Lee Hathcock

Title: Data Acquisitions Coordinator
Time at GRI: 17 years
Hometown: Stewart, MS

Q: What is your academic background?
I received my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer engineering from Mississippi State University, and all but dissertation for a doctorate in the same.

Q: What are your research interests?
Primarily image and data processing from various unmanned systems, especially when it comes to supporting research such as flood mapping and other weather events, agricultural applications, and coastal research.

Q: Who inspired you to pursue the career you have today?
My parents – while I have a lot of interests, they recognized that I had been blessed with the ability to make it through an engineering program. I would also credit my major professor, Dr. J.W. Bruce, for getting me started on this journey at GRI.

Q: What has been your favorite project while working at GRI?
It’s hard to choose a favorite, but I really enjoyed working with Dr. Bill Cooke on hurricane debris modeling, where we attempted to quantify damage probabilities of the combination of hurricane-force winds and rain intensity.

Q: What is the coolest thing you are working on right now?
I’m currently working on flood extent mapping with Dr. Jamie Dyer, where we are using an Overwatch TK-5 imaging payload flown on a large Raspet-owned unmanned aerial system to capture imagery from flood events and detect land/water boundaries via various classifiers and indices.

Q: What is something most people don’t know about you?
I used to not like to sing, but that changed over the years and now I sing bass in our church choir at First Baptist Church Starkville.

Q: What kinds of hobbies and interests do you have outside of work?
I like to read, draw, play video games (especially 8/16-bit era), and hack around with older computer hardware. I also enjoy shooting basketball and keeping track of sports in general, especially the NBA and the San Antonio Spurs. I also participate in a work fantasy football league (join us if you’re interested!). I also have a penchant for doing celebrity and presidential impersonations of varying quality, much to the amusement and/or chagrin of my colleagues.