Another interesting week as a Delaware public utilities intern. Monday was very eventful. I started the day by updating the city’s map with the GPS points we collected on Friday from the new development (Coughlin’s Crossing), and the other three locations (One near the fairgrounds on tanglewood drive, one on water gate drive, and one found on 36 heading East out of Delaware). This included adding features such as water mains, valves, hydrants, inlets, and other various public utilities. Updating these maps served as great practice using GIS. I also found it very interesting seeing the capability differences between Arc online, which is what I was running on my laptop, and the desktop version, Arcpro which is in the city computer. After this was completed, Janelle had me continue the process of cataloging the record drawings. Like before, this consisted of using the list of record drawing to reference if they were already uploaded into the city files as well as up to date in the city works platform. It’s slow work, Espen and I have both worked on this project and are only about half way done, however its good practice using city works and it is rewarding getting all of the record drawings organized. Friday we used as a professional development day. After sending her a few job postings to give her an idea of what I am interested in post graduation, Janelle helped me tighten up my resume and cater it to specific jobs. This is found very helpful and I am extremely grateful she is taking the time to do these kinds of things for me. We then squared away the details of my shadowing experience that is taking place next Friday with the Delaware county game warden. Finally to conclude the day I was tasked with continuing the job search and looking for future opportunities.
Content Marketing: Because Scientists Need Help
This week I created a comprehensive marketing plan as part of my internship with Phoenix Environmental. Marketing plans are a vital part of marketing because they ensure that goals are being met across a wide array of categories. I focused specifically on two areas that I think are vital: Social Media and the website. Currently Phoenix Environmental only utilizes Facebook for social media and their website for connecting with potential clients.
The key to marketing a business in this day and age is content marketing… That is producing content that is relative to your audience and that establishes you as an authoritative source in your field. For example, a local restaurant could share a post on their Facebook page showing a worker cooking and with tips on how their audience can try to cook their own version. Their audience is clearly interested in the restaurant, which is why they follow them. Posting a photo of a “in the kitchen” shot of a signature dish being created gives the audience a personal view into a part of the restaurant they don’t usually get to see. Posting cooking tips for how that audience can try to make their own version at home establishes the restaurant as a good source of information and reminds the audience why they follow the restaurant’s Facebook page: they like their food! Scientists are often TERRIBLE at content marketing. Think of the hideous NASA videos your teacher made you watch in first grade. Can’t think of any? That’s probably because you were sleeping before NASA even got past the intro. Solid content marketing can help scientists, like those at Phoenix Environmental, get their message across in a relevant and exciting way.
Websites can be a similar story or an entirely different resource all together. In my marketing plan I researched Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and how Phoenix Environmental can utilize it. Essentially this controls how Google’s search results display a specific page or website. If you type in “Environmental Consultation,” you’re probably looking for consultation near you. Due to the fact that Google knows all, it can give you more relevant results based on your location when you search this. Businesses like Phoenix Environmental can take advantage of the way Google’s algorithms work to ensure that when someone with a relevant location is searching for them, they actually show up! This is key to using a website to get clients, and I gave advice to how Phoenix Environmental could increase their relevancy in search results in my marketing plan. Next week, I plan to meet/call with Jeff Paetz (my boss at Phoenix Environmental) to discuss the plan further and begin implementation of it to ensure he’s reaching an audience that is already looking for him!
Preservation Parks Of Delaware ArcGIS set up
So far for my internship with the preservation parks, I have
- Created a geodatabase
- Transfered all of their habitat shape files into layers in the database
- Standardized the coordinate system for all of the layers
- Added an acreage attribute for all of the polygons and a distance in feet attribute for all of the lines
- Formatted all of the layers to match the format of their previous maps
- Recorded all of the process so far, so that they can be used by the preservation parks later
- Been in touch with the city of Delaware in order to get the utility line locator equipment
Harvey Post 2
Week two for of my Delaware Public Utilities internship has continued to build upon the previous weeks. This week Janelle assigned me to continue the process of cataloging the old blue prints from past city projects. These blueprints include plans for developing cul-de-sacs and new business in Delaware county. These blue print maps are currently just sitting in the conference room of the public utilities building and I have been tasked with determining if they have been inputed into the city’s database yet. Last week I accomplished cataloging all of the maps and this week started cross referencing the maps I cataloged with the ones that already exist in the system. This has been quite challenging. In order to do this I needed to reference my catalog list with the city’s files as well as finding the location of the area on google maps in order to check it in the city’s online system.This project so far has served as great exposure to this platform and I believe it will prove useful becoming familiar with it. Overall this project has taken some time but I anticipate it to take at least a few more days to complete. However, I feel confident in the work I am doing and believe it is great experience.
Friday has been my favorite day with the utilities department yet. Janelle and I went out into the field and used the GPS to mark utilities that were not yet on the map. We then went to a new site which is currently being developed and again used to the GPS to mark those utilities as well. We will then go back into the city maps and trace over our markers. I found using the GPS interesting and another great skill! Bonus, while Janelle and I were mapping we discovered a hydrant leak and reported it.
Harvey post 1
The couple of weeks of my internship have been great and I can’t wait to see what else is in store. Our first day Espen and I both got a tour of where we would be working and given an idea of what we would be doing. I particularly enjoyed getting the full tour of the waste water treatment plant, I was quite amazed with the place. We started our first assignment by getting to know GIS via the ESRI training assigned by Janelle. I found this training to be very informative and very useful. This being my first time truly using GIS I am glad to get to go through this type of training, plus I learned a lot of new material I never even knew was possible with ArcGIS. This led in to my first actually assignment for the city. Janelle tasked me with updating the cities online map database with new features that were observed in the field. Some of these things included adding new storms water lines and new drainage and intakes that were not previously on the map. This assignment was very interesting and I found it nice to get to put our new skills learned from the training to work! The next task was filtering through old city blueprints from previous building projects and documenting it them so that I can catalog them in the coming weeks. So far I have really enjoyed my time intending with Delaware public utilities and have already learned a great deal and expect to learn a great deal more! Janelle has already done a great job showing me valuable skills such as using ArcGis and I know she plans to teach us more valuable skills like using GPS and other similar things. At the same time she has also done a great job exposing us to the ins and outs of her
Sample post from the Delaware City IT Dept Intern
Here is where the student can share what they’re doing, what they’re learning, how they’re integrating and synthesizing… etc.
