UNIGIS Salzburg - registration for 2012 MSc open!

The next class of the highly regarded UNIGIS continuing education Masters at the University of Salzburg is set to start in early 2012 - with applications for admission accepted now. The UNIGIS MSc distance learning program is designed for working professionals building their careers in Geoinformatics. Depending on job, family and other commitments the MSc degree can be obtained in 2-3 years.

Most candidates have completed a first degree in a 'spatial' or ICT-related discipline and intend to develop a qualification for leadership positions in GIS or any application domain. With more than 1000 UNIGIS Salzburg alumni active in geospatial industries, graduates join a tightly-knit professional network of excellence with a global background in the UNIGIS International Association.

All enquiries should be directed to office[at]unigis.ac.at, early applications are encouraged due to the limited number of admissions per year. The above information applies for the German language UNIGIS MSc, English language candidates are accepted directly at the University of Salzburg or one of its international study centers throughout the year.

UNIGIS - Educating GIS Professionals Worldwide.

ESRI International User Conference in San Diego

UNIGIS International again is actively participating at the annual ESRI International User Conference in San Diego. From Tuesday onwards information on all UNIGIS Distance Learning programs is provided at our booth in the main exhibit hall.

Numerous visitors stopped by to find out about UNIGIS postgraduate education offerings - current and prospective students, UNIGIS alumni as well as university faculty / staff. UNIGIS programs are represented by faculty from several UNIGIS member institutions.

Representatives from UNIGIS USC (Los Angeles), Quito, Salzburg and Krakow staff the booth and actively promote UNIGIS studies worldwide.

UIA Academic Excellence Prize – Award Ceremony

Two of the UNIGIS Academic Excellence Prize 2010 winners - Eva Willersley (UNIGIS Manchester) and Hans-Jörg Stark (UNIGIS Salzburg) presented their top quality MSc theses at the GI_Forum 2011 in Salzburg.

The thesis from Eva Willersley titled “Methods of extracting a coastline from satellite imagery and assessing the accuracy” was considered as the best UNIGIS thesis in 2010. Hans-Jörg Stark presented another winning thesis titled "Quality assurance of crowdsourced geocoded address-data within OpenAddresses - Concepts and Implementation".

After presentation at the GI_Forum they were publicly awarded with the trophy by UNIGIS International chair Josef Strobl in recognition of their work and the academic achievement. Congratulations!

The competition for the 2011 Prize is currently open. All UNIGIS partner universities worldwide are encouraged to take part in the competition.

UNIGIS at AGIT and GI_Forum

Traditionally, the annual GI_Forum and AGIT Symposia at the University of Salzburg from July 4-8 are highlights for the UNIGIS community: more than 100 students and alumni will not only actively participate in conference events, but will meet with fellow students and the UNIGIS team face-to-face as a welcome break from telecommunication-heavy distance learning.

Some UNIGIS graduates will be recognized for their achievements, e.g. the winners of the UNIGIS International Association top Masters theses have the chance to present their work immediately following Ian Dowman's keynote on Thursday morning.

The Z_GIS - UNIGIS booth in the exhibit area again will serve as the meeting point for UNIGIS students, graduates and faculty throughout the conference. This location is the best point for information and consulting for prospective future students in the MSc and professional certificate programmes: AGIT / GI_Forum mark the opening of the registration period for the next UNIGIS courses starting in October 2011 (UNIGIS professional) and January 2012 (UNIGIS MSc)!

Gudrun Wallentin leading Salzburg UNIGIS MSc

Gudrun Wallentin has been promoted to director of studies, UNIGIS MSc at the University of Salzburg from July 1, 2011. Gudrun is joining the UNIGIS Salzburg team from the Institute of GIScience, Austrian Academy of Sciences and will be coordinating this highly regarded distance learning Masters programs (in English and German language) in Geographic Information Systems and Science!

She has a degree in ecology from the University of Innsbruck, several years of experience in managing a regional nature / conservation park in the Tyrolean Alps, subsequently received an MSc in GIS from the University of Edinburgh and her PhD for the thesis 'Individual Based Models in Ecology', exploring and applying spatiotemporal concepts in regionalized climate change analysis.

Dr Wallentin will not only provide leadership and direction to the continuous development of UNIGIS curricula, learning media and online pedagogy, but also will offer supervision and consulting to current and prospective UNIGIS students, and will contribute her experience and knowledge in GIScience to the development of future generations of GIS experts!

Welcome, Gudrun - we're glad to have you on board!!