UNIGIS Workshop in Kathmandu!

An intensive workshop with alumni, current students and instructors of UNIGIS@Kathmandu was organised on 13-14 March, 2016 at Kathmandu Forestry College (KAFCOL), Nepal. The workshop focussed on two major objectives: 1. enhancing interaction among the above mentioned three groups for exchanging best practice and experiences for effective online learning, and 2. establishing an effective approach towards writing a high quality Master Thesis.

UNIGIS Kathmandu board members

Dr. Shahnawaz (Director, UNIGIS S/E Asia) and Dr. Ram Asheshwar Mandal (Coordinator, UNIGIS@Kathmandu) moderated the workshop as well as presented examples of  'good practice' from other member within the UNIGIS International network. They also emphasised that students preferably focus on analysing 'local issues', demonstrating the relevance and applicability of geospatial methodologies.

Dr. Ambika P. Gautam (Principal, KAFCOL) presided over a board meeting at the conclusion of the workshop. All board members agreed on organising 'outreach events' for contributing to the after-earthquake rehabilitation activities in Nepal as well as for enhancing the role of geospatial technologies throughout disaster management cycles and emergency preparedness processes.

Call to join The Indonesian Peat Prize to establish a national standard for mapping peatlands

The Indonesian Peat Prize is an ambitious, collaborative prize for finding a more accurate, faster and affordable method of mapping the extent and thickness of Indonesian peatlands. A $1 million prize purse will be awarded to the winning team along with their invaluable contributions to establishing a better national standard for mapping peatlands in Indonesia.

  

Students, engineers, consultants, product directors, scientists, research institutions, companies, universities, civil society organizations, non-governmental organizations—anyone with a great idea who meets the criteria is invited to join. People or teams from around the world can join forces with Indonesian partners.

The prize is hosted by the Indonesian Geospatial Information Agency (BIG) and sponsored by the Packard Foundation. 

For more detailed information on the prize and how teams can register, please visit (and share!) www.indonesianpeatprize.com. Registration is currently open and the deadline for proposals is May 11, 2016. 

UNIGIS UK presents new U_Lectures spring 2016

UNIGIS UK has published the new U_Lecture series for the spring 2016 season. Interesting topics and speakers have been selected such as disease ecosystems in Tanzania, mapping wilderness, and assessing land degradation and desertification. In the first U_Lecture on March 29th, Rachael Reynolds shares here insights about examining the impact of climate change upon disease ecosystems in Tanzania.

More information about the webinar schedule and registration.

UNIGIS promoting Youth Forum at GSI'2016, Noida!

The UNIGIS@India team led by Dr. Shahnawaz (Director, UNIGIS S/E Asia) played a prominent role in this year's 'GeoSmart India' conference and exhibition held from 1st to 3rd March, 2016 at the India Expo Centre and Mart, Greater Noida, India. UNIGIS coordinated a full day ‘Youth Forum’ on March 2nd, focussing on geospatial capacity building. More than 50 young students and entrepreneurs, eminent academics, prominent industry leaders and successful professionals joined the forum and shared their rich experiences with geospatial education, research, applications and employment opportunities.

(The presenters and the prize winners with UNIGIS Team at Youth Forum)

UNIGIS has introduced a cash prize since 2015 for the ‘Best Student Paper’ presented in the forum to encourage young students towards geospatial research. The numbers of presented papers in GSI'2016 were quite high and the quality of several papers was equally competitive so the jury decided to share the prize among the 3 top ranked papers. The winners are Mr. S. Abdul Rahaman (Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirapalli, India), Mr. Bibin Wilson (Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram, India), Mr. Kyle Younkin (Iowa State University, USA).

Dr. Shahnawaz was also invited as a panelist in the 'South Asia Geospatial Forum' which discussed various aspects focussed on 'Strengthening Regional Geospatial Collaboration through Policies & Data Infrastructure'. Apart from the experts, enterpreneurs and policy makers from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Sri Lanka; the panel discussion involved international collaborators from Europe and USA.