Newsletter June 2001

Newsletter June 2001

11.6.2001

To the National Delegates of Commission 2

To the Academic Members of FIG

To the Corresponding Members

To the Participants of Commission meetings in Seoul

To the Participants of Com2 WG2 Worskhop and Seminar in Otaniemi, Finland

Dear Colleagues

I wish everybody had a good spring term and maybe you are looking for the summer holidays. Those participating Seoul Working Week I wish a good landing home. In this newsletter I have several important topics: reports from Seoul Working Week, news from Commission 2 Workshop and Seminar and plans for Washington Conference.

Seoul PC and Working Week

May 6.-11.2001

Commission 2 coordinated three technical sessions in which altogether 10 papers were presented. Technical sessions were of the following themes:

Experiences and new approaches in Virtual Academy

Surveyors Curricula around the world

How to manage and keep the Curricula contents up-to-date

In the first two sessions on Wednesday we had an audience of 30-40 people. In the last Thursday session there was around 20-25.

Also Commission 9 organized one session on education "Non-geodetic fields in the Surveyors´ Curricula" in which Com 2 participated as audience and we got participants from that technical session to our Commission meeting.

Professors Cavero, Enemark and Virrantaus were chairing Com2 technical sessions. In technical sessions we had lively discussions, especially Virtual Academy session can be characterized even as spontaneous and intensive.

Also I want to mention that we got one extra presentation to the printed program given by two surveying students from Poland. This is a very important thing for Commission 2 because one of our goals in our work has been to activate young surveyors and students to the work of the Commission.

We are also happy of having one Korean presentation on Education, because we very much need descriptions of surveyors´ curricula all over the world.

Commision 2 had two commission meetings, one on Monday and the second on Thursday. Also a joint commission meeting with Coms 2 and 9 was organized on the Education of Valuers on Thursday. Commission meetings were chaired in addition to the Chair of Commission also by Vice Chair Pedro Cavero, professor Esben Munk Sörensen and professor Kauko Viitanen. All papers are available in FIG web page.

On Monday we had 14 participants and on Thursday 24 participants in Commission meetings. For Commission 2 this is the record during the recent years. The core topics in commission meetings were:

-achievements and final plans of Working Groups

-reports for Washington Congress

-topics and presentations for Washington Congress

-the development of Surveying Educational Database into an Portal of Surveying Education in Internet

-coming events and our participation in them

-the Workshops and Symposiums organized by Com 2 during the rest of the period.

We are going to produce reports on:

-Virtual Academy experiences

-Surveyors curricula contents and the model of approach to describe and compare them.

The Task Force for Mutual Recognition will produce a report that partly covers also Commission 2 WG activities.

Com 2 will organize a Symposium in Puerto Rico in February 2002. Vice Chair Pdro Cavero is responsible on organizing.

Com 2 will also partipate and give papers in Nairobi International Conference on Sustainable Development next October organized by the Chair of Jes Ryttersgaard, Commission 3.

In the technical session and commission meeting we had a long and lively discussion on the development of Surveyors Educational Database. Several opinions exist on the best approach. We will continue according to the conclusions of discussions and produce at least plans and a prototype of the Portal of Surveyors Education. This Portal will let access to SEDB, home pages of academic members, Virtual Academy applications and other relevant material. This prototype will be demonstrated in Washington Congress. SEDB will be a part of the material available via the Portal and thus it would be most important to keep it up-to-date. All national delegates, please check the university data of your country and if it seems to be not up-to-date, contact the university and ask them to maintain the data!

In the Comission meeting we also discussed our contribution in Washington Congress, this topic is dealt with later in this letter. More about the meetings in the Appendices 1 and 2.

The Commission 2 annual report for the General Assembly is attached as Appendix 3.

Seminar on Virtual Academy

Finland, Otaniemi, 5.-8.June,2001

The working group on Virtual Academy organized just recently a seminar which took place in Finland, Espoo, Helsinki University of Technology. Professor Henrik Haggren together with Mrs. Marjaana Laurema organized the seminar. I want to congratulate Henrik and Marjaana about organizing a high quality program and also creating a pleasant atmosphere! The seminar was in two parts: the first part was a workshop and the latter part was a seminar. Fifteen participants attended to both parts. You will see the program in the web site of WG2 and Prof. Henrik Haggren will prepare a report on the seminar later on the web page. The workshop and seminar was a success and the Working Group 2 will continue and produce good sessions for Washington. Also it was decided that WG 2 and WG 3 together will prepare the first prototype of the Portal on Surveyors Education in the Web before Washington Congress. Anyone interested on the topic, please contact prof. Henrik Haggren to join the work.

FIG 2001 XXII Congress

Washington DC, USA, April 19 –22, 2002

Marriott Wardman Hotel in Washington.

In Washington technical program we will organize the following sessions:

Virtual Academy – applications

Virtual Academy – technical and pedagogical issues

-these were discussed during the Workshop in June, 2001, prof. Henrik Haggren (Chair WG 2) will organize them, please contact Henrik.Haggren@hut.fi if you need more information

Surveyors curricula – examples around the world

-Latin America work done by Pedro Cavero,

-US work made by Jud Rouch,

-CLGE (Europe), somebody could introduce

-Liu Yanfang could report on China and Asia,

-we need more from Africa and Asia, maybe something more from Europe also

-Kirsi Virrantaus will coordinate these, if you need more info, please contact Kirsi.Virrantaus@hut.fi

Surveyors curricula – how to describe for information users

-"How to describe curricula" Kirsi Virrantaus

-metadata describing curricula

-more topics needed, please contact Kirsi.Virrantaus@hut.fi

Joint sessions will be organized by Markku Villikka, meeting in Copenhagen next October

Joint session with 9 on Education of Valuers, 1 session

Joint session with 3,5,8 on New Technologies in Education , 1 session

Joint session with 1 and Task force for underrepresented groups, 1 session

Other themes suggested:

Professional education and CPD: how education follows the development

Best practice: country reports, new developments in education, challenges

Evaluation procedures: internal and external.

Please, everybody is welcome to submit a paper – also on other topics that these!!! Please see the list in the Call for Papers –brochure (attached in this letter).

The dead line for the abstracts is very soon, already the 21^st of August, 2001. Please, submit the abstract by sending it via the web-page. of the conference or to Markku Villikka, FIG Office, International Federation of Surveyors, DK-2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark. The web site of FIG is www.fig.net. See also the topics in the Call for Papers produced by the organizers, the copied brochure is in this letter (paper version) and the link to it is www.fig2002.com

You can just submit an abstract, or if you like contact Kirsi.Virrantaus@hut.fi

The US Bureau has agreed that the FIG Congress Prize will be offered to young members of FIG member associations at the XXII FIG Congress. The value of the prize is 2000 Swiss francs, together with complimentary registration at the congress and a return airfare to and from Washington DC. Those eligible to compete for the prize are members of FIG member associations who have not reached the age of 36 by 31 December 2002. The winner of the prize is selected among the authors of papers submitted. For more information see FIG web pages and Appendix 4.

Please, try to encourage the young professionals and students is your countries to attend FIG Congress. The organizers have promised to arrange special happenings for students. More information available in web.

I wish you all good! The next Newsletter will come out after the next ACCO meeting during the fall term.

With best regards

Kirsi Virrantaus

Appendix 1

The Minutes of Commision 2 Meeting for National Delegates, Seoul Working Week, 2001

Monday the 7^th of May, 2001

15.30 – 17.30, Magnolia room

1.Kirsi Virrantaus opened the meeting and welcomed everybody. Altogether 14 participants were present (name list as an Appendix).Agenda of the meeting was accepted. Minutes of the previous Com 2 meeting in Prague were circulated.

2. Com2 Report to the 24^th General Assembly was circulated. Pedro Cavero gave a report on Rosario Symposium last October (a written report is available in web). The proceedings are coming also as a CD version, we should put them in web. Pedro Cavero will organize a similar symposium next year in Puerto Rico. Kirsi Virrantaus, Pedro Cavero and Stig Enemark reported also on the Malta Seminar last September as well as on the CLGE seminar in Delft last November. All papers given in the previous seminars are available in web.

3.Working Group work was presented.

-WG1 (Management skills) Stig Enemark mentioned that this working group was a continuation from the previous period and will be somehow finished by his report on Mutual recognition in Washington. Also a booklet could be made of the papers made on the topic.

-WG2 (Virtual Academy) Kirsi Virrantaus told about the organization of the coming Workshop onn Virtual Academy, June 2001, Helsinki. Last invitation for presentations and participation was given. Henrik Haggrén and Esben Munk Sörensen will prepare a report on this WG for Washington.

-WG3 (Surveyors´ Curricula) Jud Rouch and Kirsi Virrantaus told about the situation of the WG. The plans are to collect as any description on different curricula to be the basic material – we already have presentations on China, USA, Latin America, Europe, Scandinavia; Africa is missing but maybe we can get something during the Nigeria symposium. The problem is that for example the definition of a surveyor differs from country to another. Allan´s report which is now updated as well as CLGE material (Mattsson and others) can be used. Stig Enemark told about CLGE´s work: they aimed first to create a so-called core curricula but it seemed to be impossible; Mattsson then made his analysis on different models in surveying education. Three models were outlined: the German model, the Swedish-Danish model and the Finnish-UK model. Stig Enemark outlined in his presentation three subject fields – measurement and surveying, land management and geographic information management – the balance between these three parts make a certain profile for a curriculum.

We also discussed the situation of SEDB. Now when it is a real database it could be easily updated, the problem is how to activate the universities to maintain their data. We will continue the discussion on SXEDB etc. on Thursday´s meeting.

A report on this WG for Washington will be prepared by Jud Rouch and Kirsi Virrantaus. Jud could collect the papers which are written on the topic during our period and make an overview of them. Kirsi tries to create a systematic approach to curricula and describe it.

-WG4 (Surveying students) Pedro Cavero The work of this working group has been linked to other WG:s. We had two students in the meeting so we tried to have a discussion on what FIG could offer for them. Virtual academy seemed to be one thing. Also general information service about universities and training possibilities abroad would be interesting. Also it was mentioned that the next congress in Washington is possibly of special interest from students´ point of view.

The new working group established, Education of Valuers together with Com 9 has a meeting on Thursday the 10^th at 15-17.00 in Orchid

4. Reports for Washington Congress:

-Report of Virtual Academy, responsible Henrik Haggren and Esben Munk Sörensen

-Report on Curricula , responsible Jud Rouch and Kirsi Virrantaus

-Report on Mutual Recognition, Stig Enemark (Task force report).

Program for Washington was discussed and more themes for sessions were given.

According to the call for papers we might receive papers on the following topics:

Professional Education on Geomatics

Virtual Academy and University Curricula

Professional Education in Geomatics and Land Management

Developing Curricula Contents for Surveying Education

Interactive and Creative Learning

For the following four technical sessions we have already potential papers:

Virtual Academy – applications

-these will be found during the Workshop in June, 2001; also more papers by call for

Virtual Academy – technical and pedagogical issues

-these will be found during the Workshop in June, 2001, also more papers by call for

Surveyors curricula – examples around the world

-we already have Latin America work done by Pedro Cavero, US work made by Jud Rouch, we have Hans Mattsson work for CLGE (Europe), Allan report (which is old), Liu Yanfang could coordinate China and Asia, we need more from Africa and Asia, maybe something more from Europe also

Surveyors curricula – how to describe for information users

-this topic will be discussed on Thursday, some plans exist on making a plan/prototype on a new approach to curricula descriptions which are now very well described in web sites

Joint sessions will be organized by Markku Villikka, meeting in Copenhagen next October

Joint session with 9 on Education of Valuers, 1 session

Joint session with 3,5,8 on New Technologies in education , 1 session

Joint session with 1 and Task force for underrepresented groups, 1 session

Other themes suggested:

Professional education and CPD: how education follows the development

Best practice: country reports, new developments in education, challenges

Evaluation procedures: internal and external.

It was reminded that:

THE DEAD LINE FOR ABSTRACTS IS AUGUST 21^ST 2001 – abstracts not longer than 250 words should be sent by using the conference web site www.fig2002.com, or to Markku Villikka, FIG, DK-2000, Fredriksberg, fax +45 38860252 , e-mail fig.net; Please send your abstract also to me Kirsi.Virrantaus@hut.fi, fax +358 465 077

5. Co-operation with other organizations.

Kirsi Virrantaus told that she tried to invite ICA Com Chair for Education, prof. Vladimir Tikunov to join the Workshop on Virtual Academy, but he is too busy at the time. ISPRS Com Chair for education is a Brazilian and thus too far. They will be informed on the results of the Workshop.

6.Other events in the next future:

Kirsi Virrantaus and Stig Enemark will participate in Nairobi Interational Conference on Sustainable Development (2.-5. October, 2001), Perdo Cavero will organize a Symposium in Puerto Rico in February 2002 together with Commission 1.

7.The meeting was closed at 5 pm. KV

Appendix 2

List of participants in Com 2 meeeting on the 7^thor on the 10^th of May, 2001, Seoul

David Rodgers d.Rodgers@lmu.ac.uk

NG Tak Cheong cls.hg@lands.gov.hk

Jud Rouch jsrouch@ualr.edu

Steven Frank sfrank@nmsu@edu

Josef Weigel weigel.j@fce.vutbr.cz

Gert Steinkellner gert.steinkellner@bev.gv.at

Artur Adamek artur_adamek@hotmail.com

Jacek Kaminski jacekxx@friko2.onet.pl

Leif Eidenstedt leidenst@recm.kth.se

Pedro J. Cavero pjcavero@nivel.euitto.upm.es

Bela Markus MB@CSLM.HU

Liu Yanfang yfliu@wtusm.edu.cn

Stig Enemark enemark@i4.auc.dk

Kirsi Virrantaus Kirsi.Virrantaus@hut.fi

Esben Munk Sörensen ems@i4.auc.dk

Boo Lilje boo.lilje@lantm.lth.se

Chimgee Purevbaatar pchimgee@mail.mn

Uranbileg Sandag urantuul@hotmail.com

Ulf Jensen ulf.Jensen@lantm.lth.se

Kazimierz Carnecki kcz@gik.pw.edu.pl

Basil Psarianos psari@survey.ntua.gr

Participants in the first meeting of the Working Group on Education of Valuers on the 10^th of May, 2001

Michael Yovino-Young myovino-young@yovio.com

David Smejkal ds@cscom.cz

Henning Elmström elmstroem@plf.dk

H.K. Njuguna metrocosmo@kenyaweb.com

Kauko Viitanen kauko.viitanen@hut.fi

Andrew Axcell a.axcell@city.ac.uk

Appendix 3

FIG COMMISSION 2: PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION

REPORT TO THE 24^TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

IN FIG PC MEETING SEOUL, MAY 2001

Kirsi Virrantaus

1. General

Commission 2 has been working according to the work plan. The planned symposium has been organized in Rosario and Commission officers have participated in several other occasions like CLGE seminar in Delft, Malta Seminar and of course Prague working week. Two newsletters have been published and web site updated. Among the Working Groups WG 2 has been the most active and is currently preparing the next Workshop on Virtual Academy.

2. Work plan

Commission 2 has followed the accepted work plan without major changes. Minor changes in responsibilities happened in the development of SEDB where Commission only took part in the design of the new system but the implementation and further update was decided to be made by the FIG Office.

3. Commission meetings

Annual meeting of Commission was held during the Prague Working week as well as two two open meetings, each of them attracting 10-15 participants. Commission Meeting was organized on the 22^nd of May, The Open Meeting on Virtual Academy on the 23^rd and the Open Meeting for Surveying Students on the 24^th of May. In the meetings Commission Vice Chair Pedro Cavero informed on the Rosario (Argentina) Symposium, October 2000, and Esben Munk Sörensen and Henrik Haggren introduced the plans for The WG Seminar, June 2001 in Espoo, Otaniemi.

4. Working Week and other Seminars and Symposia

In Prague Working Week Commission 2 organized one technical session with four presentations (Henrik Haggrén and Esben Munk Sörensen, Bela Markus, Ales Cepek and Josef Hnojil, Jud Rouch, Svato Mihalzak).

FIG Commission 2 organized also a Symposium "Surveying in the Third Millennium: Universitary Formation and Professional Development" in Rosario, Argentina, 18.-20. October 2000. Vice Chair Pedro Cavero was the main organizer together with the local organizers, Schools of Agrimensura of Rosario and Santiago del Estero National Universities. In the Symposium there were 128 participants from 10 different countries and 18 papers. Three round table meetings were also held. Pedro Cavero and Stig Enemark gave presentations. Pedro Cavero outlined the future plans for Commission 2.

In addition to Prague Working week and Rosario Symposium, Commission officers took part in the ACCO meeting in Copenhagen in January 2000 (Cavero, Virrantaus) and Malta Seminar (Cavero, Enemark, Virrantaus gave presentations) as well as the CLGE Seminar in Delft.

5.Working Groups

Working Group 1: Management skills, professional competencies and CPD policies.

Contributions are somehow overlapping with the Task Force on Mutual Recognition. The WG will finish its work and give the final report in Washington Congress.

Working Group 2: Virtual academy – distance learning.

WG Chair Henrik Haggren and Esben Munk Sörensen are organizing a Workshop and Seminar on Virtual Academy. More information on it in Chapter 6.

Working Group 3: University curricula – content competencies, trends and assessment.

Jud Rouch is chairing the WG. The main goal has been to collect information on various approaches and models in surveyors´ education. Presentations have been given on curricula in USA, Europe, Asia and Latin America (presentations in Wuhan seminar, Sun City and Prague Working Weeks, Malta seminar and Rosario Symposium). The goal is to produce a model which could be used in comparing and describing various curricula. SEDB will be a part of this approach. Kirsi Virrantaus is co-working with the chair.

Working Group 4: Surveying students.

Vice Chair Pedro Cavero in chairing. The main goal has been to organize FIG seminars and symposiums outside Europe and USA, so that as many young surveyor and student could participate. Another goal is to develop the SEDB to be better useful also for students searching for information about study possibilities abroad.

A new Working Group has been established under Commission 9, "Education of Valuers", the Chair is professor Kauko Viitanen (Finland). This happened in Prague on the proposal of Commission 2.

6.Forthcoming events

As mentioned WG 2 will organize a Workshop and Seminar on Virtual Academy on the 5.-8. June, 2001. The Seminar will be organized at Helsinki University of Technology, Lifelong Learning Institute, DIPOLI in Espoo, Finland. Further information on the seminar in www.dipoli.hut.fi/geomatiikka.

Commission 2 will organize two technical sessions with ten papers on Virtual Academy and Surveyors´ Curricula in the Seoul Working week May, 2001. Commission 2 also co-operated with Commission 9 in getting papers on Education of Valuers as well as supported on of the invited speakers to the plenary sessions. We are going to organize also annual meeting in Seoul.

7.Information

SEDB is now available in web. Universities have their passwords for updating. Academic members have been linked to the site.

Co-operation with sister societies, especially ICA and ISPRS seem to be important especially on the topic of virtual academy. In the future the Chairs of Commissions on Education in ICA and ISPRS are invited and encouraged to participate in the Commissions seminars as well as Working Weeks. Newsletters will be also sent to the corresponding chairs. Newsletters and other related material are available in the web.

Appendix 4 and Call for Papers

Invitation to compete for the 2002 FIG Coingress Prize

See www.fig2002.org