The BCC Geospatial Center of the CUNY CREST Institute or BGCCCI is a collaborative satellite center created by a Memorandum of Understanding between the CUNY CREST Institute [City College of New York] and Bronx Community College of the City University of New York. The Center is built on a foundation of student centric scholarly activities delivered by an enterprising group of affiliated faculty and staff. Since 2010 and in association with an Industry consortium, activities at the Center have led to geospatial workforce skills and career pathways in geospatial technology. The Center achieves this by offering all year round training programs for participants and educators from schools and Universities [K-16] across the U.S. Interns and collaborators from local and global institutions conduct cutting-edge research on spatial analyses, satellite image analyses, machine and deep learning. Dr. Sunil Bhaskaran a Professor at the City University of New York spearheaded the development and growth of geospatial technology that laid the foundation for the launch of the Center. The multi-million dollar Center has evolved into a major intellectual hub in the region with the help of sustained funding and support by BCC-CUNY, an Industry consortium, the National Science Foundation [NSF], U.S. Department of Transportation [USDOT], the National Aeronautics Space Administration [NASA] and the New York State Department of Labor [NYSDOL].   

Dr. Sunil is the Principal Investigator of the NSF-ATE 'Pathways to Geospatial Technology and Careers' project and the NASA-MISTC 'Fostering STEM education' project [2017-2021]. The NSF-ATE project is a collaboration between BCC-CUNY & York College-CUNY and the NASA-MISTC is between BCC-CUNY and Medgar Evers College-CUNY. The projects assist the nation in developing the next generation of skilled Geospatial Technicians and fosters spatial thinking.   

Since 2010, Dr. Sunil spearheaded the development and growth of geospatial technology at BCC-CUNY that eventually precipitated to the formation and  launch of the Center. Dr. Sunil Bhaskaran provides strategic direction to the Center and in collaboration with an industry consortium drives all activities of the Center including the National Science Foundation [NSF], National Aeronautics & Space Administration [NASA-MISTC] collaborative projects. He works with the BCC-CUNY Office of Academic Affairs, the Research Foundation of the City University of New York [RF-CUNY], Bronx Community College's Grants Office, NSF and NASA directorates, an Industry consortium and other stakeholders in the New York City region to deliver programmatic goals of the Center and sponsored projects. Dr. Sunil chairs the Center's advisory board which consists of representatives from leading geospatial corporations. Dr. Sunil collaborated with the CUNY Office of Research [Associate Vice Chancellor] on key projects and served as a committee member on CUNY's Inaugural Research Advisory Board Council.

Prior to serving CUNY, Dr. Sunil was a Lecturer at the School of Geomatic Engineering, University of New South Wales and at the Faculty of Engineering and Surveying, University of Southern Queensland. He was a key member of the Cooperative Research Center-Spatial Information [CRC-SI] MODIS thematic mapping project at Geoscience Australia. He served on the National and Regional committees of the Spatial Sciences Institute [SSI] that is largely responsible for shaping the geospatial landscape in Australia. He collaborated with the Corporate Strategy Division of the New South Wales Fire Brigades that helped the agency in using geospatial technology for emergency management. Dr. Sunil has a PhD from the School of Geomatic Engineering, University of New South Wales under Professor Bruce Forster. He serves as a Full Professor and is a member of tenured faculty affiliated at Bronx Community College and the Graduate Center as a Doctoral faculty [Earth and Environmental Sciences] department. He was felicitated on several occasions by the Chairperson of CUNY Board of Trustees, Vice Chancellor and Provost for outstanding contributions to research and service.