Students earn wins at Geomatics Bowl

Three University of North Georgia (UNG) students competed in the Geomatics Bowl at the Surveying and Mapping Society of Georgia's Annual Technical Seminar where they won two of their rounds. The Geomatics Bowl is a Jeopardy-style game with prompts from surveying, geospatial and related categories.

Joshua Burgess, Sammy Hand and Jacob Jordan competed in four rounds of the bowl. The first was against Georgia Southern University in the college-level round and the team was able to pull out a win. This was followed by a win against the Young Surveyors team, who are new licensees.

"I am proud of the students. I was excited to see our team, which was assembled kind of at the last minute, perform how they did," UNG senior lecturer Steven Hookssaid. "They won against a college team that has participated in other events together. Plus, they beat the new licensees."

With no time to prepare, most teams were able to review the rules, acronyms and course material they received in class. Despite the lack of time, Hand, who is pursuing a degree in environmental spatial analysis, shared that his time in the Lewis F. Rogers Institute for Environmental and Spatial Analysis(IESA) program was preparation enough.

"The competition was a fun experience that allowed our team to present our knowledge and understanding in the field of surveying as well as what we have learned through UNG's IESA program," the senior from Nashville, Georgia, said.

For students interested in learning more about IESA, there are five student organizationsat UNG's Gainesville Campus. Those groups will be participating in UNG's Earth Day eventApril 17, which is supported by the Biology Department, faculty, Students for Environmental Awareness, and other student organizations.