Land Surveying and
Geomatics Engineering

The School of Civil Engineering maintains a web posting of employment opportunities including job postings, campus interview information, summer jobs/internships and related information. Students may post their resume and employers may browse a listing of student resumes that can be searched by career interest, degree exected, and graduation date.

Students should go the School's web page and take the link under Resources for: to Current Students and then to Employment Information for Students where the current postings can be viewed and resumes can be posted.

Employers should go the School's web page and take the link under Resources for: to Industry Contacts where the current resumes can be browsed and job opportunities can be posted.

Graduates of the program are prepared for entry level positions in any of the major areas of geomatics engineering. These positions lead to increasing levels of responsibility for the design and management of many types of projects. Following are descriptions of the prominent specialties with the field of geomatics engineering:

The land surveyor works with engineers, lawyers, architects, urban planners, local government officials, and directly with the public. He or she is involved in both field and office activities. The land surveyor establishes property boundaries and prepares written land descriptions, applying principles of boundary law and field measurement analysis. Since these services are offered to the public, he or she must be licensed as a professional surveyor. The land surveyor is often involved in land development and design. As part of the design team, he or she applies principles of surveying and civil engineering to planning, design, and field layout of streets, storm and sanitary sewer extensions, and property boundaries. Hence, land surveying requires knowledge in applied science and mathematics, engineering, surveying, planning, and legal principles. The undergraduate program is built upon a core foundation of course work in engineering and land surveying principles. Most students in the program prepare for professional licensure by taking the Fundamentals of Surveying Examination during their last semester.

The survey engineer performs all surveys required to design, construct, and maintain an engineering project. He or she provides topographic surveys for project design, accurate horizontal and vertical control surveys for mapping and construction layout, and precise surveys to monitor movement and performance of the completed structure. Surveying for engineering and mapping requires ties to local, national, and international geodetic control networks. To establish new control points and connections to existing geodetic reference points, the satellite-based global positioning system (GPS) is used extensively. Graduates will be prepared to design surveying systems to meet specific requirements of engineering, mapping, and boundary survey projects.

The photogrammetric engineer makes use of aerial photography and imagery acquired by satellite remote sensing systems to prepare maps and data for a variety of applications. These applications include engineering design maps, land use and planning maps, and environmental monitoring and evaluation. Computer compatible digital imagery is commonly joined with digital maps and attribute data in a computer-based geographic information system (GIS) for display and spatial analysis. Graduates will be prepared to use imagery from airborne and spaced-based sensors to solve surveying and engineering problems.

The geographic information systems (GIS) specialist integrates land measurements, and related land information into a computer-based digital mapping and analysis system. The surveying graduate is prepared to assume a leadership role in the implementation and management of these land information systems. To use our land and resources properly, it is necessary for land records to include not only ownership boundaries, planimetric information, and topographic data, but also information such as soil type, zoning, environmental, and demographic data. Gathering these data is an interdisciplinary effort in which the surveyor is an integral member of the professional team. Collecting, storing, and making land information available utilizes electronic total station field instrumentation, satellite geodesy, digital photogrammetric mapping, and extensive computer mapping and data base management. The graduate of the land surveying engineering program will be well prepared to pursue professional registration and a career in these new and expanding technical areas.