Cadets Visit Keystone Aerial Surveys, Inc.

Fourteen cadets enrolled in Photogrammetry along with 3 faculty from the Geospatial Information Science (GIS) program (Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering) participated in a trip section to Keystone Aerial Surveys, Inc. located in Philadelphia, PA. During the visit, cadets gained exposure to the tools and workflows required for acquisition and processing of aerial photographs and airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data. Keystone has flown millions of survey miles throughout the United States and conducts several different geospatial missions including conventional and digital photogrammetry, aerial photo processing, Li- DAR, and photograph-based 3D point cloud development. Keystone operates with a fleet of 21 aircraft and has worked for a variety of government agencies including the USDA (NRI, WRP, and NAIP, Forest Service) USGS, BLM, FEMA, US Army Corps of Engineers and NOAA. During the visit, cadets broke up into small groups, which rotated through numerous educational stations focusing on aerial survey planning and coordination, photogrammetric image processing, film scanning, mission flight planning, film and digital aerial cameras, unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), and manned collection aircraft. The visit put several concepts taught in class into perspective for the cadets and sparked further interest into the fields of photogrammetry and remote sensing. In addition, cadets got to witness the Keystone staff actively processing high-resolution aerial imagery of the recent Philadelphia Eagles Super Bowl parade, where approximately 2 million fans gathered in the streets of downtown Philadelphia.