SLSU joins Int’l GIS, holds GIS Day 2020
As the world celebrates International Geographic Information System (GIS) today, November 18, 2020, Southern Leyte State University (SLSU), together with the University of the Philippines (UP) Tacloban College, with its local, national, and global partners, joined the event by hosting a GIS Day 2020, with a theme Countouring Possibilities: Reshaping the Future with GIS.
The GIS Day 2020 includes a week-long training on GIS fundamentals, and a series of virtual GIS Talks on November 16-20, 2020. There is also a special mapathon session for mapping critical health facilities in Eastern Visayas on November 12 and 25, 2020, and a site validation in support of the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority’s (NAMRIA) Land Cover Mapping Project for the province of Southern Leyte on November 18, 2020.
In 2014 and 2016, SLSU managed to acquire the services of a balik-scientist, whose expertise is on GIS who helped the university jumpstart the use of GIS among the university’s research. Consequently, in 2017, SLSU had established the GIS Tech Center with around 3 million-peso funding from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). Since then, the GIS Tech Center has been the main knowledge hub of the GIS-engaged researches and projects in the university.
Dr. Prose Ivy G. Yepes, SLSU President, believes that the academic institutions need to be at the forefront of spreading the good news of GIS. “As producers of scientists, engineers, managers, policy, and decision-makers, SLSU, among the universities in the region, needs to be aware of the emergent technologies and decision-making tools to serve our constituents better”, she added, emphasizing that GIS is one of the highly useful tools.
GIS Tech Center is headed by Mr. Francis Rey Padao, a faculty of the College of Computer Studies and Information Technology (CCSIT) at SLSU Main Campus in Sogod, Southern Leyte. The center has been involved in activities in several Local Government Units (LGUs) in the province and in several GIS-based project proposals of the university.
GIS Day is a global movement that brings government agencies, educational institutions, non-profit organizations, and GIS professionals together to build knowledge of GIS in their communities and create understanding in the world. GIS is a scientific framework for gathering, analyzing, and visualizing geographic data. It is rooted in the science of geography that analyzes spatial location and organizes layers of information into visualizations using maps and 3D scenes.