Dual Degree Agreement Quito-Salzburg

During the 'Primer Simposio GIS Educatión en América Latina' (March 26-28, 2008) an extended academic cooperation agreement was signed by Chancellor Santiago Gangotena from the Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) and Prof Josef Strobl from the University of Salzburg. UNIGIS students from USFQ now have the opportunity to reach an MSc degree at Salzburg if they complete all requirements including the development of a Master Thesis in English language.
The Symposium brought together GIS educators from most Latin American countries with support from the UNIGIS partners at SIGTE, Girona. The broad range of symposium presentations demonstrated a high level of interest in advancing GIS education throughout Latin America, and was followed by a day of hands-on workshops offering introductions into FOSS products like gvSIG, SAGA and Mapserver.
The 'GIS education week' at USFQ was then topped off with the introductory on-site workshop of the first group of 2008 UNIGIS students - we wish them a successful start into their distance program!

GIS for the Future of Central Asia - May 15-17

This is the motto of the 2nd Central Asia GIS Conference - GISCA’08 held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan May 15-17, 2008. The Centre for Geoinformatics (Z_GIS), Salzburg University and UNIGIS are organising this conference jointly with the Kyrgyz State University of Construction, Transportation and Architecture (KSUCTA) and with support from the Eurasia-Pacific Uninet.
The organising committee invites active participation in this international event and submission of presentations and papers. The main objectives of this conference are to bring together GIS academics in the Central Asian countries and to encourage international cooperation and knowledge exchange in GIS education. A particular highlight of the event will be the inauguration of the joint "Central Asia Centre for GIScience", serving as a UNIGIS Study Centre for Central Asia as well as a centre of competence for regional GIS projects.
For further details, please attend the conference website!

UNIGIS Workshops in Poland

February was very busy for the UNIGIS site in Poland, as two UNIGIS workshops took place: an opening workshop for intake 2008 and a closing workshop for intake 2006.

On Saturday 16th of February 25 new students started their MSc studies. The new group has mostly environmental backgrounds, however some of them work in IT. After the first month of their studies, theyhave already submitted their first assignments.

One week later their 30 ‘older’ colleagues from intake 2006 were taking part in the closing UNIGIS workshop. The most successful students, who obtained the best grades and those who most frequently took part in online discussions were awarded with UNIGIS souvenirs. Their studies were supported by the European Social Fund within a project dedicated to employees at enterprises.

MSc thesis awarded 'Förderpreis Runder Tisch GIS'

Marcel Droz from the Geoinformation Office, Kanton of Berne has graduated from UNIGIS Salzburg in 2007 and now has won the prestigious 'young researchers award' from the Munich 'GIS Round Table' for his thesis on assessing landscape aesthetics in the UNESCO World Heritage site Jungfrau-Aletsch-Bietschenhorn (German language abstract). Mr Droz has received this award through stiff competition against a total of 30 submissions. Congratulations!

Details: MSc research award