World GIS Day |16 November 2023
Senior field and laboratory technician Terence Vel getting the drone ready for the demonstration
Students take part in drone demonstration
A drone demonstration took place yesterday on the campus of the University of Seychelles to commemorate World Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Day which is on November 15.
The activity, hosted by the Centre for GIS within the Ministry of Lands and Housing in collaboration with the University of Seychelles (UniSey) saw the participation of students from the Anse Royale and Anse Boileau Secondary Schools, and was led by UniSey’s head of department for environmental sciences, Dr Nuette Gordon.
Prior to flying the drones, the students listened to a presentation entitled ‘Geospatial Information System in Today’s Scientific World’.
The educational session consisted of explanations on compasses, the future of geography within cartography and other aspects of navigation, and how it fits into the wider aspect of GIS.
A drone demonstration later took place outside the laboratory, where the students were split into smaller groups to focus on GPS navigation and drone flying led by senior field and laboratory technician, Terence Vel.
Dr Gordon empathised that GIS may sound complicated and recalled the olden days where navigation included mainly of atlases, maps and roadmaps.
She explained that GIS was simply a way of digitising those information in a very user-friendly way.
Dr Gordon added that whilst basic geography was great for the pointers, more activities like this would be beneficial if added as part of the school curriculum.
“Yes, it would be great for every school to have a drone but it can become capital intensive and this is where the university really wants to step in”, said Dr Gordon.
Speaking to local media, database administrator Alvin Alcindor explained that the activity was an educational and innovative one, preparing the students for the future.
He said, engaging the youth would hopefully create the desire for them to develop upon the foundations already laid out.
“We can see that drones are being used a lot for things like mapping, monitoring the sea, the cartography, terrestrial land”, added Mr Alcindor.
The centre for GIS, which was set up in the late 1990’s presently employs seven staff.
The centre celebrates GIS day annually, with the aim of promoting more use of GIS tools locally.
It is also an opportunity to create more awareness on the importance of GIS in decision-making process, especially amongst the younger generation.
Sunny Esparon (text and photos)
