The National Technical University of Athens [NTUA] is the oldest and most prestigious educational Institution of Greece in the field of technology, and has contributed unceasingly to the country's development since its foundation in 1836. NTUA is divided in nine academic departments, which are further divided in 33 divisions, which operate 99 laboratories.
The staff
of the academic departments includes: 569 members of teaching and research
personnel, 1365 members of scientific teaching personnel and 256 members
of administrative and technical personnel. The central administration
employs 381 people.
NTUA beyond the academic research, undertakes with increasing frequency
scientific and research projects financed by the Directories of the European
Commission, the General Secretariat of Research and Technology, Ministries,
the Armed Forces, Public Corporations and the private sector from Greece
and abroad. The cash inflows in the Special Account for Research have
increased considerably during the past five years and exceeded 40 MECU
in 1998.
The Cartography Laboratory at the National Technical University of Athens, specialises in the design and implementation of spatial data bases, the development of turn-key applications with the utilisation of Geographic Information Systems - Expert Systems and the study of the efficient portrayal of spatial phenomena on maps and charts. The Cartography Laboratory has acquired substantial experience in the above mentioned fields, through a considerable number of EU and national research projects. The laboratory is fully equipped with the H/W and S/W required for carrying out the relevant research projects. The experience of the members of the lab is valuable for the GIS and Cartographic part of STATLAS.
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich (ETHZ) [return]
The Institute
of Cartography at ETH Zurich, founded in 1925 by Eduard Imhof,
is the oldest academic institute in this domain worldwide. It developed
a long tradition in cartographic relief representation, topographic and
thematic cartography, map design and atlas cartography. It is the intention
to continue this tradition of striving for high quality maps also under
the promising prospects of digital cartography. Theoretical aspects of
various methods of graphic representation are studied and developed in
the field of topographic and more specifically of thematic maps. Map production
technologies play a major role as well. Research in this direction is
focused especially on integrated workflows in computer-assisted map design
and production. It resulted so far in a number of cartographic software
plug-ins that can be downloaded from the institute's web-site www.karto.ethz.ch.
A relatively new field of research is the development of modern interactive
CD-ROM or web- based multimedia map information systems. A considerable
amount of the needs for research and development in this domain arises
from the numerous graphical and technical problems we are faced with a
major long-term project, the editorial work for the "Atlas of Switzerland"
the Swiss Thematic National Atlas, which is a direct mandate by the Swiss
government. In the last 5 years, a new concept for this atlas comprising
a revised printed and a multimedia
version has been worked out. It leads to a prototype of a new multimedia
version. A commercial version with a statistical and a 3D-part is now
being distributed in Switzerland and internationally with great success.
With support from the Swiss Ministry of the Interior, the atlas will be
extended with other themes and functions such as adapted GIS tools in
the next years. Currently the institute's knowledge in integral cartographic
multimedia data analysis and presentation is also applied and extended
in the EU 5th framework project "GEOWARN" (IST 12310) dealing
with the development of an interactive volcanological information and
warning system.
The staff of the institute consists of about 20 professional cartographers,
geodesists, geographers and multimedia/GIS specialists. The Institute
is equipped with a complete digital cartographic development and production
chain including a high-resolution scanner/ laserplotter. About 25 modern
and powerful WinNT/Mac/LINUX graphics workstations and servers for digital
and multimedia cartography operate with more than 50 internally developed
and commercial software packages.
In the proposed project, the group at the Institute of Cartography will
- as a principal contractor - be responsible for the definition and implementation
of the multimedia core software of the STATLAS tools.
Institute of Geography and Regional Science at the University of Vienna
[return]
The Institute of Geography and Regional Science is the oldest and at the same time largest department for geography in Austria. In the early 1970's the division of cartography was founded within the department of geography and builds today one of its major cornerstones. The division of cartography has evolved around cartography and GIS to become a modern unity dealing with aspects of representation, communication and web-based applications. Many students who study cartography and GIS in Vienna get a broad overview of proven cartographic methods as well as an insight on new views within geo-science. The major areas of education and scientific work within the division of cartography are to be seen in topographic and thematic mapping, map related representations, GIS, cartographic DB- management, remote sensing and cartographic communication.
Institute of Regional Geography- Leipzig
[return]
The Institut
fur Landerkunde (Institute of Regional Geography) was re-founded in 1992.
It
continues the tradition of its preceding institutions, the German Institute
of Regional Geography (1896-1968) and the Institute of Geography and Geo-ecology
of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR (1969-1991). The institute is member
of the scientific association "Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz" and
is financed by the Federal Republic of Germany and the Free State of Saxony.
It is affiliated to the University of Leipzig. The German re-unification
as well as the political, economical and social changes in Eastern Europe
and the European restructuring and transformation processes are the background
for the basic research of the institute. The main tasks of the institute
are the collection and processing of geographical information about regional
spatial structures and their development, the assessment of economical,
political, demographic, social and cultural developments and processes
on different scale levels and the promotion of regional European knowledge.
Since 1995, the Institute of Regional Geography is in charge of the new
National Atlas of Germany. The first out of 12 volumes "Society and
State" has been published at the end of 1999. It is accompanied by
a CD-ROM - developed by the institute - containing the complete text of
the printed volume and interactive thematic maps.
Liaison Systems
SA, Research and Development of Information Systems, concentrates its
professional and research activities in the information life cycle management,
analysis and dissemination based on advanced methodology and technology
tools. LSSA has acquired considerable experience in the management
and implementation of projects, as well as, in the execution of studies,
mainly in the framework of European Commission funded Programmes. The
company has an established network of strategic long-term partnerships
with numerous academic and research institutes as well as important European
companies.
The company's know-how is based on a permanent group of skilled scientists
and engineers, experienced in the management of complex science &
technology projects, as well as, an extended network of collaborating
experts, who contribute to specific projects and tasks. LSSA experts are
working closely with Eurostat and NSSG (National Statistical Service of
Greece) in the framework of various projects and services developing skills
in handling statistical data and acquiring significant experience in official
statistics environments.
