The Trimble Innovation Program (TIP) is designed to explore new eCognition applications & usages, to teach young talent, to suggest implementation improvements, to provide & share knowledge and experiences within the eCognition Community and to drive eCognition technology to ever higher levels of innovation. The program promotes object-based analysis and is open for academic centers who are active in the remote sensing scientific community.
Our current TIP members include some of the predominant EO Universities worldwide:
The University of Vermont
Burlington, Vermont, U.S.A.
For over a decade, the University of Vermont Spatial Analysis Laboratory (UVM SAL) has been employing eCognition’s cutting-edge feature extraction technology to help turn remotely sensed data into information. Their Urban Tree Canopy Assessments, developed in collaboration with the US Forest Service, have enabled communities throughout North America to chart a greener future. UVM SAL has helped non-profits, government agencies, and industry incorporate eCognition into their remote sensing workflows. Students exposed to eCognition in the classroom gain the skills they need to tackle challenges in the remote sensing industry using the world’s leading data fusion software package. UVM SAL Director Jarlath O’Neil-Dunne routinely holds OBIA workshops using eCognition for major conferences such as ASPRS/IMLF. His eCognition tutorial videos, available on YouTube, have been viewed tens of thousands of times.
Examples of the work being done at UVM SAL on urban tree canopy analysis has been featured in the eCognition Blog Smart Cities are Green Cities and Jarlath has been a guest speaker in our webinar series Using eCognition for LiDAR Point Cloud Quality Control.
Stellenbosch University
Stellenbosch, South Africa
The Centre for Geographical Analysis (CGA) is an applied research unit within the Department of Geography & Environmental Studies at Stellenbosch University. The CGA has been using eCognition software in research since the early 2000s and has been offering training in object-based image analysis (OBIA), using eCognition, as part of its modules to undergrad students as well as short courses to professionals since 2010.
We have featured research done at CGA in the eCognition Blog Field Boundary Delineation with Multi-Temporal Sentinel-2 Imagery and the accompanying webinar remains our most popular to date.
University of Salzburg
Salzburg, Austria
Z_GIS is an interdisciplinary Centre of Competence for Geoinformatics at the University of Salzburg and became the first and largest eCognition TIP member in 2001. Z_GIS has clearly pushed the ’paradigm shift’ within the scientific image analysis community towards object-based image analysis (OBIA). Our cooperation with Trimble provides access to cutting edge technologies with a focus on OBIA, whereby Z_GIS contributes academic leadership and conceptual innovation on a global scale.
Over the years, we have collaborated on a number of activities with Z_GIS including our webinar on the Automated Extraction of Geospatial Information for Humanitarian Action Support as well as the customer story Bringing Relief to Refugees.
University of Queensland
Brisbane, Australia
The Remote Sensing Research Centre (RSRC)at the University of Queensland uses remotely sensed data, field-work and spatial models to measure, map and monitor biophysical properties in terrestrial, atmospheric and aquatic environments to better understand and manage the earth’s environments and resources. Their research provides private and public sector organisations with techniques to turn satellite and airborne images and field survey data into meaningful maps or information from one or many points in time. These results can then be used to better understand where, how and why environments are changing, and to separate natural changes from those produced by humans. In addition, they teach remote sensing through a range of undergraduate, postgraduate and directed research higher degrees.
The work the RSRC staff have done in the field of coral reef and seagrass habitat mapping has been featured in our webinar series, a Trimble customer story and the eCognition Blog.
University of California Berkeley
Berkeley, California, U.S.A.
The Geospatial Innovation Facility (GIF) at UC Berkeley's College of Natural Resources provides leadership and training across a broad array of integrated mapping technologies. Their goal is to help people better understand the changing world through the analysis and visualization of spatial data. The GIF develops engaging applications that leverage and build upon state-of-the-art geospatial and web technologies, and provide opportunities for researchers to learn how they can use spatial data to answer critical questions. The GIF conducts annual eCognition workshops that examine the fundamentals of OBIA.
The Trimble eCognition team and GIF have organized eCognition training events that are available for faculty, students and professionals.