UNIGIS@Kathmandu visits ICIMOD!

The students of UNIGIS@Kathmandu, lead by the UNIGIS programme coordinator Prof. Krishna Poudel, visited the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) for a professional workshop on 23rd June, 2013.

The workshop was conducted by the experts from MENRIS division  headed by Mr. Basanta Shrestha. The members of MENRIS team gave interactive presentations on Land Cover Classification & Change Analysis, Remote Sensing for REDD: MRV, Automated Forest Fire Alert System, Web-visualization tools as well as introduced the Mountain GeoPortal developed by them.

During a vibrant discussion session, the UNIGIS students raised questions about the contributions of MENRIS in using GIS & RS and promoting its applications for various purposes in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region. Mr. Sebastian Wesselman informed about the capacity building activities and availability of geospatial data as well as highlighted the Servir Himalaya Geoportal which provides past and current geospatial information about several aspects as well as the current weather conditions through an interactive mapper.

In his concluding remarks, Mr. Basanta Shrestha expressed the readiness of MENRIS to offer internship opportunities to the UNIGIS students as well as for providing geospatial data required for their master thesis work focusing on the Hindu Kush Himalayan region.

GIS by women: UNIGIS Day Switzerland

This year's UNIGIS Switzerland Day at the 'University of Applied Sciences Rapperswil' (HSR) viewed GISc from a gender perspective. Exclusively female speakers gave an impressive overview on the firm establishment of GIS in public authorities, consultancies, research and education. Apart from innovative applications, many presentations focused on the current challenge of crafting spatial data infrastructures for the management and the public provision of spatial data.

As a highlight of the event, Timo Reissner received his Diploma for successful completion of  his UNIGIS MSc study, with a Master Thesis on a fragmentation analysis in the Swiss Kanton Aargau (Foto: Gudrun Wallentin - UNIGIS MSc Director of Studies, Timo Reissner - UNIGIS MSc Alumnus). Congratulations Timo Reissner!

UNIGIS at Geospatial World Forum, Rotterdam

UNIGIS International again was invited to this high-profile annual industry flagship event - GWF'13, representing the worldwide scope of geospatial distance education in an exhibit booth. Frequented by alumni from across the globe, current students and interested leaders from the GIS community, the UNIGIS booth coordinated by Dr. Shahnawaz with strong support from UNIGIS Amsterdam
turned out to be a popular meeting place.

Among the visitors was a delegation from the South Ural State University in Chelyabinsk, led by Rector Alexander Shestakov with his colleagues from the Research Educational Center 'GeoInformation Systems'.

During the exhibit days, most interest in UNIGIS was expressed by corporate leaders exploring options for further developing their employees' skills. Academic qualifications are clearly recognized as a long-term career driver, institutions aiming at upgrading and retaining key staff increasingly invest in continuing education  under the 'lifelong learning' paradigm.