On October 21-27, 2013 representatives of NTUU “KPI” and KNU of T. Schevchenko visited the Vancouver Island University , Canada. The visit of the delegation was devoted to signing of the cooperation agreements between universities under the "Establishment of the foundations of spatial data infrastructures: building capacity within the Ukrainian government to support sustainable economic growth, " supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, trade and development of Canada. The delegation included the Director of the World Data Center of Geoinformatics and Sustainable Development (WDC - Ukraine ) of KPI K. Efremov and the Head of the Laboratory of Geographical Information Systems WDC Ukraine V. Putrenko . This project involves the development of educational programs for Ukrainian state institutions to support the development of national spatial data infrastructure ( NIPD ). The main objectives of the project is to develop six courses for training of NIPD , Internship Ukrainian instructors in Canada, learning Ukrainian civil servants who are responsible for implementing NIPD in Ukraine .
There were a vast range of meetings and regular tours which were held while the visit . At the formal meeting with vice-president of UEA J. Vitti , a presentation of the universities that participate in the project took place and signing of cooperation agreements was agreed on. It was also held meetings with the Dean of the Faculty of International Education G. Pike, dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences D. Black, head of the Department of Computer Science H.Liu , which reached an agreement on the development of relations and deepening scientific collaboration between universities. The delegation got acquainted with the organization of the educational process in the specialty "Geographic information systems and remote monitoring of the Earth". Finally, the participants visited the specialized computer training classes , laboratories to perform practical work of students participated in the workshops with the students . An important aspect of the visit was the meeting with the delegation of a group of professionals who directly participated in the development of training courses. The Canadian team was led by Professor M. Govorov and Head of the Department of Geography Professor A. Hilchryst .
During a tour across the campus, UEA delegation had the opportunity to get acquainted with the peculiarities of structure and functioning of the university, visit the library, laboratories and research centers, sports complex.
The beginning of the cooperation between NTUU "KPI" and UEA offers new opportunities for the development of educational projects in the field of GIS and increases the practical value of the work as a leading university of technical education and science in Ukraine.
V. Putrenko