Fundamentals of GNSS Mar 4th to 6th 2013, GSA Headquarters, Prague, Czech Republic

Training in GSA headquarters in Prague.The GSA (European GNSS Agency) were the hosts for the first in a series of ten 3-day training events organised by EU FP7 project, GENIUS (GNSS Education Network for Industry and UniversitieS), at their headquarters in Prague.  The training on the 4th to the 6th of March introduced the Fundamentals of GNSS and was an overwhelming success, with 40 registrants and many more on the waiting list.

Lecturers on the course were Professor Terry Moore, Professor of Satellite Navigation and Director of the NGI (Nottingham Geospatial Institute) and GRACE (GNSS Research and Applications Centre of Excellence) at the University of Nottingham and Dr Fabio Dovis, Assistant Professor at Politecnico Torino. The course started with an introduction from Mr Carlo des Dorides, Executive Director of the GSA and an introduction to the GENIUS project from Paul Bhatia, Coordinator of the GENIUS project and General Manager of GRACE. Basic principles of positioning using satellites was covered along with sessions describing how receivers work, co-ordinate systems, high precision GNSS, GNSS systems and the future and markets of GNSS.Professor Terry Moore.

Attendees from all over Europe were present with representatives from a diverse range of organisations, i.e industries, SMEs, universities. The programme provides free training across a range of GNSS related topics  and is aimed at SMEs from EU countries participating in FP7, although delegates from research and policy making bodies are eligible to attend. Delegates to all courses are responsible for covering their own travel and accommodation costs.

The remaining courses in 2013 will be held at various locations across Europe including Brussels (Belgium), Barcelona (Spain), Toulouse (France) and Nottingham (UK). Each course is restricted to 40 delegates and places are filing up fast. To find out more or to book a place visit www.gnss-education.eu. The Fundamentals of GNSS course will be repeated in the UK during 2014 for anyone who missed out this time, the exact date and location are still to be confirmed.

About GENIUS

Participants in the training.GENIUS (GNSS Education Network for Industry and UniversitieS) is a project funded by the GSA 3rd call as part of the European FP7 progamme.  The project has two major objectives:

  • To strengthen GNSS research and education programmes
  • To foster co-operation between research and business

The project achieves it’s objectives through a number of mechanisms including: internships, a PhD scholarship programme, a professional education programme – directed at SMEs and and promotion of distance learning through webinars. Furthermore GENIUS promotes entrepreneurship through the University challenge of the European Satellite Navigation Competition supporting the competition at 6 universities during 2012. Specific provisions include: 10 professional GNSS courses, 4 PhDs with Industry, 2 PhD training events, 1 PhD Workshop, 16 internships with industry and 4 MSc scholarships.

Feedback was extremely positive and comments from participants included:

 

“Great place for the course, perfect introduction to the topic!”

“Great training material.”

“Just one word: excellent. The organisation was simply perfect and the lessons were very clear. The material provided is of high quality – THANKS.”

“Very well structured, clear contents and good presentations”

“Extremely helpful, great opportunity to meet other people”

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