Today was KODA's turn to present its paper on "Multi-Instrument Total Station Monitoring with Advanced Weather Measurements". Not until I had to read the title out at the start of my presentation did I realize how gratuitous I was being with the naming of the paper. Either way, it was nice to reflect on my last (and successful) project before I left the mother country.

Thanks to the 10 or so people that turned up...! As some consolation I'd like to reiterate that the crowd were very interested, asked questions at the end and all approached me afterwards for a short discussion. I look forward to talking to you more about what KODA can bring to your projects.

What makes this paper interesting?
It's always interesting to watch the reaction of people in the audience while you are giving the presentation. A few raised eyebrows, a lean and chat with a colleague, or a scribbled note tells you that you are saying something right (or horribly wrong...).

So, what things made an impact?

It seems a few people really liked the total station pillar and shelter that we put together. It looked cool for starters, and did its job very well.
References to the Leaf Wetness Sensor always get a raised eyebrow because of its relative obscurity. I think the way we applied it on the project was interesting too. I'll never look at condensation the same way again.
Results from performance testing different monitoring prisms in both rainy and high condensation environments. We were impressed by the performance of Leica's GPR prism, particularly in rainy conditions - so was the audience.
The master-slave measurement routine we developed and ran from data loggers is particularly nice. It allowed two total stations to reference themselves to each other. The nice thing about that is the ability to calculate vertical refraction and keep the combined coordinate system of the project consistent in terms of height (relative and refractive), and coordinates consistent with scale or rotation that has occurred due to mining.
"700mm of subsidence" - a few people definitely needed a double take after I stated that...!

Nerves? What nerves?
KODA was talking to a good friend last week who was about to give a presentation to a large and senior crowd of people from his work. What's interesting is how differently he experienced nerves before the presentation. In my opinion, if you aren't nervous you've either presented way too many times, or you just don't care. The perfect storm for nerves is when you care a lot, AND you're not very comfortable with it! He seemed to be handling it pretty well, with enough 'I care about this' thrown in to keep him on edge.

I'm usually pretty good at distracting myself so my nerves usually kick in about 15 seconds before I'm supposed to start - right when my bio is being read out. I get the equivalent of the whole morning worth of nerves in that short space of time. So next time you're listening to me being introduced look over and you'll probably see me squirming in my seat.

Self-Praise
Last week saw two re-posts of some of KODA's blogs. That's exciting. First cab off the rank was the Least Squares - Most Useful and Least Most of the Time article. The Australian Institute of Mine Surveyors wanted to post that. Apologies in advance, as only members can follow the link through.

Second is the HxGN Live blog which KODA was proud to contribute to with a slightly shorter version of my Day 3 recap.

HxGN sure was fun.

Stay in touch. Remember that the invitation for guest bloggers is always open.

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