midterm.html

<h2>Midterm exam</h2>
<P>
This is a take home, open book exam handled in Moodle, no on-campus presence needed.
The exam is the same for the on-campus and distance sections. 
You can use any on-line and printed resources, but the responses should be your own work.
Questions will be available in Moodle on Day 1, before noon,
answers are due on Day 2 at 11.45 pm EST, by submitting a pdf file named <code>LastnameFirstname_Exam.pdf</code>
to Moodle.
See the <a href="schedule.html">Schedule</a> for the dates for Day 1 and Day 2.
<ul>
<li>Sample questions
   <ul>
<li>What is a cartographic projection and which common projections are used in US? What does NAD83 and WGS84 stand for? 
<li>What is the difference between cost surface and cumulative cost surface? What are they used for? 
<li>Compute cumulative cost surface and least cost path between two given locations
<li>What is spatial interpolation, provide general interpolation equation and describe spatial interpolation methods and their properties
<li>Demostrate impact of interpolation parameters on the resulting surface for a given interpolation method,
for example inverse distance weighting or splines
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<li>Describe basic digital terrain representations used in GIS and their properties 
<li>Define point topographic parameters and provide general equations for the parameters 
based on differentail geometry. 
<li>Provide equations for estimating partial derivatives from raster-based DEMs
<li>Provide example of a problem or task that can be solved using viewshed analysis
<li>Compute a map of solar incidence angle for a given date and time. 
<li>Compute canopy height raster map using bare earth and first return point clouds.
-->
</ul>
<li>Most questions require computation of a graphical output or development of a GIS-based workflow. 
The answer should include bullets describing the sequence of operations, 
actual commands used where applicable, and results in form of images or maps.
   </ul>
   </ul>
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<h3>Portfolio</h3>
<ul>
<li>Set of homework reports in pdf format
<li>Slides for the presentation in ppt, pdf or odp format
<li>Research paper – project report 
<li>Upload to velocity.ncsu.edu as zipped file Name_MEA582_spring2011.zip
<li>Firm deadline to turn in: May 3 by midnight
</ul>
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