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Join us at the GIS in Education and Research Conference in March

Published Date
Author Krista Amolins

The first GIS in Education and Research Conference, held in 2013, brought together more than 150 students, teachers and researchers to share ideas and learn new skills. By 2017, the number of attendees had almost tripled. The next conference promises to be even bigger. It will be held over two days, March 4-5, 2020, at Hart House. Submit your abstract for presentation today!

The GIS in Education and Research Conference was created to provide an opportunity for GIS educators and students to come together, share experiences and learn from each other in an organized forum. Although the first conference was largely intended for the GIS education community within the Greater Toronto Area, it also drew participants from Manitoba, Québec, Nova Scotia, and the U.S. Subsequent conferences have drawn participants from across Canada.

Each conference has featured a different plenary speaker. At the inaugural conference in 2013, Dr. Kamran Khan of St. Michael’s Hospital and the University of Toronto discussed his work on the Biodiaspora project, revealing the threat and rapid spatial and temporal diffusion of contagious diseases among and between human, bird and animal populations. In 2015, Professor Emeritus Michael Goodchild, formerly of the University of California in Santa Barbara, spoke about the future issues and challenges in GIScience, and in 2017, Dr. Cynthia Brewer, Chair of Geography at Penn State University, shared insights from the 2nd edition of her book, Designing Better Maps: A Guide for GIS Users. The plenary speakers for Day 1 and Day 2 of the 2020 conference will be announced soon.

Each conference has also featured dozens of presentations by students, faculty, researchers and administrators in a variety of fields, demonstrating the versatility of GIS for solving a broad range of issues. We expect to see more great examples of the use of GIS in research and in teaching on March 4 and 5, 2020.

We are pleased to announce that the call for papers for the 2020 conference is now open. We invite professors, K-12 teachers and students to submit presentation abstracts on any of the following themes:

  • 3D and GeoDesign
  • Transportation Modelling / Transit Issues
  • Data Science/Big Data/Artificial Intelligence
  • Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality/Mixed Reality GIS Applications
  • Citizen Science
  • Web GIS Applications
  • Spatial Analysis
  • Spatial Ecology / Environmental GIS
  • GIS Curriculum Development / Teaching with GIS
  • Physical Process Modelling / Analysis
  • Health GIS

For more information and to submit your abstract, visit the conference website.

About the Author

Krista Amolins is a Higher Education Specialist with Esri Canada. Her career in GIS started when she came across the Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering program at the University of New Brunswick and thought it sounded interesting. She earned a PhD in Geomatics Engineering, focusing on lidar data classification, and now she supports teaching and learning with ArcGIS at colleges and universities across Canada. Krista particularly enjoys interacting with the students who receive an Esri Canada GIS Scholarship or apply for the Esri Young Scholars Award each year. She also enjoys playing with apps and doing a bit of coding when she has time.

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