Rongjun Qin is an assistant professor in Ohio State’s Department of Civil, Environmental and Geodetic engineering and holds a joint appointment in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. His team starts with imagery generated by satellites, drones and other aircraft, and then develops algorithms that interpret the data. “Satellites can capture six terabytes of data every day,” he said. “We are focused on taking that data, and then figuring out how to process it into something useful.”

In a disaster, time is of the essence. Sending humans into a disaster area to assess each building and road can take weeks. To speed up the process, a drone can be sent over the area, with images then being sent for processing. "[Comparing the before and after] provides very accurate data,” he said. “Based on that, you can do a massive estimation, rather than having people inspect every roof.”  

Qin joined Ohio State in 2015 after serving as a researcher at ETH Zurich, a science and technology-focused university in Europe. He said he decided to come to Ohio State in part because it created the ability for him to work with researchers from a variety of different disciplines, a must considering the technology he develops has a number of different practical applications. Qin undoubtedly found willing partners at Ohio State. He recently earned a seed grant with Ohio State political scientist Erin Lin, and their work will focus on using remote sensing to detect the impact of bombing and consequent demining efforts in Cambodia, and their relation to the country's economic growth.