Story and photos by Monty Siekerman

About 100 geographers from Ohio and Michigan colleges met at ONU on Oct. 19 to learn the latest in the field.

Faculty members, students and professionals heard presentations about the fast evolving field, such as finding victims and mapping roads that are open in hurricanes or earthquakes, mapping algae blooms in Lake Erie, and helping farmers learn of insects or diseases in crops.

Dr. Katy Rossiter, ONU assistant professor of geography in the College of Arts and Sciences, and Dr. Jimmy Wilson, assistant professor of management and geography in the College of Business Administration, coordinated the day-long conference.

Photo: Dr. Katy Rossiter discusses drones with Andrew Shepherd, director of the unmanned aerial systems program and chief scientist at Sinclair Community College in Dayton. 

Dr. Shepherd brought a fixed-wing UAS and a high-powered drone to show to attendees. The small, green box on the table is a sensor that can do many things, like find victims of hurricanes by heat-seeking or search for a disease in a large field of corn.

Photo at bottom: Jimmy Wilson of the ONU business college and a geographer, meets with Ashley Allen, a faculty member at Ohio Wesleyan. Prof. Wilson holds a made-in-Ada Wilson football which was given to a winner of the poster contest. The Ohio Wesleyan adjunct professor holds several of the posters from the contest.