GISopen conference in Szekesfehervar: a qualitative contribution from UNIGIS graduates.

The GISopen conference was initiated in 1997, just after the first UNIGIS intake was graduated from the University of West Hungary, Faculty of Geoinformatics. The annual GISopen conference is the longest GI related conference series in Hungary. The main aim is to involve the faculty alumni into the active lifelong learning process, to give a forum for the ex-students and to offer them an opportunity to share their experience after several years of professional activity.

From 12 to 14 of March 2012, the 16th GIS open conference was organised in Szekesfehervar. The number of participants was 200+ like in the previous years.

The motto of the conference was “answering the basic questions”

In our profession, in the recent years, a major paradigm shift was the transition from editing of maps to the development of databases. By the analysis of the databases we can provide answers to the basic questions of GIS, serve our users with value-added products and information services. The presenters were asked to speak not only about the technical aspects, but more on the economical and strategic background.

• What is this? Associated with metadata services appear geodata services. But how much does it cost? The systems often look for complex solution to a simple question. What are the issues to be related to practical solutions?

• Where is it? Many people at the land administration are working on the repartition of undivided common land property. Where are the parcel boundaries, and how do we perform it?
• Where to go? Everybody is using navigation systems. But where are we going? The new surveying law will define our tasks for years.
• What has changed? In the world, the only constant is the change itself. Let’s look in concrete! What is the building monitoring?

All the conference participants (keynote speakers, presenters of research papers, GI industry software and hardware companies) tried to answer these questions. All the attendants realized that in spite of the simplicity of the questions, the answers required much more than technical concepts and could only be answered with indirect and quite complex considerations.

8 papers were delivered by UNIGIS graduates out of the 47 presentations.

Among the keynote papers, László Gombás delivered a presentation about smart building-surveying technologies. Leica is starting a new family of custom-built solutions for building and site construction, called iCON. More than a new product line and a software package, it enables construction companies to enhance their performance, and increase their profitability through perfecting their construction workflow.

Hardware and software companies could promote their products in a forum and do presentations as well. GeoCalc GIS 2.0 software was introduced by Attila Kulcsar. He presented the main functionalities of this GIS developed on open source software.

On the afternoon of the second day a UNIGIS session was held with the following presentations:
• Quality management in iGO (http://www.nng.com/hu) navigation database development (Lukács Lilla)
• In-door data acquisition technologies (László Gombás)
• GIS use in climate modelling (Norbert Móricz)
• Run-off control for soil protection (Margit Horoszné Gulyás)
• Underground water flow monitoring as a base of remediation (Béla Finta)

Wednesday morning Tibor Márfai delivered a presentation about informatics of digital maps by introducing basic definitions.
Next year the focus will be on future cadastres. How to include the 3rd dimension into the current land administration system? How to move from static databases to dynamic cadastral modelling? How social networks will transform the cadastre? How cadastre will be part of the geospatial infrastructure and serve the society? etc.

Gregory Lucas and Bela Markus

UNIGIS graduate winning top award at RTM!

Each year, the „Runder Tisch GIS“ at the Technical University of Munich awards prices for top theses in Geoinformatics.  Outstanding Bachelor and Master Theses as well as PhD Dissertations compete for this distinction, with winners being announced and their work presented within the framework of the annual “Münchner Fortbildungsseminar Geoinformationssysteme”:

Today, UNIGIS Salzburg alumn Matthias Boedecker received the 1st prize for his excellent Master Thesis “Koordinierung thematischer Klassen unter Verwendung kartographischer Relationen” (see summary). Congratulations, Matthias, for this success, combined with best wishes for your professional future!

UNIGIS in Malaysia!

Facilitating an ongoing process of integrating institutions from Southeast Asia into the international UNIGIS network of universities, UNIGIS representatives again participated in this year's Malaysia Geospatial Forum organised at Melaka, Malaysia on 6th and 7th March, 2012.

Dr. Shahnawaz (Director, UNIGIS S/E Asia) managed an exhibit booth shared with Geomatika College International, as well as organised a series of workshops for students, teaching faculty as well as professionals engaged at various institutions and organisations.

Open Web Services & Web Mapping Applications Summer School Girona

From 9th to 13th of July 2012 will take place the 3rd Summer School dedicated to Opensource GIS in Girona, organized by SIGTE of the University of Girona, and the collaboration of OpenGeo and the Geospatial Institute of the University of Nottingham.


From the start, the aim of this initiative to meet the GIS professional demands related to free and open solutions. The Summer School 2012 will be focused on the development and creation of Open Web Mapping Services and Web Applications.

If you are interested in application development and creation of web map services using the most widely used free market products such as PostGIS, GeoServer, OpenLayers, then this is the opportunity.

Participants will complete the Summer School with a certificate of attendance showing the course hours. Considering the workload, the Summer School can be accredited by their home institutions with 2 ECTS credit points.

And beyond the strict quality and technical level of the programme, there is the charm of the historic city of Girona and the magnificent Old Town and its wide range of cultural, musical and culinary offer; and the hospitality that has always distinguished the organization team, recognized in each of the initiatives that we undertake.


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