Cesium Ecosystem Grants Directory

Cesium awarded grants for the following projects, each demonstrating a commitment to grow the open 3D geospatial ecosystem.

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PLANETARY PARFAIT
Lauren Gold, Arizona State University
JMARS (Java Mission-planning and Analysis for Remote Sensing) is an open source, widely adopted tool for planetary data analysis, available to NASA scientists, mission teams, and the public for over two decades. The Planetary Parfait project from the JMARS team will turn Cesium Moon Terrain into a tool to collect planetary data, support collaborative analysis, and assist astronaut training. The result will be an open source generalizable system that reconciles various coordinate systems and map projections, enabling seamless integration of custom science data layers with Cesium’s Moon Terrain.
IMAGERY AND QUANTIZED MESH SUPPORT FROM CESIUM ION TO 3D TILES PLUGIN FOR THREE.JS
Garrett Johnson
This follow-up grant to Garrett Johnson will focus on expanding the 3DTilesRendererJS project’s support for basic geospatial visualizations (topographic lines) and available data formats (TMS, QMesh) for Three.js. Expanding on quantized mesh support, support for Cesium ion imagery will be added to the 3D Tiles renderer, affording users access to Cesium’s bathymetry, night, Bing, and more image data sets on the quantized mesh terrain in Three.js. The result of this grant will increase the geospatial capabilities of Three.js while also connecting Cesium ion more closely with the Three.js ecosystem.
CESIUM PLUGIN FOR GODOT
Battle Road
Battle Road, developer of AtomEngine, a platform for modeling and simulation at planet scale, will create an open source Cesium plugin for the Godot Asset Library using Cesium Native. Godot Engine is the largest cross-platform, free, and open source game engine. The Cesium plugin will bring the most performant and precise 3D data to this global audience.
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AEC TRAINING PATH
Yahiya Jassem, VR Division
VR Division will create an open training pathway aimed at AEC professionals looking to bring their projects into full 3D geospatial context leveraging Unreal Engine and Cesium. This open training path will take professionals through a real-world scenario where they will develop a virtual city model with detailed geospatial data and interactive elements. Participants will: 1. Apply 3D geospatial data to create a contextual environment. 2. Develop interactive 3D applications with real-time data updates. 3. Optimize projects for performance and visual quality. VR Division is an Unreal Authorized Training Partner focused on helping architects, designers, and property developers better showcase their work through interactive digital solutions.
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3D GLOBE IN QGIS
North Road and Lutra Consulting
A previous Cesium Ecosystem Grant enabled this team to expand the 3D Tiles ecosystem by providing access to 3D Tiles within QGIS, an open source desktop GIS application with over a million users. This new project will bring a geospatially-accurate 3D globe to QGIS, creating the perfect context for 3D Tiles. This fulfills a critical need for QGIS users, enabling access to 3D data at global scale alongside all other standard geospatial layers. This project is the next step towards greater access to 3D geospatial tools in the open source QGIS ecosystem.
YOUTHMAPPERS 3D
Michael Mann, George Washington University
This project, in collaboration with YouthMappers and implemented by The George Washington University, improves community resilience and sustainability by training young people in 3D geospatial technologies. Leveraging YouthMappers' extensive network across 74 countries, the initiative will develop and pilot a comprehensive 3D mapping training program in regions prone to natural disasters. It will champion local community 3D data collection in Open Street Map (OSM), which will bring additional buildings with metadata to the open ecosystem, including Cesium OSM Buildings. The initiative will also train young developers in using this 3D Tiles dataset with Cesium ion and Cesium for Unity to create geospatial projects that respond to local disasters, such as simulating flood impacts in urban areas.
3D TILES IN THREE.JS
Garrett Johnson
3DTilesRendererJS is an open source library originally developed by NASA/Caltech-Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) that enables efficient rendering and interaction of 3D Tiles in Three.js. This grant project will add expanded support in 3DTilesRendererJS for the 3D Tiles specification—specifically new metadata expansions—as well as features for enabling data overlays useful for understanding 3D Tiles Mars terrain data from NASA JPL.
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WEBODM REINTEGRATION
Osarodion Victory Igbinobaro, AERO AI
AERO AI created the Simulated Environment for Geospatial Assets (SiEGA) platform, which integrates a diverse array of 3D technologies within a sophisticated physics engine. Their Cesium Ecosystem Grant supports the WebODM Reintegration Project, supporting the WebODM Cesium plugin. The plugin will allow the seamless integration of georeferenced maps and models generated in Open Drone Map (ODM), a free and open source drone imagery processing platform, with Cesium ion. This will enable users from AEC, environmental conservation, geospatial analysis, and beyond to benefit from the ability to integrate, process, analyze, and visualize aerial data and 3D geospatial information.
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CESIUMJS TUTORIALS: BUILDING AN INCLUSIVE 3D GEOSPATIAL LEARNING PLATFORM
Mohammad Hosseingholizadeh, GISWorld
GISWorld, a tech startup, has introduced GISWorld Academy on YouTube, intending to make geospatial knowledge accessible to all. The academy's primary objective is to equip individuals with skills in various open source geospatial tools. This project will introduce a series of 10 tutorials on using CesiumJS and harnessing it in the open 3D geospatial ecosystem. Tutorials will showcase CesiumJS capabilities and how to use it with other geospatial tools and software, such as QGIS, Blender, and geospatial databases, thereby highlighting its full potential in 3D visualization.
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INTEGRATING CESIUM NATIVE INTO OSGEARTH
Jason Beverage, Pelican Mapping
osgEarth is an open source project that has been in development for nearly 15 years and has been deeply integrated into a large number of important programs across various industries and relied upon by hundreds of thousands of users globally. Integrating Cesium Native into osgEarth will provide first class access to Cesium’s core technologies like 3D Tiles and Cesium ion for users of these programs and more. Because of osgEarth’s modular architecture, users will immediately be able to visualize data using Cesium Native by editing a few lines of XML in their Earth File – adding Cesium ion layers without requiring any code changes to their core applications.
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IFC TILING PIPELINE
Thomas Krijnen, IfcOpenShell
This project and the Cesium platform will uplift BIM (Building Information Modeling) and its main open source exchange standard (IFC) into semantic city models and scalable digital twins, fostering collaboration and innovation. Grant project will include open documentation with performance characteristics and a usage guide on how to get a model to convert successfully along with a working software implementation extended with performance optimizations and the ability to render geospatially referenced glTFs.
SPATIAL OPPORTUNITY LAB
Ryan Thomas, Wentworth Institute of Technology
Ryan Thomas, an adjunct professor at Wentworth Institute of Technology is launching the Spatial Opportunity Lab, teaching students to leverage open-source and low-threshold geospatial. Beyond integrating practical, hands-on experience with geospatial tools formally into the curriculum, the Spatial Opportunity lab will contribute to the broader educational community and the built environment industry through community engagement with local-to-Boston partnerships and an online repository of open tutorials.
3D TILES IMPLEMENTATION IN QGIS
Emma Hain, North Road with Lutra Consulting
This collaborative project between North Road Consulting (AUS) and Lutra Consulting (UK) expands the 3D Tiles ecosystem by providing access to 3D tiles within QGIS, an Open Source desktop GIS application with over a million users. This fulfills a critical need for QGIS users, permitting access to 3D data alongside all other standard geospatial layers. For current Cesium 3D Tiles users, it will enable an Open Source desktop option. In the Open Source ecosystem of QGIS, this project is the first step on the roadmap toward the use of processing and interoperability tools with 3D tiles.
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DIGITAL ARCHIVES OF WAR AND DISASTERS
Hidenori Watanave Laboratory, The University of Tokyo
Today, we live in an age of frequent severe global disasters that occur every year. However, the "memories of disasters" are quickly overwritten and forgotten. By building a "digital archive" with the grant and communicating the "memories of disasters" to the world, we seek to create a motivation for society to "learn from the past and apply it to the future". The participation of young people, including students, will make these activities sustainable.
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GEOFORALL: SIMPLIFYING 3D GEOSPATIAL METAVERSE CREATION
Ethan Berg, Agora World
Agora World offers a user-friendly, no-code 3D geospatial metaverse design platform, democratizing access to and empowering users to create immersive experiences. By integrating Agora World with Cesium, our goal is to create an intuitive and easy-to-use 3D geospatial metaverse design platform so everyone, no matter the device they have or the technical expertise they have, can create in 3D geospatial.
VIETNAM WAR MISSING IN ACTION (MIA) SUPPORT
Peter Kimberley, Gradata Systems
A historical research team from University of New South Wales (UNSW) and Gradata Systems has mapped Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War. This new project’s mission is to assist the Vietnamese people (through the Vietnamese Government) with finding their ancestors who were casualties in the Vietnam War. There are an estimated 300,000 Vietnamese soldiers' remains that have not been found to date.