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Geographical Information Systems (GIS) represents
one of the most rapidly expanding areas in Information Technology. GIS is seen increasingly
as an essential tool in many areas of government and business.
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We are happy to present to you the second edition of the UNIGIS Amsterdam
electronic newsletter. Again, this issue is filled with all sorts of news surrounding the UNIGIS
post-graduate educational program, SPINlab projects, new initiatives and highlights from activities
of these past months. As usual, Henk Scholten provides you with an inspirational introductory commentary
on GIS and more. Also, two UNIGIS students report on their MSc degree which they obtained recently.
Testimony to the fact that the SPINlab is such a dynamic working environment is the fact that again a new
staff member introduces himself. And of course there's many more interesting stories in this issue I am sure.
Enjoy reading your UNIGIS news!
Unigis Amsterdam General News
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2006 brings new challenges
by Henk Scholten
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We are sitting in the first rays of the spring sun, and enjoy looking back at a
successful start of this year. Many of our proposals for subsidies at the ‘RUimte-voor-Geo-Informatie’ program
have been granted, so we can continue these next years with innovative scientific research. In particular,
research on disaster (management) and safety measures will receive a big impulse. Professor Fabbri will head this
relative new direction of research.
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I myself have taken up research in congestion and traffic control management.
On behalf of the province of Utrecht I am assigned to investigate the possible role of ICT in improving the
situation of the transport user on the one hand and, on the other hand, take into account expressly the policy goals
which have been set: increase safety, reduce pollution, fitting within the National Spatial policy plans
(www.ict-onderweg.nl). Should you have know-how
in these areas, or have innovative ideas on the subject, do not hesitate, contact me and make me happy.
Another thing is our new philosophy within the UNIGIS educational program: a real
meeting with all students, alumni and staff, once every year in the center of Amsterdam. At the moment we are working
on getting this conference idea written down as a compulsory study element in the education and examination guidelines.
The term compulsory off course is mainly relevant for the conference reward in terms of ECTS points, since everybody is
more than willing to come anyway! We are planning to mold the Unigis Amsterdam Annual Conference into a big happening
with morning lectures by experts, and lots of interaction between students, alumni and staff. Next to the compulsory
programs for workshop 2 and 3-students in the afternoons, we have devised parallel program sessions for other Unigis
students (the ones not participating in workshop2 or 3 this year), including our Alumni. This really promises to be a
big event, including walking in the Vondelpark and occupying the outdoor cafés. Elsewhere in the newsletter and on the
website, you will find more details about this conference. And, I want to stress it again, I am expecting to see
everybody there! Please make sure to register with our secretary, and in case you have any questions, do not hesitate
to send an email to Mathilde or call her.
Finally, a few words on a new challenging research subject we started with the help of Niels van Manen: the role of GIS
in the innovation of other sciences. You can read all about this in the contribution of Niels further on in this newsletter.
We invite you to think with us on this subject, we are looking for appealing examples.
See you in the Vondelpark, during the Amsterdam UNIGIS week!
Henk
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Unigis accreditation update & New Intake started
by Mathilde Molendijk
Unigis accreditation
During the past year we have been quite busy with fulfilling
Important Bureaucratic Procedures, required recently by Dutch law regarding the accreditation
of MSc. programmes. We have written an accreditation request for our master programme in GIS Science.
Not only did we include the UNIGIS programme in this request, we also intend to start with a
fulltime variant of the programme, for regular daytime students.
Our colleagues in the UK are in the middle of the accreditation process as well. This is a very
formal and long procedure carried out every so many years in every country (the “NVAO” in the Netherlands)
to assure the quality of university and professional programmes. We expect the first official results in
Autumn this year and we will keep you posted. Fortunately, at the European level, we have our European
masters in GISc. in place, well before any other official attempt for European qualifications of MSc. programmes!
New Intake March 2006 started
March 17 a new and fresh group of students started with the UNIGIS programme. It’s a group of seven students,
mostly from the Netherlands, but also from Germany, Switserland and Canada. You will find their names on the UNIGIS
intranetsite. Work backgrounds vary: from the Dutch Gasunie, the Province of South Holland, the Dutch air force,
National Forest Service, and Realworld. Two students from UNIGIS South Africa (one from South Africa and one from
Namibia) will start with their UNIGIS MSc. research in Amsterdam. We wish all these new students lots of success in
their struggle with the first module / their thesis.
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The value of GIS for Science: an introduction
by Niels van Manen
GIS as a tool for other sciences
The SPINLAB has recently launched an exciting new project. The UNIGIS program, as it is now, begins with a
module discussing the ongoing debate on the definition of GIS: should we speak of GI-System (a technology or tool),
GI-Science (a scientific discipline) or GI-Service (an information provider)? Our project aims to invoke an equally
stimulating debate about the meaning of GIS, but specifically its meaning as a technology for other scientific disciplines.
Read more…
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Unigis Honorary Award for Bart Kusse
by Jasper Dekkers
At the SPINlab meeting last January, an honorary award was given to Bart Kusse,
who played a large role in the establishment and growth of the UNIGIS Amsterdam network. Bart has been working
for Unigis Amsterdam since it's establishment in the beginning of the 90's of the last century. With this honorary award,
we thank him for his enthusiasm and his dedication. He currently holds the function of Tutor and Alumni Co-ordinator at
Unigis Amsterdam next to his work as a consultant at Cap Gemini.
Congratulations!
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2-come & 2-go
by Jasper Dekkers
In the MSc-part of this newsletter, we welcome our two new MSc. students, from South Africa
and Namibia, and we say goodbye to two MSc students who have obtained their Master's degree and are now entering the
ranks of the Alumni. Congratulations!
We hope to see you again as Alumni at our Annual Conference in June!
A description of the theses is included below.
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GIS and the market for financial products
MSc thesis by Gijs van Veen
MSc student Gijs van Veen completed his MSc Thesis last February. The title of his postgraduate research dissertation
is: 'Optimization of the Allocation of Marketing & Sales Efforts'. It offers offers a theoretical background,
design, and case study for the optimization of the allocation of marketing and sales efforts (usnign GIS) in a setting
of the Dutch consumer market for financial products, particularly insurances.
Read more…
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Knowledge-scan on Spatial Data Infrastructures in the GIS Community
MSc thesis by Brian Kirwan
The second MSc student who completed his trajectory with a thesis this period is Brian Kirwan. The title of his dissertation
is: 'Is ignorance the real barrier to interoperability - The state of knowledge about SDI in the GIS community'.
Brian carried out a media coverage survey of topics related to interoperability in the specialised GIS press in the Netherlands.
Read more…
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Alumni Meeting Event 2006
Dear Alumni,
This is your next chance this year to meeting eachother and finding out what has been going on with
UNIGIS and in GIS in general since you graduated. So, block Friday June 16th in your agenda!
The program will be worthwhile and we managed to arrange a few interesting speakers. The Alumni day will take place
at closing day of the UNIGIS Annual Conference. Topics like ‘disaster-management’ and ‘spatial decision support’ rule the overall program.
Read more…
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Alumni Field Event 2006
Friday September 8th we are having the annual Unigis VU Alumni day. This time, the Alumniday is organised
at Rijkswaterstaat in the province of Noord-Holland.
We will have an excellent opportunity to "go backstage" at this organisation and see what role GIS plays in the daily
tasks of Rijkswaterstaat's employees and processes.
There is room for 15 participants only, so sign up quickly if you want to join!
Read more…
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New staff
We are happy to be able to welcome another staff member in our team, Adriaan Tas.
He will be working on projects within the 'Ruimte voor Geo-Informatie' program.
Read more…
We are equally happy to welcome back our prodigal son Niels van Manen (Niels has been a student-assistent with UNIGIS
during his studies in Amsterdam some years ago). Niels will be working at the SPINlab on the project about the value of
GIS for science, as
described above in this newsletter.
Read more…
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Symposium Manolo, mobile learning in practice - Jan. 24 '06 - Wageningen
by Mathilde Molendijk
Together with the University of Wageningen (WUR) we organized (end of January) a well-attended
symposium on mobile learning. This has been a research area of both universities for over four years, called the Manolo project,
and sponsored by the Dutch SURF foundation.
Read more…
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Seminar Disaster Management - Jan. 26 '06 - Almelo
by Adriaan Tas
Thursday, 26 January 2006, Almelo was the scene for a dynamic seminar on the role of
geo-information in disaster management. The seminar was organized by UNIGIS and GUFO (Geo-informatie
Uitwisselingsplatform Flevoland Overijssel) and brought together geo-information coordinators from different
municipalities from the provinces of Flevoland and Overijssel, as well as students and alumni from UNIGIS. Main
purpose of the seminar was to stimulate the discussion on sharing and distributing geo-information between the
various actors involved in disaster management.
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Read more…
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UNIGIS 'Question time' & Evaluation meeting - Jan. 27 '06 - Amsterdam
by Mathilde Molendijk & Jasper Dekkers
A nice number of students attended the UNIGIS 'question time' and evaluation meeting last January.
The aim of the evaluation session was to make an inventory of the bottlenecks students encounter during their study and to have
a fruitful meeting with the course tutor of a particular module they are struggling with at the moment. We hope they went home
with useful information and with renewed energy!
At the same meeting, MSc. students Gijs van Veen and Brian Kirwan defended their MSc. theses, so they had quite a large audience.
We ended the day with drinks of course and celebrated the 'birth' of two new UNIGIS alumni. A description of their theses is
included in the MSc-section of this newsletter.
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Oracle 10g workshop - Feb. 2&3 '06 - Amsterdam
by Rosan van Wilgenburg
In close cooperation with Oracle The Netherlands and Geodan, UNIGIS Amsterdam has organized
an Oracle 10g workshop for UNIGIS students and alumni. The workshop was held on 2 and 3 February and was joined by
fourteen students from the Netherlands and Spain.
Read more…
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Calendar &
Activities
June 2006
Unigis Annual Conference
The UNIGIS Amsterdam 2006 Conference will be held June 12 – 16, 2006
Inspired by the Lustrum Conference we organized in Soesterberg in 2003, we came to the conclusion that we should organize
such a Conference on a yearly basis, open for all UNIGIS students and Alumni.
The compulsory workshops II and III will be part of this conference.
Click here for more information
September 2006
Alumni day UNIGIS VU
Friday September 8th we are having the annual Unigis VU Alumni day. This time, the Alumniday is organised
at Rijkswaterstaat in the province of Noord-Holland (see also elsewhere in this newsletter).
Take a look at our website for more information
And of course you can always contact us, through our website or by phone.
Information Session Intake 2006
Are you interested in GIS and do you want to learn more about the subject? Unigis can help! An Information Session for the new intake will be
held on Friday September 15th 2006 at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. Come and visit us!
Take a look at our website for more information
And of course you can always contact us, through our website or by phone should you not be able to visit us.
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