Stellenausschreibung: Senior Lecturer

Z_GIS is looking to fill a temp position (50%) at the senior lecturer level, please check the job advert at the official university gazette for details. Application deadline is Dec 7!
> https://online.uni-salzburg.at/plus_online/wbMitteilungsblaetter.display?pNr=1839030 (item 26, p. 7 bottom)

For details, please contact Dr Ingrid Ritter

addendum: we have been informed that this position is intended to be filled at a lower level than originally announced, please refer to a later edition of the gazette for a corrected version.

Opening of iDEAS:lab - bridging education, research and the public

About 200 visitors: pupils, representatives from the local and regional governments, from industry and University of Salzburg leadership attended today´s opening of the iDEAS:lab - the main highlight of this year´s global GIS Day in Salzburg. The iDEAS:lab ("Integrated Digital Earth Applications and Science Lab"), located at the Techno-Z in Salzburg-Itzling, is a platform for education, research and cooperation with industry and the public.

It serves as a multi-purpose open geospatial technologies and media lab, where visitors can experience, explore and understand Digital Earth technologies. The lab is open to schools, students, researchers and the public. Additionally, it is designed as an industry hub for networking and hosting business events. The aim of the new iDEAS:lab is to provide an engaging, dynamic and innovation-friendly learning environment for geoinformation science.

In the iDEAS:lab, visitors use geo-technologies to explore solutions for their own lives, such as the safest route to school. In addition, the iDEAS:lab will evolve into an interface between geoinformation science and the public, while at the same time serving as a transfer lab for industry.

Recently the iDEAS:lab concept was nominated as a finalist for the Education Award of the B&C Private Foundation.


Contact: Bernd Resch (iDEAS:lab), Robert Vogler (PLUS School of Education)

Z_GIS team won first Open Data Copernicus Hackathon

Martin Sudmanns, Hannah Augustin, Christian Werner, Stefan Zimmer and Gina Schwendemann are the winners of the first Open Data Copernicus Hackathon. At the two-day event, which took place in Vienna at the beginning of November, the Z_GIS team designed the "sharecropper app" and developed it as a prototype.

The sharecropper app maps land cover changes detected using Copernicus Sentinel-2 images based on known farmland parcels. These changes are combined with crowd-sourced and open data related to land ownership and land use, creating a global inventory about the type and magnitude of changes.

Participants of the Hackathon in Vienna (image source: INiTS)

At the Hackathon nine international project teams - scientists, developers and data experts - designed applications in the fields of humanitarian action and human security. The Z_GIS team is one of two winners of the event, which was organized by the business incubator INiTS and financially supported by the Austrian Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology (bmvit) and the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG).
Z_GIS has been developing Earth-observation (EO) based solutions for the humanitarian sector for several years.

Contact: Martin Sudmanns

First Mapathon for MSF and the Austrian Red Cross in Vienna

On 7 November 2016 a Mapathon, jointly organized by Doctors without Borders (MSF) and the Austrian Red Cross, took place in Vienna. Staff and students from the University of Salzburg/Z_GIS participated together with 25 volunteers to support the Missing Maps project through their mapping in HOT OSM (Humanitarian Open Street Map).

During the 3-hour Mapathon two areas where information is crucial for the work of humanitarian organizations were tackled: in Mwenezi district, Zimbabwe settlements and their main connecting roads were digitized to support the distribution of vaccination and medication supplies of MSF; in Malawi single household-buildings were mapped to strengthen the local Red Cross in their planning and capacity building activities related to disaster response.

Contact: Barbara Riedler, Gina Schwendemann, Stefan Lang, Lorenz Wendt (EO4HumEn+ Project)

Satellite Applications for the Alps

Z_GIS participated in the conference “Satellite Applications for the Alps” which took place in Berchtesgaden on 27^th October 2016 and was organized by EURISY and WFG Berchtesgadener Land. 

The conference is part of a biannual series and dealt with different applications derived from or based on satellite communication and data with a special focus on the Alps. Participants from all over Europe (Norway, Denmark, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Slovenia and more) attended the conference and fostered the interactive exchange between providers, users and experts.

Florian Albrecht acted as expert for environmental monitoring for landslide detection and protection and represented the Land@Slide project currently being carried out at Z_GIS. Sebastian d’Oleire-Oltmanns took over as a moderator to lead a session on Connectivity, Tourist activities, Natural habitats and biodiversity monitoring and preservation. The conference provided a good opportunity to foster Z_GIS’ long term engagement and support of the Copernicus program as well as its user uptake initiatives.