Commission 2

NEWSLETTER, October 1998


 

To the National Delegates of FIG Commission 2

 

Dear Colleagues

In this newsletter there is a lot of information about Commission 2 new working period. I wish that you find it useful. I have collected information about the "new staff" of Commission 2 as well as recent and forthcoming events. Please, let me know if there is any question or other topic you want to discuss.

 

Introducing your new staff
The previous newsletter which you received was from professor Stig Enemark in July. He wrote about Brighton Congress as well as closed his period as a chairman of Commission 2. I have been very lucky to be able to work with Stig as a vice-chair for four years and I try to follow the way he showed. However new and unexpected situations may come as well as new challenges. I try to do my best in chairing Commission 2 and I very much appreciate your support as well as all communication between us. Let us be in contact and let me know if you have any ideas concerning the development of Commission 2 work.

I give you a short introduction of myself. My name is Kirsi Artimo and I am 45 years old female professor in Helsinki University of Technology. I was graduated as an architect in 1977 and after that made my postgraduate studies at the Department of Surveying, where I doctorated in 1984. My specialities are digital cartography and geoinformatics. I have now been working for 10 years in university environment but before that I used to work in private sector as well as in governmental offices. I have a family with two children (19 and 13) and husband who also is a surveyor. I have been quite active with FIG since 15 years, I used to be the secretary of Commission 2 during the period 1883-86.

The vice-chair of Commission 2 is professor Pedro Cavero from Spain. The secretary of Commission 2 is Mrs. Marjaana Laurema from Finland. I am very lucky to have these people involved and I hope that also Pedro and Marjaana will enjoy working for Commission 2.

The contact data of all of us you will find in the end of this letter. In all questions, please contact any of us three, we try to help you.

 

Brighton Congress

Brighton congress was a success in many ways. Commission 2 had alltogteher 35 papers in 11 sessions. The main topics in the presentations as well as the mainstream of discussion in general were focused on :

  • the rapid development of information technology and other technologies
  • the general trend of globalization
  • sustainable development and
  • the evolving requirements of clients.

Special topics in Commission 2 sessions were

  • management of change, which happen in social, technological, political and environmental sectors
  • the changing role of the surveyor from the traditional static profile to a new flexible one - we were once again reminded that instead of safe single job for life every surveyor must be able to plan his/her careers and be prepared for continuous lifelong training
  • computer assisted learning which seems to be changing into an integrated concept of virtual academy - this topic will be dealt with in one of the becoming working groups
  • students and their participation is an evergreen topic for our commission - in the future there might be connections also with the new task force on underrepresented groups in surveying under this topic.

Stig Enemark had worked hard for Brighton congress and the result was a big success. We had largest program what Commission 2 ever had as well as very active participation. Thank you Stig for your work for Commisson 2 - we all wish that you will continue with us in the next period and let your experience to support and guide our future work!

 

Commission meeting in Brighton

A commission meeting was held in Brighton on the 21st July , 1998. 22 participants were present and we had a lively discussion mainly concentrating on the new established working groups. On the home page of Commission 2 you will find a list of the participants as well as their email addresses.

 

Introducing the new working groups of Commission 2

In the following I will very briefly introduce the new working groups which were established in Brighton. If anyone of you is interested, please contact the chair and come to WG work. We need active members in each group.

The new working groups are:

WG 2.1 Management skills, professional competencies and CPD policies (chair: Chris Hoogsteden, NZ)
WG 2.2 Virtual academy - distance learning (chair: Henrik Haggrén, FIN)
WG 2.3 University curricula - content competencies, trends and assessments (chair: Jud Rouch, USA)
WG2.4 Surveying students (chair: Pedro Cavero, SP)

In Appendix 1 there is a short version of Commission 2 working plan for the period 1998-2002. More information about working groups you will find on the home page of Commission 2.

 

Seminar in Wuhan

Just a couple of weeks ago in October 14.-16.1998 we had Commission 2 Seminar in Wuhan Technical University of Surveying and Mapping (P.R.China). The seminar was part of WG 2.3 work with the title "University Curricula, Teaching Method, Quality Assurance".

The seminar was organized by professor Liu Yanfang who is the dean and vice president of WTUSM. In the seminar two days program we had 11 presentations. A proceedings has been published with 38 written papers.

There were more than 40 participants present, mostly Chinese university teachers but also students. From Commission 2 in addition to myself Stig Enemark was present as well as John Parker representing Commission 1. We three gave also our presentations as well as extra lectures for Chinese students, It was a real experience to give an ad-hoc lecture in front of 200 enthusiastic Chinese young people!

After the seminar we made a technical tour to Yangtse river and its Three Gorges. This tour was something what we will remember for the rest of our lives - a scenery which will be under water in the next future, the water level will be raised more than 160 meters because of the new dam. We were able to walk still once the ancient stairs which will sooner or later no more be there - more than three hundred steps up and down - without the young Chinese boys who carried our bags we (John Parker, Stig Enemark and me) would not have managed this tour.

I want to thank the organizers of the Seminar in Wuhan and especially Liu Yanfang who was the responsible organizer as well as the core person of this FIG event. Thank You !

There will be more information about Wuhan seminar on Com 2 home page.

 

Future events and activities

One of the most important things in the next future is to organize our home page. Stig Enemark has promised to support the management of our page until FIG will have an own webmaster. So, quite soon you will find updated data about Commission 2 in web.

Stig has also promised to continue with the development of educational data base, you will hear about the progress later.

The next FIG event is the Symposium and working week in South Africa, Sun City next May ( 30.5.-4.6.1999). Mr. Lance Nel is organizing the program and Commission 2 will have there three sessions. Please, take this event into your schedule. You will get more detailed information on the symposium in the next newsletter. The next annual events of FIG will be held in Prague 2000, Soul 2001 and the next Congress in Washington DC in 2002.

 

I wish good luck and success to all of you and hope that many of us could meet in the next future during some of the annual events of FIG

 

Sincerely yours

Kirsi Artimo