UNIGIS ... educating GIS professionals worldwide

UNIGIS joining FIG as Academic Member

2012-01-19T01:22:00.000-08:00

UNIGIS is proud to announce that at the latest Council Meeting of the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG), the Council decided to welcome UNIGIS as an Academic Member.

FIG was founded in Paris in 1878 and is the premier international organization representing the interests of surveyors worldwide. It is a federation of the national member associations and covers the whole range of professional fields within the global surveying community. It provides an international forum for discussion and development aiming to promote professional practice and standards.

Academic membership links universities or their faculties or departments, that are responsible for surveying education and related disciplines in more than 110 countries. These institutions promote education or research in one or more of the disciplines of surveying.

UNIGIS is honoured to share these objectives with FIG, and we are looking forward to fruitful cooperation in the future!

UNIGIS Int'l: Thanks to Anna Szukalska!

2011-12-13T09:49:00.000-08:00

Anna Szukalska from Krakow has managed the UNIGIS International Office for four years, coordinating meetings, communication and processes across all UNIGIS partner universities. In addition to managing external liaisons with industry partners and membership in associations, she assisted with marketing and 'kept the wheels spinning' when everyone else seemed to be busy with other tasks.

With the end of 2012 Anna will hand over her responsibilities at UNIGIS International to her successor, and focus on her work at UNIGIS Poland. We will miss her motivating spirit and sense of duty, leading our Association into many initiatives which were not feasible before. UNIGIS Chair Prof Josef Strobl expressed all network members' gratitude at the recent Krakow workshop, and thanked Anna for her contributions towards making UNIGIS the leading option for in-service professional continuing education in GIScience and Geoinformatics worldwide!

UNIGIS workshop of intake 2010 in Kraków, Poland.

2011-12-13T06:37:00.000-08:00

Last weekend almost 50 students of UNIGIS intake 2010 arrived to Kraków to take part in their fourth and last UNIGIS workshop. They were eager to meet each other and to strengthen their learning motivation for last three months of their studies.

Apart of the practical classes in remote sensing they attended lectures discussing new trends in GISience and worked in groups on the collaborative project issues.

Equally important to the ‘GIS’ part of thee workshop were more pedagogically oriented classes dealing with students learning styles, their feedback regarding UNIGIS obligatory modules and showing the results achieved by group and each student. Ten of students, who presented the best performance were awarded with geoinformation books.

The social importance of the workshop was highlighted by the common dinner in one of restaurants in the Kraków Old Town. We hope to have next tens of UNIGIS Kraków alumni soon!

Geospatial World Forum 2012 - UNIGIS as Co-Sponsor!

2011-12-11T05:41:00.000-08:00

UNIGIS International is a Co-Sponsor of the Geospatial World Forum' 2012 which will be organised from 23rd to 27th April, 2012 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Josef Strobl (Chair, UNIGIS International) has been invited to share his ideas, experiences and vision about 'Evolving Industry-Institution Network for Capacity Building' in GIScience & Systems. This exclusive session involves several eminent speakers including A P J Abdul Kalam (11th President, Republic of India) and Jack Dangermond (Founder and President, ESRI Inc., Redlands, California, USA).

As the premium global geospatial industry event, Geospatial World Forum will bring various stakeholders, service providers, policy makers as well as users to a common platform for leveraging opportunities of discussion, debate, interaction and global networking.

2012 - Year of Career Advancement?!

2011-11-27T07:22:00.001-08:00

Getting closer to the New Year means looking and planning ahead - what do I want to achieve as an individual, professionally, and in my career? For many of us this means further developing our competences and capacities, to continue our education and make sure to stay 'ahead of the pack'!

As Geoinformatics professionals, or with the ambition to establish ourselves in this rapidly growing and 'future-proof' discipline, this might mean to consider postgraduate studies. Not only because 'geospatial' is expanding as a job market, but also because there is rapid advancement and change in technologies: continuously 'updating ourselves' is more important than ever.The University of Salzburg UNIGIS program is a highly regarded and well proven academic qualification program for students and geospatial professionals worldwide.

For everybody considering the German language MSc program, this is the 'last call' to register for the 2012 class starting in early January. Candidates for English language courses are invited to apply for admission at one of the worldwide partner universities or study centres. At a time where 'life-long learning' is critically important for our future, continuing education is the perfect New Year's resolution!

UNIGIS anual network meeting in Equador

2011-11-07T02:01:00.000-08:00

The Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador hosted the anuual UNIGIS worldwide network meeting on October 27/28. UNIGIS partners were discussing about the tighter worldwide integration of curricula, mutual recognition of credits and development of shared modules covering specialized subjects.

Congratulations to Richrd Ressl and the UNIGIS Latin America team for managing a very succesfull meeting!

2011 UNIGIS Academic Excellence Awards

2011-10-28T11:46:00.000-07:00

During the UNIGIS annual network meeting at USFQ in Quito, Ecuador, the 2011 winners of the UNIGIS Academic Excellence price recognizing top Master's Theses were announced:

Hugo MARTINS (UNIGIS Lisbon) SIGLA WEBGIS PORTAL: An Open Source Web-based GIS application for the Portuguese Bluetongue Entomological Surveillance Program.
Stephanie BRAND (UNIGIS Salzburg) Roof surface classification with hyperspectral and laser scanning data - an assessment of Spectral Angle Mapper and Support Vector Machines.
Peter WITT (UNIGIS UK) The development of a predictive hiking travel time model accounting for terrain variations.

The jury with members from UNIGIS Krakow and Lisbon was chaired by Richard Armitage from UNIGIS Manchester, and acknowledged the high quality of this year's submissions of Master's Theses from across the worldwide UNIGIS network. Their judgement was based on the combined criteria of literature review, technical and methodological quality, relevance, presentation and originality - leading to a tight race for the top spot. Congratulations to winners!!

UNIGIS Academic Excellence Prize – 2011 Awards announced

2011-10-28T09:33:00.000-07:00

Hugo Martins from UNIGIS Lisbon has been announced as the winner of the worldwide UNIGIS Academic Excellence Prize 2011. His thesis titled ”SIGLA WEBGIS PORTAL: An Open Source Web-based GIS application for the Portuguese Bluetongue Entomological Surveillance Program” was voted by the International Review Board as the best UNIGIS thesis this year.

Stephanie Brand from UNIGIS Salzburg finished a very close second in a highly competitive finish. She submitted a thesis "Roof surface classification with hyperspectral and laser scanning data. An assessment of Spectral Angle Mapper and Support Vector Machines".

In the third place is Peter Witt from UNIGIS Manchester, with the thesis "The development of a predictive hiking travel time model accounting for terrain variations".

All winners will be invited to present their work in July 2012 at the Geoinformatics Forum Salzburg (www.gi-forum.org) where they will be publicly recognized for their outstanding academic achievement.

Congratulations!

UNIGIS at National GIScience Symposium in Indonesia!

2011-10-28T07:48:00.000-07:00

UNIGIS was invited to the 2nd 'Simposium Nasional Sains Geinformasi 2011’ (2nd National Symposium on Geoinformation Science) organised at the National University of Indonesia i.e. Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta on 27/28 October 2011. Dr. Shahnawaz (Director UNIGIS S/E Asia) gave an extended presentation on ‘Empowering GIScience Learners through UNIGIS Online Distance Education’.

Besides introducing the principles, activities, study programmes and experiences of UNIGIS, Dr. Shahnawaz emphasized that UNIGIS has the vision of ‘educating GIS-professionals worldwide’ and the mission is to integrate all the major countries into the UNIGIS network.

UNIGIS at GIS-Day in Quito

2011-10-26T10:07:00.000-07:00

'A dream is coming true', says Richard Resl, Director of UNIGIS Quito as he presents the success of UNIGIS in Latin America at the GIS-Day of the Universidad de San Francisco en Quito (USFQ) in Ecuador. The programme that started off at USFQ with a couple of students in 1999 has now spread over the contintent with a new study center in Colombia and other centers to be established, e.g. in Bolivia. Currently, more than 250 active students are enrolled with UNIGIS Lationamerica.
USFQ will host this year's meeting of UNIGIS International Association (UIA) on 27. / 28. October.

The 14th edition of UNIGIS Girona Profesional Master starts succesfully

2011-10-26T01:18:00.000-07:00

This new edition has more than 50 students who become part of the worldwide UNIGIS community. Year after year, the number of registration notes the success of our Programme, adapted to the emerging needs and demands more professional environment GIS.

We train professionals capable of managing, implementing and developing Geographic Information Systems to address and resolve the needs and demands of the professional world.

UNIGIS Girona team will work hard in order to guarantee the success and recognition of UNIGIS training offer.

UNIGIS Girona website

UNIGIS at Asia Geospatial Forum 2011!

2011-10-21T11:24:00.000-07:00

The only international academic exhibitor was UNIGIS at the Asia Geospatial Forum ’2011 held in Jakarta, Indonesia during 17-19 October. The director of UNIGIS network in S/E Asia, Dr. Shahnawaz, received a large number of visitors and informed them about the UNIGIS programmes of online distance education in Geographical Information Science (GISc). The majority of the visitors came from several institutions, organisations and companies located in various parts of Indonesia, and from China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam etc.

Many visitors expressed concern about and discussed the employment opportunities and challenges young people
of the ASEAN region are going to face in the coming years after Southeast Asia becomes a free-trade and free-mobility zone. They emphasized the role well established and internationally recognized educational programmes can play in enhancing the competences and skills of job seekers in the region.

UNIGIS was also given the honour of being judge of the poster exhibit competition!

UNIGIS Salzburg - New Intake

2011-10-17T03:03:00.000-07:00

Aiming to become GIS professionals after an intensive year of studying, a group of 17 professionals from a variety of application domains like archaeology or sea surveying started the UNIGIS professional program with an introductory workshop in Salzburg. As good as the weather was the overall atmosphere within the group – the UNIGIS team wishes a good start…

UNIGIS invited to INCA Conference in Chandigarh, India

2011-10-16T06:49:00.000-07:00

UNIGIS was invited to contribute to the 31st Annual conference of the Indian National Cartographic Association (INCA) organised from 15th to 17th October, 2011 in Chandigarh, India (http://www.incaindia.org/).

Dr. Shahnawaz was speaking on the "Dynamic Cartography for efficient Disaster Management", illustrating how highly qualified individuals are key to leveraging the potential of GIS in these (and other!) application domains.
During the opening session, Prof. Josef Strobl was invited to deliver the prestigious 'Professor S. P. Chatterjee Memorial Lecture' which is organised once every three years. Prof. Strobl discussed concepts around "Map Interfaces for Disaster Management" and demonstrated how GIScience and participative online GI services play significant roles in disaster management planning and action.

At a booth in the exhibit area, attendees had the opportunity to explore UNIGIS postgraduate study options in India, including the Universities of Madras, Goa and Panjab University at Chandigarh.

21 UP FOR UNIGIS UK!!!

2011-10-13T05:57:00.000-07:00

This September saw the 21^st intake of students to the programmes run by UNIGIS UK at the Universities of Manchester Metropolitan and Salford. The start of the new UNIGIS academic year also coincided with the introduction of UNIGIS UK’s brand new Master programmes for 2011/12. The three new programmes being

· MSc in Geographical Information Systems - which provides a broad grounding in the major aspects of contemporary GIS

· MSc in Applied GIS - which focuses on the applications of GIS and Geographical Information

· MSc in Geographical Information Technologies - which provides the opportunity to look at the technologies underpinning GI solutions

September also saw other exciting developments at UNIGIS UK. A new website for both students and the public was unveiled. However, perhaps the most exciting development has been the rolling out of a new virtual learning platform through which the programmes in the UK will be taught.

UNIGIS UK intends to hold a number of events over the coming year to celebrate its 21^st year and the 21^st year of the UNIGIS concept.

UNIGIS UK ATTENDS AGI

2011-10-13T05:21:00.000-07:00

In late September UNIGIS UK represented the UNIGIS Network at the annual conference of the Association for Geographic Information (AGI), which was held at the East Midlands Conference Centre in Nottingham (UK). The event, which is one of the major GIS meetings to be held in the UK, provided the UNIGIS UK team with the opportunity to formally launch our new MSc programmes. In addition to sponsoring the conference, UNIGIS UK also had a stand, which proved very popular with conference goers. A wide range of individuals and organisations, from both public and private sectors, stopped by the stand to look at what opportunities studying with UNIGIS might offer. The UK team were extremely satisfied with the opportunity the conference provided to get the education message over to the GI user community.

16th UNIGIS course in Hungary

2011-09-20T00:41:00.000-07:00

The Faculty of Geoinformatics (GEO) at the University of West Hungary (Szekesfehervar) started their 16th UNIGIS distance learning course this past weekend.

The postgraduate UNIGIS programme has proven to be very popular over the last fifteen years. In the 1990ies participants mostly hailed from the discipline of surveying, and included many university teachers. In the last decade the enrolment spectrum became much more diverse, includingforesters, geographers, agricultural engineers, information engineers, archaeologists etc. joining the programme.

During these fifteen years close to 250 students graduated and now are successful members of the geospatial industry in Hungaryand some of them abroad. More than 10% of the graduates now hold a PhD degree. Many Hungarian university teachers built their careers on a UNIGIS course.

Prof. Dr. Béla Márkus
Director, UNIGIS Hungary
Dept. Chair, UNIGIS International

Mobile Learning - UNIGIS is always with you!

2011-09-07T08:53:00.000-07:00

UNIGIS Orientation Workshop in Chandigarh, India!

2011-09-06T04:01:00.000-07:00

UNIGIS@PU_Chandigarh started their 3rd batch of students with an orientation workshop organised at the Department of Geography, Panjab University, Chandigarh (India) from 2nd to 4th September, 2011. Dr. Shahnawaz (UNIGIS Director S/E Asia) conducted the workshop with 9 students in a unique combination of course participants from Govt. agencies, UN officials, GI-industry managers, engineers and defence personnel.

Prof. Smita Bhutani (Course Coordinator) welcomed the incoming students to the course and expressed her commitment to serving these senior professionals and officials from various backgrounds. Dr. Krishna Mohan (Chairman Geography Dept.) stated that the department feels honoured in supporting advanced students from a range of highly regarded institutions.

During the concluding session, the new students expressed that the workshop was immensly important for getting into the depths of UNIGIS courses and it has completely changed their perception about GIScience education.

Club UNIGIS World on LinkedIn

2011-09-03T00:03:00.000-07:00

Club UNIGIS World, the alumni platform for graduates from UNIGIS distance learning masters and diploma programs now is established as a group on the professional network LinkedIn - everybody with a LinkedIn identity is invited to join this community.

Complementing university-specific alumni groups, this global meeting place joins graduates, students, current and former faculty from any UNIGIS distance learning program worldwide - as we all share dedication, interests and expertise in Geoinformatics and GIScience.

We expect this LinkedIn group to evolve into an interchange of information about events, new developments and ideas across our common fields of interest, and to serve as a means to identify contacts with an excellent background in UNIGIS.

UNIGIS Coordinating Academia-Industry Interface at HealthGIS'2011

2011-08-15T13:06:00.000-07:00

UNIGIS was invited to coordinate a GIScience education session in the form of a discussion forum for bringing academia and industry face-to-face during the 4th International Conference in HealthGIS'2011 held in Delhi, India during the first week of August.

Dr. Shahnawaz (Director S/E Asia, UNIGIS International) conducted the session 'Problems and Prospects of GIScience Education : A Discussion Forum' on 4th August. This brought together more than 60 participants including undergraduate and post-graduate students as well as teachers from 3 colleges and 3 universities, industry representatives from leading companies like ESRI India, from Government and non-governmental organisations.

The discussion was focussed around the employability of the recent graduates, which was analyzed in terms of matching demand for GIScience skills from GI-industry with the supply of skilled graduates seeking jobs. It was agreed that the academia-industry communications / interaction is almost non-existent and efforts will be made to achieve a win-win situation.

UNIGIS Salzburg - registration for 2012 MSc open!

2011-07-21T23:13:00.000-07:00

The next class of the highly regarded UNIGIS continuing education Masters at the University of Salzburg is set to start in early 2012 - with applications for admission accepted now. The UNIGIS MSc distance learning program is designed for working professionals building their careers in Geoinformatics. Depending on job, family and other commitments the MSc degree can be obtained in 2-3 years.

Most candidates have completed a first degree in a 'spatial' or ICT-related discipline and intend to develop a qualification for leadership positions in GIS or any application domain. With more than 1000 UNIGIS Salzburg alumni active in geospatial industries, graduates join a tightly-knit professional network of excellence with a global background in the UNIGIS International Association.

All enquiries should be directed to office[at]unigis.ac.at, early applications are encouraged due to the limited number of admissions per year. The above information applies for the German language UNIGIS MSc, English language candidates are accepted directly at the University of Salzburg or one of its international study centers throughout the year.

UNIGIS - Educating GIS Professionals Worldwide.

ESRI International User Conference in San Diego

2011-07-14T11:12:00.001-07:00

UNIGIS International again is actively participating at the annual ESRI International User Conference in San Diego. From Tuesday onwards information on all UNIGIS Distance Learning programs is provided at our booth in the main exhibit hall.

Numerous visitors stopped by to find out about UNIGIS postgraduate education offerings - current and prospective students, UNIGIS alumni as well as university faculty / staff. UNIGIS programs are represented by faculty from several UNIGIS member institutions.

Representatives from UNIGIS USC (Los Angeles), Quito, Salzburg and Krakow staff the booth and actively promote UNIGIS studies worldwide.

UIA Academic Excellence Prize – Award Ceremony

2011-07-11T11:30:00.000-07:00

Two of the UNIGIS Academic Excellence Prize 2010 winners - Eva Willersley (UNIGIS Manchester) and Hans-Jörg Stark (UNIGIS Salzburg) presented their top quality MSc theses at the GI_Forum 2011 in Salzburg.

The thesis from Eva Willersley titled “Methods of extracting a coastline from satellite imagery and assessing the accuracy” was considered as the best UNIGIS thesis in 2010. Hans-Jörg Stark presented another winning thesis titled "Quality assurance of crowdsourced geocoded address-data within OpenAddresses - Concepts and Implementation".

After presentation at the GI_Forum they were publicly awarded with the trophy by UNIGIS International chair Josef Strobl in recognition of their work and the academic achievement. Congratulations!

The competition for the 2011 Prize is currently open. All UNIGIS partner universities worldwide are encouraged to take part in the competition.

UNIGIS at AGIT and GI_Forum

2011-07-02T08:32:00.000-07:00

Traditionally, the annual GI_Forum and AGIT Symposia at the University of Salzburg from July 4-8 are highlights for the UNIGIS community: more than 100 students and alumni will not only actively participate in conference events, but will meet with fellow students and the UNIGIS team face-to-face as a welcome break from telecommunication-heavy distance learning.

Some UNIGIS graduates will be recognized for their achievements, e.g. the winners of the UNIGIS International Association top Masters theses have the chance to present their work immediately following Ian Dowman's keynote on Thursday morning.

The Z_GIS - UNIGIS booth in the exhibit area again will serve as the meeting point for UNIGIS students, graduates and faculty throughout the conference. This location is the best point for information and consulting for prospective future students in the MSc and professional certificate programmes: AGIT / GI_Forum mark the opening of the registration period for the next UNIGIS courses starting in October 2011 (UNIGIS professional) and January 2012 (UNIGIS MSc)!

Gudrun Wallentin leading Salzburg UNIGIS MSc

2011-07-01T21:31:00.000-07:00

Gudrun Wallentin has been promoted to director of studies, UNIGIS MSc at the University of Salzburg from July 1, 2011. Gudrun is joining the UNIGIS Salzburg team from the Institute of GIScience, Austrian Academy of Sciences and will be coordinating this highly regarded distance learning Masters programs (in English and German language) in Geographic Information Systems and Science!

She has a degree in ecology from the University of Innsbruck, several years of experience in managing a regional nature / conservation park in the Tyrolean Alps, subsequently received an MSc in GIS from the University of Edinburgh and her PhD for the thesis 'Individual Based Models in Ecology', exploring and applying spatiotemporal concepts in regionalized climate change analysis.

Dr Wallentin will not only provide leadership and direction to the continuous development of UNIGIS curricula, learning media and online pedagogy, but also will offer supervision and consulting to current and prospective UNIGIS students, and will contribute her experience and knowledge in GIScience to the development of future generations of GIS experts!

Welcome, Gudrun - we're glad to have you on board!!

UNIGIS at Geoinformatik 2011

2011-06-16T08:04:00.000-07:00

For the third time UNIGIS presents its distance-learning programs at the 'Geoinformatik', a symposium on GIS with a small trade fair, hosted by the University of Münster (Germany) this year. The UNIGIS-booth serves as meeting point for UNIGIS-Alumni, active participants and interested (future) students. As a novelty we share our booth with the research studio iSPACE in order to emphasize the strong integration of UNIGIS in a vital network of research and industrial application.
For those who haven’t made it to Münster the next opportunity to get in touch with UNIGIS lies straight ahead: visit us at GI-Forum and AGIT, July 5-8 in Salzburg.

UNIGIS Academic Excellence Prize 2011

2011-06-02T04:21:00.000-07:00

The UNIGIS International Association is pleased to announce the next 'UNIGIS International Academic Excellence Prize' competition. The Academic Excellence Prize, launched by UIA in 2007/08, is awarded on an annual basis to a student, from one of the UNIGIS Centers Worldwide, who produces the most outstanding MSc Dissertation/Thesis or paper during the academic year.

All UNIGIS centers are encouraged to take part in the competition. Centres are reminded that they can only enter two students in any one year.

The criteria used to evaluate the theses include: technical quality, quality of literature review, relevance, presentation and originality. The standard of the work submitted last year was very high and UIA expect the same high standards this time.

The competition for the 2011 Prize is now open. Candidates must submit their MSc thesis or their paper to the graduating UIA partner institution no later than August 31.

UNIGIS professional group in Salzburg started

2011-05-28T02:10:00.000-07:00

For the May intake of the UNIGIS professional certificate course, 13 out of 16 new students met in Salzburg to get to know each other and together start into an intensive year of studying. With the exception of this introductory workshop UNIGIS professional is completely based on online distance learning: the programme consists of seven core modules plus electives with a total workload of 60 ECTS. The curriculum covers spatial data acquisition, modeling, management and visualisation as well as spatial analysis and application software development. A great variety of real world exercises and assignments ensure the practical applicability of the learned concepts. The UNIGIS Salzburg team enjoyed the good atmosphere of the workshop and wishes a good start into the first module!

UNIGIS en América Latina – first intake 2011

2011-04-22T05:37:00.000-07:00

UNIGIS en América Latina is happy to announce its first intake in 2011. 70 students from Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia, Argentina, Venezuela and Nicaragua were successfully enrolled in the two year UNIGIS master's program at the University San Francisco de Quito, the coordinating university of the UNIGIS program in Latin America. Two residential seminars were held to welcome the new students in Quito, Ecuador and Cali, Colombia. Please, don’t hesitate to get to know some of our new students: http://vimeo.com/21611497

Welcome – Bienvenidos!

UNIGIS Invited to ISPRS WG VI/4 - ISRS Joint International Workshop!

2011-04-08T11:14:00.000-07:00

UNIGIS was invited to the International Workshop on 'Multinational Geomatics Capacity Building–Achievements and Challenges' jointly organised by the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote

Sensing WG VI/4 and Indian Society for Remote Sensing, India. The workshop was organised at the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Dehradun (India) on 7-8 April, 2011. More than 100 delegates from India, Nepal, Nigeria, Taiwan, Thailand, Netherlands and Austria took part in the 2 day international workshop. The participants came from various government organisations as well as from education and research institutions.

Dr. Shahnawaz (Director, UNIGIS S/E Asia) delivered the leading talk in the technical session on ‘Distance and e-Learning Capacity Building Initiatives and Outreach in India and International Level’ and presented the role UNIGIS is playing in the region as well as at the international level. It was observed that UNIGIS is the only network of institutions offering Online Distance Education in GIScience worldwide.

II Open Source Opportunities in GIS Summer School. Open your mind!

2011-04-06T02:32:00.000-07:00

The II Open Source Opportunities in GIS Summer School, organized by the GIS and Remote Sensing Center –SIGTE- of the University of Girona, will be held in Girona from June 28 to July 7, 2011.

The aim of this Summer School is to provide a space for knowledge and training of techniques, methods and resources in order to prepare students in an international working environment and competitive skills, beyond exploring the potential of Free and Open Source Software for Geographic Information Systems (GIS).

In recent years, free and open source software for GIS is gaining in strength as a real alternative to privative software. In the case of GIS, this situation represents a particularly attractive alternative because the high cost of many privative software licenses which can restrict the use of GIS and the possibilities of this software, such as the access to the source code for adapting it to users’ needs. Free and Open Source Software is in an exciting growth phase and the range of products is increasingly broad and diverse, and there is a wide range of software, so mastering this software is a key factor for professionals.

The II Open Source Opportunities in GIS Summer School is aimed at students and professionals interested in applying open source GIS in their work and research as well as sharing knowledge and experiences with a wide international audience.

Information of interest:

- Website: II Open Source Opportunities in GIS Summer School
- Pre-registration: April 4-29, 2011
- Registration: June 1, 2011 (deadline)

University of Madras preparing to join UNIGIS Network!

2011-03-02T10:38:00.000-08:00

The Centre for Geoinformatics (Z_GIS) at the University of Salzburg (Austria) and the University of Madras (India) have entered into an Academic Cooperation Agreement for jointly offering UNIGIS study programmes at the Department of Geography, University of Madras.

Col. Dr. G. Thiruvasagam, Vice Chancellor, University of Madras and Dr. Shahnawaz, Director (South & Southeast Asia), UNIGIS Salzburg International exchanged the agreement on March 1, 2011 in the presence of Dr. (Ms) Chitra Krishnan, Director, International Centre of the University of Madras and Dr. R. Jaganathan, Head of the Department of Geography.

The University of Madras takes pride in completing its 153rd year of imparting quality education in the country and its Department of Geography has graduated a number of excellent scholars and administrators over the last 70 years.

The two partner institutions plan to launch the UNIGIS joint-study programme during summer 2011.

The 8th edition of UNIGIS studies in Kraków, Poland.

2011-02-26T01:38:00.000-08:00

Last weekend students of intake 2011 took part in the introductory UNIGIS workshop in Kraków. In such a way the eighth edition of postgraduate studies in Geographic Information Science & Systems started at the Jagiellonian University - the UNIGIS centre in Poland.

Two years of distance learning is quite challenging, therefore the workshop was focused on giving students the best possible start into their adventure with UNIGIS. They were involved in a couple of acivities, which were supposed to establish a good communication basis among themselves and with the UNIGIS Kraków team. Some organizational and technical introductions were essential as well.

Students of intake 2011 are highly motivated to achieve their goal - becoming members of the UNIGIS alumni community. Good luck!

UNIGIS in Nepal: on track towards launch!

2011-02-05T22:50:00.000-08:00

The UNIGIS orientation workshop organised in Kathmandu 'is a further step towards establishing a UNIGIS study centre in Nepal', said Dr. Shahnawaz (Director South & Southeast Asia, UNIGIS International). He elaborated that this collaboration was initiated already in 2010, but the granting of formal permission from the Ministry of Education can only be facilitated by the new incoming Nepalese Government. Now this process is expected to complete within the next weeks. Anticipating a favourable outcome, a faculty orientation workshop was conducted at the partner institution Kathmandu Forestry College (KAFCOL: www.kafcol.edu.np) on 5^th February, 2011. 15 highly motivated individuals attended, including Dr. Bishnu Hari Pandit (Principal KAFCOL), Dr. Krishna Prasad Poudel (Coordinator, UNIGIS at KAFCOL), members of the academic board, other faculty members as well as some potential course participants.

KAFCOL, which is a college affiliated with Tribhuvan University, will offer UNIGIS qualifications under a joint study programme with the Centre for Geoinformatics (Z_GIS: www.uni-salzburg.at/zgis), University of Salzburg, Austria.

52 new students georeferenced at UNIGIS Salzburg

2011-02-05T12:02:00.000-08:00

Today, a total of 52 new students in the UNIGIS MSc and UNIGISprofessional certificate programmes finished their introductory orientation workshops at the University of Salzburg. Since intensive communication, mutual support and working in virtually connected groups is absolutely essential for success in a distance learning program, getting to know each other well is one key objective during these kick-off workshops.

The agenda kept everybody busy with exploring one's own motivation and curricular options, working through individual SWOT analyses and elective GIS software options, as well as establishing Web 2.0 communications and exploring the benefits of an ePortfolio.

Students from a wide variety of backgrounds including Cartography, Planning, Biology, Archeology, IT, Environmental Studies, Forestry, Geography and many others joined in their common objective to enhance their professional qualifications and careers with on emphasis on Geoinformatics, leveraging Geospatial Science and Technologies to tackle their mission and tasks from an explicit spatial perspective.

While spatial is not any more special, 'geospatial' today is even more important to provide universal 'context' for our lives and personal roles in our environments, societies and professions.

Faculty workshop in Chandigarh

2011-01-22T11:36:00.000-08:00

With the aim of supporting and further developing the recently started study center at the Panjab University in Chandigarh (northern India) Prof Josef Strobl und UNIGIS regional director Dr Shahnawaz conducted a faculty workshop on Jan 22, 2011. Led by Geography Department chair Prof Krishna Mohan and programme coordinator Prof Smita Bhutani seven module instructors gathered for a day focused on student communication and support, effective use of the UNIGIS learning environment and for discussion of organisational matters.

Established in 1960, the Department of Geography, Panjab University, has achieved a place of eminence in research and teaching. The Department is one of the country's premier centres for postgraduate studies in Geography. It offers opportunities for Ph.D., M.Phil, and postgraduate Degree in Geography, Remote Sensing & GIS and Disaster Management. The M.Sc. in Geographic Information Systems and Science and a Diploma in Geoinformatics are offered as distance learning options in collaboration with University of Salzburg, Austria.

UNIGIS at Geospatial World Forum

2011-01-18T21:02:00.000-08:00

UNIGIS is again supporting the biannual Geospatial World Forum in Hyderabad as a key 'knowledge partner'. During award night, Prof Josef Strobl spoke on behalf of the selection jury before prices were handed to recipients by the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi.

Students, graduates and everybody interested in UNIGIS education is meeting at the UNIGIS booth in the exhibit area, representing all partner institutions within UNIGIS India: the Universities of Goa and Chandigarh, as well as AIILSG offering UNGIS professional from various locations.

As the leading educational organisation at the Geospatial World Forum, UNIGIS is coordinating and leading the 'Integrated Design Education Forum' discussing the 'Geodesign' aspects of academic education in GIS, Geoinformatics and Geographic Information Science.

Top academic honours for UNIGIS Hungary alumnus

2010-12-05T07:46:00.000-08:00

On Nov 30, Peter Gyenizse (UNIGIS Hungary 2004) successfully finished his habilitation process, the highest level of academic qualification in his country. The presentation of his scientific work is titled "An investigation of the physical and social impacts on the urban development of Pécs using GIS".

Pécs, the most populous city of Southern Transdanubia (Southwest-Hungary), is located on the southern foothills and slopes of the Mecsek Mountains and in the bottom of the Pécs Basin. P. Gyenizse's study applies GIS methodology to explore the major physical and social potentials and their influence on the urban environment.

During the last fifteen years almost 200 student have graduated in Geoinformatics from the University of West Hungary. More than 10% of these alumni are holding a PhD degree, which reflects the high quality of this postgraduate course.

The 13th edition of UNIGIS Girona Professional Master in GIS Management starts!

2010-10-18T03:49:00.001-07:00

The 13th edition is running and almost 70 new students are part of the worldwide UNIGIS community.

It is a pleasure to have, year after year, this number of registrations wich notes the success of UNIGIS training programs in GIS, adapting to the needs and demands of professional environment.

Another year, UNIGIS Girona will work hard in order to guarantee the success and recognition of UNIGIS training offer.

UNIGIS Girona website

UNIGIS at Intergeo Trade Fair, Cologne

2010-10-06T06:14:00.000-07:00

The UNIGIS Salzburg team is advising prospective students in their MSc and professional certificate programs at this year's Intergeo exhibit on Cologne, Germany. Interest in obtaining a widely recognized advanced qualification in Geoinformatics / GIScience continues to draw numerous visitors. At this increasingly international event Asia plays an important role, very much in line with the overall development of the UNIGIS program. Of course, as always, the UNIGIS booth is an important meeting place for the many UNIGIS alumni working at Intergeo or just attending the exhibits.

1st Latin American GIS education conference

2010-10-05T07:37:00.000-07:00

On September 21st, UNIGIS co-organized the first Latin American Conference on GIS-Education (http://www.sigsa.info/lauc2010/edu.html) in cooperation with ESRI. The conference was hosted by ESRI’s Mexican representative SIGSA (http://www.sigsa.info) and brought together GIS-users, teachers and other faculty from all over Latin America. A curriculum development workshop was held by the director of the UNIGIS program in Latin America, Richard Resl from the University San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador. Nearly 200 participants discussed common goals and challenges for developing and implementing up-to-date GI curricula that satisfy the specific needs of students and professionals in order to meet the growing demand for high quality GIS-Education in Latin America.

Winners of the UIA Academic Excellence Prize 2010

2010-10-04T03:48:00.000-07:00

The UNIGIS International Association (UIA) would like to announce this year’s winners of its worldwide Academic Excellence Prize. The Prize, initiated in 2008, is presented to the student, or students, who submits the best MSc thesis (or paper based on their thesis) during the academic year. This year the competition was very tight with six excellent high quality MSc theses and a paper being considered by the UIA Review Board. In the end the panel decided to make three awards.

Eva Willerslev from UNIGIS Manchester has been announced as the winner of the UNIGIS Academic Excellence Prize 2010. Her thesis titled “Methods of extracting a coastline from satellite imagery and assessing the accuracy” was considered unanimously by the Review Board as the best thesis this year.

In second place is Pedro Sarmento from UNIGIS Portugal, with a paper “Incorporating reference classification uncertainty into the analysis of land cover accuracy”.

In the third place is Hans-Jörg Stark from UNIGIS Sakzburg, with the thesis "Quality assurance of crowdsourced geocoded address-data within OpenAddresses - Concepts and Implementation".

Congratulations! The Review Board would like to commend these individuals for the high quality of their research.

The competition for the 2011 Prize is now open.

Master Theses Workshop

2010-10-02T10:59:00.000-07:00

UNIGIS Salzburg students were attending a September 24/25 workshop presenting and discussing their thesis projects. More than 20 topics ranging across a variety of application domains, from a methodology focus to systems implementation and from business cases to educational perspectives demonstrated the enormous width and depth of GIScience!
The UNIGIS Salzburg team is wishing everybody well with the final stages of their MSc thesis - and congratulates Thomas Purfürst who was first with submitting his work on GNSS signal quality under forest canopy.

UNIGIS Annual Partner Conference

2010-09-17T11:16:00.000-07:00

This year, UNIGIS partner universities are convening at ISEGI in Lisbon, Portugal for their annual network coordination conference. Topics like curriculum and learning media development are on the agenda just like joint summer schools, credit transfer and enhancements for the worldwide community of UNIGIS alumni.

With the UNIGIS network approaching its third decade of providing distance learning to GIS/GIScience professionals around the world, its reach now has expanded to all continents and student numbers continue to grow at an impressive pace - testimony to the high quality of education recognized across the GIS industry and all application domains.

UNIGIS chair Prof. Josef Strobl emphasizes: "Our network is now established as THE global virtual university for GIScience, and we are proud of making valuable contributions to the evolving GIS industry and to establishing Spatial Data Infrastructures worldwide!"

UNIGIS Orientation / Promotion workshop in India

2010-09-11T11:42:00.001-07:00

“The appreciation and recognition of the UNIGIS network of GIScience education is increasing among students from various disciplines in India“ says Dr. Shahnawaz (Director S&SE Asia, UNIGIS International). This conclusion is based on the educational backgrounds of 26 students and 3 teachers / professionals participating in the UNIGIS orientation workshop organised at the UNIGIS AIILSG study centre, Cochin, Kerala (www.unigis.net/aiilsg_india) on 4th September, 2010. Most of the the participants in this one-day workshop are pursuing postgraduate studies in oceanography, environmental science and geography at various colleges in Kerala.

After open-floor discussions with the participants, Mr. V. Govindankutty (Coordinator, UNIGIS@AIILSG_India) concluded that many students aspire to obtain GI-qualifications but there are hardly any opportunities for quality GIScience education in Kerela. He expressed the urge to organise UNIGIS workshops in various part of Kerala.

UNIGIS Faculty Workshop - Indonesia

2010-08-08T03:44:00.000-07:00

Within the context of working with potential new partners within the UNIGIS network in Southeast Asia, UNIGIS regional director Dr. Shahnawaz organised a 3 days faculty development workshop at the Bina Nusantara University (www.binus.ac.id), Jakarta, Indonesia from August 4-6, 2010.

29 faculty participated in the workshop, all with a computer science background. The workshop was themed "Spatial Management with GIScience" and focussed on developing spatial perspectives among computer science specialists. Besides delivering conceptual lectures, practical exercises were completed using professional GIS software. Following this workshop, options for continued UNIGIS collaboration were discussed during a half day meeting with BINUS administration on August 7.

Expanded UNIGIS presence across Asia

2010-07-27T09:05:00.000-07:00

At this year's MapAsia conference in Kuala Lumpur, UNIGIS regional director Dr Shahnawaz had the opportunity to present postgraduate distance education as an innovative option for professional and personal development to delegates from a range of disciplines and backgrounds. Interest in pursuing continuing education in GIScience and GIS was intense, demonstrating accelerated growth across the GIS industry!

Ms. Norizah Kamarudin, Junior Faculty and PhD candidate at the Department of Forestry, University Putra Malaysia was welcoming visitors at the UNIGIS exhibition booth.

On the closing day of MapAsia, Prof Josef Strobl keynoted and chaired the Capacity Building Forum, a key platform for GIS educators from institutions in S/E Asia.

UNIGIS at ESRI International User Conference in San Diego

2010-07-19T03:34:00.000-07:00

UNIGIS actively participated in the ESRI International User Conference, July 12-16 2010.
Monday night UNIGIS was present at the 'Academic GIS Program Fair', and from Tuesday to Thursday was available for attendees at a large booth in the main exhibit hall, providing information on all UNIGIS Distance Learning offerings worldwide. A lot of people stopped by to find out about UNIGIS: current UNIGIS students and alumni, prospective UNIGIS students, university faculty/staff as well as prospective UNIGIS member institutions.
Representatives from UNIGIS USC, Latin America, Salzburg and Poland staffed the booth, presented UNIGIS programs and actively promoted UNIGIS studies worldwide.

UIA Academic Excellence Prize 2009 – Award Ceremony

2010-07-19T02:00:00.001-07:00

Christof Amelunxen (UNIGIS Salzburg), winner of the Academic Excellence Prize 2009 presented his top quality MSc thesis at the GI_Forum 2010 in Salzburg. His thesis titled: “An approach to Geocoding Based on Volunteered Spatial Data” was unanimously considered by the Review Board as the best UNIGIS thesis worldwide submitted in the academic year 2008/9.

After his presentation at the GI_Forum he was publicly awarded with the price and trophy by Josef Strobl in recognition of his work and the academic achievement. Congratulations!

The competition for the 2010 Prize is currently open. All UNIGIS partner universities worldwide are encouraged to take part in the competition.

UNIGIS professional – Workshop in Salzburg

2010-06-14T02:06:00.000-07:00

On Friday 11th and Saturday 12th a new intake of UNIGIS professional students started into a demanding but interesting year of learning applied GIS by getting together in Salzburg for an introductory workshop. Participants of the German language version of the UNIGIS professional certificate course typically originate from Austria, Germany or Switzerland, although Austria was a bit underrepresented with just one student in this group. The team from Salzburg wishes a good start and looks forward to interesting discussions on GIS-topics!

UNIGIS Netherlands Conference

2010-06-05T03:10:00.000-07:00

UNIGIS Amsterdam is again inviting to the annual UNIGIS conference, June 14-18. The conference program includes multiple workshops on topics ranging from Spatial Analysis: a case study on malaria to Analysing & explaining land use change and will conclude with an Alumni Day on June 18 themed 'Risk Assessment & GIS'.

The opening lecture will be given by Prof Henk Scholten, the UNIGIS Amsterdam program director. While time has been set aside to watch soccer World Championship matches, numerous presentations and activities will introduce participants to the hot topics in today's world of GIS.

Wishing everybody a successful conference and reunion!

UNIGIS in Saudi Arabia

2010-05-21T09:45:00.000-07:00

In the presence of the Saudi Minister of Higher Education, His Excellency Dr. Khalid Al Anqari on April 28, 2010 an academic cooperation agreement was signed between King Abdulaziz University of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and the University of Salzburg Center for Geoinformatics (Z_GIS).
The signatories Prof Osama S. Tayyeb, President of King Abdulaziz University (KAU) and Prof Josef Strobl, Chair of UNIGIS International and Director of Z_GIS are aiming at establishing a dual degree program between these two universities. With the intent of starting a joint postgraduate distance learning program later in 2010, the globally recognized UNIGIS qualifications will be made available to students from Saudi Arabia.
The Department of Geography, KAU will serve as a UNIGIS study centre and thus extend the reach of UNIGIS into the Arab Peninsula. Prof Al-Doaan, chair of the KAU Geography Department has been providing leadership to this initiative throughout the last year, and Dr. Mohamed Amri will be serving as program coordinator. Further program details will be available through www.unigis.net/jeddah!

UNIGIS with ESRI at Latin America GIS Edu Conference

2010-05-01T03:19:00.000-07:00

UNIGIS is cooperating with ESRI in organising and contributing to the Latin America GIS Education Conference hosted by SIGSA, announced for September 21, 2010 in Mexico City: http://www.sigsa.info/lauc2010/edu.html

The conference flyer offers additional details for this event which will bring together the Latin America GIS educators' community sharing their experiences, discussing curricula, educational pedagogies and methods, and models for GIS labs.

UIA Academic Excellence Prize 2010

2010-04-21T01:52:00.000-07:00

The UNIGIS International Association (UIA) is pleased to announce the third 'UNIGIS International Academic Excellence Price' competition. We would like to recognize authors of the most outstanding master theses (or published scientific papers based upon a thesis) submitted at UNIGIS universities worldwide during the academic year 2009/10.

The criteria used to evaluate the theses include: technical quality, quality of literature review, relevance, presentation and originality. We are hoping for standards as high as last year.

The competition for the 2010 Prize is now open. Candidates must submit their MSc thesis or their paper through the respective UIA partner institution no later than July 15.

UNIGIS en America Latina – first intake 2010

2010-04-05T23:07:00.000-07:00

The UNIGIS program in Latin America that is coordinated by the University San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) is happy to announce its first intake in 2010. By the end of March a group of 50 postgraduate students from Ecuador, Colombia and other Latin American countries were successfully enrolled in the two year UNIGIS master program. Two residential seminars were held to welcome the new students on March, 20th at USFQ, Quito (Ecuador) and March 27th at CIAT (International Center for Tropical Agriculture, Cali, Colombia). The recently enrolled students can count on a distance learning qualification offered in Spanish language that is specifically tailored to particular needs of GIS professionals in Latin America. Welcome – Bienvenidos!

UNIGIS worldwide - record number of students in 2009!

2010-03-07T00:14:00.000-08:00

For the first time, the annual number of new students starting with a postgraduate UNIGIS distance learning / online studies program at one of the worldwide partner universities including study centres has exceeded 500. The increasing popularity of UNIGIS qualifications -2010 numbers are expected to be significantly higher- demonstrates the importance of lifelong learning in a growing field like Geographic Information Systems and Geoinformatics.
This success emphasizes the objective to 'Educate GIS Professionals Worldwide', with UNIGIS having reached the aim of being a virtual and multilingual university, connecting partner universities worldwide.

UNIGIS Krakow - Intro Workshop for New Students

2010-02-15T01:37:00.001-08:00

On Saturday, February 13 the UNIGIS community was enlarged with a group of 50 new MSc students from Poland. They participated at the opening residential UNIGIS workshop (Feb 13-14) in Krakow, at the Jagiellonian University.

This intake is supported by the European Social Fund within a project dedicated to employees at enterprises. The group is strong, highly motivated and ambitious. All share the common goal of achieving an advanced qualification in Geographic Information Science & Systems in order to stimulate their careers and to enhance their professional skills.

50th UNIGISprofessional Study Group

2010-02-06T06:50:00.000-08:00

Today the 50th group of students have commenced the 1-year programme leading to their academic certificate in Geoinformatics. This brings the grand total of students and alumni in this German language course offered by Salzburg University's Centre for Geoinformatics to 693.

Typically 4 groups per year start with a curriculum comprising 7 compulsory modules before choosing elective subjects or an optional practical project. With a completion rate of above 85% this programme ranks at the top of successful distance learning qualifications. "I continue to be amazed by the dedication and motivation of our students!" says Christoph Traun, UNIGIS professional director of studies.
English language postgraduate certificate programmes following the same curriculum are offered by UNIGIS Salzburg study centres in several countries. GIS professionals with a UNIGIS certificate are highly regarded and sought after around the world and continue to make significant contributions to advanced applications of GIS across all disciplines and domains.

Salzburg MSc students gather for startup workshop

2010-02-04T10:36:00.000-08:00

The 2010 class of UNIGIS students in the German language MSc programme today met for their first residential workshop at Salzburg University's Centre for Geoinformatics. Again a very diverse group from a range of academic disciplines and professional backgrounds had decided to focus their continuing eduation on Geoinformatics and Geographic Information Science.
This annual startup workshop is dedicated to building a community of learners, developing the foundations of successful online learning by creating a strong social network sharing a sense of purpose, common goals and a spirit of mutual support.
By exploring the experience of alumni from previous classes the new students were able to get a headstart into their curriculum as well as access to the rich set of experiences how to succeed through the motivational, organisational and scheduling challenges of a postgraduate online distance learning programme.

The UNIGIS team is wishing everybody a successful and rewarding path throughout this academic, personal and professional challenge!

Career Orientation for UNIGIS Noida Students

2010-01-18T23:01:00.000-08:00

The current UNIGIS Postgraduate Diploma in Geoinformatics (UNIGIS professional) students at the GIS Institute Noida met for a workshop with Prof. Josef Strobl and Dr. Shahnawaz on January 18th. Course coordinator Anshu Miglani was proud to introduce all 34 participants and concluded that "students now have a much clearer picture how to focus their career development efforts, combining their personal strengths with the highly regarded UNIGIS qualification". In addition, the workshop introduced the concept of real time Geoinformatics, spawning lively discussions beyond the scheduled end of the event.

GISociety - Chandigarh Lecture

2010-01-18T22:46:00.000-08:00

UNIGIS was introduced to the Indian Society for Remote Sensing at a public lecture on "Managing our Societies with GIS&T" by UNIGIS Chair Josef Strobl on June 16 at SASE (Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment) in Chandigarh. This lecture was part of a workshop with the first group of UNIGIS MSc students at Panjab University (PU). Prof. Surya Kant, PU UNIGIS coordinator states: "we are proud to work with outstanding postgraduate students from a range of professions, and looking forward to significantly expanding the joint MSc programme with the University of Salzburg in the near future".

MSc class of 2010 - Salzburg

2010-01-14T23:16:00.000-08:00

With the beginning of 2010 this year's class of (German language) MSc students at the University of Salzburg has launched with 50 participants aiming at graduating with an MSc in Geographic Information Science & Systems. They will meet in Salzburg for their first residential workshop Feb. 4-6, and already have started their online coursework. The UNIGIS postgraduate distance learning programme continues to be the most successful and most widely recognized continuing education qualification for GIS professionals worldwide.

Gerhard BELINA - UNIGIS International Fellow

2009-12-30T02:06:00.000-08:00

The UNIGIS International Association (UIA) is proud to announce the honors award of "UNIGIS International Fellow", a distinction for UNIGIS faculty with an outstanding role on an international level within UNIGIS. This distinction of excellence is awarded to Mr. Gerhard Belina, Senior Consultant and Lecturer. His merits are in the area of high level consulting, learning materials development and instruction for German, English and Spanish language UNIGIS learning materials. He has been serving as a UNIGIS instructor in the areas of DBMS, distributed architectures etc., and is a lecturer for the same subjects at the University of Salzburg and FH Carinthia. After his studies in Innsbruck, Salzburg and San Diego he had a distinguished career with Intergraph and now is an independent consultant working primarily with European and other international institutions. Congratulations!

In previous years this distinction was awarded to: Charles Burnett (2004), Wayne Forsythe (2005), Peter Zeil (2005), Nigel Trodd (2005), Nikolaus Strobel (2005) and Prof. Mohamed Aziz (2006).

UNIGIS Academic Excellence Prize – 2009 Awards announced

2009-11-19T03:08:00.000-08:00

Christof Amelunxen from UNIGIS Salzburg has been announced as the winner of the worldwide UNIGIS Academic Excellence Prize 2009. His thesis titled ”An Approach to Geocoding based on Volunteered Spatial Data” not only led to an award with distinction of his MSc in GIScience by the University of Salzburg, but recently was voted by the International Review Board as the best (English language) UNIGIS thesis this year.

Pedro Pinto from UNIGIS Portugal finished a very close second in a highly competitive finish. He submitted a paper "Urban growth on coastal erosion vulnerable stretches" published in Journal of Coastal Research, Vol. 2, Special Issue 56, pp. 1567-1571.

Both winners will be invited to present their work in July 2010 at the Geoinformatics Forum Salzburg (www.gi-forum.org) where they will be publicly recognized for their outstanding academic achievement.

Congratulations!

Annual Meeting - Girona, Spain

2009-11-14T10:14:00.002-08:00

The Spanish/Catalan UNIGIS site in Girona again hosted the annual UNIGIS worldwide network meeting on Nov 13/14, 2009. Representatives from 11 university partner sites were discussing eLearning didactics, curriculum development and new learning materials as well as innovative approaches to acquiring new GIS qualifications.
Integration among UNIGIS partner institutions is making substantial progress due to the shared access to learning resources, credit recognition and joint events like summer schools and workshops.
Links with the GIS industry are continuously enhanced through cooperation with software companies, publishers and consulting companies, assuring that UNIGIS curricula, accompanying software and application case studies remain on top of recent developments.
Congratulations to Gemma Boix and her team at the University of Girona for managing a very successful meeting.

Two new UNIGIS study centres in India

2009-09-23T11:59:00.000-07:00

UNIGIS India (www.unigis.net/India) has launched programmes at 2 new study centres in India. The new centres have been established at Panjab University, Chandigarh (www.unigis.net/PU_Chandigarh) and the All India Institute for Local Self Government (www.unigis.net/AIILSG_India). The introductory-cum-orientation workshops were held in Chandigarh from 4th to 6th September and in Cochin from 11th to 13th September.

Prof. Josef Strobl (UNIGIS International and Director of the Centre for Geoinformatics - Z_GIS, University of Salzburg , Austria) emphasised that UNIGIS has the vision of ’Educating GIS Professionals Worldwide’ and Z_GIS (http://www.zgis.at/) is supporting this mission by establishing UNIGIS programmes with partner institutions around the world as joint study programmes with the University of Salzburg (http://www.uni-salzburg.at/)

Dr Shahnawaz (UNIGIS Director for South & Southeast Asia) stated that the addition of 2 new centres made India the only country hosting 4 UNIGIS study centres. In 2004, India became the first UNIGIS site within Asia and a 2nd study centre was established in 2006. The previous centres are located at Goa University, Goa (www.unigis.net/Goa) and GIS Institute, Noida-Delhi (www.unigis.net/Noida).

Out of 4 study centres in India, 2 offer UNIGIS MSc and UNIGIS professional diploma programmes via Online Distance Education and 2 focus on the UNIGIS professional diploma delivered through eLearning as tutored full time courses. Distance education serves the career advancement needs of in-service GI-professionals and full time residential courses provide opportunites to young students aspiring to enter the fast growing GI-Job market.

UIA Academic Excellence Prize – Award Ceremony

2009-07-23T07:49:00.000-07:00

Andre Coleman (UNIGIS – Free University of Amsterdam), the winner of the Academic Excellence Prize 2008 presented his high quality MSc thesis at the GI_Forum 2009 in Salzburg. His dissertation entitled: “An Adaptive Landscape Classification Procedure Using Geoinformatics and Artificial Neural Networks” was considered unanimously by the Review Board as the best thesis this year. For more details see the press coverage of the GI_Forum / AGIT conference.

After the speech he was publicly awarded with a great cup by Josef Strobl in recognition of his work and the academic achievement. Congratulations!

The competition for the 2009 Prize is open. All UNIGIS partner universities worldwide are encouraged to take part in the competition

Geospatial Education Forum at Map Asia 2009

2009-07-17T01:35:00.000-07:00

As a ’Knowledge partner’ in Map Asia 2009 (18-20 August, 2009) UNIGIS is coordinating an education forum on the theme ’From Spatial Thinking to GI Competence’ on Aug 19 in Singapore. This forum has been planned with the mandate to bring together educators and professionals on one platform to share their experience and expertise. UNIGIS programme information materials will be disseminated from a shared booth with GIS Development.

UNIGIS MSc - New Distance Learning Node in Australia

2009-07-12T09:08:00.001-07:00

The international UNIGIS MSc postgraduate degree is now offered in Australia through the UNIGIS (www.unigis.net) study centre at the University of Canberra, ACT. Students are invited to enrol in a joint programme combining the capacities from the University of Canberra and University of Salzburg, Austria.Continuing and higher education in Geographic Information Science and Technologies and Geoinformatics methods is important for developing Spatial Data Infrastructures across nations and regions as a foundation for sustainable economies, societies and environments. Increasingly, enterprises, non-governmental organisations and public agencies apply Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to reach their objectives and to better serve their customers. "GIS" has become an attractive and rewarding career path for motivated and skilled professionals worldwide - with the UNIGIS academic network being the global leader in GIScience distance education. This new UNIGIS study centre is led by Prof. George Cho at the Institute of Applied Ecology, University of Canberra. It offers in-service distance education for professionals interested in GIS and Geoinformatics. Courses towards the MSc will be launched with an on-site workshop in later in 2009 and lead students to recognized international academic degrees.
Contact: George.Cho@canberra.edu.au
--------------

UNIGIS @ ESRI San Diego Conferences

2009-07-12T08:58:00.002-07:00

The week started with a UNIGIS -related highlight, Prof. Henk Scholten opening the Education UC with a keynote on "The Role of GIS in the Development of Spatial Thinking" - leading to his 'Lifetime Achievement Award' presented during the Monday plenary session. Monday night UNIGIS participated in the 'Academic GIS Program Fair', and from Tuesday onwards is providing information on all UNIGIS Distance Learning offerings at our large booth in the main exhibit hall. UNIGIS programs are represented by faculty from several European institutions, US, Latin America and Asia - coordinated by the UNIGIS International secretary, Anna Szukalska from Poland.

IGU-Urban Geography Commission Conference

2009-07-12T07:37:00.000-07:00

UNIGIS is conducting a GIS Education Workshop at the ’Emerging Urban Transformations 2009 Conference - Multilayered Cities and Urban Systems, organised by the IGU - Urban Geography Commission from 30th July to 9th August 2009, in Hyderabad, India. The workshop will bring together teachers and students, urban planners and practitioners from various munipalities. They presentaions and discussions will focus on GIS in spatial planning and management as well as on the problems and prospects of GIScience education in India. Dr. Shahnawaz from the Centre for Geoinformatics (Z_GIS), Salzburg University, Austria will conduct the workshop on 3rd August.

UNIGIS at HealthGIS - Hyderabad!

2009-07-08T13:31:00.000-07:00

UNIGIS is organising a workshop during the Third International Conference on HealthGIS which will be held from 24th to 26th July, 2009 in Hyderabad, India. Dr. Shahnawaz from the Centre for Geoinformatics (Z_GIS), Salzburg University, Austria will lead this workshop on 26th July. The event intends to demonstrate the applications of GIS, Geoinformatics and GIScience in various fields of health care, epidemiology and related topics. In addition, the role of the international UNIGIS partnership for Online Distance Learning in GIScience is highlighted, enhancing the GI-capabilities of many professionals worldwide.

UIA Academic Excellence Prize 2009

2009-05-19T05:00:00.000-07:00

The UNIGIS Int’l Association is pleased to announce the launch of its 2009 Academic Excellence Prize. The Academic Excellence Prize, launched by UIA in 2007/8, is awarded on an annual basis to a student, from one of the UNIGIS partner universities worldwide, who produces the most outstanding MSc Dissertation/Thesis or paper during the academic year (which here means 1st Sept 2008 to 31st August 2009). All UNIGIS centres are encouraged to take part in the competition.

Candidates must submit their MSc thesis or their paper to the graduating UIA partner institution no later than August 31.

UNIGIS members are reminded that they can only enter two students in any one year.

The standard of the work submitted last year was very high and UIA expect the same high standards this time.

ISEGI-UNL: Seminário MSc em C&SIG - 8ª Edição - 30 e 31 de Janeiro de 2009

2009-02-16T02:15:00.000-08:00

Instituto Superior de Estatística e Gestão de Informação has the pleasure to invite you to attend the GIS&C MSc - 8th Edition Seminar, to be held in ISEGI-UNL on January 30-31, 2009. The event is free to the public.

The Program is available at: www.isegi.unl.pt/unigis/Seminario_01_08.asp

Reservation is required > unigis@isegi.unl.pt

ISEGI - Instituto Superior de Estatística e Gestão de Informação
UNL - Universidade Nova de Lisboa
e-mail: mpeixoto@isegi.unl.pt
Phone: 351-213.870.413
Fax: 351-213.872.140
www.isegi.unl.pt/unigis/
www.unigis.pt

UNIGIS Kraków - new MSc Students

2009-02-16T01:58:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, February 15th, 11 new students started their MSc studies at the Jagiellonian University in Poland and were taking part in the opening UNIGIS workshop.

The new group has mostly environmental academic backgrounds, but very different professional experience. All share the common goal of achieving an advanced qualification in Geographic Information Science & Systems in order to stimulate their careers and to enhance their professional skills. The group is small but ambitious and strongly motivated, what will essentially help them to successfully work during the challenging 2-year program.

It was a pleasure to welcome new students in our network, we all wish them a lot of successes!

ENERegion - Summer School on "Regional Potentials for Renewable Energy Generation" (June 29 - July 10, 2009)

2009-02-04T05:32:00.000-08:00

The ENERegion International Summer School is dedicated to the theme of "Regional Potentials for Renewable Energy Generation" and is hosted by Salzburg University's Centre for Geoinformatics (Z_GIS).

In a set of lectures, group work and practicals participants focus on using Geographic Information Systems and Spatial Analysis techniques to model spatial patterns of demand as well as regional potentials of solar-thermal and photovoltaic, wind, biomass and hydropower resources. In order to assess the current state of the art regarding the technologies of renewable energy generation for a sustainable development in Europe, the Summer School will provide an insight into leading edge developments in the field. Participants have the opportunity to attend sessions at the Geoinformatics Forum 2009 symposium.

Applications are accepted until May 1, 2009. For registration and further details please visit our website@ www.zgis.at/summerschools!

Asian Institute of Technology – UNIGIS Workshop

2009-02-01T02:18:00.001-08:00

On 1 February 2009 a two day UNIGIS-AIT workshop on GIS and GIScience started at the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok, Thailand.

Around 25 people attended and found the exposure to the broad range of workshop topics very satisfying. As a result, many attendees expressed their interest to join the UNIGIS online education program.

The workshop was led by Dr. Shahnawaz with assistance from Dr. Saied Pirasteh and Dr. Nitin Tripathi (Director, UNIGIS@AIT). Dr. Kiyoshi Honda will join the UNIGIS@AIT board meeting on Feb. 2.

2009 MSc class launched in Salzburg

2009-01-15T12:34:00.000-08:00

The already 16th annual group of UNIGIS MSc students met for their kickoff-workshop from January 5-7 at the University of Salzburg, Austria. This German language program has established itself as the gold standard of postgraduate online GIS education over recent years. Right after New Year, 35 incoming students started their coursework by establishing a solid foundation of 'networking', helping them with successfully working their way through compulsory and elective study modules to be covered through distance learning. A challenging 2-year program, the UNIGIS MSc is an excellent foundation for careers across and beyond Geoinformatics and its many application domains.

Winners of the UIA Academic Excellence Prize 2008

2009-01-02T05:27:00.000-08:00

The UNIGIS International Association (UIA) would like to announce the first winners of its Academic Excellence Prize. The Prize, initiated in 2008, is presented to the student, or students, who submits the best MSc thesis (or paper) during the academic year. This year the competition was very tight with six excellent high quality MSc theses being considered by the UIA Review Board. In the end the panel decided to make three awards. The winner of the Academic Excellence Prize for 2008 is Andre Colman (UNIGIS – Free University of Amsterdam), in second place is Tobias Fleischmann (UNIGIS – Salzburg) and in third place is Christopher Needham (UNIGIS UK). The Review Board would like to commend these individuals, and the three other students whose theses were consider, for the exceptional high quality of their work. The competition for the 2009 Prize is now open.

UNIGIS UK - ESRI Presentation

2008-11-19T05:17:00.000-08:00

Richard Atkinson (UNIGIS UK) recently gave a presentation at ESRI's 'Europe, Middle East and Africa User Conference', held in London. In his paper, Richard reviews the experiences we have gained by delivering our postgraduate GIS distance learning programme over the last eighteen years. The slides from Richard's presentation are available at:-

http://www.unigis.org/news/ESRI_Education_Conference_Presentation.mht

Postgraduate Distance Education through UNIGIS@AIT

2008-09-07T23:09:00.000-07:00

The UNIGIS@AIT Centre at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Bangkok invites applications for the next intake of continuing education courses in GI Science and Technology. UNIGIS@AIT was established in 2007 in cooperation between AIT and the Centre for Geoinformatics at University of Salzburg to promote and facilitate access to UNIGIS online education programmes for working professionals in the field of geospatial technologies. The first students of Masters and Professional Diploma were accepted in October 2007. Admission to the 2008 intake is now open for the batch starting November 10, 2008.

The last date for the submission of online applications is October 30, 2008. Pl. contact Dr. Nitin Kumar Tripathi, Asian Institute of Technology at ait.office@unigis.net for assistance to apply for the admission. The orientation workshop for new Students will be offered on 29 November 2008 in Bangkok, Thailand.

Contact information:
Dr. Nitin K. Tripathi
Director, UNIGIS@AIT Centre (Online Masters and Diploma Program in GIS)
School of Engineering and Technology, Asian Institute of Technology,
P.O. Box. 4, Klong Luang, Pathumthani-12120, Thailand
Phone:+66-2-524 6392, Fax: +66-2-524 5597, +66-2-501 1677; ait.office@unigis.net www.unigis.net/ait_bangkok

Summer School: “Urban 3D Modelling”, Székesfehérvár, Hungary

2008-08-21T00:43:00.000-07:00

The “Urban 3D Modelling” UNIGIS Summer School will be attended by 40 students from abroad and 10 from Hungary.

For 27 August 2008, a one-day conference has beenarranged in order to give a top quality overview on new methodologies in data collection and modeling. The venue is the UWH GEO's Knowledge Center on Land and Geoinformation. Lectures will be delivered by leading representatives of the 3D arena including Eurosense, LEICA, Varinex, Laservision/Riegl, YonaPMS, FIG Commission 7 as well as Prof. Franz Leberl, chief scientist of Microsoft' Virtual Earth program.

The event is free to the public thanks to the prominent donor organisations. Major sponsor of the conference is Microsoft. Working language is English. HUNAGI advised the organisers to offer one or more papers of the high-profile presentations for the International Journal of Digital Earth for publication.

bm, 18 Aug 2008

UNIGIS Girona’s promotional video

2008-07-31T02:32:00.000-07:00

UNIGIS Girona seized the opportunity of the 10th anniversary to release the UNIGIS Girona’s video.

This video wants to present and to inform about the authentic meaning of the UNIGIS Programme (philosophy, characteristics, advantages,…), it could be transformed in the constant and joint work in order to improve the courses, being up-to-date of the changes and adapting to the new technologies that are defined in the sector of the GIS.

Enjoy the video!

GISDevelopment press release on UNIGIS Distance Learning in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic

2008-07-28T06:44:00.000-07:00

UNIGIS Distance Learning in Central Asia

23 July 2008
Austria - UNIGIS MSc and professional certificate programmes are now offered in Central Asia through the UNIGIS (www.unigis.net) study centre at the Kyrgyz State University for Construction, Transportation and Architecture (KSUCTA) in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic.

Continuing and higher education in Geographic Information Science and Technologies and Geoinformatics methods is important for developing Spatial Data Infrastructures across nations and regions as a foundation for sustainable economies, societies and environments. Increasingly, enterprises, non-governmental organisations and public agencies apply Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to reach their objectives and to better serve their customers. "GIS" has become an attractive and rewarding career path for motivated and skilled professionals worldwide - with the UNIGIS academic network being the global leader in GIScience distance education.

This new UNIGIS study centre is integrated with the Austria - Central Asia Centre for GIScience (www.aca-giscience.org) and offers in-service distance education for professionals interested in GIS and Geoinformatics. Courses towards the MSc as well as certificate qualifications will be launched with an on-site workshop in September and lead students to international academic degrees / certificates awarded by the University of Salzburg, Austria.

UIA Academic Excellence Prize

2008-04-05T09:03:00.001-07:00

The UNIGIS Int'l Association (UIA) has announced an annual Academic Excellence Prize for an outstanding MSc thesis/dissertation accepted for graduation at one of the UNIGIS partner universities worldwide.
Students who have graduated during the academic year (defined as Sept 1 to Aug 31) prior to the annual UNIGIS International Association Business Meeting will be eligible for the Prize. Candidates must submit their Master’s thesis or their paper to the graduating UIA institution no later than August 31.
UIA is looking forward to presenting this prize to the author of one of the many outstanding MSc thesis submitted every year, distinguishing and honouring one individual for an excellent academic achievement!

Dual Degree Agreement Quito-Salzburg

2008-03-30T05:30:00.000-07:00

During the 'Primer Simposio GIS Educatión en América Latina' (March 26-28, 2008) an extended academic cooperation agreement was signed by Chancellor Santiago Gangotena from the Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) and Prof Josef Strobl from the University of Salzburg. UNIGIS students from USFQ now have the opportunity to reach an MSc degree at Salzburg if they complete all requirements including the development of a Master Thesis in English language.
The Symposium brought together GIS educators from most Latin American countries with support from the UNIGIS partners at SIGTE, Girona. The broad range of symposium presentations demonstrated a high level of interest in advancing GIS education throughout Latin America, and was followed by a day of hands-on workshops offering introductions into FOSS products like gvSIG, SAGA and Mapserver.
The 'GIS education week' at USFQ was then topped off with the introductory on-site workshop of the first group of 2008 UNIGIS students - we wish them a successful start into their distance program!

GIS for the Future of Central Asia - May 15-17

2008-03-17T08:51:00.000-07:00

This is the motto of the 2nd Central Asia GIS Conference - GISCA’08 held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan May 15-17, 2008. The Centre for Geoinformatics (Z_GIS), Salzburg University and UNIGIS are organising this conference jointly with the Kyrgyz State University of Construction, Transportation and Architecture (KSUCTA) and with support from the Eurasia-Pacific Uninet.
The organising committee invites active participation in this international event and submission of presentations and papers. The main objectives of this conference are to bring together GIS academics in the Central Asian countries and to encourage international cooperation and knowledge exchange in GIS education. A particular highlight of the event will be the inauguration of the joint "Central Asia Centre for GIScience", serving as a UNIGIS Study Centre for Central Asia as well as a centre of competence for regional GIS projects.
For further details, please attend the conference website!

UNIGIS Workshops in Poland

2008-03-12T02:36:00.000-07:00

February was very busy for the UNIGIS site in Poland, as two UNIGIS workshops took place: an opening workshop for intake 2008 and a closing workshop for intake 2006.

On Saturday 16th of February 25 new students started their MSc studies. The new group has mostly environmental backgrounds, however some of them work in IT. After the first month of their studies, theyhave already submitted their first assignments.

One week later their 30 ‘older’ colleagues from intake 2006 were taking part in the closing UNIGIS workshop. The most successful students, who obtained the best grades and those who most frequently took part in online discussions were awarded with UNIGIS souvenirs. Their studies were supported by the European Social Fund within a project dedicated to employees at enterprises.

MSc thesis awarded 'Förderpreis Runder Tisch GIS'

2008-03-08T01:48:00.001-08:00

Marcel Droz from the Geoinformation Office, Kanton of Berne has graduated from UNIGIS Salzburg in 2007 and now has won the prestigious 'young researchers award' from the Munich 'GIS Round Table' for his thesis on assessing landscape aesthetics in the UNESCO World Heritage site Jungfrau-Aletsch-Bietschenhorn (German language abstract). Mr Droz has received this award through stiff competition against a total of 30 submissions. Congratulations!

Details: MSc research award

ENERegion - Summer School on "Regional Potentials for Renewable Energy Generation"

2008-01-22T05:30:00.000-08:00

The ENERegion International Summer School is dedicated to the theme of "Regional Potentials for Renewable Energy Generation" and is hosted by Salzburg University's Centre for Geoinformatics (Z_GIS).

In a set of lectures, group work and practicals participants focus on using Geographic Information Systems and Spatial Analysis techniques to model spatial patterns of demand as well as regional potentials of solar-thermal and photovoltaic, wind, biomass and hydropower resources. In order to assess the current state of the art regarding the technologies of renewable energy generation for a sustainable development in Europe, the Summer School will provide an insight into leading edge developments in the field. Participants have the opportunity to attend sessions at the Geoinformatics Forum 2008 symposium dedicated to “Energy for the Future”.

Applications are accepted until May 15, 2008. Due to limited places we strongly recommend an early registration! For registration and further details please visit our Summer School website!

LBS Summer School: "Mobile and Location Based Services" in Salzburg, Austria

2008-01-22T05:26:00.000-08:00

The International Summer School on Mobile and Location Based Services (LBS) is hosted by Salzburg University's Centre for Geoinformatics (Z_GIS).

LBS are used to innovate business and safety but also to disclose original ideas in community services, urban planning or new media. Large companies such as Nokia or Google offer LBS solutions to their professional or consumer customers. Organisations such as BP or FedEx use location aware applications for safety and business efficiency.

The Summer School addresses foundations, technology and adoption issues in location-aware solutions. It includes user and business demands, case studies, technical architectures, RFID and non-traditional location technologies, as well as the ethical dimension of LBS together with implications for privacy and labour relations.

Applications are accepted until May 15, 2008. Due to limited places we strongly recommend an early registration! For registration and further details please visit our summer school website!

UNIGIS Academic Excellence Prize

2008-01-19T05:11:00.000-08:00

The UNIGIS International Association is announcing a new 'UNIGIS International Academic Excellence Price' for graduates from UNIGIS MSc programmes worldwide. This price will be awarded annually, and candidates will be nominated by a UNIGIS partner institution based on outstanding master theses / dissertations.
Alumni having received their degree award between Sept 1 2007 and Aug 31, 2008 are invited to enquire about submission details with their local UNIGIS site.
The UNIGIS International Academic Excellence Price will recognize the top achievements among the many excellent master theses accepted every year at UNIGIS universities around the world as one of students' final steps towards their graduation.

New MSc Students at Salzburg University

2008-01-05T10:07:00.000-08:00

The 2008 intake for the German language UNIGIS MSc programme at Salzburg University started with a group of 57 new students. With very diverse academic and professional backgrounds, all share the common goal of achieving an advanced qualification in Geographic Information Science & Systems in order to stimulate their careers and to enhance their professional outlook.
Over an intense three day workshop from Jan 3-5, everybody got together to establish a solid foundation for communication throughout the two year distance learning course. Salzburg University is very proud to welcome such an ambitious class: "We are looking forward to supporting emerging future leaders and creative minds for the GIS industry!" said Michael Fally, UNIGIS MSc director of studies.
The Salzburg University UNIGIS distance learning programmes are offered internationally in German and English languages, with more than 1000 graduates it has evolved into an important foundation for building spatial information infrastructures in academia and across all application domains.

UNIGIS Day - Osnabrück, Germany

2007-12-21T03:00:00.000-08:00

On February 23rd, 2008 a UNIGIS information day will be hosted by the Department of Geoinformatics and Remote Sensing at Osnabrück University. The event is dedicated to UNIGIS graduates (mainly from northern Germany) as well as to prospective UNIGIS students. A detailed program will be available soon under
http://www.unigis.uni-osnabrueck.de/unigistag.html

The next German language UNIGIS information day will take place on May 29th in Rapperswil, Switzerland.

Registration open for 2008 intake in Poland

2007-12-13T01:07:00.000-08:00

The UNIGIS site in Poland, at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, has started enrolment of candidates for the Postgraduate Studies in Geographic Information Systems beginning in 2008. For further information please visit http://www.unigis.uj.edu.pl/ or send an e-mail to unigis@gis.geo.uj.edu.pl.

Symposium: GIS Education in Latin America

2007-12-08T09:03:00.000-08:00

The UNIGIS centre at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) in Ecuador has announced a Symposium on GIS Education in Latin America to be held on March 26/27, 2008, followed by opportunities for field trips and a visit to an ecology research station in the Amazon.

For further information and registration please contact Richard Resl or Leo Zurita, UNIGIS-USFQ, América Latina, unigis.admin@usfq.edu.ec , ++593-2-2971743.

UNIGIS International Meeting

2007-11-21T23:48:00.000-08:00

The UNIGIS International Association gathered in November in Amsterdam for their 12th yearly conference. Representatives from South Africa, the USA, India, and Europe (U.K., Austria, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Spain) met to discuss the current developments in GIScience education, research and innovative ways for distance education. The international business partners of the UNIGIS network were invited as well, to present their views on future directions of GIS education, research and applications. Johannes Kebeck and Jos Bakker of Microsoft presented Virtual Earth using oblique aerial photographs, and demonstrated impressive 3D models of European cities; a model building application for architects; and a demo of an Hurricane Management System; With little additional development or third party tools you can use this approach to integrate OGC-compliant Web Mapping Services or other spatial-data-formats like ESRI-Shape-files. This all left us very impressed and full of ideas on how to incorporate this in current GIS education.
The ongoing collaboration between Oracle Academy and UNIGIS will result soon in a common module on Spatial Databases. Dr. Martin Huber from Condesys Consulting, Switzerland, presented a new UNIGIS module on OpenGIS and Interoperability and the development of a book on this issue. We thank Dutch Directorate for Public Works and Water Management (Rijkswaterstaat) for the courtesy to welcome us at their traffic control centre in the province North Holland, were we could see an impressive real-time application of location information availability in transport and future developments in this area. In style, we has a diner in IJmuiden during the Strom with the highest water levels since the 1953 disaster (316 cm above average sea level).

Asian Institute of Technology - UNIGIS site

2007-11-03T06:52:00.000-07:00

After a launch event in September 2007, the UNIGIS distance learning program at AIT in Bangkok is now actively getting underway. The course director Dr Nitin Tripathi from AIT's School of Engineering and Technology is prepared to discuss this new educational offering with prospective students, and he emphasizes: "AIT now has an opportunity to reach out to a new audience through UNIGIS@AIT".

The UNIGIS program at AIT is a joint academic initiative with Salzburg University, Austria. Supported by the Salzburg University Center for Geoinformatics, depending on the program track chosen successful students will be awarded either a European MSc degree, or an academic certificate.

UNIGIS @ MapAfrica

2007-10-28T12:42:00.000-07:00

UNIGIS is organising a GIS education workshop at the 2007 MapAfrica conference in Cape Town. Speakers from a range of institutions and countries are contributing with their views on curriculum development, building of GIS awareness and didactics of GIS learning environments.
In line with the conference motto of 'Building Geospatial Capacity and Infrastructure in Africa' Josef Strobl from UNIGIS Salzburg has set the stage with a plenary keynote on 'Geospatial Awareness, Skills and Knowledge - Managing our Future'.