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COGS 2014 Grad Profiles

The 2013-2014 Graduate Profile booklet for the Centre of Geographic Sciences (COGS) was designed to help potential employers, seek out, and find suitable geomatics based candidate for positions within their company. COGS graduates come with varied backgrounds, experiences, and skill sets and are eager to help potential employers fill the needs of their organizations.

COGS students of 2014 have worked hard to meet the demands of a rigorous school schedule expanding their knowledge of Geographic Information Systems, Remote Sensing, Marine Geomatics, Geographic Information Systems for Business, Cartography, Community & Environmental Planning, Surveying, and Geomatics Engineering. So check out COGS alumni of 2014 by downloading a full copy here: http://www.cogs.ns.ca/Programs/Geomatics/COGSGradProfile2014.pdf

On May 4th Edward Wedler ( former RS instructor)  and I (former SCP instructor, Head of Department of Computer Programming) coordinated the Road to Georgetown Conference event at COGS in Lawerncetown. It was a one day event designed to help share ideas about rural economic development in the Annapolis Valley.

We collaborated together with David MacLean (current GIS faculty) to prepare a web application that will map the registered attendees. Philip Milo (ex-Survey instructor) presented a monologue on Major Church and the history of the Survey School in Lawrencetown. Please check bit.ly/road2georgetown if you would like to hear a podcast of Phillip’s presentation or listen to any of the other story tellers from the event.

Earlier this year Kathleen Stewart (current IT faculty) and her students developed a searchable online web application that features COGS alumni and their co-operative projects. The material in the database dates back to the early ’80s, when these types of projects were a major component of the diploma programs. She has been coordinating with Ted MacKinnon to create a similar database and add the functionality on the web site here for interested alumni to make use of.

Bob

The Road to Redlands

Esri LogoI recently received an email from Cathy Mueller of Esri confirming that the first COGS graduate that took the road to Redlands was indeed Julie Hutching in 1986. Other early COGS graduates that followed were Mark Harris and Jamil Alvi. Mark is still working with ESRI, however Julie and Jamil both left Esri in 2011. Jamil with his wife, Jonelle (COGS 1995) moved to Portland, Oregon.

While Esri does not keep records by institution, Cathy does reckons that they currently have sixty COGS graduates working there with roughly another sixty that have come and gone over the years. So over a thirty year span, an average of four per year. Not so shabby.  Esri and Esri Canada continue to come to COGS every Spring interviewing and recruiting graduates.

logo CCA

GIS Summer Institute 1985 and 1987

Mike Goodchild has confirmed that two Canadian Cartographic Association (CCA) sponsored workshops were held at COGS during the Summer of 1985 and 1987. This involved Roger Tomlinson and many university faculty from across Canada. He not only gave me the dates, he also remembered the social events – John Wightman’s lobster boil on the Bay of Fundy, the boat trip down the Annapolis River, picnic at my house in Clarence. Plus a participant hitting a deer coming back over North Mountain.

GIS/RS Newsletter 1993

1993 GIS-RS Alumni Newsletter v2Sally O’Grady discovered the first (and only) COGS Alumni Newsletter created in 1993. She has provided us with a copy of it witch we have added to the web site. It contains many various contributions from different staff members. It is amazing that twenty years have gone by.

A Design for GIS training 1985

Over Christmas, with help from my son, I have tracked down a paper written by myself and John Wightman, in The Operational Geographer. It will be posted to the web site soon.

Alumni Network

There have been several alumni class lists generated by David Raymond, David MacLean and my self which we will include on the site. I have also been working with Kathleen Stewart to see if we can build a web application that will allow searching and maintenance of these lists. I have also been working with Jon Murphy who runs GoGeomatics out of Ottawa to help reach past COGS Alumni.

My interest is to support a vibrant alumni network. Anyone with interests and skills in this area, please contact me. This is an important component of the project.

Interviews

Before Christmas, Heather and I had interviews with David Woolnough and David Colville to help try and get a better handle on the period between 1988 -1999 at COGS, when I was away from the valley.

Writing

writingWhile I have been distracted by family vacation, and also trying to get the web site working well, this Spring I hope to start the substantive writing, beginning with the ‘survey school’ days.

PLEASE FORWARD any photographs, articles, items of interest or comments to me. We will acknowledge all contributions.

Postscript

The new Principal of  the Annapolis Valley campus is Isabel Madeira-Voss. She replaced Jim Stanley last Summer.

The New Chair of Geomatics at COGS is Dennis Kingston, he replaces Bruce Hicks this month (January 2013).

Enough for my first blog update.

Bob.

1993 GIS-RS Alumni Newsletter v2

Today we have the GIS/RS Alumni Newsletter to share with everybody. It was created and sent out to COGS alumni in the spring in 1993.

I believe it was the first and only issue that was created had although Sally O’Grady said that they had great aspirations to keep it going. We think that it is an interesting historical piece that many would enjoy reading and reminiscing about their time at COGS.

In side the 10 page PDF newsletter you will find various contributions from Dave Colville, Tim Webster, Pearle Chambers, Konrad Dramowicz, Piotr Proszynski, Sally O’Grady, Roger Mosher and many others about the various different aspects of the GIS/RS programs.  There are also various images, some trivia and a cross word puzzle.


Do you have any COGS related information, photos or other material that you would like to share with the COGS Alumni network? If so then we would love to hear from you.

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“The Story of COGS – A Nova Scotian experiment in Technical Education”, highlights a book about the history of the College of Geographic Sciences (COGS) which has always been innovative and flexible, with a proven reputation for the identification of new geographic information programs and technology. Discover the history of COGS, share photos, stories, experiences and much more with other COGS alumni …