10th Anniversary Team Reflections: Mark Anderson

When I joined Michael Baker in 2005 I was always looking for opportunities to get involved with complex and innovative projects. Within the year I as travelling the country after connecting with our geospatial group in Jackson, MS that was performing an innovative nationwide GPS-mapping program for the U.S. Census Bureau. Two years later I learned that same group was preparing to launch a new initiative centered around mobile terrestrial LiDAR, and I instantly knew I needed to be part of it.

There’s a lot of pleasure and pain that comes with being the first to do something…and for better or worse, I’ve experienced a lot of both. There are plenty of shining moments, complex challenges, weird developments and interesting discoveries to choose from, but out of the hundreds of projects we’ve performed, the West Virginia University (WVU) Morgantown Personal Rapid Transit (MPRT) system was fascinating on many levels: complexity of design; learning how the PRT works; complexity of chainage measurements for each sensor throughout the network; and development of horizontal and vertical curvatures of the “track” throughout the mountain topography.

It’s almost hard to believe it’s been 10 years since we kicked-off this initiative, but it bookends my two proudest moments (to date): being asked to lead our LiDAR processing team and growing our specialized team to nearly 30 members strong.