MUSCAT - In partnership with the German University of Technology in Oman (GUtech), the 6th GeoInformatics Forum conference (GI_Forum) will be held at the University of Salzburg (Austria) from the 3rd to 6th of July.
"GI_Forum welcomes the international GIS community from academia, industry and government. The programme of the GI_Forum combines geographic information science and technology and learning with a special focus on geovisualisation, society and learning. This year many interesting keynote speakers will participate," said Associate Professor Dr. Adrijana Car of the Department of Sustainable Tourism and Regional Development at GUtech and member of the organizing team of the GI Forum in Salzburg.
Professor Adrijana holds a PhD in GIScience and Surveying from the University of Technology in Vienna.
She is specialised in conceptualisation and formalisation of space and time; problem-based learning in GIScience & Technology. Associate Professor Dr. Goesta Hoffmann of the Department of Applied Geosciences of GUtech and his team of researchers of the University of Salzburg, Magdalena Rupprechter and Christoph Mayrhofer will present a poster entitled "Coast Indentation Index - a tool for quantifying different expressions of Oman's coastline.
GIScience studies fundamental issues emerging from the creation, storing, managing, analysing, visualising and the use of geographic information. It helps solving problems as simple as finding an address or navigating to a camping location based on Global Positioning Systems (GPS) coordinates; or as complex as calculating solar potential of roof surfaces, analysing crime patterns or managing freshwater resources. At GUtech, GIS is an integral part of the Bachelors of Science in Sustainable Tourism and Regional Development, Applied Geosciences and Applied Information Technology. "GIS helps solving problems such as locating oil fields or analysing the structure of a part of a city. GIS is an important field to explore and offers a variety of job perspectives in Oman and abroad, for example most of the ministries in the Sultanate have GIS departments. There is a substantial need to promote and further develop GIS in Oman and we at GUtech are planning to offer a MSc in GIS soon," said Dr. Adrijana Car.
According to the Deratech report in 2012 (http://gislounge.com/gis-industry-trends/), the GIS industry is one of the major growth industries worldwide. Its growth influences among other things the accompanying job markets at a regional, national and international level. Recent studies of the GIS job market in the Sultanate of Oman and the GCC region have identified a lack of skilled professional workforce, see e.g. reports on sustainable spatial strategy for Oman.
GI Forum runs concurrently with the German-speaking conference on Applied GeoInformatics (AGIT). The conferences will host the following keynote speakers and distinguished GIScientists: Georg Gartner, the president of the International Cartographic Association will present his vision of Cartography in 2020; Muki Haklay (University College London, UK) will discuss the usability of geographic information; Sara Irina Fabrikat of the University of Zurich (Switzerland) and Alan M. MacEachren of Pennsylvania State University (USA) who will address the important aspects of and latest developments in geovisualisation and visual analytics. A pre-conference event - Young Researchers Forum - offers PhD students an opportunity to present and discuss their research with other PhD students and an international audience.
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© Press Release 2012
