The best surveying research of the year — live, in one day.

Quantifying the differences in accuracy and efficiency between RTK and rapid-static GNSS measurement methods for establishing drone survey control — what you gain, what you give up, and when each method earns its place in the workflow.

About Alan: Alan served in the United States Air Force (1983–86) and retired from the U.S. Postal Service after 34 years — 25 of them as a Postmaster. He earned his Part 107 in September 2021, has flown drones commercially for about five years, and founded 321 Aerial Services in August 2022 with a focus on aerial mapping. He has been a Survey School member since July 2024.

How high is the land beneath your feet? It's the question behind almost everything we build — roads, drainage, flood defences — yet measuring it has always meant slow, expensive fieldwork, and across much of Nigeria reliable reference data barely exists. This presentation pairs the free Copernicus GLO-30 elevation model with global Earth-gravity models to derive accurate ground heights, then puts the results to the test against 69 real GPS control points: which model comes out on top, how accurate the approach genuinely is, and which everyday survey and mapping tasks it's ready for right now — a practical case for turning free data into heights you can put to work.

About Israel: Israel is a final-year student of Surveying and Geoinformatics at the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), Ondo State, Nigeria, technical personnel at BIP Geomatics Consulting Limited, and a member of the Young Surveyors Network, Nigeria. Beyond the technical work, he's focused on raising the visibility of surveying as a discipline and showing young people it's a viable, exciting career path.

An integrated geospatial framework using SBAS-InSAR, GNSS, climate data, and AI models to monitor and forecast land deformation in coastal Nigeria, with Lagos as a case study. The research shows how combining Earth observation and machine learning can support infrastructure resilience, sustainable urban planning, and disaster risk management in climate-vulnerable coastal regions.

About Paul: Paul is a lecturer in Surveying and Geoinformatics at Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria, and a PhD researcher in geodesy and geospatial science. His work focuses on integrating GNSS, InSAR, remote sensing, and AI for environmental monitoring, land deformation, and climate resilience in coastal areas.

How and why to use common-point observations in a traverse — paired with a post-processing method Shea developed — to push vertical accuracy beyond what's otherwise achievable, all other things being equal. Building on his widely discussed video on the method, this talk answers the counterpoints raised in the comments, shows the benefits to horizontal accuracy and reliability as well, and (time permitting) digs into deflection of the vertical: how much error it introduces when ignored in a true three-dimensional least-squares adjustment. Spoiler — a lot.

About Shea: Shea is the creator of The 3rd Dimension YouTube channel and has spent about 19 years in the surveying industry.

A digital-twin workflow proving that accurate indoor–outdoor 3D reconstruction is possible without LiDAR or enterprise software — built on consumer hardware, free and open-source tools, and two solutions Rustin developed and plans to release to the community: Argus, a multi-height 360° capture rig, and Hera, a desktop app that converts 360° video into SfM-ready imagery.

About Rustin: Rustin is a Salisbury University geography undergraduate (meteorology and GIScience) with minors in mathematics and quantitative analysis, a 2026 Goldwater Scholar, and a Part 107 remote pilot. He leads the SU Digital Twin Initiative — engineering scalable indoor–outdoor 3D reconstruction and Gaussian-splatting workflows with accessible tools — and founded Rusty's Creation Lab, delivering independent fabrication and geospatial services.

Surveyors are collecting more data than ever, but deliverables still take too long. VORTEX Toolkit is a modular geospatial automation system built around workflows Gamaliel already uses or is actively testing: stockpile volume reporting, automated road sections and longitudinal profiles from point clouds, assisted point-cloud-to-CAD geometry, rail geometry QC, tank inspection support, solar farm layout validation, QA/QC graphics, and construction progress tracking. Give it geospatial data, project rules, or technical references, and its algorithms process them into useful deliverables. The goal is supervised automation: faster production, standardized outputs, and traceable results — without removing professional judgment from the process.

About Gamaliel: Gamaliel is a surveying and geospatial specialist from Mexico whose project work spans civil infrastructure, industrial facilities, solar and wind parks, substations, railways, mines, airports, and water and oil & gas infrastructure across Mexico and Latin America. His toolkit combines field surveying, GNSS, total stations, terrestrial and aerial LiDAR, drone photogrammetry, CAD/BIM workflows, Dynamo, and Python — with a current focus on custom algorithms that turn field data, point clouds, and technical records into traceable, client-ready deliverables.

The practical considerations of adding terrestrial scanning capability to a small geospatial company, comparing mobile photogrammetry with PIX4Dcatch against handheld LiDAR scanning with the SHARE S20. The comparison focuses on what actually matters when selecting and implementing a system — capture range, field efficiency, imagery, processing, quality assurance, workflow integration, and final deliverables. The goal isn't to name a single best technology, but to understand where each approach fits and how small operators can make informed equipment and workflow decisions.

About Brook: Brook began his geospatial career as a U.S. Navy Navigation Electronics Technician aboard fast-attack submarines in the Pacific and Arctic, specializing in GPS and inertial navigation and qualifying as a Diving Officer — career highlights include navigating beneath the ice canopy and shallow ice keels of the Bering Sea. After the service he worked with GIS and RF planning systems in telecommunications, then held senior leadership roles delivering large operations-support-system deployments in the U.S. and Europe. In 2020 he founded CoveGEO to pursue geospatial reality capture, 3D modeling, mapping, and site documentation, and he's an active Survey School member.

This paper explores whether communication of the geomatics profession's value proposition is being developed and assessed as a core professional competency. While surveying education rightly emphasises technical knowledge and skills, the ability to explain why the profession matters to clients, decision-makers, and the public receives far less attention. Drawing on curriculum reviews and stakeholder perspectives, the study examines whether graduates are adequately prepared to communicate the relevance and impact of the profession beyond technical practice. The paper argues that strengthening this competency can improve public understanding, enhance professional advocacy, and ultimately contribute to better recognition and utilisation of the geomatics profession.

About Rose: Rose is a registered Professional Land Surveyor based in South Africa and the founder of Property Advisory, a firm that helps property buyers and investors make informed decisions through technical property due diligence and advisory services. Built on more than a decade of experience in land surveying, her work reflects a strong belief that sound project decisions begin with accurate land information. She serves as an Associate Board Member of the South African Institute of Building Design (SAIBD), an architectural voluntary association, where she contributes to industry-level decision-making and professional development — with the aim of embedding the relevance of land surveying within the broader built environment. Through workshops with built-environment professionals and across radio and digital platforms, she works to simplify land and property concepts and highlight the role of surveying in informed decision-making, using education as a tool for professional advocacy that makes surveying knowledge more accessible, practical, and widely understood.