Ted Mac Kinnon
Geospatial Resume
Senior Geomatics Technologist – Natural Resources Canada [Amherst, NS] – May 2011 to present
The profile of the Canada Lands Survey Program and the Atlantic Regional Office is to promote access to the Canada Lands Survey Registry (CLSR) and to manage the cadastral survey programs of other government departments including the implementation of Aboriginal land claim agreements and the implementation of self government devolution activities on Canada Lands.
As the Senior Geomatics Technologist with the Atlantic Regional Office I am responsible for a variety of tasks that are typical of small regional offices with little staff that are not GIS related (managing GPS equipment, managing vehicle fleet, finances, IT etc.). however due to my well-rounded diverse background, my major role has been GIS based; assisting land surveyors with field operations related to Canada Lands, providing technical support, communicating with clients, data collection (buildings, infrastructure and topographical data) and custom cartographic products and rep
orts on demand. A variety of software packages that I use include ESRI ArcGIS, Leica, Trimble, AutoCAD, MicroSurvey, Global Mapper and others.
Operations Consultant – GeoDigital [Ottawa, ON] – September 2010 to April 2011
Geodigital was going through a growing phase by purchasing several other entities and I was fortunate enough to come onboard to help advise them based on my past geomatics experiences as to how they should go about restructuring to incorporate new staff and new systems. The position involved extensive research and time in the field on various projects, generation of maps for reports, analyzing past project spatial data, validating data and GPS control surveys.
Project Manager – Terrapoint Canada [Ottawa, ON] – October 2006 to July 2010
As one of Terrapoint’s senior Project Managers my responsibilities included organizing and managing a team of professionals to perform various assigned LIDAR & Photo data acquisition projects across North &Central America. This position included a wide range of responsibilities but some key duties included coordinating and managing system operators, pilots and GPS ground crew in order to acquire high resolution airborne data (LIDAR & digital photography) using one of several proprietary LIDAR systems, Optec airborne LIDAR systems as well as terrestrial LIDAR systems.
This job involved installation and maintenance of system hardware and software, quality control, quality
analysis, training, trouble shooting the systems during missions, evaluating and collecting GPS control survey data, determining ideal weather and GPS conditions and assisting the entire proj
ect team through initial processing, data organization and general operation administration. The job also involved interaction and cooperation with a wide range of clients and other professionals (such as air traffic control etc) and training of new employees. This involved extensive field travel as well as time in the office.
Inside Sales Representative – PCI Geomatics [Richmond Hill, ON] – October 2005 to October 2006
My valuable geomatics skills, experiences and reputation led me becoming involved with and recruited by the sales department at PCI for the Inside Sales Representative for Europe, Africa, India and the Middle East. This role with the talented sales team allowed me to bring extensive technical experience and thorough product knowledge of PCI software products and provide sales support to both Reseller Representatives and Regional Account Executives. It helped bridge a large technology skills gap that many sales people often lack and helped meet and exceed monthly sales targets set out by management.
Customer Technical Support / Training Advisor – PCI Geomatics [Richmond Hill, ON] – September 2004 to October 2005
As a key senior member of the support and training department, I provided comprehensive technical support for all PCI supported software packages (Geomatica, OrthoEngine, eCognition, RemoteView and SilverEye) to clients. I assisted in testing and quality control of the latest software releases and wrote technical guides, scripts and general technical information. I was in constant contact with clients from all over the world via phone and email communication in order to help resolve technical issues that arose from time to time and ensured that all clients received the most out of the software.
This position allowed me to continue to maintain a thorough knowledge of all PCI software and keep a firm grasp on the ever changing international geomatics industry.
Several support related documents that I created while with PCI are still active on their website for users toaccess in order to help them learn and gain further knowledge of the software.
Geomatics Research Associate – Parks Canada (Kejimkujik National Park) [Middleton, NS] – June 2004 to September 2004
Although this position was rather short in duration (4 months) it still involved extensive geomatics work ranging from orthophotography, GPS field work and detailed GIS spatial database work. I generated an air photo mosaic from 25 cm resolution aerial photography of the campground region of Kejimkujik National Park and Historic Site and corrected existing ones that were not generated properly by previous students.
The main scope of the project involved the generation of a detailed spatial GIS databases of the forest stand types and existing vegetation of Kejimkujik National Park and Historic Site. Geomatics advice was provided as well as spatial analysis and several plots were prepared from the GIS databases for biologists of the Park to aid in existing work and provide tools for new research.
Geomatics Research Associate – Applied Geomatics Research Group (Environment Canada) [Middleton, NS] – April 2003 to June 2004
This opportunity involved extensive technical training and field work with several key geomatics projects
including my own graduate research project (LIDAR flood modeling for Environment Canada). The main scope of work involved aspects of Environmental Science and entailed field work, computer processing, and providing presentations to outside organizations. Some of the projects included surveying and mapping of Kejimkujik National Park Campground, analyzing LIDAR as a tool to derive accurate heights of forest stands, providing digital Orthophoto production, image processing and enhancement of Satellite data and assembling and deploying Campbell Scientific weather stations as well as designing a mobile mapping application for use with ESRI ArcPad.
The difference between my work internship as research associate at the AGRG and my graduate research work on my own project was very finite and often was very difficult to distinguish between. The main scope of my Applied Geomatics Research project and associated with research related to specializing in terrain modeling with high resolution LIDAR and using differential GPS for validation. I developed high resolution Digital Elevation Models from LIDAR data to provide accurate topographic representations of coastal communities of New Brunswick for Storm Surge Flood Modeling for Environment Canada. Flood extent and depth models were generated to help organizations involved in the Climate Change Action Fund (CCAF) and Environment Canada to develop adaptation strategies for coastal storm surge flooding.
GIS Technician / Orthophoto Technician PEI Dept. of Agriculture and Forestry [Charlottetown, PEI] October 2000 to November 2002
This opportunity involved developing the first provincial wide digital Orthophoto database. Over 1600 individual infrared aerial photographs were orthorectified and then mosaicked together to create orthomaps to match existing provincial topographic and land use inventory map sheets. I also had to perform quality control of the aerial photographs and all ortho products created with provided and requested GPS control data to ensure that all products meet outlined specifications of the project. This opportunity was my first professional remote sensing project outside of my intense educational work experience and allowed me to demonstrate my confidence and abilities to demonstrate what I had learnt from COGS in a professional government environment.
The project proved to be more valuable to the government than originally expected by management and is now a vital part of the majority of geomatics projects that the provincial government is involved with. A summary of the project can be obtained from the following: http://www.gov.pe.ca/photos/original/af_02landforest.pdf
GIS Coordinator Strait Regional School Board [Port Hawkesbury, NS] 1999–2000
This project was the first of its kind in Nova Scotia and was largely due to the major restructuring of several smaller community schools into larger new regional schools. This entailed the creation of an almost completely new bus routing system throughout the entire school board. The larger problem was that no digital records currently existed of either student locations or existing school bus routes. Several presentations were involved to help inform the public of all changes that were being implemented by the school board.
This project involved almost entirely GIS and GPS techniques and did not involve very much remote sensing, however it was a vital role in my geomatics career as it allowed me to obtain hands on professional experience in a government environment and to apply my geomatics knowledge obtained from my intense post graduate training.
from Centre of Geographic Sciences (COGS) in Middleton, Nova Scotia
from Centre of Geographic Sciences (COGS) in Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia
from Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia
MacKinnon, T (2016) Trends in the Geomatics Market for 2016. GIM International Business Guide pp. 32-37
MacKinnon, T (2015) International Map Year (IMY) Celebration of Maps. GIM International Magazine Vol. 29 Issue 4 pp. 13
MacKinnon, T (2015) Improving People’s Understanding of the Everyday Relevance of geographic Information. GIM International Magazine Vol. 29 Issue 9 pp. 12
Webster T, Forbes D, MacKinnon E and Roberts D (2006) Flood-risk mapping for storm-surge events and sealevel
rise using LiDAR for southeast New Brunswick Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing Vol. 32, No. 2 pp.194-
211
MacKinnon E (2005) Three Dimensional Flood Modeling with High Resolution LIDAR Ottawa, Ontario: Canadian
Institute of Geomatics 98th Annual Conference Proceedings
Webster T and MacKinnon E (2004) High resolution DEM Acquisition from LIDAR for Flood Risk mapping in
Southeast New Brunswick Fredericton , New Brunswick: Geomatics Atlantic 2004 Conference Proceedings
MacKinnon E (2004) Three Dimensional Flood Modeling with High Resolution LIDAR (Graduate thesis)
Middleton, Nova Scotia: Applied Geomatics Research Group / Center of Geographic Sciences
For continuous dedication and support to help ensure that the geospatial community thrives in Canada
For continuous support of helping run the Geomatics Association of Nova Scotia and highly promoting geomatics in Nova Scotia
For helping to improve awareness geographic education in Canada
Recognizing my knowledge, skills, education, and years of experience with GIS (Geographical Information Systems)
Recognizing my knowledge, skills, years of experience and education with Remote Sensing
For paper and presentation presented at the 2005 CIG Conference in Ottawa
For finishing top of the Applied Geomatics Research class of 2004 at COGS
Highest award obtainable with Scouts Canada