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| Abigail Gettinger 2019-20: MS Rangeland Ecology & Watershed Mgt. |
2021 USDA Forest Service |
 By evaluating the conversion of Landsat digital numbers to surface reflectance values for select spectral indices, I gained more knowledge about what the different types of remote sensing pre-processing included. My research for the project also resulted in the opportunity to learn more about additional indices that have been created for remote sensing and what different terminology in remote sensing means, such as radiance versus reflectance. I also learned further about the importance of evaluating what types of pre-processing are being performed to data and the value of being aware of how data operations performed before data acquisition may impact results. Moreover, I acquired additional information about statistics and determining significant differences between data means. A deeper understanding of the different types of pre-processing, the various indices that are used, and terms in remote sensing will help me whenever I am using remote sensing data in my own research or on a job. Knowledge regarding forms of pre-processing will help me to be a more informed researcher, educator, or user as I have personally seen the benefits of evaluating and asking questions about my data before I begin utilizing a dataset. In addition, my added understanding of statistics will help me on future projects as well as in my evaluation of other scientists’ research. |
You never know when having education and experience working with remotely sensed data will help you! In 2021, I worked for the USDA Forest Service as a Biological Science Technician in Soils. I had the opportunity to participate on a wildfire on a Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) Team as a Burned Area Emergency Response Specialist (BAES) Soils Trainee. The soil data that we collected on the ground was used to validate and adjust a Burned Area Reflectance Classification (BARC) map. This map utilized imagery captured by a satellite and was created using principles I learned about in remote sensing. Knowing common remote sensing terminology and having a background in remote sensing enabled me to act as a spokesperson for the team in pursuing an expert to better understand what factors could be influencing the map classifications. Having the vocabulary and an understanding of the data and common practices allowed me to ask relevant questions, deepen my own understanding, and share pertinent information with my team. I am grateful for the opportunity I had while attending the University of Wyoming to pursue education and research in remote sensing. Thank you, WyomingView, for supporting students who are performing remote sensing research! |
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| Cameron Sloan 2015-16: BS Energy Resources |
2022 Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality |
 My research experience during the semester allowed me to expand upon previous skills learned with GIS and remote sensing, and apply them to a real world application. I have learned many technical and problem solving skills through this opportunity that will help me to excel in my future career. |
The WyomingView internship program provided me the opportunity to expand beyond the classroom through the application of remote sensing concepts in a research-oriented environment. Through this opportunity I was able to explore the impact that remote sensing has for understanding the world that we interact with. This research challenged me to refine a variety of skills such as image processing, omission/commission error analysis, and communication which have prepared me for my professional career after graduation. Through this research I was also challenged to create and manage a QA/QC protocol, which showcased the importance of maintaining accurate and relevant data. The research process provided the perfect opportunity to utilize critical thinking skills while expanding upon existing literature and studies. Currently, I work with the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality as a Natural Resource Analyst. Remote sensing has become a large component of my professional career. Through the skills that I developed with the WyomingView internship program, I am equipped with the abilities to better utilize satellite imagery for detecting land use changes related to mining activities. Having this background in remote sensing has allowed for me to take advantage of what the Sentinel-2 satellite can offer for the assessment of new disturbances, which gives me necessary information to determine the reclamation liability at these mine sites. This allows me to examine what the sites look like remotely so I can better evaluate the consistency of operations relative to their mining and reclamation plans. This information allows for more precise and impactful communication with operators, internal/external agencies, and the public. |
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| Blake Balzan 2014-15: BS Rangeland Ecology & Watershed Mgt. |
2020 Monture Creek Land Management, MT |
 After this year’s Undergrad research project I have discovered a way to bring together the things I have learned here at the University of Wyoming and combine it with agriculture from my hometown. I do not know what will happen next on this path but it tends to be interesting so far. At first I was leery about doing this undergrad research project but I’m glad I did and it turned out to be quite enjoyable. I am highly excited to be graduating this year from UW, and believe that by venturing out away from the things I normally do, I have become ready to take the leap and start my own adventure in this wondrous world. |
For the last 5 years I have been a commercial pesticide applicator for a land management company in western Montana. There I have utilized many skills that I have gathered, some thru the internship with Ramesh Sivanpillai. As a weed manager, you use visual imagery constantly, a lot of it is just satellite imagery. We use this to locate and access weed infestations, thru old roads we see on the image. Sometimes the government employee has labeled polygons for us that have weed infestations. But a lot of the projects are search and destroy, where we go to areas on the landscape that look promising for weed production. From which Topo images are a huge help for determining hot places to hit for weed infestations. (Dec 19, 2020) |
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| Skye Swoboda-Colberg 2014-15: BS Geography |
2020 MS Student, University of Idaho, ID |
 I enjoyed quantifying the operator error in the unsupervised classification of images because it was a great way to reinforce data management and verification skills. Mistakes were occasionally made between transformations from data to images to maps and I spent a considerable amount of time accounting for these mistakes. I will continue to work with Landsat images and appreciate this opportunity to work with Wyoming View. I enjoyed presenting at the UW Undergraduate Research Day because it reinforced the importance of this research and has motivated me to continue to develop my remote sensing skills. |
My name is Skye Swoboda-Colberg, I am currently a graduate student pursuing an M.S. Degree in the Department of Geography and a Data Analytics Certificate from the Department of Statistics at the University of Idaho in Moscow. I began working as a GIS Technician at the National Institute for Advanced Transportation Technology (NIATT) with the College of Engineering here at the University of Idaho. I currently share research responsibilities at NIATT with teaching responsibilities with the Department of Geography. My current research is on the spatial distribution of EMS/SAR response to automobile crashes in Idaho. I worked on a project with Dr. Ramesh Sivanpillai that was funded by the Wyoming View Internship program, we were interested in quantifying user error in the unsupervised classification of reservoirs in Wyoming. I learned and developed skills managing data, documenting workflow, performing image classification and thinking critically about the results. These are all skills I continue to use in my work, classes, research, and will continue to be useful in the future as I work with spatial data as both a GIS technician as well as a data scientist. I am grateful for the opportunity I had as an undergraduate student to work on multiple projects related to GIS and Remote Sensing. (Apr 12, 2020) |
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| Erik Collier 2012-13: BS Rangeland Ecol. & Watershed Mgt. |
2020 Rocky Mountain Energy Solutions, WY |
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I believe that the internship that I completed helped me not only in the rest of my college work, but as well as in my professional career after graduation. Upon graduation, I went to work for the BLM as a Range Management Specialist. We used aerial imagery to help us map areas for cheatgrass treatments post wildfire. We also used imagery to help plan various range improvement projects and prescribed burns. After working at the BLM for a few years I moved into the oil and gas sector and took a job as an Environmental Specialist for Wood Group working to manage the Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) and other environmental matters for a large Coal bed Methane Company. While we didn’t use aerial imagery in the same way, the internship helped me here to look at issues at both a micro and a macro scale to prioritize work. Today I am working for Rocky Mountain Energy Solutions as a Project Manager/Environmental Specialist, managing environmental portions of various oil and gas projects. We use aerial imagery to plan out projects from all stages to provide the best solutions for our clients. (Dec 2, 2020) |
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| Cody Booth 2011-12: BS Rangeland Ecol. & Watershed Mgt. |
2020 Wyoming Office of State Lands and Investments |
 The internship opportunity was very influential in teaching me about remote sensing and real world application of this technology. Remote sensing is a useful tool that can help make management decisions and this internship opportunity taught me how to use this technology correctly. I plan to use this knowledge in the future to help answer some of the questions I may have pertaining to the restoration and reclamation fields. |
One of the greatest skills I learned is to recognize patterns and notice landscape changes. Remotely sensed data has helped me in my current capacity to realize the extent of wildfires and generally view/compare annual vegetation fluctuations. (Dec 17, 2020) |
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| Orin Hutchinson 2011-12: BS Rangeland Ecol. & Watershed Mgt. |
2019 Bureau of Land Management, WY |
 What I received from this opportunity to work with remote sensing and data analysis was a broader perspective of what this kind of technology can do and what activities may in the future be done by remote sensing. My project was centered on wildfire monitoring and I was able to see that in some cases, time and resources may be better allocated by using images rather than taking a field trip out to the site. This experience has taught me to keep an open mind about what technology can and cannot do and it has given me another tool that I will be able to use in my future career. |
I have had the opportunity to use the skills and processes that I learned with WyView often in my job. I am an Engine Captain for the BLM at present and am in charge of supervising fire crews in the summer. In the fall, winter and spring I do a lot of work with our fuels reduction program through planning, implementation and post treatment monitoring. We use remotely sensed data, primarily satellite imagery to evaluate areas for post treatment effectiveness and recovery depending on the specific parameters of the project. the majority of our projects are mechanical treatments to manipulate the vegetation to remove encroachment issues in to riparian areas. We also do some prescribed fire to reduce fuel loading and to manipulate vegetative communities for multiple resources. We have also used the imagery to identify project areas based on an analysis of the percent of cover of a specific type of vegetation such as conifer trees or sagebrush within a large block of the landscape that can be looked at during the field season to ground truth and fine tune treatment polygons for future treatments. Lastly I get to use remotely sensed data to look at burn area severity and post fire recovery for our larger fires on our district which was my interest while I was in college. We use the data that we gather to plan and implement burn area rehabilitation in areas that are deemed necessary of intervention to stabilize the area. |
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| Blake Cobb 2010-11: BS Rangeland Ecol. & Watershed Mgt. |
2020 US Forest Service, WY |
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I am still in fire, currently I am an engine captain for the USDA Forest Service on the Medicine Bow-Routt Thunder Basin National Grasslands with my Duty Station being in Douglas Wyoming. I use satellite imagery every day for my job. We build and use geo-referenced maps for many things; navigation, fire perimeter mapping, and so many others. We work in , ArcGis and AGOL to build the maps and generally export them to Avenza and Collector for field use and data collection. The work I did in your class has put me at the front of the curve for production and use. I have been working closely with another coworker to teach others how to use the maps and create their own lately as well. (Dec 1, 2020) |
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| Travis Yeik 2009-10: BS Geography |
2020 GK Technology for Agriculture, MT |
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Ten years ago, I would not have been able to predict how past internships would influence my future career. In that time, I wonder how many past students can look back at class projects or internships and remember the specific skills they learned. Surprisingly, the WyGISC remote sensing internship, ..., is still clear in my memory—not only with what I learned, but with the valuable lessons that came with it. The project was a huge stepping stone for helping me prepare for graduate school. One of the greatest words-of-wisdom from Dr. Sivanpillai that has stuck with me goes something like this (and I paraphrase): “You need to figure this out yourself, I can’t hold your hand.” His tone might have been stern with me, but the valuable life lesson that came from it was “self-dependency”. From then on, I realized that the project was my project, and I was responsible doing any research, hypotheses, testing, and conclusions that came with it. The direction and decisions I wanted to take with the project were solely up to me, whether they were successful or not. It was an important hurdle to overcome; it taught me to try first (and keep trying if I struggled) until I had exhausted my options, and then ask for direction if I needed help. This is a fundamental lesson for anyone to learn before graduate school or entering the job market. Apart from that, I still vaguely remember the thesis of the project and the methods used to conduct the study, but they have been dwarfed by the information learned since then in graduate school and through work. The importance of the internship is not learning specific tools and methods related to the thesis of the project, but rather learning how to learn—through self-dependent study, research, trials, and even errors. (Apr 28, 2020) |
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| Paul Arendt 2009-10: BA Geography |
2020 GIS Tech., City of Billings, MT |
 For my research project I performed a GIS analysis upon several datasets in an effort to find spectral trends within identified areas of mountain pine beetle outbreak in the Medicine Bow National Forest. For me, this project served as an excellent introduction to the process of scientific research. |
Currently I’m with the City of Billings, MT. I gained several skills from the WyView internship. The first was with geospatial software pages. I mostly worked in Arc (think it was 9.3 back then) and Excel, the latter of which we used quite a bit to crunch numbers. I was still a novice with GIS software packages at the time, so experience with these applications was both formative and valuable. The second was with public speaking, I did present at GIS In The Rockies 2010 on the bark beetle project. This was huge as I'd never presented at a professional conference before, and the experience provided the confidence to go back two more times (in 2011 and 2012 respectively) to present my graduate study. The last skill I'd say was in time/project management. An internship requires a student to monitor their time, set deadlines, and adjust to shifting priorities. Really, a good internship approximates real world working conditions much more than a conventional college course ever does or could, as there's so much more independence. Working as a graduate assistant for two years built upon the WyView experience. Looking back, I think it's important for any student to complete an independent study before they graduate. I'd say this is particularly true for undergraduates who haven't served as grad assistant and whose work experience tends to be limited. Having been in the environmental/engineering consulting world for a while, I can tell you that time management is a big thing there, and the clock is always ticking... (Dec 20, 2020) |
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| J. Garrett Klein 2008-09: BS Agriculture Business |
2020 Owner and Manager of Klein Family Farms LLC |
 I graduated with a B.S. in Agricultural Business from the University of Wyoming, and am taking extra classes in Rangeland ecology for a second degree. For my project I worked closely with Laramie Wiginton to look at a Farm in Fremont County to determine if Landsat imagery can be used to determine productivity across a fields acreage. I enjoyed working with remote sensing and learning something new to possibly apply to my own farm some day. |
I live on a 1000 acre farm located in Fremont County Wyoming, near Pavillon on the Midvale Irrigation district. Our primary crops are sugar beets, Coors malt barley, and alfalfa hay. We have also grown a variety of other crops such as alfalfa for seed, sunflowers, hay barley, oats, corn, wheat, and pasture. Our farm has a small flock of sheep, and a small herd of cows. We also pasture on average around 1500 rangeland lambs during the winter months for a Wyoming rancher we work with. I work with my parents and have one seasonal employee to help make it through the year on the farm. I also serve as a Commissioner for the Midvale Irrigation District, as well as being a volunteer firefighter for the Fremont County Fire Protection District. Since returning to the farm after receiving my Bachelor degree in Agriculture Business, I have been an owner/manager of Klein Family Farms LLC. While attending the University of Wyoming I was able to take part in an internship to learn how satellite imagery, or remote sensing, can be used with agriculture. Skills learned through this internship have helped with my career as a farmer by giving me the knowledge of how to acquire these pictures and use the software to acquire needed information. I have used satellite images to help with the placement of sprinkler irrigation systems, measure acreages, asses soil conditions and the improvement of our soils through the installation of sprinklers. While serving on the board of commissioners for my irrigation district we have also been presented with a lot of different satellite images from across the project. I have been able to always understand the usefulness and accuracy of these images, as well as provided useful ideas for the district to utilize GIS. I certainly have appreciated the skills and knowledge gained through the remote sensing internship and thank Ramesh Sivanpillai, and the University of Wyoming for the opportunity to take the class. Farming practices and consumer preferences are continuously evolving. Farmers are faced with the ever growing challenge of higher input costs and increased market risk. As the cost per acre increases to produce a commodity so does the risk. Any help to reduce these costs will help insure the American farmer can stay competitive on a global scale, and help with the sustainability of agriculture. Consumers are looking to Farmers to provide safe and sustainable products as well. I really believe remote sensing will provide an integral role to help farmers reduce costs, and provide information to consumers demonstrating our land stewardship. (Dec 9, 2020) |
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| Julia Angstmann 2005-06: PhD Ecology |
2020 Butler University, IN |
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I do think that the WyomingView internship provided me with critical knowledge and experience in understanding and working at different scales. This is particularly important for my current field of urban ecology. In the complex ecosystem of the city, scale needs to be considered during experimental design, data collection, and analytical interpretation. A land management decision made at one scale may have the opposite intended effect at another scale. For example, one of my research projects, Indy Wildlife Watch, is one of about 25 cities in the U.S. in the Urban Wildlife Information Network (UWIN), that are all collecting data of urban wildlife at hundreds of location using motion-triggered cameras. Through this project, analyses are being conducted by Butler University and its other collaborators at various scales including local camera site (less than 50m), habitat boundaries, neighborhood, city, state, region, national, and soon global scales. Determining the potential environmental covariates that may influence whether a particular wildlife species occupies a site are currently underway, focusing on site vegetation structure, but will be expanded to landscape-scale covariates for which satellite imagery and its products will be used. (Apr 10, 2020) |
1 comment:
These are great testaments to the value of these WyomingView opportunities!
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