CAST Fiscal Year 2004-2005 Annual Report - Center for Advanced ...

graduate students. There are seven
Windows-based computers and one
black and white laser printer and one
color laser printer.
CORPORATE PARTNERS.
CAST has developed a series of strong
relationships with many of the world’s leading
software and hardware companies. These
relationships are designed to be of mutual
benefit to the companies and to the University of
Arkansas.
All the companies involved in the Center’s
research and development efforts receive
valuable exposure, and each company has a
specific set of activities in which it cooperates
with the Center. University students and staff
receive access to state-of-the-art systems,
opportunities for internships with world class
companies, and the ability to cooperate in
significant research.
The Center works closely with both large and
small businesses in a business incubator role,
developing an educated consumer base and
raising the visibility and accessibility of
geospatial software and hardware solutions.
The following describes the specific agreements
that the Center has with:
• Definiens Imaging GmbH.
• ESRI, Inc.
• eSpatial, Inc.
• Intergraph Corporation.
• IONIC Enterprise Inc.
• Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging.
• MapInfo Corporation.
• Oracle Corporation.
• PCI Geomatics.
• Skyline Software.
• Sun Microsystems.
• Trimble Navigation Ltd.
Details of these agreements with corporate
partners are listed below.
• Center of Excellence in Object Oriented
Image Analysis by Definiens Imaging
GmbH.
In October of 2001, Definiens Imaging, based in
Munich, Germany, entered into an agreement
with CAST to establish a Center of Excellence in
Object Oriented Image Analysis at CAST.
Definiens and CAST share a common set of
interests, highly compatible suites of expertise,
and parallel research initiatives. They also
share a genuine interest in promoting and
extending the use of raster-based digital
geodata in the context of the open, standardsbased
spatially enabled enterprise.
Definiens provides CAST with copies of its
Object Oriented Image Analysis software, called
eCognition, software maintenance, and
eCognition training.
• Cooperative Research and
Development Agreement (CRADA) by
ESRI, Inc.
In July of 2000, ESRI (Environmental Systems
Research Institute, Inc.) and CAST initiated a
cooperative research and development
agreement (CRADA). This agreement provides
CAST with a variety of ESRI software programs
at no cost, during the initial term of the CRADA,
for a range of ESRI-supported platforms for use
by CAST researchers, students, and staff to be
used in noncommercial research and education.
ESRI also provided CAST with complimentary
seats in ESRI ArcSDE training classes, and
CAST also received fifty free seats of the ESRI
Virtual Campus training program available on
the web. ESRI's support of CAST's education
and research mission helps to expand the
knowledge base of students, faculty, and
researchers.
• Center of Excellence in Enterprise
Spatial Solutions by eSpatial, Inc.
In October of 2003, eSpatial, Inc. and CAST
completed a memorandum of agreement to
establish a Center of Excellence in Enterprise
Spatial Solutions at CAST. eSpatial contributes
both service-type and product-type deliverables
in support of this agreement, which includes a
full range of iSMART software and software
maintenance. eSpatial provides email technical
support of its iSMART software for the hardware
platforms in use at CAST, and iSpatial also
provides access to its local technical
consultants.
This Center of Excellence was established to
focus on a set of problem domains that include
enterprise spatial warehouses in support of
critical infrastructure management for homeland
12 CENTER FOR ADVANCED SPATIAL TECHNOLOGIES