Recently, the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying recognized the Geomatics program at Nicholls State University with one of its prestigious 2021 Surveying Education Awards, according to this press release from the university.

The National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying, or NCEES, is a nonprofit organization set on developing, administering, and scoring the surveying licensure tests in the United States of America, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands.

Since 2016, the NCEES Surveying Education Award has stood as an honor recognizing university programs that work to advance surveyor licensure in order to safeguard the public’s health, safety, and general welfare. This is the third time that Nicholls has received the honor, which will give the program $15,000 in awarded funds.

Dr. Esra Tekdal Yilmaz, the department head of Applied Sciences at Nicholls, had said the following on receiving the prestigious honor, “Nicholls Geomatics is uniquely designed to provide a well-rounded education on collection, analysis, interpretation and management of spatial data using conventional methods and emerging technologies. The unique nature of the program is clearly evident in every aspect of the curriculum design, instructional research support, advisory board, industry support, the quality of our students, and our faculty expertise.”

The only honor higher than the $15,000 Surveying Education Award that was awarded by the NCEES was the $25,000 NCEES Surveying Education Award grand prize. This prize was awarded to the University of MaineSurveying Engineering Technology program.

In total, Nicholls was one of three total universities selected by the NCEES Surveying Education Award jury to win the $15,000 prize. The other two were the Surveying Engineering program at the Ferris State University’s School of Engineering and Computing Technology and the Geomatics/Surveying Engineering program at New Mexico State University’s Department of Engineering Technology and Surveying Engineering.

The funds will be utilized by Nicholls’ Geomatics program to host a 3-day workshop in which high school STEM teachers can be introduced to the basic concepts and impacts of geomatics, which, according to Oxford, is the “branch of science that deals with the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data relating to the earth’s surface.” Dr. Yilmaz noted that “these sessions will also create a continuous working relationship between our faculty and local high schools.”

The NCEES jury had met to evaluate and determine the 2021 award winners on June 24, 2021, and in total one university was selected to win the grand prize of $25,000, and three universities were selected to win the $15,000 prize and the $10,000 prizes, respectively. Schools awarded with the  $10,000 prize were Florida Atlantic University, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, and the Oregon Institute of Technology.

The NCEES Surveying Education Award, as per the nonprofit organization’s webpage, “recognizes surveying/geomatics programs that have a broad and robust curriculum and best reflect NCEES’ mission to advance licensure for surveyors in order to safeguard the health, safety, and welfare of the public. The award is intended to encourage programs to engage their students with other professionals, introduce them to both historical and new technology, and promote licensure.”

Because the NCEES Surveying Education Award evaluates a university’s performance on national surveying metrics, graduates from the Nicholls Geomatics Program had passed the national exam for the Fundamentals of Surveying at a 95 percent performance rate. This is outstanding once juxtapositioned against the national average of a 54 percent performance rate. This resounding success undoubtedly proves the excellence evident in the Nicholls State University Geomatics Program.

For more education-related information, click here.