ITC News Issue 2005-3

INTRO content introduction Main features Opening Academic Year 2 Times change, people change and technology changes, but somehow your Masterclass Clarissa Augustinus 9 memory of ITC does not. For 55 years people have visited this institute in 55 years student the Netherlands and their visit is never erased from their minds. Of course, accommodation 10 ITC has changed and so have the people who come to visit but each of our ESRI internship 12 alumni holds a small piece of the collective memory of “life at ITC”, a memory that is cherished by many and probably envied by even more. More than Education news 17,000 individual memories, each holding a small part of the capacity that Renewed programmes 14 ITC has built over the past 55 years in the geo-information society! Partnership news People always have multiple memories of their time at ITC. There are the UNAM-ITC MSc 16 memories of going abroad, sometimes for the first time, as well as memo- Bhutan project 17 ries of missing many months with families and loved ones. There are memo- Announcements ries of new learning and new skills. There are also memories of a small Award for country with dark winters and beautiful flowers in the spring. Most alumni, topographic map of Bhutan 18 however, have their strongest memories of the cultural experience they Short course shared with new friends from all over the world. And after living for months eLearning EduServ4 18 or years in the Netherlands, many memories and friends were left behind Award for and “life after ITC” began. Lives have changed significantly because of Prof. Verstappen 19 spending this time at ITC. New skills have brought people new careers, and Award for Dr. Maathuis and exposure to international society and culture has brought new insights and Prof. Van Genderen 19 expectations. ISI rating for JAG 19 Staff news 19 Hopefully, reading this special issue of ITC News will bring back and strengthen many good memories of your study in the Netherlands. Do not Life after ITC hesitate to share your feelings with us through the alumni website or to get ITC Alumni Association in touch with the friends who have written in this issue. The world of ITC is Indonesia 20 only one e-mail away … ITC Alumni Association Pakistan 21 Jeroen Verplanke Janneke Kalf Alumni Coordinator Managing Editor LETTER TO THE EDITOR 22 Special Alumni Section 23 colofon ITC NEWS is published quarterly, by ITC, Enschede, the Netherlands Managing Editor: Janneke Kalf Correspondence to: Managing Editor ITC NEWS Editing: Janice Collins P.O.Box 6 Design&PrePress: Henk Scharrenborg 7500 AA Enschede (Composer DTP service) Phone: +31 (0)53 487 44 11 Andries Menning Fax: +31 (0)53 487 45 54 Printing: PlantijnCasparie Zwolle E-mail: [email protected] 2005number 3 The views expressed by the contributors do not necessarily reflect those of ITC ITC News 2005-3 1 MAIN FEATURES Opening Academic Year 2005-2006 ITC News [email protected] Punctuality is Shortly before the programme was due to Mr den Oudsten, Mayor of Enschede; begin, the heavens opened and a deluge de- Professor Ian Dowman, council members certainly a virtue and scended on the centre of Enschede. Short and other officials of the International those who had taken and sharp maybe, but extremely wet. Still, Society for Photogrammetry and Remote that was all quickly forgotten on entering Sensing (ISPRS); Mr Dorji Wangda, director their seats in good the imposing Jacobuskerk, with its aisles, of the Department of Geology and Mines, arches and vaulted roof, and two large side Bhutan; Mr Blokland of UNESCO-IHE; and time for the Opening screens displaying interesting scenes of the members of the ITC Board of Supervisors of the Academic Year Netherlands and student life in Enschede. and the Scientific Council. And of course a Yes, this year saw a change in venue, as warm welcome was given to special guest of on Thursday, restoration work was in progress in the the day Dr Clarissa Augustinus, chief of the Grote Kerk across the square. As the aca- Land and Tenure Section of the Global 29 September 2005, demic procession advanced down the cen- Division of UN-HABITAT in Nairobi, who was were well rewarded. tral aisle, the members of the audience, who presenting the Schermerhorn lecture. “But had naturally risen to their feet, seemed to most of all,” he said, “I welcome our new They escaped the grow in stature. An optical illusion? Actually, course participants. You have arrived at the no; many had taken advantage of the kneel- moment when we have almost finished the dousing suffered by ers in an attempt to gain a better view! renovation of our hotel, which now domi- both the red carpet nates the centre Enschede with its new en- In his opening speech Rector Martien trance. And you have also happened to and those who opt Molenaar welcomed the ambassadors of come when ITC is celebrating its 55th an- Mongolia, Uganda and Zambia; Professor niversary.” for split-second Zijm, Rector Magnificus of the University of timing. Twente; Mr Dijkema, representative of the Professor Molenaar was followed at the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science; lectern first by Professor Henk Zijm, Rector Opening speech Rector Martien Molenaar 2 ITC News 2005-3 MAIN FEATURES Augustinus we find an expert with long experience in this field in parts of the world where there is a great need for innovations in land tenure systems.” Delivering this year’s Schermerhorn lecture, Dr Augustinus started by tracing the history of UN-HABITAT for her audience. She then went on to explain the magnitude of the urban problem, particularly in relation to slums, saying that innovations in land tenure systems were required, as well as interdisci- plinary approaches. After thanking Dr Augustinus for a most interesting lecture, Professor Molenaar invited Magnificus of the University of Twente (ITC’s those present to vacate the rather hard pews intermediary with the ministry), who con- of the Jacobuskerk and make their way to gratulated the Institute on its lustrum, and the reception at the nearby Twentse Schouw- then by Professor Ian Dowman, ISPRS presi- burg. dent, who said that the Society was proud to be associated with an educational estab- Opening Speech lishment that enjoyed an unparalleled repu- Rector Martien Molenaar tation throughout the world. Next, in an In his speech Professor Molenaar said that entertaining presentation, Mr Chudamani the Opening of the Academic Year was in Joshi, on behalf of the Student Association fact the official beginning of the celebrations Board, welcomed the new participants to an to mark ITC’s 55th anniversary - celebrations international learning institute of many that would include no less than five inaugu- facets. It then fell to Professor Molenaar to ral addresses by ITC professors nested within announce this year’s winner of the Klaas Jan symposia, a special meeting with partners Beek Award, a pleasant duty that brought from the worldwide network of joint educa- the first part of the programme to a close. tional programmes, a festive event in A short musical interlude featured Mr Gijs November for the ITC community, and a van Schoonhoven on the organ playing December conference entitled “Spatial infor- Daphne - three variations on a medieval love mation for civil society: capacity building for song - from the “Camphuysen Manuscript” the international geo-information society”. (Amsterdam 17th century). The audience He said that this title expressed ITC’s contin- could appreciate not only the music but also uous adaptation to new developments in its the wonderful acoustics that make the professional field and the rapid internation- Jacobuskerk a favoured venue for cultural alisation of higher education. and musical events. “In our professional field, our major empha- As the note gave way to the word once sis in the past was on the methodical aspects more, Professor Molenaar illustrated the of geodata acquisition, information extrac- legacy of the founding father of ITC: tion and dissemination. We dealt with the “Willem Schermerhorn […] was in his time technology and use of geodata in various an advocate of the importance of maps for application domains. This traditionally in- civil society. Maps have now been replaced volved the domain specialists, but more and by geo-information science. But the position more we see that policy and decision makers of Willem Schermerhorn is still valid in the managing our living environment and re- sense that this discipline finally finds its justi- sources need this information. In fact infor- fication in the role that this information mation - and to a large part geo-information should play in civil society. One of the impor- - has proven to be indispensable for gover- tant examples of this can be found in the nance, or at least good governance.” context of land administration. In Dr Clarissa ITC News 2005-3 3 MAIN FEATURES “The two buzzwords ‘sustainability’ and benefits or profits for the education provider. ‘security’ can be heard everywhere. We find He felt this was a domain in which the them expressed in the UN Millennium Dutch institutes for international education Development Goals and the Johannesburg had traditionally been active - and with suc- Summit on Sustainable Development of cess - and this should not be forgotten in three years ago. There are high expectations the present climate. of the contribution of earth observation and geo-information in this respect. ITC has been Professor Molenaar further explained how invited to develop with UN-HABITAT com- ITC was constantly redefining its role and ad- puter simulations of scenarios for the devel- justing its services. “Besides the degree pro- opment of slums; this is an interesting exam- grammes, we offer a large number of short ple of how geo-information can be used to courses based on the modules of educa- monitor the progress made towards some of tional programmes and also tailor-made the Millennium Development Goals.” courses designed for particular client organi- sations.

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