Salzburg Winter Festival

“Salzburger Festspiele” is a world famous festival in Salzburg comprising music, opera and theatre. It takes place every summer. However, acting is not limited to summer as Anita and Markus from the new UNIGIS professional group demonstrated last weekend: They gave an authentic performance of difficult situations that might appear during the coming year of their UNIGIS studies. Although we do not hope that any of these scenes will come true, it was great fun to watch them acting!

We wish all of our 14 new students a smooth studying experience and all the best for their future as (UNI)GIS professionals!

UNIGIS India Students at IGF'2013 in Hydrabad

Dr. Shahnawaz, Director (S/E Asia), UNIGIS International conducted a day long workshop with current and former students of UNIGIS India on January 23rd during the India Geospatial Forum' 2013 held at Hydrabad International Convention Centre from 22nd to 24th January, 2013.

16 former and current students shared their UNIGIS learning experiences and came up with several practical suggestions for making UNIGIS India a more vibrant community of GIScience learners and practitioners. They unanimously proposed that this community should discuss ideas and share experiences on an open web based platform beneficial not only for current and future UNIGIS students but for all GIScience learners beyond the UNIGIS International Network worldwide. Dr. Shahnawaz appreciated the enthusiasm of the students for getting involved in 'educating the GIS professionals worldwide' and agreed to set up a common platform for this purpose at the earliest possible.

In addition to leading the workshop, Dr. Shahnawaz also delivered a keynote address on 'UNIGIS Online Distance Learning - Empowering GI Students Worldwide' during the 'Student Forum' at the India Geospatial Forum' 2013.

PhD vacancy

SPINlab has a PhD vacancy on Location Intergration in Crisis Management. Apply before 15 March. More info? Please visit: http://www.vu.nl

Open Web Services and Web Map Applications Summer School 2013

From 8th to 12th of July 2013 will take place the 4rd Summer School dedicated to Open Source Opportunities in GIS in Girona, organized by SIGTE of the University of Girona with the contribution of OpenGeo, industry leader in geospatial technology based on free software, and the Geospatial Institute of the University of Nottingham, experts in Open Web Services.

The Open Source Opportunities in GIS Summer School is an initiative aimed to meet the GIS professional demands related to free and open solutions, and we are working on this vision from the start. The Summer School 2013 will be focused on the development and creation of Open Web Services and Web Applications, especially on the publication of data on the web. With this goal, the programme will cover topics related to the management and query of spatial databases, creation of geospatial web services and development of internet viewers for publishing geospatial data. During this course you will learn some basic and fundamental steps in the use of tools such as PostgreSQL and PostGIS, GeoServer, OpenLayers and GeoExt. 

If you are interested in application development and creation of web map services using the most widely used free and open source market products, then this is your opportunity. 

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. 

More information

 

UNIGIS Salzburg - MSc class #20!

This month, the 20^th annual intake of UNIGIS MSc students have started their coursework towards this highly regarded professional qualification in Geoinformatics and GIScience.  In early 1994, the first committed group of dedicated Masters students embarked on their journeys towards a postgraduate degree in GIS at the University of Salzburg, Austria. Meeting for their first residential workshop, the dedication of the 1994 cohort was very similar like this year’s, but of course back then no reassuring role models were available for these enterprising spirits.

Credit goes to the University of Salzburg for allowing such a groundbreaking initiative to happen through establishing the original 1993 curriculum. Degree programs via distance learning supporting in-service professionals were considered a major breakthrough (or risk?) back then, shared with our partner universities in Manchester and Amsterdam. Since then, this idea has spawned partner programs worldwide, with numerous study centres in Asia and Africa affiliated with UNIGIS Salzburg.

The degree of innovation and change over those 20 years of course was staggering. The idea of doing class assignments with GIS software installed on personal computers at home was pushing a few limitations, and mailing learning materials obviously was the precursor to today’s online Learning Management Systems. The ambition of developing one’s geospatial knowledge and skills as a foundation for a career in a challenging field was just the same like it is today, though.

In the meantime, more than 1500 students have graduated from UNIGIS Salzburg alone, owing their success to their farsighted commitment to hard work, a dedicated faculty and support from GIS industry facilitating access to professional software for study purposes when campus and student licensing were virtually unheard of in our discipline.

While many parts of the curriculum have evolved and now include open geospatial standards, distributed architectures and mobile sensors, competences in cartographic communication, spatial data models and spatial analysis methods are key elements of the unique qualification shared by what likely is the biggest alumni community in the geospatial world.

The University of Salzburg has since then established a full suite of academic programmes with a bachelor level ‘minor’ plus a geospatial element for teachers training, an international MSc in ‘Applied Geoinformatics’ and a highly regarded doctoral college for GIScience. Reaching out to many academic institutions worldwide, the UNIGIS framework still serves as a blueprint and curricular ‘gold standard’ for professional graduate qualifications for geospatial experts.

Congratulations to all who have made it through the UNIGIS Salzburg programme – and we continue to welcome students dedicated to their goals!

“Welcome to UNIGIS” Movie

Talking with GIS professionals, academics and UNIGIS students and alumni, the UNIGIS movie wants to introduce the key points about why GIS is important in our society and why GIS professionals are strongly needed nowadays.

The highlights of this movie are: 

• The key role of GIS in our society. The introduction and implementation of GIS in business organizations and institutions is almost essential because of the added value and knowledge provided. There is a wide range of fields for GIS applications

• UIA & UNIGIS Programme. UNIGIS is the largest and best-established eLearning GIS programme in the world. Each year we enroll more than 400 students world-wide. We have over 4.000 UNIGIS alumni in more than 40 countries where UNIGIS Programme is offered. Our courses are in continuous development and are currently offered in many different languages.

• Anytime, anyplace, anyone. Beyond our background there are UNIGIS values such a flexible compatibility with job, family and spare time, innovative use of interactive media, assessment and supported by dedicated tutors.

• UNIGIS Community. UNIGIS students and alumni become an integral part of a widespread and international network of professionals engaged in various branches in the extensive field of GIS. 

• Professional needs. The UNIGIS professional approach provides you with the chance to improve your skills and acquire new skills related to the management of geospatial information

Discover the value of UNIGIS Educational programme! Video