To infinity and beyond
Sarah McPeak, G-EGD Lead Technical Specialist, Maxar, spoke to Danielle Kenneally
THE Global-Enhanced Geospatial-Intelligence Delivery (G-EGD ) programme, run by Maxar, has enabled the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency to provide current, unclassified high-resolution imagery wherever it’s needed and in multiple formats. Whether it’s an analyst’s desktop at a federal agency, an officer’s laptop on a military base, or a first responder’s tablet in a disaster zone, accessing unclassified imagery has become much simpler for users.
Its use support operational planning, emergency response and situational awareness among so much more, helping organisations and people focus on reaching their goals. Not only this but help is on hand from the team behind the G-EGD programme, which includes the award-winning Sarah McPeak, Maxar’s G-EGD lead technical specialist.
Described as a ‘consummate professional, subject matter expert, mentor, trainer, and force multiplier who continues to grow and share her experiences with the community’, last year, she single-handedly resolved around 5,000 technical support cases, provided software development support for geospatial web services, as well as delivered training to thousands of users across 100 organisations, from the US Department of Defence to foreign mission partners.
She also provided direct support to the Ukraine crisis through her collaboration with several organisations and forward-deployed military, including around 140 Ukraine users.
In addition, Sarah visits universities, NGA academic outreach, and military institutions with a focus on growing future geospatial intelligence professionals. She spoke to the Civil Engineering Surveyor’s Danielle Kenneally about why she does what she does and why loves what she does.
Firstly, congratulations on receiving the prestigious Edwin H. Land Industry Award from the Intelligence and National Security Alliance. It must have been a huge honour – tell us about the award, what is it for?
It was a complete honour. The Edwin H. Land Industry Award is presented to non-governmental early to mid-career professionals who have demonstrated exceptional leadership and innovation in support of the intelligence and national security communities. As one of six awards being presented that night to people in the community that have had an impact on the national security of the United States, initially it came as a shock just to be nominated. But I was so proud to stand up there and represent all of the amazing things that Maxar and our G-EGD team do every day.
How does it feel to be recognised for the work that you do?
The appreciation is in doing the job and doing it well.
For me, being former military, you don’t really get thanked or recognised for what you do very often. The appreciation is in doing the job and doing it well, so it was a complete shock to actually be recognised for the things that my team and I do day in, day out. I also had to do an acceptance speech and while I’m used to talking to people all the time, I was a little nervous because it was different. It was an honour though, I spoke about the good things that we do and the amazing things that Maxar does every single day. I’m so lucky to be part of an amazing team and to receive such recognition. I’m still riding the high from it.
Where have you put the award?
It’s hung up in my office – I bought a shelf to hang it on specially. So it’s right underneath my undergraduate degree.
Our members are civil engineering surveyors both geospatial and commercial. They’d love to hear more about yourself and what you do – how have you got to where you are today as senior technical specialist on Maxar’s G-EGD team?
I’ve always loved geology since I was a child, so when I went to college, I studied and graduated with a geology degree. I realised, however, that I didn’t want any more student debt, so I made the decision to join the military and become a geospatial engineer – creating maps, creating products on a macro scale, providing terrain categorisations, and creating slope analysis for artillery, as a few examples. You have to be almost a jack of all trades in that way.
My first duty station was in Camp Red Cloud in Uijeongbu in South Korea where I stayed for about a year as part of an active mission looking at aspects of the battlefield. I then returned to South Carolina where I was creating data for those that were in the US Central Command area. I really loved it – it meant I got on the job training for about four years.
During this time, I was able to work with the NGA in St. Louis, Missouri where I realised that I truly loved the work of making maps and creating data and talking to people that needed these products. I decided at that point to leave the military and join a very small company in Northern Virginia, working on another NGA programme creating multi-national geospatial co-production program data which is often used by foreign mission partners and the military. I then saw an opening on the G-EGD team and I made the jump to do something a little bit different and it was one of the best decisions that I’ve ever made.
You continue to work as part of G-EGD – tell us, what is G-EGD?
G-EGD is an NGA programme of record. We run the programme at Maxar for the NGA. We’re responsible for the platform and the website and my specific role is technical support, outreach and training. So, I am here to help our users and support them technically. Another aspect is travelling to different locations to talk to and train users. I’ve been able to travel to Hawaii, Missouri, and North Carolina on Fort Liberty.
I’ve always loved geology since I was a child, so when I went to college, I studied and graduated with a geology degree. I realised, however, that I didn’t want any more student debt, so I made the decision to join the military and become a geospatial engineer – creating maps, creating products on a macro scale, providing terrain categorisations, and creating slope analysis for artillery as a few examples.Does your military background help you in your role to provide expertise and training to organisations, which includes federal government and military services?
Absolutely, I’ve been working with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and while their needs are different from those of a military intelligence analyst or engineer, there’s the common ground in the need for up-to-date unclassified satellite imagery, which Maxar provides in spades.
How do you handle providing these unclassified images and what examples can you give of images and what they are requested to be used for?
So, for the Ukraine crisis, Maxar partners with news organisations to provide images that show what’s actually happening on the ground, versus what someone says is happening. But it can also be used for looking at property lines for the US Department of Agriculture or even for someone that wants to run a multispectral analysis on a forest to see what trees are healthy and what trees are dead.
Looking for those dead trees may prevent the potential for forest fires by helping to determine which trees to cut down – it could save an entire forest. Another example would be through using artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) to track animal population numbers in remote parts of the world. There’s so many ways to use this imagery to allow organisations and people to run programs to help in their work.
What’s been the most interesting request that you’ve helped with?
These examples are, in my opinion, really interesting, however, I did talk to somebody who was tracking elephants. They were using AI/ML to track the elephants, which I thought was wildly interesting.
Another was using multispectral imagery to find bird excrement in Hawaii to see how many birds of a specific species were still alive. I thought that was very imaginative.
Do you also have to keep sensitive information and keep it top secret from those outside of work?
Certainly, there are aspects of this job that can’t be discussed. During the early stage of the war in Ukraine, the Maxar team produced a lot of the imagery. These analysts are some of the best I’ve worked with. The whole team at Maxar is. I’m lucky to work here and with these amazing people who help provide organisations and the world with real up-to-date images of what is happening throughout the world in order for them to create applications and products that can help.
What does an average work day look like for you?
Another was using multispectral imagery to find bird excrement in Hawaii to see how many birds of a specific species were still alive. I thought that was very imaginative.An average day, for me, starts out by looking at the overnight technical support cases. We’re a 24/7 programme working with people around the globe, so we make sure that everyone is supported and if there’s anything that needs to be escalated to NGA, we do that. After that I am either talking with users about what it is that they need or listening to users about anything that we as a programme can change to make their jobs easier.
I also do training sessions for different units or organisations which may involve travelling around the Northern Virginia area. Plus I collaborate with my team and see if there’s anything they need assistance with or I require assistance from. There’s some reporting of statistics and a lot of outreach to different organisations, outside of G-EGD. I’d say a big part of my job is collaboration and talking with people.
What excites you about your job?
What gets me up in the morning is that I know what I do helps people, I know that it makes peoples’ lives easier. It’s talking with the end user and helping and informing them because it can save them time and saving time can save somebody’s life. It can improve a workflow that saves a company money. That’s what excites me about this job.
What gets me up in the morning is that I know what I do, helps people, I know that it makes people’s lives easier. Also similar to working in the military, I get to travel to different places. I absolutely love that aspect of this job, getting to talk to people about G-EGD. We’re never trying to sell anybody anything, we’re just trying to let people know that this is a programme that could assist them in getting unclassified commercial imagery.
In a recent Maxar blog feature you spoke about your childhood, how did you use your experiences to enter the geospatial industry?
Growing up I was always into math and science. Those are still my favourite subjects and I always knew I wanted to do something with them. I love the way that the Earth works and the way that everything fits. I also love understanding how the Earth works in conjunction with the universe from an atomic level, all the way up to the level of the universe. There’s a sort of symmetry there and it’s always fascinated me. I think it’s something that helped me find geospatial engineering and love it as much as I do.
I love understanding how the Earth works in conjunction with the universe from an atomic level, all the way up to the level of the universe. There’s a sort of symmetry there and it’s always fascinated me. I think it’s something that helped me find geospatial engineering and love it as much as I do.
You are an inspiration to so many, what words of wisdom would you give to those who admire you?
It’s difficult for me to imagine because I put my head down and I do my work, simply to the best of my ability. I think if anybody wants to get into this field or if they want to work in geospatial engineering, I think the best thing to do is just understand how to do all of it.
Geospatial engineering isn’t one thing – it’s not just a slope analysis, it’s not just a line of sight. It’s understanding all of those separate pieces and how they work in conjunction with each other. There’s so many ways to learn about GIS and geospatial engineering and there’s so many different people to talk to in the industry.
As an award-winning geospatial intelligence specialist, what does your future hold?
My number one very far-reaching goal is to apply to the NASA astronaut programme. I still need to first get my master’s degree in GIS remote sensing and I plan on staying here at Maxar for as long as they’ll have me and work on the G-EGD team, learning from them.
There’s so much to learn and so much to discover, geospatial engineering, the G-EGD programme, and imagery as a whole, I still have absolutely so much to learn and I can’t wait.
Sarah McPeak, G-EGD Lead Technical Specialist, Maxar, spoke to Danielle Kenneally