2009 MSc class launched in Salzburg

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

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

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

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

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