Course Policies and Logistics

GIS/MEA 584: Mapping and Analytics Using UAS, Fall 2026

This document covers how the course runs day to day. It is not the syllabus. The official course syllabus is published through NC State’s Class Search tool and is also posted in Moodle. Where the two documents overlap, the syllabus governs.

Instructors and Communication

Corey T. White, PhD, Center for Geospatial Analytics ctwhite@ncsu.edu, office hours by appointment

Teaching Assistant: [name] [unity id]@ncsu.edu, office hours [day, time, location]

Use the Moodle forum for anything about assignments, software, or data, since the answer usually helps more than one person. Use email for anything personal or time sensitive. Expect a reply within [one business day] on weekdays. Put GIS584 in the subject line.

Distance education students can meet with the instructor or TA over Zoom during the same office hours as on-campus students. Ask and a link will be sent.

Course Website and Moodle

The course website at https://ncsu-geoforall-lab.github.io/gis-584-uas-course/ holds the schedule, lecture slides, topic pages, assignments, and data links. The site is built with Quarto and Reveal.js, the source is at https://github.com/ncsu-geoforall-lab/gis-584-uas-course, and the material is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Moodle holds the course forum, assignment submissions, project material, and grades: Moodle.

Lectures

Lectures cover principles, theory, concepts, and methods, and are mostly software independent. Slides and video for each topic are linked from that topic’s page, reachable through the course schedule or through Moodle. Topic pages also link to additional reading.

Lecture recordings are posted to Panopto and linked from each topic’s pages. Distance education students work from the same recordings and the same topic pages as the on-campus section.

Assignments

Most topics include a hands-on assignment, linked from that topic’s page on the course website.

For each topic you submit a report of at least two pages, including images and tables, with these sections:

  • Introduction: the task and the problem
  • Methods: general description of the methods and concepts used
  • Results: the results, including maps, graphs, and tables, with comments
  • Discussion: anything unexpected or problematic in the results, any issues with the methodology or software, and suggestions for improvement
  • Conclusion: one or two sentences on what you learned

Submit through Moodle as a PDF using the naming convention LastnameFirstname_HW#.pdf.

Reports are due [day of week] at [time] following the schedule on the course website. Late reports lose 10% per week or part of a week, with no credit after two weeks. If something comes up, tell me before the deadline rather than after.

Extra credit is given for innovative solutions, creative problem solving, and extensions to the assigned tasks. Show the extension clearly in the report so it can be found.

Semester Project

The project is a complete UAS analysis workflow applied to a problem you choose, from acquisition through interpretation, presented in your portfolio. It is worth 40% of the course grade.

Milestones:

  • Project pre-proposal, due September 9, 2026
  • Project proposal, due September 28, 2026
  • Progress report, due October 21, 2026
  • Project presentations, November 30 and December 1, 2026
  • Final report and portfolio, due December 7, 2026

Milestones are hard deadlines and are not accepted late. The proposal and the presentation exist so you get feedback while there is still time to act on it, which a late submission cannot deliver. If you are going to miss one, contact me before the date.

Project requirements and the rubric are on the Projects page of the course website.

All course work is collected in an electronic portfolio that accumulates across your GIS courses.

Software

Additional tools referenced in the course, not required: PDAL for point cloud processing, LAStools and libLAS for managing LAS files with GRASS, and MicMac as an alternative structure from motion package.

Computational Resources

NC State students can reserve an environment in the Virtual Computing Lab (VCL). Use the Agisoft Metashape & GRASS GIS - Ubuntu image. VCL is the fallback if your own machine cannot handle a processing job, and it is available to distance education students on the same terms as on-campus students.

[Add WebODM server access details here once the CGA instance is provisioned.]

If a processing run fails or takes an unreasonable amount of time, post the log to the forum rather than restarting it repeatedly.

Data

Course datasets are hosted publicly and linked from the topic pages and below. Download data before class rather than during it.

GRASS Projects

Ground Control Points (Mid Pines)

12 GCPs taken at Mid Pines:

Processed data

Lidar data

Orthoimagery

Orthophotos as GRASS packed rasters; use r.unpack from within the LakeWheeler_NCspm project to import them, with -o to override the projection (HARN versus NAD83 datum, the difference is negligible).

Flight Operations and Field Safety

Flight planning and execution are taught in Topic 3. Students are not required to hold a Part 107 remote pilot certificate to complete the course, and assignments can be completed with provided imagery or in simulation.

Any student who does fly is responsible for operating under FAA Part 107, including airspace authorization, visual line of sight, and altitude limits, and for following NC State policy on UAS operations on university property. Do not fly over people, do not fly a course exercise you have not planned in writing, and do not fly alone.

Attendance

Attendance is recorded at each meeting of the on-campus section and does not carry points toward your grade. University definitions of excused absences are in REG 02.20.03. Tell me in advance when you can.

Academic Integrity

Students are bound by the Code of Student Conduct. Discussing approaches with classmates is encouraged. Submitting someone else’s processing results, figures, or text as your own is not. When you use code, a workflow, or a dataset you did not create, cite it.

More information: Student Conduct and NC State Policies, Regulations, and Rules.

Use of Large Language Models

Large language models may be used for assignments and projects. Cite the use, including which model and what you used it for, in the methods section of your report. Uncited use is an academic integrity violation. LLMs may not be used on exams.

An LLM will produce confident, wrong GRASS syntax and confident, wrong photogrammetry advice. Check what it gives you against the documentation, and remember that you are responsible for what you submit.

Accommodations

Reasonable accommodations are made for students with documented disabilities. Register with the Disability Resource Office and provide the accommodation letter as early in the semester as possible so arrangements can be made. See REG 02.20.01.

If any part of the course website, slides, or data is not accessible to you, tell me and it will be fixed.

Student Support

Course Evaluations

ClassEval opens near the end of the semester. The UAS course changes every year based on what students report, so the comments are read and used.

Changes to This Document

Anything that changes after the start of the term will be announced in Moodle and updated here. Changes to grading, assessment structure, course structure, or delivery will be communicated in writing at the time of the change.

Course material for GIS/MEA 584 is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by the NCSU GeoForAll Lab.