Udupi: National Conference on Geospatial Info & Tech Advancement inaugurated at Bantakal

By Anil Belle
Bellevision Media Network

Udupi, 17 Oct 2015: The departments of civil engineering and computer science of Sri Madwa Vadiraja Institute of Technology & Management (SMVITM), Bantakal, near here organized 2-day national conference on Geospatial Information and Technology Advancement (GITA 2K15) from Friday October 16 to Saturday October 17.

 

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Uday Raj, director of Regional Remote Sensing Centre, ISRO, Bengaluru spoke about the strategic importance of developing indigenous geospatial technologies and how ISRO, with the recent launch of its GSAT-6 and Astrosat, helped to make the country self-reliant in having location-oriented indigenous satellites that would provide vital geospatial information required for strategic planning.

 

Dr Nagesh Kumar D, chairman of Centre for Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, (IISc) Bengaluru, who was the guest of honor, said that extracting useful and relevant information from the huge amount of data provided by the geospatial technologies and using the extracted information effectively for the betterment of areas such as agriculture, detection of water resources, determining the quantity of water etc. were big challenges for a vast country like India.

 

 

Ratnakumar, secretary of Sri Sode Vadiraja Mutt Education Trust, presided the inaugural function.

 

Dr Thirumaleshwara Bhat and Dr Ganesha A, principal and dean (academics) of SMVITM respectively, welcomed the gathering and proposed the vote of thanks.

 

Dr T V Ramachandra with Energy & Wetlands Research Group, IISc; Professor Dr H Gangadhara Bhat, co-ordinator of Geo-informatics, Mangalore University; Professor Dr Dwarakesh, head of Applied Mechanics, NITK, Suratkal; Professor Dr Subba Rao, Applied Mechanics, NITK, Suratkal; Dr B Naveenachandra, assistant general manager of BSNL, Mangaluru and Dr Radhakrishna S Aithal, director of SMVITM were present.

 

The inaugural function was followed by a keynote address on Advancements in Geospatial Techniques by Dr Uday Raj and a talk on GPS in Watershed Management by Dr Nagesh Kumar. Dr Bharath Aithal, senior research associate at IISc also gave a guest talk on Smart Cities.

 

In four technical sessions under the categories Geospatial Technologies, Technology Advancements and Geospatial Applications, 19 papers were presented by researchers, academics and students from across the state on the first day of the conference.