Hogeschool voor Wetenschap & Kunst, campus De Nayer Institut, Belgium

Intergraph Technology Educates Tomorrow’s Geospatial Leaders

lady on laptop Using education grants from Intergraph, Hogeschool voor Wetenschap & Kunst, campus De Nayer Instituut (De Nayer Instituut) is teaching surveying students the theoretical principles of geographic information systems (GIS) and turning them into practice using GeoMedia Professional technology in real-life scenarios.

The Project Objectives:

Familiarize students with the effects of geographical databases in datasets
Increase GIS awareness among students through real-life case studies
Give students a glimpse into the diversity of geospatial application possibilities in the present and future

The Solution:

De Nayer Instituut, an Intergraph Registered Research Library, chose GeoMedia technology to teach students the basic principles of GIS because of its intuitive, easy-to-use interface and interoperability among many different file types and formats. From inventorying assets to managing, analyzing, and viewing them, students are given exercises that illustrate how the technology is used in everyday situations.

Students participate in a GeoMedia Professional tutorial and are then given a case study in which they integrate datasets from multiple sources into one project. When integrating data, students are exposed to many GIS aspects, such as field inventarization, on-screen digitalization, geocoding, georeferencing, and more. After the necessary data is integrated into one geoworkspace, students use GeoMedia technology’s comprehensive analysis capabilities, such as complex spatial analysis, thematic classifications, functional attributes, and spatial operators.

In thesis research, different students worked on an online GIS project for a local government office – creating an application that provides government officials and citizens with access to spatial and attribute data. Students enabled these non-GIS users to easily use the application with GeoMedia WebMap Publisher’s intuitive interface.

The students built different interfaces for each type of user. Each window featured unique capabilities based on the needs of the user. Government officials could search for parcel locations or look up property ownership records simply by entering parcel numbers. Citizens did not have access to this confidential information, but could search for public services, such as medical services, bus stops, educational institutes, government offices, and more. The result of the project was an inventive, easily expandable Web-mapping application with low maintenance costs.

De Nayer students have used their geospatial knowledge to create a municipal Web site with several applications using GeoMedia WebMap, GeoMedia WebMap Publisher, and GeoMedia Professional. Although student projects are not always implemented, the insight students gain from GeoMedia technology will enable them to help shape the future of GIS.

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