Robert W. Foster

Robert W. Foster, PS, PE, of Hopkinton, MA, is in private practice, offering professional consulting services nationally in arbitration, dispute resolution and litigation involving surveying and civil engineering issues. He is past president of the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG).

Articles by Robert W. Foster

• Conflict of interest: To seem is to be

  Tuesday, April 03, 2018

  Almost exactly two years ago, I wrote on the subject of professional ethics. My concern then was the recently published ​International Ethics Standards, by the International Ethics Standards Coalition (IESC), with a nod to the various codes published by our many professional bodies including NSPS and FIG.

• The future of surveying? Quantum computing and blockchain

  Wednesday, July 26, 2017

  Forty-four years ago, the U.S. government introduced the global navigation satellite system — what's known today as GPS. I remember attending a seminar where this amazing technology was described with speculation about its application in surveying. The primary purpose of GPS was as a navigation system, but in its ability to solve positioning with precision, some futurist thinkers in the surveying profession could see an application, not only for the geodesist but for the land surveyor as well. To a flat-land surveyor familiar with chains and links, this was Buck Rogers stuff and highly theoretical.