Jordan Reynoldson

Please introduce yourself
I am a Junior Technical Specialist at Tensing with 2 and a half years of industry experience as a GIS technician. My role previously involved delivering maps and spatial analysis for a range of utility clients in the UK such as Anglian Water, National Grid and Severn Trent Water. Within this role I also made use of FME and was instantly drawn to the capabilities for enhancing and automating workflows.

Why did you join Tensing?
My first experience of Tensing was during a training session delivered on some of the more advanced capabilities of FME, involving integrating Python/AI. The work Tensing had been doing excited me and the presence of so many knowledgeable professionals all over the world was something exciting to be involved with.

• To get the ball rolling what are your top 3 FME transformers?
  Tester: Probably in a lot of people's ‘favourite list’ but I think Testers are a great way of filtering out data at any point during a workflow. I think it’s quite rare for me to have a workspace without a Tester, so has to make the list.
• StringReplacer: This transformer saw a lot of use in my previous role and while relatively simple I believe it holds a lot of value in manipulating attributes. I found it particularly useful for the non-spatial implementations of FME (batch reformatting attributes/filenames, altering file path names etc.).
• AttributeManager: AttributeManagers also tend to make an appearance quite a lot in my workspaces. I like their versatility and the ability to alter all attributes as needed within one transformer.

Which FME transformer have you yet to use but would like to try soon?
Having started to use AI a fair bit in my python problems I would like to try out the OpenAIChatGPTConnector. As two tools which seem to only be limited by the imagination of the user, I feel like a combination of AI and FME could be really powerful in the future.

Tell us a little about some of your highlights from previous roles.
Before joining Tensing, I worked for Fisher German as a GIS Technician, in my early days there I was primarily creating maps for clients to use for access, land ownership etc.. After a couple of weeks there I was shown FME and how it could be used in everything from data administration to data analysis.

One of my highlights of working at Fisher German was successfully integrating some of my Python scripts in PythonCallers on FME Form but also in Apps on FME Flow. This gave non-code users the ability to receive some of the powerful python capabilities (such as quickly converting batches of data types to another) while knowing absolutely nothing about coding.

I also created some analytical workspaces to achieve a variety of outcomes but one of my favourites was a workspace which took land registry parcels and assigned a residential area statistic to each parcel. This was achieved by overlaying OSMM buildings on top of each LR polygon using a Clipper. Data was then categorised into pre-determined bands and styled accordingly.

What has been the most intriguing data-wrangling challenge you have encountered?
Linked to the previous answer but integrating Python with FME was very challenging back in 2021-2022 as I felt they didn’t match up with each other that well. The code might work fine in a Python interpreter but just pasting it directly into a PythonCaller rarely did the job.

Learning how to properly integrate took a lot of patience/research (especially due to the added step of then creating FME Flow apps that utilised them.). With the development of AI Assist since then, it has become much easier to perform this type of task.

When you aren’t working what do you enjoy…
Outside of work I love playing/watching football, having played through school and University it still occupies much of my free time and weekends. I also enjoy running/hiking outdoors, it’s a nice getaway from the screens and leaves you feeling refreshed depending on the distance.