Sarah Thompson Email & Phone Number

Ontario, Canada

Markham, Ontario, Canada

At PCI I am part of the customer support team, responding to questions and requests from customers around the world. I analyse and interpret optical, radar, aerial and UAV imagery from a wide variety of sensors to provide customers with personalized and informative responses. This allows them to create accurate and efficient workflows to suit their needs. I consistently update the Support Portal by creating specialized remote sensing tutorials, python scripts and training material to support customers in adopting and learning our software.

During my two co-op terms at Esri Canada I worked as part of the Community Maps team. In ArcGIS, I processed both vector and raster data that was provided to us from various Canadian communities to ensure that the data conformed to the Community Maps template. These processed datasets were then added to the Esri Canadian Basemap. I applied knowledge from an ArcPy course to generate various models in Modelbuilder and python scripts using ArcPy to streamline the map creation process. FME was also used to develop workflows to convert data formats and standardize attributes. Additionally, I worked in ArcScene to quality check digitized 3D buildings against engineering strata plans of condominium buildings.

Newmarket, On

I was an active member of the York Region Open Data Project. My responsibilities included writing briefs for senior management, preparing the project framework, developing criteria for publishing data, attending planning meetings, writing meeting minutes and creating the draft website design. I presented the Open Data Project to the Geographic Information Services Branch to explain the approach to starting the new project and determining acceptable datasets to host online. I also organized a workshop for York Region Staff to discuss benefits and challenges of starting an Open Data Project; summarized the main findings of the workshop in a report. In addition to the Open Data Project, I utilized Microsoft Access to create a new hardware and software inventory database to assist various departments.

Ottawa, On

While working for Agriculture Canada I organized and actively participated in field work campaigns to monitor soil conditions and field surface roughness. PC tablets and GPS were used to locate agricultural fields and record qualitative crop and tillage characteristics. I helped to create a methodology that outlined the stages of mapping residue cover on agricultural fields. After the field work was complete, the roughness profile of the agricultural fields was created using a Matlab application. For this research project, I learned the multi-step process of ordering satellite data (Radarsat-2 and TerraSAR-X) online. The SAR data was then processed in and used in the research studies to compare the in-situ recorded field roughness with the SAR backscatter data.

St Catharines, On

At the Ministry of Transportation Ontario I developed cartographic skills through revising and creating various maps (Ontario Road Map, ONroute Highway rest stops maps). I helped to update spatial information and metadata for the Ontario Road Map data.