Tracking lights

Residents of New Washington Heights and Poe Mill, just off Poinsett Highway, want to see more positive change in their neighborhood. One of their first priorities is new streetlights to discourage crime.

With the help of Furman students together with Furman professors Mike Winiski and John Conrad, they’ve been able to make some progress.

As part of Winiski’s fall’s EES 201: Introduction to GIS, students documented working and non-working streetlights in the neighborhoods and were able to confirm their work with the help of Conrad and the Physics Department’s new quadcopter drone.

“We didn’t want this to be just an academic exercise,” said Winiski. “We hope to help improve the community. We want students to know that what they’re learning matters.”