1) What is your organisation about? A short description of RSPOC
The UK Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Society (RSPSoc) is an academic association, which promotes the disciplines of remote sensing and photogrammetry and their application to education, science, research, industry, commerce and the public service. We are a charity and our main aim is to inform and educate our members and the public. We also support networking between universities, business and government sectors for example through organizing an annual general conference, as well as specialist workshops. RSPSoc is UK based but it is also active in Europe and on the world stage.
2) Why is it important for you to work on EO skills?
Within RSPSoc there is an ongoing debate on the relevance of the society within the field of Earth Observation/Remote Sensing (EO/RS). One of the important strengths of our society is the incredible amount of discipline knowledge concentrated in the membership. The society needs to be able to benefit these members, but we also need to reach out to the wider community and share that knowledge. Education and Training is therefore an important focus of our future activities. This could include skills training for students, as well as for people from other disciplines who are looking towards EO/RS technology as a new source of information.
3) Do you currently have an initiative linked to EO skills?
Various EO skills related activities have been undertaken by members of RSPSoc in the past and the society has always been at the forefront of new technological developments in the EO/RS discipline. Successful workshops on use of Unmanned Aerial Systems (drones) and Object-Based Image Analysis (OBIA) are examples of this. As the recently appointed chair of the society’s Education and Training committee I have been set the task to look at new ways in which the society can contribute to the uptake of EO/RS skills in the wider community. This ranges from promoting EO/RS related activities in primary schools through to CPD for people already working in the field.
4) Why has it important for you to join EO4GEO?
A lot of work is being done through EO4GEO to get to the core of what Education and Training is needed in the EO/RS field. This knowledge is important to us, to help us focus our activities. At the same time, we will do our best to let EO4GEO tap into the vast knowledge base of our membership, for example by finding experts that can contribute to the Body of Knowledge. I am very much looking forward to learning from the outputs generated by the project, as well as to further collaborations with other project partners.
