Sunday, February 23, 2014

Winter intensive program at UNIGIS@Kathmandu

A week of various activities organised by UNIGIS@Kathmandu from 18th to 23rd February, 2014 concluded with a high level of satisfaction diagnosed by the Board of UNIGIS Studies at Kathmandu Forestry College (KAFCOL), Nepal.

The week started with a meeting among Dr. Shahnawaz (Director UNIGIS S/E Asia), Dr. Ambika P. Gautam (Principal of KAFCOL) and Dr. Krishna P. Poudel (Coordinator UNIGIS@Kathmandu) for a management level review of UNIGIS study programmes. During the next 2 days, M.Sc Year-2 students presented their master thesis proposals which were critically discussed by all the participants for providing constructive feedback and suggestions for improvements. A majority of thesis topics are focused on environmental and climate change issues in Nepal where, historically, natural hill slopes have been converted into terraced agricultural landscapes. This way a lot of prime agricultural land has been converted into built-up areas during the last couple of years.
LULC Change in a part of Kathmandu between 2002 and 2012
The following 2 days were devoted to review the progress of M.Sc. Year-1 students as well as for solving their questions related to various UNIGIS modules as well as the potential for geospatial careers in Nepal. The remaining part of the week was devoted to UNIGIS faculty development and planning of future activities. The UNIGIS Board of Studies concluded to launch a UNIGIS professional programme, as well as exploring to start more than 1 intake per year to meet the increasing demand for UNIGIS qualifications in the country!

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

11th edition of UNIGIS studies at Jagiellonian University in Poland



Last weekend the UNIGIS Kraków center launched 11th edition of UNIGIS Postgraduate studies (www.unigis.uj.edu.pl). The second ten of intakes was opened with a nice group of young professionals, who are looking for some deeper knowledge and skills in GIS&T.

In the new intake there was gathered a wide representation of geographers and surveyors. Furthermore, a lot of students come from quite remote locations in Poland and abroad. Definitely, distance mode of learning plays here its significant role.

However, to make this mode as successful as possible, first two-day in-campus workshop was organized last week. It seems that classes composed of formal, social and technological content gave a new UNIGIS group a good start into two-year learning adventure. Good luck!

Monday, February 17, 2014

UNIGIS MSc and diploma students take off into 2014

Personal interaction with peers and access to basic information about study administration and curriculum content were at the focus of two introductory workshops held in Salzburg. 15 highly motivated students from the German-speaking world participated in the UNIGIS professional workshop from 31th January to 1st February 2014.

The introductory UNIGIS MSc 'study day's on 6th and 7th February were attended by 40 new students from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Czech Republic. Diverse educational and professional backgrounds of UNIGIS students contribute to making personal get-togethers in Salzburg not only informative but also enriching and exciting start-up events.

The UNIGIS MSc and professional teams are wishing our new candidates all the best for their upcoming tasks, and are looking forward to seeing everyone soon again at one or aother future event!

UNIGIS MSc 2014
UNIGIS professional 01/2014

Saturday, February 8, 2014

UNIGIS at IGF'2014, Hyderabad, India!

UNIGIS was again invited to coordinate a Geospatial Capacity Building and Student Forum at this year's India Geospatial Forum held at the International Convention Centre, Hyderabad from 5th to 7th February, 2014. Geospatial Media and Communications celebrated this conference as its 100th event organised since 1998. The contributions UNIGIS has made in bringing together academia, industry and various organisations on a common platform for face-to-face discussions about a range of issues related to Geospatial Capacity Building continuously since 2003 were highly appreciated.

Dr. Shahnawaz, Director (S/E Asia), UNIGIS International lead a day long Geospatial Capacity Building and Student Forum on 7th February. More than 70 eminent academicians, industry leaders, successful professionals and young students discussed about the lessons learned from the past and their visions about future pathways based on a Report of the National Task Force on Geospatial Education released in August 2013 (Download PDF).

An Annual Meeting of the UNIGIS India community was organised on 6th February during the IGF' 2014 where more than 25 alumni, current students and instructors shared their views about the UNIGIS Online Distance Learning programme for Geoinformatics education. The major message from the alumni to the current and future students was that UNIGIS is truly dedicated to 'Enhancing the Competences of GI-professionals Worldwide' and it has been serving as a catalyst in the career advancement of a large number of aspirants for more than 20 years!

Monday, February 3, 2014

5th Open Source Opportunities in GIS Summer School

Open Web Services and Web Mapping Applications
From 7th to 11th of July 2014 will take place the 5th Summer School dedicated to Open Source Opportunities in GIS in Girona, organized by SIGTE of the University of Girona with the contribution of Prodevelop (OpenGeo partner) and the Nottingham Geoespatial Institute of the University of Nottingham.
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 2014 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 acquisition and importation of OpenStreetMap data into a spatial database, creation of geospatial web services and development of internet viewers for publishing geospatial data.
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.

Keep in mind!
Early fee: until 2nd of May 2014
Regular fee: from 3th of May to 27th of June 2014
More information