Calendar of Events
Presenter bios:
Randal Rodger - Program Manager, Geospatial Analytics Technology & Solutions
Randal is a technology leader at the City of Ottawa, driving enterprise-scale innovation and digital twin strategy. He leads Ottawa’s Digital Twin program and spearheaded the transformation of the city’s aerial imagery and vector mapping operations into a reality-capture ecosystem integrating LiDAR, drones, terrestrial scanning, and mobile mapping. These capabilities underpin Ottawa’s smart city initiatives, providing actionable insights that enable more informed decisions across planning, infrastructure, and operations. His work reflects two core principles: making innovation practical and accessible, and strengthening enterprise foundations as new technologies reshape city operations.
Jean-François Dionne - Program Coordinator, Geographic Info Services
Jean-François Dionne is an award-winning Geospatial Strategist and Digital Twin pioneer with over 25 years of experience driving the global evolution of spatial technologies. He currently spearheads the City of Ottawa's OTwin Digital Twin Initiative—a ground-breaking 3D urban scape that earned him the ESRI Inc. 2023 Special Achievement in GIS Award. A proven leader in the field, Jean-François bridges strategic development with deep technical mastery. He translates technologies like high-resolution LiDAR, reality capture, and GIS/BIM integration into transformative urban planning and engineering solutions. His municipal work includes pioneering an award-winning Reality Capture Program and deploying enterprise-level terrestrial and mobile LiDAR systems. With over 15 years of operational expertise, he is an authority in Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS/RPAS). His background spans operations management, technical sales (achieving Best Sales for senseFly SA worldwide), regulatory compliance, and leading multi-team technical surveys utilizing advanced GNSS, LiDAR, and multibeam systems for mining, construction, and environmental clients. His influence spans decades of Geomatics leadership, having managed large-scale geospatial services and guided technical direction for major environmental and engineering firms.
Dr. Michael Martin – Geospatial Strategist
Dr. Michael Martin is a spatial data scientist specializing in 3D and AI. Over the last decade Michael has worked on several challenges in GIScience, from founding a non-profit addressing the GIS digital-divide, to publishing research in on reality capture, to co-founding companies focused on spatial innovation. Recently, Michael has focused on the frontiers of digital twin technologies, developing Ottawa's OTwin—a meeting place for the city's spatial datasets in a 4D environment—and focused on digital twins and AI. Across all the projects Michael has worked on are two core values: 1) enabling non-experts to access cutting-edge innovation, and 2) thinking critically about the positionality of technology