Campus Control Project

In October 2023, I served as the project manager for a geodetic surveying project during my Geodetic Positioning class at Michigan Tech. The project involved observing and documenting survey marks on campus for inclusion in the National Geodetic Survey's Integrated Database.

10
Survey Marks
5
Survey Teams
4
Observations per Mark
1
Month Duration

Project Overview

The class consisted of sixteen students divided into five teams of three. Each team was assigned two marks on campus, with the responsibility to describe and observe these marks. The project spanned over a month, requiring four observations per mark to meet NGS standards.

Survey mark on the Michigan Tech campus
A typical survey mark used in the project: a stamped aluminum disk in a concrete base.

Technical Implementation

I worked extensively with NGS's OPUS Projects and WinDesc software packages to:

GNSS equipment setup
GNSS equipment setup for collecting observations on a survey mark.

Network Design

The project required careful planning of the observation network to ensure proper geometric strength and redundancy. I chose MITU to be the HUB CORS due to its proximity to the site, and LANS as the TROPO CORS to model tropospheric delay, as it is within the recommended 375–800 km range. Each mark was observed multiple times to ensure reliability and accuracy of the final coordinates.

Network diagram
Network diagram showing the geometric relationships CORS stations.

Documentation

I compiled a comprehensive project report using LaTeX, which was included in the project submission to the NGS. The report detailed our methodology, observations, and results.

You can view the final report below.

Outcome

The project successfully contributed to the National Geodetic Survey's database, providing valuable geodetic control data for the Michigan Tech campus. This data will serve as a reference for future surveying and mapping projects in the area.