Professional Surveyor Recognizes CyArk Co-Founder

by Tom Gibson
September 13, 2006
Professional Surveyor Magazine has honored CyArk co-founder Ben Kacyra as one of the 25 most influential individuals in the surveying community.

"As a civil engineer who taught surveying at the college level and the head of Cygna Consultants, a major architectural and engineering firm, Kacyra knew first hand the challenges of gathering accurate, complete as-built data for complex plants and facilities. When he sold Cygna in the early 1990's Kacyra embarked on a journey to develop a laser scanner that would automatically sweep an eye-safe beam at more than 1,000 points a second over an entire complex scene to capture its as-built geometry in accurate detail. Founding Cyra Technologies in 1993, he drew up the original performance specifications that launched survey-grade laser scanning and oversaw the development of laser scanning hardware and post-processing software used to convert large data files to common survey deliverables.

After the commercial introduction of laser scanning in 1998, Cyra Technologies was acquired by Leica Geosystems in 2001. Today, surveyors everywhere know that 3D laser scanning has become the latest major technology advance in their profession. As Geoff Jacobs, senior vice president of strategic marketing at Leica Geosystems, states, 'No individual is more responsible for this than Ben Kacyra.'"