| 27 Jul 2010 |
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Adec Wins International Award For Contribution To Geographic Science
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Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC) was awarded with the "ESRI Award for Contributions to Geographic Science" for its advanced Geographic Information System (GIS) applications during the ESRI Education User Conference from July 10-12, 2010. ADEC was also one of 19 organizations representing the Emirate of Abu Dhabi during the ESRI International User Conference that followed the educational conference in San Diego, USA from July 12-16, 2010. The conference was hosted by ESRI, the global leading provider of GIS, and was attended by 14,000 people from around the world.
The Emirate of Abu Dhabi received international recognition with the "ESRI Making a Difference" award during the general conference. Abu Dhabi has received global praise for its commitment to developing innovative and efficient GIS programs throughout different government sectors. Abu Dhabi was granted the award for being a leader in consistently updating and efficiently implementing GIS applications and integrating GIS in crucial planning and decision-making processes.
The ADEC GIS portal is a website enabling ADEC users to find the location of both public and private schools based on different criteria. Dynamic reports can be generated to profile a school or collection of schools with data including student and teacher statistics. ADEC was selected to present its GIS applications during the opening of the Education User Conference to demonstrate the pioneering applications that have been developed to advance the education system in Abu Dhabi.
"This award is a real achievement for us and demonstrates the efforts we have made to implement the latest technologies to increase the efficiency of our decision-making process. This comes shortly after ADEC received the "Excellence in Implementation" award from ESRI's UAE representative GISTEC during a GIS awards ceremony that took place in March 2010 in Dubai," Director General of ADEC H.E. Dr. Mugheer Khamis Al Khaili said.
"GIS technology has played an important role in achieving the goals set out by ADEC's 10-Year Strategic Plan by supporting informed decisions in the implementation of reform initiatives. We have invested the time and resources in developing a world-class GIS system and we are pleased to be able to demonstrate our expertise and share our knowledge with our peers from around the world," he added.
H.E. Rashed Lahej Al-Mansouri, Director General of Abu Dhabi Systems & Information Center (ADSIC), praised ADEC for its commitment to implementing the plans and initiatives of the e-government program since 2008. He added that geo-spatial technology has become an important tool in many sectors, including education, health, urban planning and transportation.
The award was received by H.E Dr. Al-Khaili, who addressed global decision makers at the educational conference on July 10. During his presentation Dr. Al-Khaili highlighted the importance of education in supporting the economic and social ambitions of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. He added that supporting advanced information technology and telecommunication literacy in the population is an important step forward in developing Abu Dhabi into a knowledge economy. ADEC selected 10 male and female students majoring in GIS at UAE University to participate in the conference in order to expose them to the latest GIS programs and research in the field.
ADEC's GIS program has been designed to assist in developing evidence-based decisions for ADEC headquarter, school administrations, and parents and students.
GIS enables ADEC to effectively deal with school planning through identification of ideal new locations, and studying school merge plans. It helps enforce quality assurance measures through charting patterns of school transfers and provides statistical and graphical information about school performance so that ADEC can identify the reasons for these transfers.
Student administrators have also found GIS applications to be invaluable in school and teacher management. GIS provides information on existing qualifications of school staff, which helps identify those who require additional professional development and training. It also enables administrators to evaluate teacher work load so that they can plan distribution of work and assignments accordingly. Decision-makers and school staff can also view school performance on a comparative basis with surrounding schools
In addition to the GIS portal which provides school information, location and statistics, ADEC has developed additional applications to further develop its GIS capabilities and utility. The Advanced Analysis tool provides a function in which models can automate work procedures and decision-making. For example, analysis models can determine the emergency evacuation assembly point for schools, complete regression analyses of student performance, and provide suitability analysis for the best locations for new schools.
Other GIS applications include: the School Finder web application, a tool for the public to find and locate schools on a map of Abu Dhabi based on their specific criteria; Mobile GIS which is a Blackberry-based software offering GIS services; and Print House which has the capability to print large-scale maps.
ADEC is actively looking further develop its GIS programs in the future. The council is currently studying plans to use GIS to support learning in the classroom in Cycle 3 public schools to train students in using and interpreting map and database resources. It is also developing resources to more effectively use GIS in transportation studies in considering school bus routes and to consider important safety issues. In addition ADEC is studying how GIS can assist in automated student enrollment taking into account school location and capacity.
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About Abu Dhabi Education Council:
Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC) was established in accordance with law No. 24 of 2005, issued by His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the UAE President, the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces and the Ruler of Abu Dhabi. The Chairman of ADEC is H.H. Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces and the Vice-Chairman is H.H. Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, Minister of Presidential Affairs. The Council seeks to develop education and educational institutions in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, implement innovative educational policies, plans and programs that aim to improve education, and support educational institutions and staff to achieve the objectives of national development in accordance with the highest international standards.
For more information about ADEC please call its headquarters at +971 (2) 6150 000 or visit our website: http://www.adec.ac.ae
Media Contact:
Sonal Rupani
Tel: 050-6179301
Email: sonal.rupani@edelman.com
© Press Release 2010
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