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Two Kentucky State University graduate students are earning accolades for their hard work. 

Smriti Kandel and William Lyons, graduate students in the College of Agriculture, Community, and the Sciences, recently earned scholarships from the Kentucky Association of Mapping Professionals (KAMP) at the 2020 Virtual Kentucky GIS conference. 

Kandel also recently received the KentuckyView graduate fellowship from Murray State.  

Kandel is a graduate research assistant under Dr. Buddhi Gyawali, professor of geospatial technology and environment. Kandel’s research focuses on applying GIS and remote sensing technology in the environmental and agricultural sectors. 

For KAMP, Kandel presented a research project entitled “Floodplain delineation and Mapping of Flood Risk areas using LiDAR data.” Kandel predicted that the results from this research would assist in predicting possible flood events and area and distance flooding could cover along the Kentucky River in Franklin County, Kentucky. Additionally, this research answered a previous flood event question in Frankfort in 1978 and predicted flood-affected areas to make people aware of possible flood risks in the future. 

Lyons is also a graduate research assistant under Gyawali. Lyons’ research focuses on GIS and remote sensing in natural resources and forestry. Lyons utilizes drone technology on several remote sensing projects.