The first GIS Students Forum was organized by the GIS Centre of Dubai Municipality in cooperation with the Ministry of Education at Dubai World Trade Centre as part of the Map Middle East 2006 conference, which concluded on Wednesday.

Sixty students in the age group of 12-15 from 12 government schools in the UAE participated in the Forum, which provided the participants a first hand experience on map making and data collection, in addition to presentations by international experts in the field.

Eng. Hussain Nasser Lootah, Acting Director General of Dubai Municipality, who was present during the presentations, awarded trophies to the winning students in the Map Drawing Competition, held as part of the Forum. He also inaugurated the Map Gallery, which showcased the maps drawn by students on their emirates and the UAE.

Dr. Jamal Al Muhairi, Secretary of the Ministry of Education was also present on the occasion. Eng. Mohammed Al Zaffin, Head of GIS Centre, Dubai Municipality welcomed the participants in the Forum.

During the hour-long session called, "Filed Survey Game held outside the Trade Centre, students joined a professional team led by Yousuf Al Marzouqi, Head of Geodesy Unit in the Planning and Survey Department at Dubai Municipality in conducting a field survey for map making. They were shown how the data for map making is collected and processed on location, and then how it is incorporated in a map on the computer.

The students who participated in the Forum were selected based on their achievements and participation in extra curricular activities in the school as per the Education Ministry standards.

Al Muhairi said the ministry plans to increase the participation of students in the Students Forum next year by including private schools also. Manal Al Shamlan, Head of GIS Development Section in the GIS Centre at Dubai Municipality and director of the Forum said the works of students will be displayed on the GIS Centre website.

She said the Forum will be an annual feature and it marks the beginning of a continuing participation between the Ministry of Education and the GIS Centre to help improve the curriculum by adopting GIS tools for educating students.

In the first presentation about Google Earth, Michael Jones, Chief Technology Officer, Google Earth gave studetns a brief idea about the different advantages of Google Earth programm. "We make you fly over the earth. There are millions of place marks on Google Earth shared by users around the world," he said.

Jones said the users include real estate companies, who benefits by it for sale of houses. "People can also learn about the place where the house is located," he said.

Jones pointed out that there are many educational users for Google Earth. "Instead of going to the Zoo to see animals, students can access Google Earth to locate the animals in the remote forests of Africa. Students as well as researchers can locate museums and institutions by using Google Earth," he said, adding that the Google Earth encourages students for exploration.

The second presentation on the Advantages of Digital Cameras in GIS, Gottfried Konecny, Professor in Geoinformation at the University of Hanover, Germany, talked about the different digital cameras used for aerial mapping.

In the third presentation, Major Pilot Ali Al Shehhi of Space Reconnaissance Centre, UAE talked about the "Day to day use of satellite imagery.