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SpatialNews.com Press Release
Alice Grgicak-Mannion, University of Windsor Recognized for Dedication to
GIS in Education
London, ON - Alice Grgicak-Mannion of the University of Windsor was
presented with an Award of Excellence at ESRI Canada's annual ESRI Regional
User Conference in London today. Alex Miller, President of ESRI Canada, the
leading geographic information systems (GIS) provider in Canada, presented
the Award in recognition of Ms. Grgicak-Mannion's dedication, enthusiasm,
and initiative in using GIS in education and research, and integrating GIS
into Windsor-Essex community projects. More than 100 GIS professionals were
on hand for the presentation, which was one of the highlights of the
conference.
"The Award of Excellence is going to a very deserving individual who is
dedicated to integrating GIS to be used as a tool for training and research
within the University," said Mr. Miller. "Alice has worked hard to make GIS
accessible to faculty, students, and the community. The University is
involved in promoting and developing applications for the Windsor-Essex
region's health, tourism, and economic development departments, and for the
public library. Alice's contribution to the university and its endeavors has
been invaluable - I applaud her efforts."
As the GIS and Remote Sensing Coordinator for the Earth Sciences department
at the University of Windsor for the past five years, Alice was one of the
main driving forces in the development of the GIS laboratory and the
implementation of an ESRI Canada university-wide site license agreement. She
has developed and delivered GIS workshops in the lab for high school
geography teachers in the Windsor-Essex Region.
Alice also works with faculty in using ESRI products for research purposes.
A prime example is the Detroit River Area of Concern GIS Study where
researchers focused on river dynamics, environmental degradation of the
ecosystem, sediment transportation/contamination, and policy development.
This study was important because it updated bathymetric mapping of the river
and provided an overall picture of physical/chemical/biological interactions
(sediment, toxins, metals, etc.) that aided researchers in assessing and
analyzing the overall health of the local ecosystem.
"I would like to thank ESRI Canada for bestowing this honour on the
University of Windsor and myself," said Ms. Grgicak-Mannion. "This award is
a testament to four years of hard work by our students, faculty, staff, and
our community partners who passionately pursue the development and promotion
of GIS awareness in the region. I am proud to be part of such a creative,
supportive, and innovative group."
The University's Earth Sciences department has recently acquired two state
of the art computer laboratories, primarily used for teaching and research
for visualizing and modeling geographic, environmental, and geologic data.
Earth Sciences has been using GIS and Remote Sensing to conduct research in
the fields of environmental geochemistry, physical geography, biology,
ecology, urban planning, and computer application development, to name a
few.
Alice also assisted in the development of several community
partnerships/projects. Her main responsibilities were management,
implementation, application design and development, and presentations for
the following projects.
Windsor-Essex Tourism Project - an interactive online GIS
Pelee Island Project - an interactive website that documents the
ecological history of Pelee Island
iCity, Historic Sites of Walkerville - an ArcIMS web service including
community history, geography, architecture, and planning information
Election Poll Locator - an Internet GIS application for the public to
locate election polls for the November 2000 municipal election
Region Wide Aerial Photography Initiative - digitally orthorectified
photography to be used in both GIS and CAD systems
Alice and the Earth Sciences department have recently started to promote and
create partnerships with other organizations within the Windsor-Essex region
to develop a digital data-sharing consortium. This consortium allows members
to access important datasets and conduct joint projects.
ESRI Canada presents Awards of Excellence annually to organizations or
individuals across Canada for their outstanding achievement in the
application of GIS technology.
About ESRI Canada:
Established in 1984, ESRI Canada is a Canadian owned company specializing in
geographic information systems (GIS) products and services. ESRI Canada
distributes the world's leading GIS software products including ArcGIS
desktop (ArcInfo, ArcEditor, and ArcView); and ArcGIS servers (ArcIMS and
ArcSDE). Additional GIS software products include ArcView GIS, ArcPad,
MapObjects, and ArcLogistics Route. ESRI Canada also provides professional
services including consulting, training, and enterprise GIS implementation.
ESRI Canada has ten regional offices across the country, with headquarters
in Toronto, Ontario. For more information, please visit www.esricanada.com
or call 1-800- GIS-XPRT.
Related Weblinks:
www.esricanada.com
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