Page 19 - NALS Traverse 50_2

NSPS Spring The winners of the competition were announced Friday following
lunch. NWTC placed First in the Associate’s Division, and Ferris
Meeting and Student State University placed first in the Bachelorette Division. Con-
gratulations to all the Teams for their efforts and participation
Competition in this year’s competition. Follow NSPS YSN on Instagram and
LinkedIn for more posts and content.

By: Heather Keenan
This Year’s Student Competition was again organized by Young

Surveyors Network in Washington, DC. The participation from
Colleges around the County was excellent. In total, 24 schools
from around the Nation competed in the competition, from Cal
Poly Tech to the University of Puerto Rico and even Klein Collins
High School from Texas. The competition structure was similar to
last year, but due to the number of schools, half participated in the
monument hunt portion one day, while the other half tackled the
field exercises. The monument hunt consisted of each school and
a young surveyor scavenging around the city for NGS monuments.
They were given an ArcGIS field map app designed by Linda Foster,
ESRI of the monuments, including the NGS data sheets. Different
point values were given to over 60 monuments. Their appointed
young surveyor then recorded a picture of the monument, and
extra points were given to teams that posted a picture of the
monument to social media. Be sure to lookup up #nsps and #ysn
to find these posts on various social media platforms.

All field exercises took place near the Washington Monument.
The field exercises comprised a four-sided traverse, level loop,
and triangulation. Young Surveyors were at each station to
set up the equipment, judge the professionalism, and time the
student’s computations. For the traverse, students were given
a compass and chain and needed to calculate interior angles,
leg distances, and resulting coordinates. The level loop between
5 temporary monuments was judged on field notes and clos-
ing elevation. The triangulation exercise used the Washington
Monument as a backsight. At the same time, set up on two other
coordinate known monuments and was tasked with turning
angles on a T2 to calculate the coordinates of an unknown coor-
dinate for the monument Jeffersons Pier. It was great to see the
outside interest from passers-by wondering and asking what we
were doing, especially because students were given extra credit
for wearing Surveying attire from any past time period. Thank
you to Les and Lisa Van Horn for bringing the equipment from
NWTC, WSLS Foundation, and their personal collection and guid-
ing the traverse exercise.
A social event after the competition Thurs-
day evening consisted of Bingo, Cards, and
Bags. Friday morning, NSPS YSN held its
spring meeting. Our new president Jacob
Heck led this meeting, and we welcomed
Nolan Mark as Vice President and Heather
Keenan as Secretary. Thirty-five young
surveyors were in attendance from 21
different states! By far a new record. We
discussed upcoming events, including FIG
Working Week (Orlando, Florida, May 27 and
28) and the Fall meeting (Cleveland, Ohio,
September 20-22). We also collaborated
on centrally located study material, sharing
YSN information and licensing requirements
on our page on the WSLS website. Tim
Burch stopped in our meeting and spoke of
the possibility of including Young Survey-
ors in the NSPS Day on the Hill campaign
and the importance of Young Surveyors to
NSPS’s future.

The Nevada Traverse Vol.50, No.2, 2023 17