New book on how STK uses ontology (relationships) for analysis and visualization

On November 18th, a new book entitled “Spatial Temporal Information Systems: An Ontological Approach to using STK” is hitting the shelves. Written by me, a former AGI employee, and Dr. T.S. Kelso of AGI’s Center for Space Standards and Innovation, this book is a hands-on reference for understanding how Systems Tool Kit (STK) software uses relationships (ontology) to create analysis and visualization. It is designed to be an enhancement to the AGI training courses already available, and is being published by CRC Press. Within the book, we categorize STK as a spatial temporal information system (STIS). According to Dr. Douglas Richardson, there are five challenges of spatial temporal analysis:

• Spatial-Temporal Models
• Temporal Scale
• Ontology
• Real-Time/Real-World Interaction
• Analytical Tools

When I heard these five challenges iterated, I realized how well STK handles all of them. It gave further credence to the notion that we needed to have more written material in the hands of the scientists so that people might understand STIS and the framework of STK software. STK is not just for the rocket scientist; it is for the geoscientist, the astrophysicist, the engineer, the student and anybody who has the need to answer physics-based, event-prediction questions. Although there are other forms of STIS used, none show the correlative understanding of ontological relationships as well as STK. This book is not intended to be a “how to” book regarding a particular software. AGI offers training courses for that. It is a study of the ontology of STK—which can easily be transferred to the study of other software systems to understand why they analyze the way they do. There aren’t a lot of algorithms in this book, deliberately. It is designed to be a high-level, approachable book for engineering college students as well as the PhD who needs further insight into spatial temporal information systems from an ontological perspective. It is expected that the reader has a background in physics or engineering to be able to fully understand some of the concepts; however, it can be used readily by the analyst sitting behind a desk who just needs more information on STK. In the future, there will undoubtedly be more books on the subject. The book is now available at CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Press, Barnes and Noble as well as Amazon.com. Treat yourself or the STK user in your life to a this exciting new STK resource this holiday season! Questions? Contact us at spatialtemporalanalytics@gmail.com!