MEMBER PROFILE – ENGINEERING AFFILIATE
“When the company was founded,
there were no smart phones.
Remote data acquisition was just
being perfected in the U.S.”
– David Miller, Seismic Surveys Inc.
additional services including geotechnical
and structural instrumentation monitoring,
damage claim support and expert testimony
have been integrated into its services.
David, a licensed professional geologist,
has specialized in the field of blasting
seismology since 1989. He had prior experience
working as an engineering geologist in
the geotechnical engineering and materials
testing sector since graduating from the
University of Maryland in 1986.
Elena is the comptroller of the business
and facilitates the accounting side.
She has a bachelor’s degree in business
management from Hood College. As the
company has grown, her responsibilities
have compounded to human resources,
overall office management, IT, asset management
and marketing.
“David had an excellent network and
a reputation for quality, caring service and
competence that was recognized by his
long-time customers,” said Elena. “These
customers included pile driving contractors,
blasting contractors, heavy highway
contractors, engineers and insurance companies.
They were the foundation of the
fledgling company and still are.”
Many industry changes
David says it is difficult to believe all the
changes that have occurred since 2001 when
he and Elena formed SSI.
“When the company was founded,
there were no smart phones,” he said.
“Remote data acquisition was just being
perfected in the U.S. with CDMA modems,
while Europe had been having success with
GSM technology. We were using U.S.
Robotics 56K dial-up modems!”
SSI was one of the first U.S. companies
to successfully collect seismograph data
remotely with any reliability.
“Through hard work, and trial and
error for two weeks in a hotel parking lot
in Wilmington, N.C., we successfully used
satellite modems (made by Globalstar) to
communicate and collect seismic data from
seismographs on a project where other consultants
said it could not be done,” said
David. “This gained us recognition as pioneers
in the industry.”
Over the past 17 years, SSI developed
a remote data acquisition system
that incorporated a seismograph, cellular
modem, deep cycle marine battery and solar
power. This original “green technology” was
SSI developed the SeismoBot, a remote data acquisition system that incorporates a seismograph,
cellular modem, deep cycle marine battery and solar power
Seismic Surveys Inc. co-founders David K. Miller, P.G. (in gray jacket) and Elena Miller (in black
dress) host their 2017 holiday party for their crew
80 | ISSUE 2 2018