UCL Geomatics

Dietmar Backes joined the Department of Geomatic Engineering after finishing his MSc in Photogrammetry with Remote Sensing as a KTP Research Associate in a partnership between UCL and Longdin & Browning (Surveys) Ltd in January 2004. This project was concerned with the integration of terrestrial Laser Scanning technology with the close Range Videogrammetry System known as Hazmap.

In August 2004 Dietmar changed his role in the Department and took the post of Geomatic System Manger.

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Jan Boehm has a background in Computer Science, for which he holds a Masters’ degree from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, USA, and a Diploma degree from the University of Stuttgart, Germany. He holds a doctoral degree from the department of Aerospace Engineering and Geodesy at the University of Stuttgart. Since 2010 has been a lecturer in Photogrammetry and 3D Imaging at University College London. He actively participates in the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS), where he regularly serves on organising and programme committees and as a reviewer for related journals. He is co-chair of the ISPRS working group on Image-based and range-based 3D modelling. He serves on the VDI panel for optical metrology, where he works on the the VDI/VDE 2634 guidelines.

He has published more than 50 papers on the topics of close-range photogrammetry, three-dimensional point cloud processing and robotics. His current research projects include creating building information models (BIM) from point clouds, detailed façade modelling from terrestrial and mobile laser scanning and developing a human measurement system from low cost natural user interface sensors.

Jan contributes to the teaching on Mapping Science; Terrestrial Data Acquisition; Airborne Data Acquisition and Image Understanding.

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Tao Cheng is a Professor in GeoInformatics and Director of SpceTimeLab (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/spacetimelab) at University College London. She has studied and lectured in China, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, France and the UK. She has broad knowledge and experience in Geographic Information Sciences (GISc), from data acquisition, to information processing, management and analysis, with applications in environmental monitoring, natural resource management, health, transport and crime studies. She has over 140 publications and is a past recipient of the U. V. Helava Award for the best paper in the ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. She is also a visiting professor at Wuhan University and at the Institute of Remote Sensing Applications, Chinese Academy of Science.

She has been the Departmental Equal Opportunity Liaison Officer (DEOLO) since 2006, and led the departmental successful bid for the Athena SWAN Silver Award in 2009, which recognises and celebrates good employment practice for women working in science, engineering and technology (SET) in higher education and research.

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Having previously worked as a GIS consultant, my research interests now include spatial databases and approaches for handling large quantities of spatial data. Additionally, I am currently conducting research into the integration of 3D GIS and spatial databases, examining issues relating to topology and performance. I am also involved in a number of Spatial Data Infrastructures projects (http:// projectsecoa.eu), seeking to identify the most suitable mechanisms to share data amongst academic staff in an interdisciplinary, multi-national context. As part of this, I am investigating approaches to building usable systems to facilitate data discovery and evaluation, as well as to ensure metadata capture and maintenance processes are integrated into data manipulation tasks.

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Paul Groves joined UCL in 2009 after 12 years at DERA and QinetiQ. He leads a programme of navigation and positioning research within UCL’s Space Geodesy and Navigation Laboratory. Paul specializes in the integration and mathematical modelling of all types of navigation system. He is interested in all aspects of navigation and positioning, including multi-sensor integrated navigation, robust GNSS under challenging reception conditions, and novel positioning techniques. Current research projects include GNSS multipath mitigation, positioning using signals of opportunity, pedestrian motion modelling for aiding indoor and outdoor positioning, novel GNSS-based positioning techniques for urban canyons and ultra-low-cost inertial sensors integrated with multi-antenna GNSS.

He is an author of about 40 technical publications, including the book Principles of GNSS, Inertial and Multi-Sensor Integrated Navigation Systems. He holds a BA/MA and a DPhil in physics from the University of Oxford. He is a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation and an associate editor of both Navigation: Journal of the ION and IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems.

Paul runs the Positioning module and contributes to the Data Analysis and Mapping Science modules, and the Isle of Wight Field Course.

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Prof Muki Haklay (Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering - CEGE, UCL) is a Professor of Geographical Information Science (GISc). He has extensive experience in interdisciplinary research, and he is the director of the Extreme Citizen Science research group.

His research interest include participatory GIS, Citizen Science, Human-Computer Interactions (HCI) and usability aspects of GIS, public access to environmental information. He specialises in interdisciplinary research that can benefit from geographical perspectives, and in participatory research methods.

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Jonathan Iliffe's expertise lies in the area of geodesy, and specifically those issues that relate to coordinate reference systems – national or local, on land or at sea. Current or very recent research projects include determining the height corrector surfaces for use in the British Isles (transforming GPS data to the local height system in each country), the UKHO-sponsored VORF project (transforming GPS data to the different coordinate reference systems used on land and at sea) and the development of the SnakeGrid system (which gives near-unity scale factor along very large linear engineering projects such as railways, highways and pipelines). He acts as a consultant on international land and maritime boundary delimitations, and advises governments, survey and engineering companies, and railway organisations on the geodetic aspects of large infrastructure projects. He is the author with Roger Lott of Datums and Map Projections, a standard textbook for students and professionals around the world. In 2008 Jonathan Iliffe was awarded the Richard Carter Prize (Geospatial Engineer 2008) by the Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors, for his work on SnakeGrid and projects such as OSGM02 and VORF. Jonathan is the programme director for the Surveying and Hydrographic Surveying courses and contributes to the teaching on Data Analysis; Mapping Science; Principles and Practice of Surveying; Hydrographic Applications and Ocean and Coastal Zone Management.

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Liz's research interests are in landscape archaeology, geovisualisation and applications of geomatics in the understanding of past environments, particularly in Egypt. She is keen to promote interdisciplinarity between Geomatic Engineering and other fields, namely the heritage and forensic sectors. Liz has carried out AHRC-funded research into the development of a research-oriented GIS for the site of Saqqara, and conducted a study analysing archaeological and historical evidence for flood events and flood risk within the inner Thames estuary during the Holocene Period. She is actively engaged in fieldwork on a number of projects: as GIS officer and surveyor for the Kouphovouno Project, and as surveyor and archaeological supervisor for The Saqqara Geophysical Survey Project, The EES Survey of Memphis and The Gurob Harem Palace Project (see links below).

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Stuart Robson is known for his research in the field of the traceable on-line dynamic 3D co-ordination and monitoring of engineering, medical and fine art structures using photogrammetry, vision metrology and colour laser scanning.  Stuart Robson founded and now leads the cross-faculty UCL 3D scanning initiative, stimulating pan-London and international research projects and providing a strategic vision of the significance of 3D imaging technologies to heritage, medical, engineering and creative sectors. He has a track record in engineering measurement working with NASA, Airbus, UK Atomic Energy Authority (JET) and NPL, in medical physics where he collaborates to optimise optical tomography and EEG sensing for clinical studies.
Digital heritage projects are centred on 3D colour artefact and environment scanning with UCL Museums and Collections, Institute of Archaeology, The Slade, and The Bartlett founded on corporate agreements with Arius3D, Faro and Leica Geosystems along with funding from AHRC, JISC and EPSRC. Examples of recent projects include: E-Curator which draws on UCL's expertise both in curatorship and in e-Science. It takes advantage of the presence at UCL of world class collections across a range of disciplines to capture, share and explore very large high resolution 3D datasets about museum artefacts in a secure computing environment; Solomon Islands Canoe - 3D digital documentation of a Melanesian Southwest Pacific war canoe situated in the British Museum. In collaboration with the Bergen Pacific Study Group the 3D laser scanning is paired with anthropological research which aims to deliver a holistic virtual reconstruction, multimedia interactive delivery, and a 3D printed colour replica of a detail of the boat for the digital repatriation to the source community; Gabo sculpture conservation - Accurate recording of a series of transparent sculptures by Hume Gabo for the Tate Gallery Sculpture Conservation Unit, carried out with Plowman Craven Ltd. Digital records of the rapidly degrading sculptures have been produced and exhibited so that accurate replicas could be made for future generations.
Stuart Robson has successfully supervised over 30 PhD and MSc students and is currently supporting 9 PhD students in the area of close range image measurement and analysis and 3D imaging and recording for both engineering and heritage sectors. He has contributed to over 130 publications including several key photogrammetric textbooks.

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Space Geodesy - this is the science and engineering of using satellites in orbit around planets to measure dynamic characteristics, such as the gravity field, sea level and ice cap variations, as well as plate tectonics. In 2007, GPS World named him as one of the 50 Leaders to Watch for his contributions to the global navigation and positioning industry. He holds a PhD in Satellite Geodesy and Astrodynamics, and is a member of the NASA/CNES Ocean Surface Topography Science Working Team. He is a contributor to news items and documentaries on BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 4 (Today programme), BBC Radio 5live, BBC News 24 and the World Service. He has carried out numerous consultancies and research contracts, including for the UK Hydrographic Office, the European Space Agency, Tritech Rail, NASA, US Air Force, QinetiQ, and Ordnance Survey. The UCL ,Space Geodesy and Navigation Laboratory has 15 members: 3 academics, 3 PDRAs and 9 PhD students.

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