Mount Vision Company a Winner in First Phase of Census Bureau Competition

By KRISTIAN CONNOLLY
MOUNT VISION

Ask Mark Segina, the owner of Segina & Associates LLC, in Mount Vision, whether his rural company is at an advantage when it comes to addressing rural problems, and he’ll tell you he’s not sure. But perhaps it doesn’t hurt, and is maybe one reason why his firm was recently chosen by the U.S. Census Bureau to be among a group of winners for the first phase of StatVentures Address Geolocation Challenge, a competition designed to revolutionize the way addresses are geolocated in remote and rural areas across the United States.

The challenge cohort will convene to kick off Phase 2 late in September. According to a press release announcing the Phase 1 winners of the competition, nine firms have been selected “for their exceptional concepts, and their unique approaches” to addressing the challenges of rural address accuracy.

“Our company is interested in beyond visual line of sight drones/unmanned aerial vehicles,” said Segina about his winning proposal. “Our research on a novel large area sensor array data collection method and technology to locate possible hidden geothermal assets is related to the problem the U.S. Census Bureau is seeking to solve.