Head and shoulders image of Dr. Ray Boyle, professor of Engineering.

Bio/Historical Note: Dr. Archibald Raymond (Ray) Boyle was born in England in 1920 and served with the British Admiralty during World War II. After the war he developed and patented many graphic systems for plotting and digitizing and was the inventor of the “free cursor” digitizing system that was the basis for the digital entry of much early spatial data. Dr. Boyle will always be known as the 'father' of Automated Cartography. From the experimental ‘Oxford System’ demonstrated in 1964, to the operational automated drafting system installed in the Canadian Hydrographic Service in 1971, as well as other systems provided to US agencies, and an innovative Geographic Information System (GIS) completed in 1975, Dr. Boyle developed many key components that laid a foundation for digital mapping and charting. He held patents on digitizing systems, light head drafting tools and his innovation had no bounds. After joining the Department of Electrical Engineering of the University of Saskatchewan in 1965, he had opportunities to combine his love of teaching and research. Some of the topics investigated through his graduate students included automated line following, character recognition, interactive map and chart compilation, geospatial data compression, data storage and data management. After retirement Dr. Boyle continued his development efforts which included a successful, low cost GIS, suitable for use by municipal governments, students, and general users. In hydrography, 1967 was a turning point for the Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS), as it embarked on innovative programs for moving hydrography into the digital computer domain. The CHS partnered with Dr. Boyle, who became the central figure in developing a long term vision and guiding the development of the associated technology which, except for the emergence of the ‘naked’ mini-computer, did not exist at that time. Under Dr. Boyle, a team of two engineers from the CHS, and several graduate students was assembled to build the hardware and software components needed for operational cartographic digitizing and drafting systems which were delivered and implemented in 1971, the beginning of a new era for Canada. Dr. Boyle died in 2001. The Marble-Boyle Undergraduate Achievement Award in Geographic Science recognizes excellence in academic performance by undergraduate students from the United States and Canada who are putting forth a strong effort to bridge geographic science and computer science. The award is given annually by the American Association of Geographers, located in Washington, D.C.