UA student-surveyors take top honors in national competition
The University of Akron’s Surveying and Mapping team has triumphed again. The team took first place in the Student Surveying Competition sponsored by the National Society of Professional Surveyors in Phoenix, Ariz., on April 25. UA has participated in every contest since the NSPS competition was launched in 2002, finishing first five times, second three times and fifth once.
Members of UA’s first place Surveying and Mapping team are, front row, Samantha Brown (captain) and Krista Rakich, and in the back row, Andrew Koehler, Luke Walker, Michael Kral and Matt Hildebrandt.
“Forensic Surveying” was the theme of this year's competition, which required each team to do a research paper, presentation and poster. The UA students enlisted the help of two Ohio State Highway Patrol troopers who identified an accident for the team to reconstruct and then helped them with the process.
UA’s team of surveying and mapping majors was led by Samantha Brown as captain, and also included Matt Hildebrandt, Andrew Koehler, Michael Kral, Luke Walker and Krista Rakich, a criminal justice major recruited for additional expertise.
“The success of the team, year after year in this national competition, is basically one of motivation,” says T. Michael Besch, director of UA’s Surveying and Mapping Program in the Department of Engineering and Science Technology in Summit College. “We guide our students and provide them with the knowledge and skills they need, but it is their focus and motivation that has been the mainstay for continuing success.”
NSPS is a member organization of the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping (ACSM), which also recognized the UA program with two additional honors at the competition.
Michael Kral, a member of UA’s Surveying and Mapping team, was awarded its $2,000 Nettie Dracup Memorial Scholarship.
And Besch is the latest recipient of the Earl J. Fennel Award, presented "in recognition of distinguished educational contributions to ACSM and the surveying and mapping profession."
“It’s a national award, and I’m very honored to receive it, especially since I was recommended for it by students, Dean Stanley Silverman and other agencies,” says Besch, who joined UA in 1992.
The honor is most deserved, says Curt Sumner, executive director of ACSM and NSPS.
“I would say that among his many significant contributions is the fact that Mike actively engages with the professional organizations, and the professionals with whom his students will interact once they begin their careers,” notes Sumner.
“While Mike's efforts are not unique, the level to which he works to ensure that his students have the opportunity to understand the essence of the profession itself, and not just its academic aspects, is extraordinary,” adds Sumner.