Students Help Set Up Event Layout for 2019 UMass Amherst’s Commencement with the Trimble R10

by Alex Okscin

Undergraduate students in BCT and other programs in collaboration with the UMass Amherst Physical Plant assisted the commencement planning team with layout for the main graduation event. Commencement planning for thousands of students takes a village or at least the Physical Plant at UMass Amherst. One of the people responsible for coordinating the layout for events is Surveyor and GIS Administrator Carl Larson. Carl has been in charge of staking out commencement planning for a number of years, but this year Carl has a little more help. With the help of a few students and Trimble GPS equipment, the stadium will be transformed from an athletic field to graduation for thousands of students and their parents. By using the Trimble R10, we have cut the time it takes to layout graduation by almost two-thirds.

For the 2nd year in a row, student interns, Alex Okscin and Rylee Wrenner have helped to layout the chair and tent layout. Additionally, in 2018 student interns Isaiah Cherkas and Daniel Myers helped layout graduation while in 2019, student intern Doug Beach helped Alex and Rylee. We used the Trimble R10 GNSS System to accurately stake out graduation to help the workers precisely put up the various sections of seating for different colleges. This process is important in order to set up graduation effectively in a short time period.

We were able to accurately guide the placement of the mats, chairs, and stages within the 57,600 sq. ft. McGuirk Stadium. We used the Trimble R10 GNSS System to take topographic points underneath the mats to understand where we are once the mats are placed down. This helps to direct the crews as to where everything is supposed to go.

Trimble Tech Used:

  • Trimble R10

People Involved:

  • Alex Okscin
  • Carl Larson
  • Daniel Myers
  • Doug Beach
  • Isaiah Cherkas
  • Rylee Wrenner

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