By Ruqaiyah Zarook
The American Geographical Society recently spoke with Mr. Bradford Powell, Vice President and General Manager of Cubic, a leading technology-driven company providing integrated solutions for transportation and defense to reduce urban congestion and improve militaries’ effectiveness.
Cubic does this by taking very large data sets and ‘moving’ them in non-traditional ways. Their technology enables very large geospatial datasets and intelligence to be transferred relatively quickly, even reaching areas with limited bandwidth.
Powell told AGS that much of what the company does comes down to providing access to giant datasets quickly all while saving space, The ultimate benefit of this lies in the access of conventionally unusable knowledge. He explained that there is so much data that doesn’t get used just because it’s too hard to access.
Their cutting-edge technology is able to load terabytes of geospatial data onto hard drives, allowing customers to take exponential amounts of data anywhere around the world (data that is usually un-downloadable); Cubic also enables downloading this data onto hard drives in just an hour or two. This is especially critical during rescue and search missions or natural disaster mitigation. Cubic’s services are also routinely used during hurricanes where hard drives of data showcasing flooded areas are sent to local first responders to help them navigate the area.
Cubic, like AGS, understands the importance of mapping and geographic analysis. Powell gave a demonstration of the data Cubic works with by showing a video in which a livestream had been layered over a map. Similar to ArcGIS overlaying images with maps, Cubic fine tunes videos, but does it in real time, using technologies in ways that allow customers to record and stabilize videos in a highly accurate manner.
The geospatial tech company started off in transportation and training, however, Cubic now engages in C4ISR — Command, Control, Communications, Computers (C4) Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) — to provide advantages through situational awareness, knowledge of the adversary and environment, and shortening the time between sensing and response.
Cubic has approximately 215 employees with an annual budget of $100 million. Their headquarters are located in the Washington Metropolitan area, although many workers now work remotely. While Cubic is headquartered in the U.S., they also hold offices in Nis, Serbia and Australia. Most of their work is done overseas, with imagery that comes from Maxar and Planet. Many of Cubic’s clients are U.S. government officials or affiliates of oil and gas companies.
As the world continues to change, climatically and geographically, and as demand for more current understandings of the environment around us increases, Powell says Cubic will be needed even more. “By connecting different data types, and by using open interfaces and architectures,” Powell believes, “the company will enable customers to experience next generation capabilities.”
Click here to learn more about Cubic and their work.