Martin Lips

Choice of study

After finishing the high school in 2001, it was time for a next study. I started studying forest and nature conservation, but was not sure about my choice. I had some conversations with my mentor about my doubts between my current study and my interest for ICT in general.

I finished the study at MBO degree, and started my bachelor Forest and Nature Conservation at Larenstein-Van Hall in Velp. There I have been introduced to ArcGIS more and more, and became familiar with GIS systems. I became good in it, and after this study I went to Wageningen University for the study Geo-Information Science. Working with spatial data turned out as a good combination between my interest in environment/nature and ICT.

Career

After graduation at Wageningen University, I started my career at NEO, where I have worked for 7 years. I became familiar with the terms like BGT, BAG, AAN, AHN, remote sensing, dense matching, image processing software, object based image classification, SQL, PostGIS databases and FME.  developed and maintained FME processing chains, used for data analysis and reporting to the customer. During the last few years, my specialization became FME more and more.

Since April 2019 I have been working at Tensing as data engineer. It is amazing how much knowledge is available within the company. As detached employees, we are working in-house at the client site, and we experience the applications and needs from the clients hands-on, every day from nearby. The clients can learn from the specialists they have inside, and I can learn from the company where I am positioned. With the backup of all knowledge which is available at Tensing.

Flow, routing, defects, tools and fixes

One of my hobbies is mountain biking. Sometimes you become aware of that your work is somehow comparable with something that you like to do in free time.

Mountain biking brings me excitement by cycling flowing trails up and down through forests and other natural areas, where you get lost easily without clear route marks or GPS. And there is always the risk for some serious defects. A flat tire or broken chain could cause you for being stuck in the forest for hours. For this reason, I never leave without some tools in my bag to be able to fix the most common defects when I am off road in remote area.

As FME specialist, I develop automated data flows from A to B. These flows might become defect by different causes, and then I have e.g. FME transformers available as tools to fix the data flow standstill. All data and companies are different, which makes the work very dynamic. Like cycling I ride different trails in various areas.