IUSSTF Funds GeoDa Center Collaboration with Nature Conservation Foundation in India
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The Indo-US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF) recently funded a collaborative research project between the GeoDa Center and the Nature Conservation Foundation (NCF) in India. Two members of the GeoDa Center, Julia Koschinsky and Daniel Arribas-Bel, went to India to work with ecologists at NCF in the Anamalai Hills of the Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary for ten days in July (15-24). The Sanctuary is located in the Southwest of India, about three hours South of Coimbatore and eight hours SW of Bengaluru (Bangalore). The purpose of the research exchange in the sanctuary was to discuss spatial analysis methods in the context of research designs and models to better understand human-elephant conflicts. During the second part of the visit, NCF and the GeoDa Center collaborated with the National Centre for Biological Sciences to offer a 2-day training on spatial data analysis in ecology and conservation (conducted by Dr. Koschinsky and Daniel Arribas-Bel with guest lectures/labs by Dr. Krishnaswamy and Andrew Winslow). |
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The demand for the spatial analysis workshop turned out to be tremendous. Over 90 people initially applied to attend the training. Although only 30 students were originally admitted (due to the size of the computer lab and to ensure meaningful 1:1 consulting time with each student), an additional 50 participants joined the morning lectures. Of the core 30 students, about a third traveled for more than 16 hours to attend the workshop, a third up to 16 hours (both with support from IUSSTF) and about a third of the participants were from Bengaluru. Also see the Sept. 2009 IUSSTF Newsletter (p. 40). |
Andrew Winslow (GeoDa Center) was brought in virtually from the US to talk to participants in Bengaluru about spatial point pattern analysis on networks and his GeoDaNet software, which is under development and was used in the lab |