Open Source Geospatial and Education Laboratory

OSGeo has announced the establishment of the Open Source Geospatial Research and Education (OSGeoREL) Laboratory at the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Czech Technical University in Prague. The laboratory is one of the members of a worldwide network developed under the auspices of the ICA-OSGeo Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

In 2011, the International Cartographic Association (ICA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) with a view to develop global collaboration opportunities for academia, industry and government organisations in the field of open source GIS software and data. The MoU aims to provide expertise and support for the establishment of Open Source Geospatial Laboratories and Research Centres across the world to support the development of open source geospatial software technologies, training and expertise.

OSGeoREL at the CTU in Prague is led by Martin Landa, Department of Mapping and Cartography. The laboratory is devoted to education in geoinformatics using FOSS4G, and to research in open source software development for geospatial applications. Martin Landa is an OSGeo charter member since 2011 and a member of the GRASS Development Team since 2006. He is actively involved in the GRASS project as the lead architect of graphical user interface (GUI) development and PostGIS integration in GRASS vector architecture.

Geoinformatics at the CTU in Prague: Prof. Aleš Čepek has established a study program in geoinformatics since 2005 (originally with Prof Leoš Mervart), he is the author of project GNU Gama and of a minor project GNU Sqltutor (both hosted at GNU servers) and the editor in chief of Geoinformatics FCE CTU journal.