Invited Speakers

His Excellency Rear Admiral Kevin Scarce AC CSC RANR

His Excellency Rear Admiral Kevin Scarce AC CSC RANR

His Excellency Rear Admiral Kevin Scarce AC CSC RANR Governor of South Australia

Kevin John Scarce was born in Adelaide in 1952 and spent his early childhood in Woomera. He was educated at Elizabeth East Primary School and then at Elizabeth High School, from where he joined the Royal Australian Navy in 1968.

After graduating from the Naval College, Kevin served in HMAS Sydney in Vietnam and then undertook courses in the United Kingdom in 1973. On return to Australia he completed professional supply courses and then served at sea in HMA Ships Vendetta, Yarra, and Duchess.

In 1977 he participated in the Queen's Silver Jubilee celebrations in the United Kingdom at Spithead whilst serving in HMAS Melbourne. On completion of the cruise Kevin was posted to the RAN Staff College Project to establish the first Naval staff course in Australia which commenced in 1979.

The family moved again later in 1979 to Washington DC to serve at the Australian Embassy. On return to Australia in 1982 Kevin completed further supply specialist training before posting to sea in HMAS Perth as the Supply Officer. Promoted to Commander in 1985, Kevin undertook one of his many postings to the Canberra region where he undertook a variety of specialist logistic roles until 1987. In that year the family moved again, this time to the Nowra area in New South Wales where

Kevin was appointed as the Supply Officer, Naval Air Station HMAS Albatross. Following a year's study at the University of NSW, ADFA campus, where Kevin completed a Master of Management Economics degree, he was promoted to Captain and posted to Fleet Headquarters as the Fleet Supply Officer. He remained in this role until a further posting to Canberra in 1993.

In 1994 the family moved back to Washington DC where Kevin completed a Master's Degree in National Security Strategy at the War College, US National Defense University. Kevin took command of HMAS Cerberus in 1995 where he remained until promoted to Commodore in 1997. Later in that year Kevin was appointed as Flag Officer Naval Training Command. The family moved twice in 1999: to Sydney early in the year where Kevin was posted as Commodore Logistics, responsible for supporting the Fleet at sea, and then back to Melbourne in December after being promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral where he assumed the duties of Support Commander - Navy.

From 2000 until 2003, as Head Maritime Systems in the Defence Materiel Organisation, Kevin was responsible for the acquisition of all Australian Defence Force ships and submarines and the support of these vessels and their equipment through life.

Immediately prior to retiring from the Royal Australian Navy in 2004 in the rank of Rear Admiral, he briefly led the Defence Materiel Organisation. This organisation, widely dispersed throughout Australia and overseas, had 8000 staff spending more than $6B annually in acquiring and supporting the entire Australian Defence Force's military platforms and equipment.

Following retirement, Kevin formed and led the South Australian Government team charged with expanding the State's defence business opportunities. One of the team's first initiatives, to build Air Warfare Destroyers in Adelaide, was successfully achieved in May 2005 when the Federal Government awarded the contract to the locally based ASC. The State's $250 m package of infrastructure, skills development and attraction was integral to the success of the ASC bid.

In 2006 Kevin became an advisor to the corporation formed to deliver the State's shipbuilding infrastructure and skills commitments, and was a member of the Port Adelaide Maritime Corporation Board. He was also Chairman of the Board of Foundation Daw Park, a volunteer organisation that generates funding for medical research for veterans and older Australians.

Andrew Campbell

Andrew Campbell

Andrew Campbell is the Managing Director of Triple Helix Consulting Pty Ltd, a consultancy firm specialising in the business of sustainability, helping progressive organisations in the public and private sectors to develop and implement more sustainable policies, programs and enterprises. Recent clients include the Australian Government, catchment management organisations, large scale sustainable farming enterprises, international research bodies and Australian R&D corporations.
Most recently, Andrew was the Executive Director (CEO) of Land & Water Australia for seven years to 2006, prior to which he was a senior executive in the Australian Government. He was instrumental in the development of Landcare in Australia and has written widely on sustainability issues. He has professional training in forestry and rural sociology from the University of Melbourne and Wageningen Agricultural University in The Netherlands.

Andrew is a Fellow of the Australian Institute for Company Directors and a director of the CRC for Future Farm Industries. His family has been farming in western Victoria since the 1860s. Andrew has been managing the family farm (farm forestry, prime lambs and wool) with the help of a neighbour since 1987.

Dr Steve Carver

Dr Steve Carver

Dr Steve Carver is a senior lecturer in geography with interests in GIS, environmental modelling, multi-crietrai evaluation, wilderness and public participation. He particularly interested in the geographical aspects of wilderness and wild land from both an ecological and social/cultural perspective. He has worked extensively on the development of wild land mapping and evaluation methodologies and has tested and applied these across a variety of locations and spatial scales including Scotland, England, Britain, Europe and the USA.
Technical research interests focus mainly on GIS related issues, especially on environmental management/modelling applications and methodologies for spatial decision making and support including public participation. Topical areas of research include landscape assessment especially in relation to wild land and wilderness environments. Member of the Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation and Centre for Decision Research within the University. Principal researcher on ESRC funded Virtual Society? Research Programme. Have been involved in a number of other large multidisciplinary research programmes which have drawn on expertise in the GIS field. Principal organiser of 5th National GIS Research UK conference and member of GISRUK Steering Committee. Organiser of ESRC Wilderness Britain seminar series (1999-2001).

Professor Mark Daniels

Professor Mark Daniels

Research Chair for Social Epidemiology, University Of South Australia

Mark Daniel joined the University of South Australia as Professor and Research Chair for Social Epidemiology. He is concurrently Professorial Fellow, Department of Medicine, The University of Melbourne. Previously, he was Associate Professor, Département de médecine sociale et préventive, Faculté de médecine, Université de Montréal, where he held a Canada Research Chair in Population Health. His expertise is in chronic disease epidemiology, disease prevention, and sociospatial epidemiology. He studies how social and built environmental factors influence adverse birth outcomes, communicable and non-communicable diseases, and mortality. He co-developed a multi-dimensional geographic information system to improve environmental surveillance across the Montréal region.

Graham Harris

Graham Harris

After completing a degree in Botany and PhD in Plant Ecology at Imperial College, London in the late 1960s, Professor Graham Harris worked at McMaster University in Canada for 15 years where he became a Professor of Biology and carried out research on the ecology and management of the Laurentian Great Lakes. He came to Australia in 1984 and worked for CSIRO for over 20 years where he held many research management and senior executive appointments. Graham has worked in a range of disciplines including plant ecology, freshwater and marine ecology, space science and remote sensing. He was the foundation Chief of Division for CSIRO Land and Water, and until 2003 he was Chairman of the CSIRO Flagship Programs.

Graham is now the Director of ESE Systems Pty. Ltd., a consulting company specialising in research into, and the management of, complex environmental, social and economic systems. He is an advisor to a range of universities, research agencies, private companies and government jurisdictions both in Australia and overseas.

Graham is an Affiliate Professor at the Centre for Environment, University of Tasmania and an Honorary Research Professor in the Sustainable Water Management Centre at Lancaster University, UK. He was awarded the CSIRO Chairman's Gold Medal in 1996 and was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in 1997. In 2002 he was elected a life member of the International Water Academy, Oslo. He was awarded the Australian Centenary Medal in April 2003 for services to environmental science and technology.
Graham has published more than 140 papers, and three books. His latest book Seeking sustainability in an age of complexity was published by Cambridge University Press in June 2007.

Kristen Kurland

Kristen Kurland

Carnegie Melon University College of Fine Arts

Kristen Kurland holds a joint faculty appointment between Carnegie Mellon University's H. John Heinz III College and School of Architecture. In addition to her full time position at CMU, she is the president of a local consulting firm that has implemented computer technology programs in numerous organizations since 1989. Her clients include architects, engineers, hospitals, universities, corporations, as well as local, state, and federal governments.

Kurland's research focuses on interdisciplinary collaborations in health, the built environment, and spatial analysis using geographic information systems (GIS.) She works closely with the School of Architecture's Remaking Cities Institute and Heinz College colleagues and students on urban design, economic development, and sustainability issues. She actively collaborates with the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and the RAND Corporation.

Kurland's teaching at CMU includes building information modeling (BIM), computer aided design (CAD), 3D visualization, computer aided facility management (CAFM), and GIS. At the Heinz College, she also teaches infrastructure management to executive physicians in the Master of Medical Management (MMM) program. Kristen has a strong interest in distance education and has been teaching through this medium for many years.

Ms. Kurland received the Heinz School's Martcia Wade award for teaching excellence in 2005. She also received the 1998, 2000, and 2003 Excellence in Education award from ARCHIBUS, Inc. for her CAFM teaching programs in the community and at Carnegie Mellon.

Kristen Kurland is also the co-author of a series of best selling GIS books for ESRI Press and Thompson Publishing, including GIS Tutorial Workbook, GIS Tutorial for Health, Learning and Using GIS:ArcExplorer Edition, and Learning and Using GIS: ArcGIS Edition.

Professor Henry Nix

Professor Henry Nix

Emeritus Professor Henry Nix AO is a Visiting Fellow and former Director, from 1986-1999, of the Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies (CRES), now the Fenner School of Environment and Society, at the Australian National University. Prior to this he was Senior Principal Research Scientist in the CSIRO Division of Land and Water. He is a pioneer of computer-based methods of land resource inventory and evaluation for a wide range of potential uses that include field and horticultural crops, forestry, hydrology and biodiversity conservation. His continent?wide evaluation of the climate, terrain and soil constraints on arable land revealed the extremely limited potential of Northern Australia for agricultural development. He has travelled extensively across all regions of the North, spending four to six weeks each year since 1985 in field surveys of freshwater fish and riparian birds.

Ed Parsons

Ed Parsons

Ed Parsons is the Geospatial Technologist of Google, with responsibility for evangelising Google's mission to organise the world's information using geography, and tools including Google Earth, Google Maps and Google Maps for Mobile.
Ed was the first Chief Technology Officer in the 200-year-old history of Ordnance Survey, and was instrumental in moving the focus of the organisation from mapping to Geographical Information.
Ed came to the Ordnance Survey from Autodesk, where he was EMEA Applications Manager for the Geographical Information Systems (GIS) Division. During his tenure, he helped Autodesk to become one of the key providers of GIS software.Earlier in his career he was a Senior Lecturer at Kingston University, where he helped establish Europe's first undergraduate course in GIS.
He earned a Master degree in Applied Remote Sensing from Cranfield Institute of Technology and is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, London. He is the author of numerous articles, professional papers and presentations to International Conferences, and has developed one of most popular Weblogs in the Geospatial Industry, www.edparsons.com.
Ed is married with two children and lives in South West London.
His family life is documented at www.blakeparsons.com.

Kevin D. Pomfret

Kevin D. Pomfret

Kevin is a business lawyer with a focus on Spatial Law - the legal and policy issues associated with spatial data and spatial technology including, intellectual property rights, licensing, liability, privacy and national security. He regularly counsels businesses on licensing and distribution agreements, mergers and acquisitions and regulatory issues and consults with government officials on developing legal and policy frameworks to support spatial data infrastructures. Kevin is a member of the Board of Directors of the Open Geospatial Consortium. He writes and speaks extensively on spatial law and technology and teaches a class on Spatial Law in masters-level program for GIS professionals. He has been recognized as a Virginia "Super Lawyer" and a member of Virginia's "Legal Elite."

Prior to attending law school, Kevin served as a satellite imagery analyst with the U.S. government prior to attending law school. In that capacity he developed an imagery collection strategy to monitor critical arms control agreements. He also served as the special assistant to the U.S. government official responsible for developing the Intelligence Community's satellite imagery collection and exploitation requirements.

Dr Russell Priebbenow

Dr Russell Priebbenow

Russell Priebbenow is Director of Surveys with the Queensland Department of Environment and Resource Management. In this position he is responsible for the legislative and policy framework for surveying and mapping, and for the provision of the geodetic and positioning infrastructure. Russell is a registered cadastral surveyor. He has been involved with surveying and mapping policy and business direction in the Queensland Government for 17 years. Prior to this, he carried out research into the mapping applications of imagery from the Spot satellite, and attained a PhD from the University of Queensland for this research. He also holds a Bachelor of Surveying with Honours from the University of Queensland. Russell is the current chair of the Intergovernmental Committee on Surveying and Mapping (ICSM) and a member of the Surveyors Board of Queensland. He is also a member of the Faculty Advisory Committee for the Faculty of Engineering and Surveying at the University of Southern Queensland.

Richard Thackway

Richard Thackway

Professional interests
Richard Thackway is a landscape ecologist. Richard has used a range of satellite imagery and air photo-based systems to develop land cover products at a range of scales from local, landscape, regional and national. Throughout his career of 30 years, Richard has used land cover information to assist in the identification, assessment, monitoring and reporting of a range of natural resource based issues including vegetation ecology, wildfire, environmental regionalisations, and ecosystem/environmental services.

Richard has worked as a research scientist in several Australian Government agencies including CSIRO, ERIN, Department of Environment, Heritage and the Arts and the Bureau of Rural Sciences.

Currently, Richard is the Bureau's Vegetation Information Manager, where his research interests include developing guidelines and frameworks for:

  • surveying, classifying and mapping vegetation types;
  • assessing and reporting on changes in the extent and condition vegetation types; and
  • mapping changes and trends in landcover across Australia for natural resource managers

Academics
Richard holds Master of Science degree (Environmental Studies) from the Australian National University.

Workshops

MONDAY, 28 SEPTEMBER 2009

DEMs: Sources and Applications
Monday, 28/9/2009, 9:00 - 5:00
$300.00

Digital Elevation Models have been and continue to play an important role in topographic mapping, surveying, climate change, and bathymetric applications to name a few. Modern technological improvements allow for DEMs to be captured from aerial and spaceborne platforms from a variety of different sources including LiDAR, IFSAR, and photogrammetric cameras. This workshop seeks to explore the advantages of different types of DEM technologies, the future, and to present some real world case studies on the application of DEMs.

Presentations will be given from a range of speakers including vendors, universities and scientific institutions, and Federal and State Government agencies. Topics under discussion include applications based on bathymetric LiDAR, full waveform LiDAR applications on forestry, the use of DEMs for infrastructure, and examples of tools to use and manage these datasets. Part of the workshop will allow for an open discussion between workshop participants and vendors providing different technological solutions to DEM acquisition and generation.

Object Based Image Analysis - Theory and Vendor Presentations
Monday, 28/9/2009, 9:00 - 4:30
$270.00 (SSI Members) / $400.00 (non-members)

Object-oriented approaches to satellite sensor image analysis have become increasingly popular with the growing availability of high-resolution satellite imagery, including data from the IKONOS, QuickBird, and GeoEye sensors. The workshop will explore the differences between classification and segmentation, what information can be extracted from image segments and how these improve classification results, as well as exploring multi-resolution object analysis.

The afternoon session will consist of presentations by representatives of vendors of object oriented image analysis software including Definiens, ENVI FX and ERDAS. The presentation will be of a technical nature and will outline case studies and recent developments from each of the of the vendors.

PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF VENUE
The OBIA: Theory & Vendors workshop will be held in the Eric Rudd Lecture Theatre, Mawson Laboratories, North Tce Campus, University of Adelaide. Please click here for a map. The Mawson Laboratories is located at grid reference B11.

TUESDAY, 29 SEPTEMBER 2009

Object Based Image Analysis - Definiens
Tuesday, 29/9/2009, 9:00 - 4:00
$300.00 (SSI Members) / $500.00 (non-members)

Workshop attendees will gain hands-on experience with Definiens software through a set of computer based training exercises held offsite at a computing laboratory within walking distance of the conference venue. Definiens image analysis software is based on the unique Definiens Cognition Network Technology® which examines pixels not in isolation, but in context. It builds up a picture iteratively, recognizing groups of pixels as objects. Just like the human mind, it uses the colour, shape, texture and size of objects, and especially their context and relationships, to draw the same conclusions and inferences that an experienced analyst would draw.

The OBIA: Definiens Workshop will be held in Computing Suite 111, Johnson Laboratories, North Tce Campus, University of Adelaide. Please click here for a map. The building is located at grid reference C2. The best gate to enter the campus is Gate 12 off Kintore Avenue.

Object Based Image Analysis - ERDAS Feature Extraction using IMAGINE Objective
Tuesday, 29/9/2009, 9:00 - 12:00
$220.00 (SSI Members) / $330.00 (non-members)

This half day workshop is held offsite at a computing laboratory within walking distance of the Adelaide Convention Centre to allow for hands on experience using ERDAS IMAGINE Objective through a set of computer based training exercises. IMAGINE Objective combines inferential learning with expert knowledge in a true object-oriented feature extraction environment.

The OBIA: ERDAS Workshop is to be held in the Mawson Computing Suite G12, Mawson Laboratories, North Tce Campus, University of Adelaide. Please click here for a map. Located at grid reference B11.

Object Based Image Analysis - ENVI Feature Extraction using ENVI FX
Tuesday, 29/9/2009, 1:00 - 4:00
$220.00 (SSI Members) / $330.00 (non-members)

This half day workshop is held offsite at a computing laboratory within walking distance of the Adelaide Convention Centre to allow for hands on experience using ENVI FX module through a set of computer based training exercises. ENVI Fx walks you through the extraction process from image ingest to the export of results, and allows you to extract the features you need. Rapid rendering preview screens readily allow for adjustments at any point in the workflow, and ENVI FX is built with a high performance image processing engine to deliver fast results, even with large datasets.

The OBIA: ENVI Workshop is to be held in the Mawson Computing Suite G12, Mawson Laboratories, North Tce Campus, University of Adelaide. Please click here for a map. Located at grid reference B11.

Writing a Research Article: Strategy and Steps
Tuesday, 29/9/2009, 9:00 - 4:30
$300.00

This full-day workshop will help participants develop their conference presentation into a written article for submission to the journal of their choice. It is designed for early career researchers, including research degree students. The workshop presents key techniques and tips from the recent book 'Writing Scientific Research Articles: Strategy and Steps', by Margaret Cargill and Patrick O'Connor (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009, www.writeresearch.com.au ), of which the presenter is a co-author. Participants bring to the workshop an example research article published in their target journal, and learn strategies for analysing both the structure and the language of articles in order to develop skills for writing their own manuscripts. A key focus is how to write articles that are likely to meet the evaluation criteria used by journal editors and referees.

Workshop Outline

9:00 - 10:45

  • Introduction to workshop methodology: analysis of examples as a learning tool
  • Article structure and referee requirements: the connections
  • Results as the ‘driver’: formulating take-home messages from your results
  • Refining data presentation and results and methods text as convincing evidence for your claims

11:00 - 12:30

  • Introductions: 5 ‘stages’ to a convincing justification
  • Strategies for making science writing ‘flow’

1:15 - 2:45

  • Discussions: optimal organisation of the information
  • Negotiating the strength of your knowledge claims

3:00 - 4:30

  • Titles and abstracts: selling your message
  • Submission and beyond: responding to referee reports
  • Your next step: manuscript preparation processes, revision proforma, getting help

PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF VENUE
This workshop will now be held in Lecture Room 3 (Room 106), Charles Hawker Building, Waite Campus, University of Adelaide. The building is located at grid reference E2 on this map.

GPS to GIS
Tuesday, 29/9/2009, 1:00 - 4:30
$200.00

This half day workshop is designed to maximise field data collection whether on foot, in a land or air vehicle. The workshop will describe the use of field PDAs, provide a description of the various models in use, and the various software best suited for field data collection on a PDA. Workshop topics also include examples of applications where these technologies have been successfully applied, and outlining the benefits of these technologies for field data collection.

3D Visualisation Workshop
Tuesday, 29/9/2009, 1:00 - 4:30
$200.00

The Cooperative Research Centre of Spatial Information and the University of Melbourne are presenting an online collaboration system SIEVE (Spatial Information Exploration and Visualisation Environment) which presents spatial data in a real-time 3D environment. SIEVE allows users to automatically build 3D environments from 2D spatial data, including terrain, vegetation and manmade structures. Users can explore these environments collaboratively over the Internet and compare existing scenarios with hypothetical futures. Three application scenarios will be explored in this half day workshop:
1) Predicted climate change futures in Victoria,
2) Precision application and planning, and
3) How ancillary data can be streamed into the simulation.

AAMHatch will also be providing a presentation within the workshop, the outline of the talk is:
1. Fly throughs of each of the City models i.e. Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Hobart
2. City management case study:
Real-time 3D model for overall context of Melbourne CBD Melbourne upgraded precinct for master planning and heritage management Shadow casting of proposed new development
3. Environmental case studies:
Climate change/sea-level rise - real-time simulation of inundation effects on Wellington city NZ Sustainable energy generation - Wind farm modelling - Wellington harbour
4. Benefits summary of 3D modelling in PowerPoint.

The 3D Visualisation Workshop is to be held in the South Australian Virtual Reality Centre (SAVRC), Santos Petroleum Engineering Building, North Tce Campus, University of Adelaide. Please click here for a map. It is located at grid reference D13. The recommended entry is at Gate 6a off Frome Rd.

ESRI Workshop - Location Intelligence and your workflows
Tuesday, 29/09/2009, 9:00am - 3:00pm
Free

Visit the ESRI website to register.

A series of three workshops will be held covering:

  • Dekho: Enabling location in your workflows (9.00-10.30am)

This workshop explores Dekho in the context of your operational workflows. Adding a critical location element to your business processes this workshop will investigate how Dekho helps organisations gain workflow efficiencies through integrating disparate data sources and corporate systems.

  • Asset Management: Working with Imagery and Terrain in ArcGIS (11.00am - 12.30pm)

This workshop will investigate the ArcGIS capabilities for working with imagery (raster data) and digital terrains (surfaces). Featuring ArcGIS Server and ArcGIS Server Image Extension, participants will obtain an understanding of how imagery and digital terrains can be treated in the ArcGIS technology.

  • Operational Awareness: On-line Awareness and ArcGIS Collaboration (1.30 - 3.00pm)

This workshop explores publishing information on ArcGIS On-line and the collaboration tools (ArcGIS Explorer) for sharing this information and geoprocessing.

Participants can attend any of these workshops; with sessions providing the chance to see location enhancing a range of business processes and requirements.

Places are limited so please book early to avoid disappointment.

Careers Breakfast

Careers Breakfast

SSC2009 Careers IGNITE Breakfast

The SSC2009 committee, SSSI Women in Spatial and GISjobs Australia, are pleased to present the 'Careers Ignite' breakfast event during SSC2009 Adelaide.

The event will feature a number of distinguished presenters including:

  • Professor Kristen Kurland (CMU Pittsburgh),
  • Dr Renee Bartolo (DEHWA, SSSI),
  • Kirby Gamble (Whelans, SSSI Young Professional),
  • Mary Rabling (Survey21 Pty Ltd, SSSI),
  • Dr Marnie Leybourne (Director WALIS), and
  • Dean Howell (Managing Director, GISjobs Australia),

who will be addressing some fundamental aspects of career management and career challenges in the spatial profession - all delivered through a fast paced and dynamic IGNITE* presentation style!

So whatever your stage of career, come and have an invigorating experience with us at SSC2009 Careers IGNITE - combining breakfast and the opportunity to hear an excellent range of speakers.

Date: Thursday 1st October
Time: 7.30 - 8.45
Location: Adelaide Convention Centre, Riverbank Rooms 1&2
Cost: (including full breakfast and presentations): SSSI members $30, non-members $60

Proudly sponsored by GISjobs Australia

For registration go to http://www.ssc2009.com/register.asp