OpenStreetMap
Who Am I?
Nice to meet you! My name is Nicholas Hudanich and I am a 23-year old transportation engineer living in New York City. I currently work as an associate transportation modeler at Aimsun Inc.
I achieved my Bachelors in Civil Engineering and Masters’ in Transportation Engineering from New York University Tandon, and I graduated in December, 2023. During my time at NYU, I was the president of the Institute of Traffic Engineers Student Chapter. I additionally assisted in research at the C2SMART center, who I encourage you to read on further; their work is quite interesting. The most fascinating of the projects I worked on was helping the MTA roll out the Accessible Stations Laboratory at the Jay Street-Metrotech station. We tested over 20 new accessibility features as a testbed for full network deployment, including tactile guidance for visually impaired individuals and level boarding areas at the center of the subway platforms.
I am additionally an organizer of the annual Transportation Camp NYC, which is an “unconference” where several hundred industry experts come to discuss new innovations, and help university students network with companies for future employments in transportation engineering.
If you are curious to learn even more about me and my various hobbies, please see my bio on OSM:
https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/BeaconOSM
My Involvement with GIS and OSM
My lifelong commitment to transportation, and specifically mobility, has only naturally led to being an avid contributor to OpenStreetMap. I started mapping on OpenStreetMap in 2017, and have continually expanded the capacity with OSM since then. I have frequently contributed to ongoing humanitarian efforts via HOTOSM, as well as through the OpenStreetMap US tasking manager.
When not contributing to these targeted efforts, I have sought to improve the mapping standard across the country, by improving the accuracy of tagging, fixing relationships, and ensuring high-quality geometry of road networks, including in rural areas. A few of my efforts that I am most satisfied with and proud of include completely mapping the communities of Buras & Triumph, LA (Suffering from saltwater intrusion), and CDP-focused natural/building mapping, such as Park City WV, Baltimore VT, and Pawling / Town of Northeast NY.
Finally, I am involved with GIS-projects outside of the OSM sphere, namely using GIS to monitor the health of eelgrass populations in Duxbury Harbor, MA, and assisting the town of Norwell MA in creating a trail map for the conservation areas in that town (Which involved a lot of walking too!)
Issues of high personal emphasis
A. Improving the quality of complete map data in exurban and rural areas of the US
B. Improve the usage and effectiveness of the OSM US Tasking Manager
C. Encourage the greater use of OSM data in research initiatives, which includes adapting OSM data to be cleaner and more utilitarian.
Contact information
Please reach me at email:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nhudanich/