In celebration of their 10-year anniversary, the Nicholls State University geomatics program, the only program of this distinction in the state of Louisiana, has received approximately $2 million for new technology.
The geomatics program has new equipment including two Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, costing $500,000. The program also added a  $40,000 helicopter, $500,000 laser scanning system and a high-performance computer lab.
Dr. Balaji Ramachandran, head of the geomatics department, is planning to go offshore to work with Shell in deep-water platform inspection with the UAV’s in November. He is planning on bringing six students from geomatics and two students from petroleum services. He will also have a post-doctorial associate who is working under his guidance.   
He applied on Sept. 13, 2013 to do offshore inspection. If the Federal Aviation Administration approves Balaji’s application, it will take two years to finish the training. Shell will fund the students’ safety training and travel expenses. The students will not be paid, but they will be able to gain hands-on experience that many students will not receive.
Students who are looking to receive a bachelor’s degree in geomatics in Louisiana must come to Nicholls for the four-year program. Some of the jobs in geomatics include land surveying, hydrographic surveying, geographic specialist and working with GPS functions. Recent geomatics graduates can make $42-47 million, but four years of experience and a license gives the opportunity for a $70-80 million career.
“The experience of being in the geomatics program is like no other,” Ross Klinchen, geomatics major, said. “Along with the classes we take each semester, we are required to get 20 service learning hours. For these hours, we have different categories such as community service and professional. We do things such as highway clean up, bass tournament and attend district meetings together.”
The Louisiana Registration Board of Engineers and Surveyors wanted to put a department of geomatics in a Louisiana university in 1981. There were six universities around Louisiana that tried to get the program.
Dr. Terry Dantin, professor emeritus of geomatics, who has experience in land surveying and engineering, planned on having an advisor committee come up with a proposal of all the details to make geomatics possible at Nicholls. After the committee voted, the final decision was between having geomatics at Nicholls or at Louisiana Tech. The committee considered what financial backing Nicholls had for the department.
“I think it was swung our way to have geomatics here at Nicholls because of my experience in land surveying and as a professional engineer,” Dantin said.
When the program officially started in 2003, it was not up to standards because the numbers of students were not graduating and the program was in danger of termination. However, the program was set back on track after graduating 45 students out of 65 students in the program.