Connections, Volume 2, Number 3, September 2016 Page: 3
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Page 3
CSEC, ACC Partnership a Win-Win
Sean Moran, the director of the geo-
graphic information systems (GIS)
department at Austin Community
College (ACC), had a problem. Or more spe-
cifically, his students had a problem.
There was a time when employers hired stu-
dents directly out of school with no profes-
sional experience, with the understanding
that it was their responsibility to train those
new employees to work in their organizations.
"That's gone," Moran said. "The entry-level
jobscape today requires at least a year of
experience, and that's a little frustrating for
students, who can't compete immediately
after leaving school."
The problem isn't unique to GIS students or
ACC-according to Moran, students of all
kinds at colleges and universities across the
country find themselves in the same cir-
cumstances. So, Moran and his colleagues
at the college set out to do something
about that. Their solution was to create the
"ACC Incubator for ProfessionalnSkills,"
which works to help students find intern-
ships that will give them the experience
that employers crave.
"We were looking for projects that we know our
students will be successful in, and will provide
good value to the client," Moran said.
Serendipitously, CSEC was looking for a
source that could provide third-party vali-
dation of the 9-1-1 data being generated by
service providers, as well as the state's
Councils of Governments (COGs) and Re-
gional Planning Commissions (RPCs). CSEC
was well aware of Moran and his reputa-
tion, as he previously had been the plan-
ning director for the Capital Area Council of
Governments (CAPCOG) and had firsthand
knowledge of 9-1-1 data.
Consequently, CSEC and ACC launched a
pilot project that involves two students
assessing the spatial accuracy of structure
address points. Initially, they focused on
two counties each in Brazos Valley COG
(BVCOG) and East Texas COG (ETCOG).
"It's a natural partnership," said Vonda Payne,
CSEC's implementation program manager.BVCOG's 9-1-1 data quality is regarded
as among the best in the state pro-
gram, but the pilot project revealed
that even it had some work to do.
"Overall they said that our data was very
clean and accurate, but that there were
some areas that needed clean up," said
Anita Pitt, BVCOG's program manager. "It is
very good to get another perspective."
Based on the experience, Pitt has asked
CSEC to allow the ACC students to as-
sess BVCOG's other five counties. She
added that such an assessment is need-
ed in part because of the way technolo-
gy has advanced.
"We've been taking address points us-
ing GPS since 1995," she said. "But GPS
has become much more accurate since
when we first started driving roads."
Francis Crate, BVCOG's GIS coordinator,
added that another factor is that people
often do the unexpected.
"Some of our rural roads have shifted
over the years," Crate said. "People who
have large amounts of land reshape their
roads, and the only way we can discover
that is through aerial images.
Crate offered an example involving a
property that featured a small pond.
The owners wanted the road that cut
through the property to be on the oth-
er side of the pond. So they moved the
road-which changed all of the ad-
dresses for the structures on that road.
Stephanie Heffner, ETCOG's director of
public safety, believes that the pilot
program is serving a vital function for a
couple of reasons and would like to see
it expanded.
"We place our structure address points on
the driveway, because a house on a rural
property can be a mile and a half down
the road," Heffner said. "So, it's better to
put them on the road so the first respond-
ers know where to turn.
"Consequently, we need to know if those
Continued on page 4'We think that this project
will encourage students who
are lookingforjobs to take
a look at 9-1-1."
- Vonda Payne, CSECr" E o
~J'We needed to know
whether we're getting our
money 's worth on our
data cleanup"
- Stephanie Heffner,
ETCOG
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Texas. Commission on State Emergency Communications. Connections, Volume 2, Number 3, September 2016, periodical, September 2016; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1211334/m1/3/: accessed July 11, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.