October 24, 2010

The Fine International Conference on Gigapixel Imaging for Science

Posted by Dr. Laura Guertin

I recently returned from an exciting conference, the Fine International Conference on Gigapixel Imaging for Science (or FOFSgigapan for short).  My goal in attending this conference was to learn about the Gigapan technology (http://www.gigapan.com/) and how it can be used in the geoscience classroom.

I was pleased to learn that other disciplines (soil science, archaeology, fashion studies, to name a few) have found ways to use a set of stitched digital images for research, education, and outreach.

Although I attended the conference with my own motivations to learn about how I could use Gigapan in my classroom and for undergraduate research projects, I think I may have learned the most from the two undergraduate student researchers from Brandywine that I brought with me.  In fact, if you visit @earthspacequest on Twitter and search her #gigapan hashtag as well as her tumblr blog, you will learn about Gigapan through the eyes of a student with future career goals of curriculum development at the middle school level.

I’m going to need some time to get comfortable with the equipment (need to order it first!), but I certainly see much value in using this to take students on virtual fieldtrips, to conduct virtual research investigations, and to allow the students to get outdoors to take their own Gigapan images.