visits to the following companies: Lockheed Martin Space, Trimble Inc., Occipital with Jeremy Steward (see Figure 1), Intermap Technologies Inc. with Ivan Maddox, ESRI, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) with Nathan Pugh. During the company visits the students listened to inspiring presentations, participated in hands-on demonstrations of equipment (see Figure 2), and networked with geomatics engineering alumni and other company employees. The trip also included a tour of an Amazon fulfillment centre (see Figure 3), a networking event, sightseeing of monuments with cultural significance, group discussions, and written self-reflections.
Overall the geomatics engineering global experience trip was a great success and we hope that it will be possible to happen again in the future.