Esri Canada, a provider of geographic information system (GIS) solutions, has named York University to its growing network of GIS Centres of Excellence in Higher Education.
The network of centres increases the opportunity for students and faculty to apply GIS software for research and learning, as well as collaborate with researchers from the seven existing centres located in Canada.
“Analyzing the issues our world faces today through a GIS lens is a far better approach than existing methods,” said Alex Miller, president, Esri Canada. “Our GIS Centres of Excellence will expand the use of location-based data and analytics beyond geography to other fields such as engineering, computer science, business and medicine.”
Students at York’s Lassonde School of Engineering will benefit from the new centre through experiential learning using the ArcGIS platform. The centre will support innovative research that is expected to be presented in the classroom as a new source of knowledge for students.
“This partnership is a great opportunity for our students and faculty to get involved in using geographic technology to develop methods and applications in the emerging areas of location-based information and wireless communications,” said Costas Armenakis, associate professor, Geomatics Engineering, York University. “The centre will help our students develop valuable entrepreneurial skills and create new products and services for spatial data management and analysis. As well, it will promote teaching excellence and collaboration with the other GIS Centres of Excellence.”
The centre will also provide access to scholarships, conferences and competitions for students. To enhance further their GIS skills, students from member centres can participate in an annual app development challenge that focuses on the use of open government data and Esri technology.
About the Esri Canada GIS Centres of Excellence in Higher Education
Launched in 2014, the initiative is aimed at encouraging innovation in GIS research and promoting teaching excellence in spatial data management and analysis in higher education across Canada. The centres will also increase the opportunity for inter-institutional collaboration across the country and help expand spatial thinking and GIS software use beyond the traditional field of geography. To learn more about the initiative and participating institutions, visit ecce.esri.ca.