BHT Staff Visit Ardhi University
From 19 to 26 February, Prof. Dr. Jürgen Schweikart and Prof. Dr. Ronny Schomacker from the Department of Civil Engineering and Geoinformatics at Berliner Hochschule für Technik (BHT, Berlin University of Applied Sciences) visited Ardhi University (ARU) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The visit had two objectives. Firstly, a teaching session on GIS and health was held for students at Ardhi. The second was to organise future cooperation in teaching, research and staff and student exchange programmes between Ardhi University Dar es Salaam and BHT.
In the joint discussions it was possible to identify future areas of cooperation. These could be implemented in the short and medium term. A number of possibilities for cooperation have been discussed, such as the development of a joint curriculum for a master's programme, the exchange of staff, the training of staff and students, the provision of courses for exchange students, the dissemination of project results and the organisation of a summer school. Specific details are mentioned such as practical and theoretical training, virtual training for staff, possible courses for exchange students and the importance of dissemination of project results through conferences and workshops. The theme of the summer school would be R programming, with a focus on specific aspects related to the accessibility of urban services. Details would have to be worked out in the coming weeks. In any case, it would be necessary to organise existing GIS data for the project in advance. It is also planned to include an excursion into the field.
The visit concluded with a public lecture on "GIS Spatial Analysis In Addressing Urban Services Provision". The themes of "Spatial Data and Health" and "Applied Geoinformation" were covered.