NSPS Surveying Student Team Competition

NSPS began sponsoring a surveying student team competition at the annual (spring) conference each year beginning with the spring 2002 meeting at Washington, DC.  NSPS will provide space for the competition and will award plaques for the top three (3) places as determined by judges selected by NSPS. 

One team from any surveying, geomatics, or similarly named degree-granting program may compete. The programs may be either two or four year degree programs.  NSPS reserves the right to determine if a program is eligible or not.  Teams must have at least three (3) and no more than six (6) members.  Students other than surveying majors may participate on the team so long as more than fifty-one percent (51%) of the members on the team are surveying/geomatics majors. Participation of non-students, including school faculty or administration members, shall be prohibited.  Teams must register with the conference committee or NSPS Student Competition Coordinator to compete and follow the rules for normal conference early registration deadline.  Only teams registering to compete by the early registration date may compete.  Students will be responsible for providing their travel and lodging expenses at the conference.  Students are encouraged to seek support for travel and lodging from their college or university and from their state professional society. 

Competition will be comprised of a problem, or set of problems, with given constraints to be decided each year by NSPS Education Committee.  The problem or problems, along with the constraints, will be sent to each interested college and university and published on the NSPS website. The problems will be made available no later than September 15 preceding the annual conference.  Students will study the problem, do appropriate research, and solve the problem or problems meeting all of the constraints given with the problem.  Students will demonstrate their solution at the annual conference as a team in competition with other student teams.  Students are encouraged to use innovation, to think critically, and to think “outside the box” for solutions.
Five (5) judges shall be appointed to evaluate the competition.  The NSPS Board of Direction shall appoint three (3) judges and the NSPS Board of Governors shall appoint two (2) judges.  Judges may serve no more than three (3) consecutive years.  Judges may not be selected from a college or university having a team in the competition.  All decisions by the judges are final.

The Surveying Student Team Competition is meant to be fun. Unforeseen problems will undoubtedly occur. These problems must be seen as opportunities to strengthen and broaden the competition. 

Download 2006 NSPS Surveying Student Team Competition Entry Form:

2006 NSPS STUDENT TEAM COMPETITION PROBLEM PAPER (60 points)

The subject of the paper will be “Solar & Celestial Observations for Direction and Position Determination.”  The paper could take several directions including, but not limited to, the history of the development of these observations, the techniques used in these observations and/or the mathematics behind the observations.

The form and format of the paper should conform to the publication guidelines for the ACSM Journal entitled SURVEYING AND LAND INFORMATION SCIENCE

The paper should not exceed 30 double spaced, typewritten pages.

The deadline for submittal of the papers is March 17, 2006.

FIELD EXERCISE (40 points)

The field exercise will consist of an observation (most likely solar, but celestial is acceptable) to determine the direction of a pre-assigned line.  Instrumentation must be non-electronic, but NCEES-approved electronic calculators are acceptable for computations.  A list of NCEES-approved calculators may be found at http://www.ncees.org/exams/calculators/.

The field exercise is planned for Monday, April 24, 2006, from 2:30 P.M. to    4:00 P.M.  No later than March 15, 2006, each participating team must submit a statement of the equipment & technique they intend to use so that the event chairman and judges may predetermine appropriate accuracy standards.

Points will be awarded based on a sliding scale of the accuracy with which each team is able to match the predetermined direction of their assigned line.

COSTUMES (optional with separate recognition)

Costumes for 2006 will be of the mid-1900's time frame.  This could include military costumes, civilian attire, other government uniforms, or even a foreign costume.  An appendix to the paper will describe your costumes and provide authentication of your choice.  This appendix must be delivered with your paper and is not considered part of the page count noted above.