Ohan Oumoudian Driven By the Solution Journey
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He has a sparkle in his eye and smiles when he talks about his work. Ohan Oumoudian has the secret formula to success and innovation in the GIS field. He smiles because it is not so much a secret as it is common sense and passion – enjoy what you do, learn all the time and give the client the best solution in the most efficient way possible.
As a former owner of a GIS firm in Lebanon and now a software engineer for GeoDecisions, Ohan understands the client from both a business owner and a technical perspective. He focuses on clarifying what the client wants, adapting existing technology to answer client needs, and maintaining the client relationship long term.
“I’m driven by the Solution Journey,” Ohan stated, “how it all starts with an idea, a problem, a need or a requirement and evolves into a full-fledged system that our customers use daily.”
International Projects
The work Ohan did in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was federally-focused. One project resulted in shared access to a new system for seven internal and three external stakeholders of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Development. Using Esri’s® Portal for ArcGIS platform, Ohan developed a different view for each of the stakeholders based on their requirements without having to create a different custom solution for each stakeholder.
With the Abu Dhabi Housing Authority, Ohan modified Esri’s Operations Dashboard to show the client how it could manage the gap in supply and demand visually. He added calculations to the dashboard by representing the supply as pluses and demand as negatives, visually showing the client how changes of ownership could balance the equation.
Pennsylvania Guide Rail Repair Automation
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) guide rail project is another example of Ohan modifying existing solutions for new uses. PennDOT wanted to automate the process of tracking the damage, repair and replacement of guide rails and end treatments. By combining Esri’s Survey123, Operations Dashboard and Road Management Solutions (RMS), Ohan developed the PennDOT guide rail solution. Survey123 functions as a mobile workforce management tool – collecting before and after images of damage and repaired sites, noting changes to scope, and assigning roles and responsibilities throughout the process. Locations are fed into Survey123 from RMS and changes and updates are sent back to keep RMS up to date.
“Ohan has been an absolute pleasure to work with on our guide rail mobile collector app project using Esri’s Survey123 software. He takes great pride in his work. Writing effective survey questions is an art and Ohan’s expertise in this area helped us to design questions leveraging the capabilities of Survey123 that integrated seamlessly with the customized base map solution that was developed to meet our extensive business requirements.”
Next Generation Snowplow Management
Ohan is always thinking about “what next?” What is the next generation technology? He already has a plan in place for the next generation of snow management using machine learning. In a survey conducted by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) in 2015, 23 states spent more than $1.13 billion in one winter season – including 8 million hours, 24,000 plows and trucks and 6 million tons of salt. With these kinds of numbers, there is room for big savings when lessons learned are applied to help states’ departments of transportation save on salt, optimize routes with storm information and empower the drivers’ decision-making. Scenario-based mobilization plans will create snowplow routes using machine learning technology embedded in a system that brings together expert knowledge and analytics, and data on weather, routes, lane size, storage, material, traffic and much more.
Ohan Oumoudian is a GeoDecisions GeoInnovator!
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GeoInnovator is a new blog feature where you will find our amazing staff highlighted throughout the year. Everyone is important, but the staff in this spotlight exhibit a contagious enthusiasm for producing innovative geospatial solutions. They are GeoInnovators, and we want you to get to know them.
