Josef Strobl

Two new UNIGIS study centres in India

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 …

Geospatial Education Forum at Map Asia 2009

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

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” …

UNIGIS @ ESRI San Diego Conferences

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

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.

Asian Institute of Technology – UNIGIS Workshop

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

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.

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 …

UIA Academic Excellence Prize

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 …

Dual Degree Agreement Quito-Salzburg

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 …