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Ball State University - afterimage GISView Photo(s) of Award Presentation Project Goal
Ball State University was awarded a USDE grant to study the impact of high speed wireless broadband in an education setting, in this case, 4th and 5th grade students at a local Muncie, Indiana elementary schools. (Mitchell,Cowan and Yorktown). As part of that project, the GIS department was asked to develop a way to model or show usage and other items via the GIS. What grew out of this was an innovative approach utilizing the ArcGIS suite from ESRI and the Cellular Expert extensions from ESRI's business partner, HNIT-BALTIC from Lithuania. This innovation allowed the symbolization and display of where the students lived in the neighborhood in relation to how the wireless signals propagated around and thru their homes and physical environment. The Digital Middletown Project and the innovative use of GIS/RF mapping became a focus for national publications/presentations and brought many inquiries from leading telecom companies, and created a successful spin-off company, afterimage GIS Learn more about our application: Site 1 | Site 2 Business Problem Solved
The initial problem was more of a visualization, tracking of the students and how the wireless signal could be adjusted to allow better access, however, as the project evolved, the realization of a technology company was born. afterimage GIS, LLC was born out of the intial research and development and created several GIS based solutions that drew attention from telecommunication firms such as Verizon, Alvarion, Digital Bridge Communications and AT&T. The utilization of GIS combined with accurate wireless models allowed a much quicker turn around time for determining where deployment of antennas/towers need to be, in order to cover the desired population. Technology Implemented
Alvarion Breezeaccess antennas 5.8Ghz and 900Mhz, cellular-expert 3.3, ArcGIS - ArcInfo, ArcEditor, ArcGIS Business Analyst, ArcGIS Spatial Analyst and 3D Analyst. Development Team Biography
Paul Shanayda - GIS Coordinator Ball State University, and CEO of afterimage GIS, LLC |
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