I do precision forestry research with airborne lidar scanning , getting to work with a new multispectral lidar 3 lasers at different wavelengths instead of just one laser in order to identify tree species at the individual tree level . Our forests are a strategic resource both from a $$$ and environmental perspective yet we know next to nothing about what they contain . On a broader level , the confluence of remote sensing aerialsatellite opticalradarlidar imagery with multi and hyper spectral bands and machine learning ironically we use a lot of random forest algorithms is very exciting . Stuff like Google Earth Engine is inspiring . The amount of reading I have to do for my PhD nowadays compared to if I would have done it at the right time in my 20 s is insane however .