Tag: ECO

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Mapping the UMass Amherst Campus Using UAS Aerial Imagery 2023

By Ryan Wicks | 25 Jun 2023

Introduction

If you’ve visited the UMass Amherst campus occasionally in the last 10 years you may have noticed dozens of new construction projects of various sorts popping up all over the campus; new academic buildings, solar panel parking canopies (https://www.umass.edu/sustainability/climate-change-energy/solar-energy/2017-solar-projects), and geothermal well drilling, just to name a few. To coordinate these efforts effectively, up-to-date information – specifically GIS data – is quite helpful. Not only does the UMass Amherst Physical Plant leverage drones and Trimble R10 RTK to regularly survey progress on construction projects, but they also host a campus-wide GIS working group whose focus is to promote and leverage the power of GIS data, tools, and ancillary equipment to provide highly detailed, highly accurate, current information to any departments and decision makers in the UMass network.

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BCT’s Design / Build Models – 2022 Edition

The models shown above are from Project 2 in BCT 420 “Designing in 3D CAD & BIM” and ECO 620 “Studies in BIM”, a project-based course that teaches Trimble SketchUp, Realworks and Autodesk Revit. In this project students are being asked to digitally design and then fabricate a “useful object” using any of these methods: wood model building, paper model building, casting, 3D printing, CNC cutting. Continue reading “BCT’s Design / Build Models – 2022 Edition”

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Surveying a Retaining Wall

 

UMass BCT Graduate Student Brett Barnard can be seen here operating the Trimble TX8 3D Scanner with Senior Andrew Smith and Sophomore Leo Minniti to survey and analyze a retaining wall on the Amherst campus. They plan to scan the entire wall in both Fall and Spring to obtain multiple 3D point clouds of the area for surveying and mapping purposes. Continue reading “Surveying a Retaining Wall”

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Trimble R10 – The Conversation Starter!

by Amanda Davis

When you walk around in public spaces carrying a Trimble R10 RTK over your shoulder, you get asked a lot of questions!

For the past two summers,  myself and a group of researches have used the Trimble R10 to take location and elevation measurements of landscape features in salt marshes throughout Massachusetts. Sometimes we are at Audobon sites sharing space with birders, sometimes we are near roads or in what seems like someone’s backyard, and sometimes we are just off of someone’s favorite walking path. Regardless of who we cross paths with – birder, driver, homeowner, or hiker – we always get asked about the R10 because it looks so sleek yet complex! Sometimes we are asked “What are you doing?” or “What is that?” or our favorite, “Are you making a movie?!”.

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