Remixed Speeddating with Z_GIS @ BeSt Salzburg

As one of seven experts, Z_GIS researcher Sebastian d’Oleire-Oltmanns participated in a bmvit (Austrian Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology) initiative at the BeSt Salzburg event. The annual fair addresses pupils on the edge of deciding what to do after high school. Students from the Christian-Doppler High school as well as from the Werkschulheim Felbertal participated in the event in order to learn from and exchange with experts from various disciplines.

Source:fti remixed

The field of UAS-based remote sensing was of high interest for the participating students and generated a broad range of questions and a lively discussion. The exchange provided a detailed view beneath the surface of Geoinformatics to the students.

Contact: Sebastian d’Oleire-Oltmanns

For more information and more pictures see:
FTI remixed blog and  pics 

Stefan Zimmer - winner of 2018 EDC "Student of the Year" Award

As an ESRI Development Center, Z_GIS every year has the opportunity to nominate one top student based on his or her software development competence. This year this special honour is awarded to Stefan Zimmer for work leading to his University of Salzburg "Applied Geoinformatics" MSc Thesis "An Efficient Algorithm for Computing Space-Time-Linguistics - Similarities and Labelling Social Media Posts" supervised by Dr Bernd Resch.

Stefan Zimmer has recently completed his master's thesis at Z_GIS. Through his exceptional software development skills, he was able to develop and implement a number of geospatial applications using a variety of software technologies, including the extensive use of Esri technology for spatial data analysis and visualisation.

Spatial distribution of Boston tweets indicating
anger/disgust (red), fear (blue), and sadness (yellow)

In his thesis, Stefan developed a machine learning-based algorithm called TwEmLab (Twitter Emotion Labeller) that assigns emotion categories to social media posts like tweets. The workflow comprises a self-designed, multi-dimensional, similarity-based graph creation algorithm and the Junto engine that implements a graph-based labelling algorithm called Label Propagation. In addition to the methodological developments, he was able to convert the complex algorithm in a high-performance implementation that is able to process about 1,000 more datasets than comparable systems in a parallelised algorithm, both for CPU- and GPU-based operations:

Apart from that, Stefan developed a web-based real-time visualisation using Mapbox technology for physiological sensor data and social media posts for use in urban planning and management. Finally, in one of his course projects, he conceived and implemented a location-based game, in which a spaceship can be controlled using a mobile EEG device and voice commands - just using "the power of thought" without manual interaction. The application combines a variety of technologies using Unity, the Emotive SDK, Mapbox, Google Cloud Search API and Open Street Map.

Stefan Zimmer was a member of the successful team winning the first Copernicus Hackathon with the ‘ShareCropper’ concept >https://gi-science.blogspot.com/2016/11/zgis-team-won-first-open-data.html

Congratulations to this distinction, and to continuing a tradition of excellence established by previous recipients of this award like Azmat Arif in 2017!

Cornelia Schneider's successful PhD defense within the DK GIScience

Cornelia Schneider successfully defended her PhD Thesis “Methods for recording, processing and evaluating human movement data in the context of Active and Assisted Living”. While working for the “Salzburg Research” (SR), a research institution owned by the provincial Government of Salzburg, Cornelia has been associated PhD to the Doctoral College “GIScience”. At SR, she is the head of the competence field e-Health.

In her PhD, she contributed to tackle a major problem Europe aging Western societies are facing: The aging population will lead to a growing number of older people suffering from various ailments and consequently will be in need of support. Thus, the development of information and communication technologies (ICT) based assistance systems is of increasing importance. These so-called “Active and Assisted Living (AAL) solutions support older people to live independently as long as possible by maintaining and improving their quality of life.

In particular, the Thesis is based on research projects dealing with the development of a mobility assistance system and addressed research questions such as where patients typically stay, where they have been or where they most likely are going. This is answered by means of movement analysis together with complex spatio-temporal analyses. Next to technical and methodological issues of recording, processing and evaluating human movement data, usability of systems and how to deal with privacy concerns were major foci in this work which builds a significant contribution to the future development of mobility assistance systems.

We wish Cornelia all the best for her future endeavours!

EO4GEO: Z_GIS partner of Erasmus+ sector skills alliance project on education and training in the space/geospatial sector

Source: ESA/ATG medialab

Starting with January 2018, 26 partners from 16 countries - including Z_GIS/University of Salzburg - and initially 22 associated partners will collaborate in the the new EO4GEO project, which is focusing on education and training in the space/gesopatial sector.

EO4GEO - Towards an innovative strategy for skills development and capacity building in the space geo-information sector supporting Copernicus user uptake is coordinated by the GISIG association and will run for four years.

The project aims at bridging the skills gap between supply and demand of education and training in the space/geospatial sector. The collaboration partners are focusing on reinforcing the existing ecosystem and fostering the uptake and integration of space/geospatial data and services in end-user-applications.

EO4GEO is an Erasmus+ sector skills alliance gathering partners from the education/training and space/geospatial sectors . Most of the partners from academia, private and public sector are part of the Copernicus Academy Network. The project has been approved by the EU Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). 

Find more information here: Copernicus news, GISIG association 
Contact: Stefan Lang, Barbara Hofer 

"Shifting approaches to landslides" - LIDAR and American Surveyor magazines report on landslide research activites at Z_GIS

The LIDAR Magazine highlights the landslide research activities at Z_GIS in its October/November 2017 issue. The cover story “Shifting approaches to landslides”
reports on the development and application of object-based image analysis (OBIA) methods for semi-automated landslide mapping using optical and SAR remote sensing data. Both the complexities in efficiently and accurately identifying, mapping and inventorying landslides as well as the potentials of powerful methods such as OBIA coupled with results from synthetic aperture radar interferometry (InSAR) are described and discussed.

Quotations from Daniel Hölbling are exemplified by several examples from his and his colleagues’ research on landslides in Taiwan, New Zealand and Iceland, including field photos from past field trips. The article also emphasizes the ongoing research carried out in the MORPH (Mapping, Monitoring and Modelling the Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of Land Surface Morphology) project.

The article by freelance writer Mary Jo Wagner was compiled based on interviews with and material provided by Daniel Hölbling, who coordinates the landslide related research at Z_GIS. The story was also published in the November issue of the American Surveyor Magazine.

Contact: Daniel Hölbling