EuroSDR Educational Service (EduServ) annually offers four two-week e-learning courses in the field of GeoInformation (GI). It is designed for knowledge transfer from the research to the production domain. Thus, it is mainly focused on participants from NMCAs and industry but also PhD students and researches find the courses interesting as they always reflect latest developments in GI.

The 18^th series of e-learning courses from EuroSDR will open on 2^nd and 3^rd March 2020 with a a pre-course seminar, hosted by IGN France and Ecole Nationale des Sciences Géographiques (ENSG). The seminar will take place at the ENSG premises, Marne-la-Vallée, France. During the seminar, the background material of four e-learning courses will be presented by the tutors, participants will meet the tutors and fellow participants, and the learning platform – Moodle, will be demonstrated.

The four e-learning courses are scheduled from March till June 2020. They can be followed over the Internet from any location, thereby allowing participants to update their knowledge with minimum disruption. Courses require about thirty hours of online study.

The flyer can be downloaded here.

Deep Learning for Remote Sensing (pdf)

Tutors: Loic Landrieu (IGN France), Sébastien Lefèvre (Université Bretagne Sud), Bertrand Le Saux (ONERA)

Deep Learning has led to significant breakthroughs in various fields including computer vision. Remote sensing also benefits from such methodological advances and deep networks currently achieve state-of-the-art results in many automatic tasks, such as object detection, semantic segmentation (e.g. for land cover mapping), change detection, etc. The goal of this course is to introduce deep learning, review the main architectures able to cope with 2D rasters and 3D points clouds and relevant for cartography, photogrammetry and other EuroSDR-related fields, as well as to train the participants with available software and codes. Participants are informed that a basic knowledge of Python programming language is required, in order to benefit from the experimental work that will be conducted with Pytorch/Tensorflow (for which no prior knowledge is required).

Dates: 9^th – 20^th March 2020

3D Sensing, Scene Reconstruction and Semantic Interpretation (pdf)

Tutors: Martin Weinmann & Boris Jutzi (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology), Michael Weinmann (University of Bonn), Franz Rottensteiner (Leibniz Universität Hannover)

The adequate acquisition and analysis of a scene are of great interest for photogrammetry, remote sensing, computer vision and robotics. In the scope of this course, we will address four major issues in this regard. The first part will give a general introduction on geometry acquisition via (passive and active) optical 3D sensing techniques. The second part will focus on active optical 3D sensing as commonly used for the acquisition of large geospatial data and provide a survey on the extraction of descriptive features from such data. The third part will focus on a semantic interpretation of point cloud data and thereby address all components of a typical processing workflow from given point cloud data to a semantic labeling with respect to user-defined classes. The fourth part is dedicated to deep learning techniques for the semantic labeling of point clouds as well as to the context-based classification of these data using graphical models such as Conditional Random Fields (CRFs).

Dates: 30^th March – 10^th April 2020

Spatial Linked (Open) Data (pdf)

Tutors: Erwin Folmer (Kadaster and University of Twente), Stanislav Ronzhin (ITC, University of Twente, Kadaster), Rob Lemmens (ITC, University of Twente), Wouter Beek (Triply, VU University, Kadaster)

This is an introductory course to Spatial Linked Open Data. Linked Open Data is a standards based approach for data interoperability. In this course we will teach the basic theory of Linked Data, and introduce the most important standards such as RDF. More in depth the topic of data modelling, vocabularies and ontologies will be elaborated as one of the key concepts of Linked Data. Although the concepts and technology is generic and not specific for spatial data we will discuss in particular the context of spatial data on the web. The second part of this course is split in a technical module and a business module. The business module will discuss the business case for linked data implementations based on the case study of the Dutch Kadaster, one of the earlier linked data implementations in Europe. The technical module will provide best practices how to convert data into linked data, and will be practical hands-on creating SPARQL queries.

Dates: 11^th – 22^nd May 2020

GeoBIM – Basic Principles and Use Cases (pdf)

Tutors: Lars Harrie (Lund University) and Claire Ellul (University College London)

There is an increasing awareness amongst practitioners in both the geospatial and Architecture Engineering and Construction (AEC) communities that enabling interoperability and moving towards integration of data from the two domains can provide benefits to sectors such as construction, asset management, safety and security, local and regional planning and building permit processes, national mapping agencies and many more.  

Taking a data-driven perspective on interoperability and integration – i.e. looking at the integration of Building Information Modelling (BIM) and geospatial data - the course will provide a comprehensive overview of GeoBIM, starting from first principles - comparing BIM and Geo, identifying opportunities for using integrated data and challenges arising.  Two case studies then give the opportunity to explore the topic more in depth – planning/permits processes and asset/facilities management. The course concludes by allowing students to explore GeoBIM in a wider context, as a location-enabled foundation for digital twins, smart cities and the internet of things.

Various examples from practical applications and hands-on practical work will illustrate the theory.

Please note that the number of participants in the GeoBIM course is limited to 30 (based on the confirmed fee payment)! The course will be repeated in 2021.

Dates: 1^st – 12^th June 2020

Fees

600 € for pre-course seminar + 1 or 2 courses
700 € for pre-course seminar + 3 or 4 courses
100 € for pre-course seminar only

The fee for attending the pre-course seminar only is 100 €. This fee will be deducted from the course fee in case of later subscription to the e-learning courses.

Scholarships

A limited number of scholarships will be available to fully cover the course fee and to partially support the travel costs to the pre-course seminar (up to € 500). The scholarships are intended to Ph.D./Master students and other applicants with no or very limited financial support from their university or public institution. Successful completion of at least two courses is required from applicants in order to reimburse their travel costs.

In order to proceed with the application:

• Register to EduServ
• Fill in the application form that includes a motivation letter, information about professional experience and calculation of travel costs. It is recommended to support the application with a reference letter. Both documents shall be submitted to eurosdr@kuleuven.be not later than on 17^th January 2020.

Applicants will be informed about the acceptance/rejection of their application latest on 25^th January 2020. The approved travel costs will not be refunded before successful completing of at least two e-Learning courses the applicant registered for! Successful applicants from previous years will be automatically excluded from the evaluation.

Registration

You can register for the e-learning courses >>> here <<< until 21^st February 2020.

Programme of the pre-course seminar (pdf)

Date: 2nd - 3rd March 2020

Venue: ENSG, 6 et 8 Avenue Blaise Pascal, Cité Descartes - Champs-sur-Marne

           77455 Marne-la-Vallée Cedex 2, France

2nd March 2020

3rd March 2020

* Each session includes a coffee break (approx. at 10:30 and 14:30)

Testimonials

“The whole course was really well done in both terms of form and content. Everything was thought through, communication was top notch. I believe I gained valuable knowledge in most of the topics. I can highly recommend this course to anyone who is interested in spatial research.” (Jan Dolezal, Charles University)

“Both [courses] were very enlightening and supported me during several steps of my PhD research.” (Marco Palma, Università Politecnica delle Marche)

FAQ

• I haven't received a confirmation email yet. Did something go wrong?

No. An official confirmation email will be sent to you within 7 working days. If you haven't received an email, please contact the secretariat (eurosdr@kuleuven.be).

• I would like to enroll to the e-learning course(s), but I am not able to attend the pre-course seminar.  Is that a problem?

No. It is not obligatory to attend the pre-course seminar. Please note that the fee for attending the pre-course seminar is always included in the total price.

• Is it possible to register for the seminar only?

Yes. The fee for attending the pre-course seminar only is €100. This fee will be deducted from the course fee in case of later subscription to the e-learning courses.

• What does the course fee include?

The course fee includes all course materials, two-weeks of e-learning, participation at a two-day seminar, lunch on both days and a joint dinner on Monday evening. Please note that the course fee does not include accommodation and travel costs.

• Can I pay by credit card?

Unfortunately we are unable to accept payment by credit card. However, payments can be made by bank transfer or by invoice.

• Is it possible to request an invoice?

Yes. If you would like to receive an invoice, please contact the secretariat as soon as possible at eurosdr@kuleuven.be. Please note that EuroSDR does not have a VAT number.

• Who can apply for a scholarship?

The scholarships are intended to Ph.D./Master students and other applicants with no or very limited financial support from their university or public institution. You can only apply for a scholarship if you take active part in all 4 EduServ courses (but we accept if at least two of them are successfully completed). Please note that successful applicants from previous years will be automatically excluded from the evaluation.

• When will I receive the login details of Moodle?

You will receive an email with the login details a couple of days prior to the start of the e-learning course you registered for (usually on the last Friday before the start of the course). If you haven't received any email by Friday evening, please contact the secretariat at eurosdr@kuleuven.be.  

• How long and when will I have access to the study materials?

• Will I receive a certificate?

Yes, you will receive a certificate of completion after successfully completing the e-learning course(s). This certificate will be sent to you by email or to the address you provided on the registration form -depending on which option you selected- latest at the beginning of July. If you haven't received your certificate by then, please contact the secretariat at eurosdr@kuleuven.be.

In case you did not pass the course(s) and actively participated in the course, it is possible to obtain a certificate of attendance. You can request this certificate by sending an email to eurosdr@kuleuven.be. 

For more information, contact Ms. Tatjana Van Huyck at eurosdr@kuleuven.be.