At his job and as a doctoral researcher, Reckling has used drones to document rare plants on the tops of mountains, map harmful algal blooms and collect water samples to learn more about the toxic organisms that cause blooms. Drones are \u201cthe answer for all of these things,\u201d Reckling says. Piloting a drone to sample from afar has not only improved the efficiency of his field work but has also improved the quality of the geospatial data he can collect: A satellite may pass over a particular place once a week (at most), but a drone\u2019s onboard camera can capture environmental changes more frequently and in more detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Working with MEAS assistant professor Ryan Paerl<\/a>, Reckling has been flying his drone both to find potentially harmful algal blooms and to sample them\u2013\u2013double duty for the small craft that has generated \u201ca hundred research questions.\u201d \u201cWe\u2019re learning so many things we didn\u2019t know,\u201d Reckling says. \u201cRyan\u2019s been teaching me about the biology, and I\u2019ve been teaching him about drones and image analysis.\u201d Their collaboration has taught them both that future research opportunities abound by pairing laboratory analysis and sample collection with drones. \u201cThere is endless information coming out of this work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before Reckling started his doctoral program, he already knew that drones held vast potential for environmental monitoring. At Theorem Geo, he has done \u201csurvey work with drones for a variety of clients,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m not the typical twenty-something graduate student,\u201d Reckling laughs. \u201cI was already an expert in GIS [before starting at NC State]. I\u2019d been doing GIS for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, he enrolled in the Center for Geospatial Analytics\u2019 MGIST program in 2015 to enhance his skills, and \u201cI learned something new every class that was useful for my job,\u201d he says. In 2016, using lessons he\u2019d recently learned from a course he was taking, he created a web mapping application<\/a> that helped a major utility navigate road closures during Hurricane Matthew. The web app is still in use today. \u201cEvery time there\u2019s a storm, we fire that thing back up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The MGIST program \u201cmakes you more well-rounded as a GIS professional,\u201d Reckling says. He particularly advises current and future students to use projects from their workplace in classes\u2013\u2013to help connect lessons to real-world applications and because \u201cit makes you look like a rock star at work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n After graduating in December 2017, Reckling immediately started a Ph.D. program with Helena Mitasova<\/a>, professor in MEAS and the Center for Geospatial Analytics\u2019 associate director of geovisualization, as his advisor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI didn\u2019t want to stop [learning, after the MGIST]. I still don\u2019t, but we\u2019re getting close,\u201d he says, referring to his likely defense in December 2020. Simultaneously working full-time and pursuing a Ph.D. \u201cis nearly impossible,\u201d he laughs, \u201cbut it\u2019s happening.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reckling is no stranger to a challenge. As part of a collaborative project with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the US Forest Service, he flew a drone to map rare and threatened plants at the Roan High Bluff in the southern Appalachian Mountains\u2013\u2013at an elevation of 6,267 feet. Flying his drone at this extraordinary height, Reckling found three previously unknown locations of an endangered plant restricted to mountaintops in the Southeast, and he earned a notable distinction: \u201cI probably have legally flown a drone higher in North Carolina than most people,\u201d he admits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reckling will undoubtedly continue to make extraordinary discoveries as he pushes the research potential of high-flying tech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On a hot afternoon this past July, a small drone coursed through the summer sky over the mouth of the Chowan River, on a mission\u2026for science. Its pilot, Will Reckling, hovered the craft over a patch of greenish water he\u2019d previously mapped with the drone\u2019s onboard camera and slowly lowered it towards the water\u2019s surface, just far enough for a mesh harness dangling twenty feet below the rotors to fill a plastic tube with water. In a matter of minutes, Reckling had successfully done what it would have taken hours to do by boat (and more obtrusively too): collect water to study harmful algal blooms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reckling<\/a> is a doctoral student in North Carolina State University\u2019s Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences (MEAS<\/a>) and an alum<\/a> of the Center for Geospatial Analytics<\/a>\u2019 Master of Geospatial Information Science and Technology program (MGIST<\/a>). He is also the Director of Geospatial Technology at Theorem Geo<\/a>, and has spent much of his professional and academic career putting drones to work in new and unique ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At his job and as a doctoral researcher, Reckling has used drones to document rare plants on the tops of mountains, map harmful algal blooms and collect water samples to learn more about the toxic organisms that cause blooms. Drones are \u201cthe answer for all of these things,\u201d Reckling says. Piloting a drone to sample from afar has not only improved the efficiency of his field work but has also improved the quality of the geospatial data he can collect: A satellite may pass over a particular place once a week (at most), but a drone\u2019s onboard camera can capture environmental changes more frequently and in more detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Working with MEAS assistant professor Ryan Paerl<\/a>, Reckling has been flying his drone both to find potentially harmful algal blooms and to sample them\u2013\u2013double duty for the small craft that has generated \u201ca hundred research questions.\u201d \u201cWe\u2019re learning so many things we didn\u2019t know,\u201d Reckling says. \u201cRyan\u2019s been teaching me about the biology, and I\u2019ve been teaching him about drones and image analysis.\u201d Their collaboration has taught them both that future research opportunities abound by pairing laboratory analysis and sample collection with drones. \u201cThere is endless information coming out of this work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before Reckling started his doctoral program, he already knew that drones held vast potential for environmental monitoring. At Theorem Geo, he has done \u201csurvey work with drones for a variety of clients,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m not the typical twenty-something graduate student,\u201d Reckling laughs. \u201cI was already an expert in GIS [before starting at NC State]. I\u2019d been doing GIS for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, he enrolled in the Center for Geospatial Analytics\u2019 MGIST program in 2015 to enhance his skills, and \u201cI learned something new every class that was useful for my job,\u201d he says. In 2016, using lessons he\u2019d recently learned from a course he was taking, he created a web mapping application<\/a> that helped a major utility navigate road closures during Hurricane Matthew. The web app is still in use today. \u201cEvery time there\u2019s a storm, we fire that thing back up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The MGIST program \u201cmakes you more well-rounded as a GIS professional,\u201d Reckling says. He particularly advises current and future students to use projects from their workplace in classes\u2013\u2013to help connect lessons to real-world applications and because \u201cit makes you look like a rock star at work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/geospatial\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2020\/08\/DJI_0070-1500x844-1-1024x576.jpg\")
Connecting Work and Study<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Will](\"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/geospatial\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2020\/08\/IMG_2004-cropped-866x1024.jpg\")
Connecting Work and Study<\/h2>\n\n\n\n