Minutes of the 63rd Quarterly Salt Lake GIS Users Group (SLUG) meeting, held on November 19, 2025 from 11:30 am to 2 pm at Salt Lake Community College (SLCC) Taylorsville Redwood Campus (4600 S Redwood Rd, Salt Lake City, UT 84123). There were about 120 people in attendance today.
Business
Adam Dastrup, SLCC Professor and Departmental Coordinator
Welcome to SLUG’s 63rd meeting and also our special GIS Day meeting! This is our second annual SLUG GIS day meeting at SLCC, last year we had about 70 students sign up and this year we've had about 135 sign up! It's important for our students to see and interact with professionals so for any students in the back, sit at any of the open tables and get to know some of the GIS professionals and network!
We would like to thank SLCC for hosting this meeting and for providing lunch. And to UGIC for providing fun GIS day cakes!
Presentations
Matt Harman, AtomAI Solutions, The Hybrid GIS Future: ArcGIS + Google Maps & Street View for Asset Management
Cities and counties rely on maps and strong asset-management practices, where data is treated as a core asset that drives faster, smarter, and more cost-effective decision-making. Google Maps and Street View support this mission by organizing the world’s information—visually and geographically—and enabling remote inspections, asset inventories, planning, and emergency response, all enhanced through continuous updates and AI. AtomAI builds on these capabilities with worker-first, easy-to-use tools that merge ArcGIS’s authoritative data with Google’s usability, provide Gemini-powered insights, allow no-code customization, and integrate seamlessly through Google Cloud. A Memphis case study illustrates the impact: AI-driven detection helped repair 63,000 potholes at over 90% accuracy, identified far more issues than traditional methods, predicted blight with 97.5% accuracy, and transformed maintenance from reactive to proactive.
Savannah Mailloux, Unified Fire Authority, GIS In Hazard Mitigation
The Unified Fire Authority (UFA) provides fire and emergency services to 15 municipalities and unincorporated Salt Lake County, serving roughly half a million residents, and works closely with Salt Lake County Emergency Management (SLCo EM), which oversees preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery. Through a county contract, UFA supports county-wide emergency management operations, including the Emergency Coordination Center (ECC), organized into 15 emergency support functions and supported by GIS specialists. These GIS professionals maintain critical data during “blue sky” periods and produce essential maps, dashboards, and analyses during activations, focusing on infrastructure, hazards, and situational awareness. Their projects include hazard mitigation planning, evacuation zone development, gas leak response mapping, special event and weather monitoring dashboards, fireworks restriction tools, and infographics used for public messaging, grant applications, and resource prioritization. Savannah created a story map of her presentation featuring a lot of the web maps she discussed.
Martijn van Exel, OpenStreetMaps
UGRC Open Places enhances authoritative datasets by automatically extracting and updating OpenStreetMap data each month, feeding it into the Public Domain Map workflow. When project managers identify data needs, they create tasks that volunteers complete using public-domain imagery and open-source mapping tools. Approved reviewers validate the crowdsourced contributions, publishing accepted edits into the public domain and sending them back to the OSM community through tools like MapRoulette, while rejected edits are returned for improvement. This openly shared data is used by major organizations such as USGS, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Federal Railroad Administration. Community involvement is encouraged through monthly OSM Utah meetings and opportunities to propose new pilot projects.
The next OSM meeting is Tuesday, December 9 from 2-3, come and learn!
Panel Discussion
We hosted a panel discussion featuring four industry professionals, giving students the opportunity to ask questions and gain insights on how to break into the GIS field and secure job opportunities. The panel members were:
Savannah Mailloux from Unified Fire Authority
Matt Harmon from AtomAI Solutions
Aaron Austin from Utah Division of Water Resources
Guang Tian from the University of Utah
A wide range of insightful questions were asked, and the answers provided proved valuable not only to students but also to professionals:
One thing that cannot be used with OSM is Google data, how do you circumvent that?
Matt said that Google tightly protects its data, and AtomAI’s software licensing fee includes the consumption costs associated with accessing it. However, growing pressure on companies like Google is beginning to push them toward making their data more accessible.
One thing that cannot be used with OSM is Google data, how do you circumvent that?
Savannah said that SLC has own emergency manager, so that was handled by them who coordinated with RMP. She believes this was caused by a squirrel that got into the infrastructure and caused an issue.
The rise of AI has me stumped on what to encourage students to focus on in terms of their skillsets, what do you recommend?
Aaron encouraged students to become familiar with AI tools—especially Google Cloud and Gemini—and to feel comfortable applying them in GIS. Matt emphasized strong peer communication and the ability to discuss technology meaningfully. Savannah highlighted the value of skills in ArcGIS Pro and web app development, noting that UFA is always open to intern applications. Adam asked how federal-level trends influence GIS jobs, prompting Aaron to explain that pairing personal interests with GIS creates unique, employable skillsets, even in an uncertain AI-driven future. Guang stressed that technology evolves daily, so adapting to change helps you think more strategically. Matt added that GIS skills will always be needed for tasks like asset maintenance and disaster response, and that while AI will change how problems are solved—creating and eliminating jobs—GIS professionals will remain essential.
Does AtomAI ever take a street, survey it with a camera, and estimate costs for repairs and maintenance?
Matt said that you can do this for many scenarios where you use historical information to train the data model to project costs for reconstruction. Other systems are on the market now to do this, but someone would need to prepare a report whereas AtomAI uses Natural Language prompting to do this.
Do we know what Esri’s AI is based on?
Audience: refer to documentation, model dependent.
What do you look for from someone who is transitioning into the entry-level field?
Savannah emphasized restating key points from your résumé during interviews, demonstrating adaptability, and understanding GIS fundamentals. Aaron advised speaking with HR professionals about what they look for, keeping résumés simple to avoid AI screening issues, and taking initiative on your own ideas. Adam noted that adding a StoryMap can help showcase your work. Matt highlighted the importance of first impressions, likability, strong communication, and eye contact—stating that if you’re liked, you can be trained. Martjin encouraged showing all your work, even small projects, and getting professional résumé reviews. Guang recommended tailoring each résumé to the specific job and discussing practical experience from projects or internships.
How can I learn to become a better drone pilot using AI?
Aaron recommended earning a Part 107 license and proactively using drones on projects that inspire you. Matt added that you should actively ask AI how it can support your work.
What capabilities and technologies are available for those studying geography for other planet mapping?
Aaron explained that satellites orbiting a planet or moon would supply the data needed for mapping. The audience noted that University of Utah staff member Margie Chan has contributed to early Mars mapping efforts. Savannah added that the National Weather Service provides weather information for space.
What do applications look like for GIS programs from an ecology standpoint?
The group emphasized that once you identify useful data, you can build applications for scenario planning and clearer visual communication, especially for conservation audiences. Current interest includes monitoring Great Salt Lake salinity and watching for new environmental data across scales. Matt highlighted the importance of revealing the human side of ecology in maps and connecting past, present, and future growth to environmental impacts. Guang noted that social media can reveal unusual human observations in various places, which can be geocoded, mapped, and analyzed to understand underlying changes.
How many of you do GIS but it is not in your title?
A minority - but demonstrates that not all titles that use GIS are reflected this way.
Is there a way to use GIS in predictions such as climate change, weather patterns, etc.?
Aaron explained that this type of work is an example of spatial modeling, using powerful tools and watershed models—such as those connected to the Great Salt Lake—for scenario planning. He added that Google Earth Engine now uses AI to analyze historical data and predict future weather events further in advance. Savannah noted that FEMA uses similar modeling approaches for avalanches and other disaster-management planning. Matt emphasized that while you can’t predict everything, you can calculate risk through mathematical and geospatial analysis, such as estimating the probability of a pipe bursting based on its material and age.
Are you more interested in people leveraging AI for skills like image segmentation, or the understanding of the process in general, for hiring purposes?
Savannah emphasized that tools are only as good as the data they use, and users must recognize when something seems off since AI is not always reliable. Matt highlighted the critical role of human expertise and judgment. Aaron added that being comfortable interfacing with AI is important—AI can get you 90% of the way, but human discipline is needed for the final 10% to ensure accurate results.
Our next meeting will be February 11th at Wasatch Front Regional Council (WFRC), keep an eye out for more information on that.
Thank you to our presenters and for joining us in person. If you have any ideas for a presentation or any other matter, please contact a SLUG board member. We welcome short or long presentations on any projects that you might be working on that might benefit others. If you have any contacts that would be willing to ‘sponsor’ a lunch by providing food/drinks in exchange for their advertising at the meeting, contact a SLUG Board member.
We appreciate your interest and support!
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