Send us a text*Disclaimer: I apologize for my audio. I had to cut out most of my parts in this episode for the sake of making sure this week's guest, Sam Hashemi, could shine! Give it up for the GIS Chat Podcast first solo guest episode!Sam Hashemi, Founder and creator of the GIS Stack software, Felt, is passionate about design and innovation. Previously worked for NASA and founded the company, Remix, amongst other companies, Sam gives us a brief yet in-depth description of the latest n...

Send us a textMihir is a recent graduate of ASU majored in Urban Planning. His love of buildings and architecture steered him towards a career that he felt would help the public. Coming from India to pursue a degree in Arizona was not a tough transition for Mihir as he easily adjusted. Along with how transitioning from an internship to a full-time job at Aecom, we also talk about why public transit is so important to Mihir, and how his time in India helped influence his drive towards bui...

Send us a textJason is the drone guy, or more professionally known as, a drone architect. His passion for drones has led him to podcasting, starting a nonprofit, a YouTube channel and working for Cognizant as a drone architect. Funny enough, the object that almost killed him in flight is the very object he dedicated his life learning and teaching others about. Listen in on this rambunctious conversation as Jason and I talk all things drones. www.spatialstack.ai/spatial-labOr ...

Send us a textCEO of RomoGIS, Frank Romo's GIS background and upbringing inspired him to focus mainly on helping underrepresented communities across the nation. Frank saw the communities that were most vulnerable to injustices, and created RomoGIS to help train young adults in coding, mapping, consulting, etc. to help those particular groups in various ways.Along those lines, we talk about how hard it can be to find those datasets because of barriers and glass ceilings, but that never stopped...

Send us a Text Message.Michael Mirobelli is an enterprise architect and IT strategist for Esri. His role carries many hats to ensure his clients have a business structure that will help grow their business in many facets. The vision is the foundation that Michael then branches to create a business design (architect) that helps it come to fruition. Come along and listen to how Michael started working for Esri, what an enterprise architect/It strategist does, and how he was able to go...

Send us a Text Message.Andries Heyns is an advocate for advancing accessibility data for people who endure limited travel and healthcare resources. How he does this is through his work with NGOs like Doctors without Borders. A global organization utilizing GIS to help underprivileged civilians gain access to healthcare, education, accessibility, and much more through the use of GIS data. Andries has also worked with the World Bank to help with this initiative. Join us in South Africa as we le...

Send us a Text Message.Bad Elf Geospatial Lead, David Grafton, geeks out on GPS and GNSS. We discuss what products and solutions Bad Elf provides their customers. Along, with a new product released by Bad Elf recently. Dabbling into the good and bad of GPS with a suggestion of what product people should consider when going out on their next GPS adventure.

GIS Specialist, Anthony Saylor, works for Southern Company Gas in Atlanta, Georgia. Along with working within the utility industry, Anthony also helps young adults find mentors within the GIS industry through his organization, GIS mentors of Atlanta. Reason being, he wanted to help his younger self who struggled finding a job post university. Hence, why he created his organization. We talk about all of this and more, like how Anthony used to be a professional Twitch streamer, in this week's e...

GIS developer, Jonathan Robinson, loves GIS and is super excited to talk to us about how it has changed his life. Growing up on the streets as a teen, and then enlisting in the marines where he found GIS, Jonathan owes GIS to helping him find a career he is passionate about. Along, with his excitement for GIS, it is unmatched towards his patriotism for America. It is where his heart is, and he credits how GIS has helped him, the United States, and the US military.

Peter Flint, state land surveying director for Alaska, does a deep dive into how being a land surveyor in Alaska really is. He absolutely loves it, and it shows in today's episode. Topics we touch on is life as a land surveyor in Alaska and being the state representative for the NSPS, achievements in implementing Alaska's continuously operating reference network reference network, and lastly ending on Peter's previous life as an Alaska's Railroad Project Manager.

Jami Dennis, owner of the Geodetic Analysis LLC, a geospatial consulting company, gets really nerdy about data. Any opportunity to show her enthusiasm about data, she jumps on it! From extracting data to present in front of a boardroom to creating visualizations like story maps and infographics, Jami loves how data can visually enhance our GIS experience through creative means. Plus, getting involved in volunteer work has increased Jami's knowledge and skills in the industry.O...

In this episode, we feature Forbes 30under30 alumni, Milan Janosov, as he talks about his transition from biophysics to data science. Venturing into his work for the European Commission and other freelance work. Briefly touching on his own entrepreneurial spirit with authoring his own book "DATA", and starting his consulting company, Geospatial Data Consulting. Lastly, we talk about how it is like being a freelance geospatial data scientist and some obstacles/pathways that data scientists are...

Chief Public Health Officer for HSR.health (Health Solutions Research), Jean Felipe, is passionate about using GIS in the public health sector. Born in Brazil, Jean studied medicine and worked with health focused geospatial analytics using A.I. to help map diseases, hospital deserts, mortality rates and so on.  In this episode, we talk about Jean's experience as a primary care provider and now a chief public health officer, the history of diseases, how the public health industry is collecting...

State Geodetic Coordinator to Arizona for the NGS, and 2019 Lifetime Membership Award for the United Surveyors of Arizona, Brian Fisher has been land surveying since the late 1980's. His expertise is plentiful, and he has a ton of knowledge on what professional land surveyors are facing today. Join us as we talk heavily on the land surveying industry, how to get involved, what challenges PLS are facing today, and how radio helped Brian and a coworker save an elderly woman's life. 

Born in England but raised in Ireland, Esri lead consultant, Kiera O' Sullivan delivers a fantastic talk that first centers around her role at Esri Ireland and some advice on how to be successful in the world of consulting. This includes how Kiera got her start at Esri with a biology degree and how she became a leader amongst her peers as a lead consultant. Then we really dive into climate change and biodiversity. Specifically, why climate change has had such a negative effect on Ireland's...

One of the only four Smilovsky's found in the contiguous United States, Nik's passion into GIS originally stemmed from his love of teaching. Nik thrives in providing students the tools and resources to enable them to learn and succeed in GIS in a classroom environment. Nik has been teaching for more than fifteen years at the community college level and at the university level. He also, has a few public speaking under his belt as well.  We first touch on Nik's teaching experience and why that...

Born in Mauritius, an island East of Madagascar, Veronique founded both organizations, AfriTech Fellowship and Geospatial Equity Tech, to help underrepresented and marginalized communities get involved in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics).  But first, we talk about the U.S education system and comparing it to the U.K education system, and then we discuss how GIS can help socioeconomic issues and why GIS is so important in telling stories. Veronique incorporates...

Esri government solutions engineer, Jeremiah Lindemann, has an extensive background in providing product solutions to governments and public safety departments. An important topic to Jeremiah, as it pertains to public safety, is the opioid epidemic and drug crisis. Jeremiah lost his little brother to the opioid epidemic, and ever since then has been using GIS to bring awareness. On this episode, we talk about what being on the government solutions team at Esri is like, but we mostly discuss...

Originally born in Jiangsu, province of China, Bo attended the University of Kansas to pursue a master's in architectural engineering and a doctorate in civil engineering.  As an international student, Bo overcame language and culture barriers to eventually start and become president of GISTIC Research Inc, a GIS consulting company.   We discuss the transition from China to Kansas in the 1980's, why engineering and IT play a big part in the GIS industry, and how FME and AI are impacting the...

Kicking off 2024 with the Arizona Department of Transportation geospatial section analysis manager, Sara Thompson. All but happy to talk about transportation, Sara geeks out on how ADOT is using GIS to improve Arizona's freeways and other modes of transportation. Some future projects ADOT has in store and what Sara does to help contribute to those efforts. Also, why Sara chose to pursue GIS over a degree in biology and the questions she had to ask herself to make the career change over to GIS...

No relation to Kevin Bacon, Thomas Bacon is a geospatial data scientist working in the public sector at the City of Minneapolis.  After finding out that his initial life plans may not be as lucrative as he had thought, GIS was a potential on the table that pivoted him in a different career path from which he never looked back from. Thomas's passion for public awareness, stemming from social awareness to our trials and parks, is conveyed by data visualization.  With these efforts, whether it...

Tucson Parks and Recreation project manager, Jennifer Psillas, had a late start at university before pursing her career in the GIS Master's program at the University of Arizona. We also talk about her opinions on the "4-year" path to graduation and why it took her almost 13 years to graduate. Then we dive into her work in Project Management at the Parks and Recs and the work that the City of Tucson is doing for the community.  Lastly, we briefly dive into why watershed management is important...

Arizona State University project manager, Shea Lamar, prides herself in being diligent, hardworking, and providing the best work she can in her role. She is opinionated in her views on what it takes to be a good project manager.  As well as what she has learned about being proactive in the GIS field, being an educator for the GIS Masters program at ASU. Passionate about GIS, but also being a leader to those she works with, she loves her profession and being able to help those who need GIS in...

Seth's current role as GIS analyst with many hats at Tyler Technologies, is where they route school bus routing with efficiency and accuracy to ensure kids arrive home safely. We discuss his role, and how coding and scripting play a major role in his day to day and how being proficient at Python has helped him succeed in his role. Also, some common challenges that come with coding and scripting.  Lastly, we leave off with how Seth was able to navigate in his career without a GIS degree for...