Austrian Marshall Plan Research Symposium shows the high importance of academic knowledge transfer between Austria and the USA.

We are very happy to welcome four students from the USA at the FH Kärnten. The Marshall Plan scholarship makes it possible to develop and implement joint applied research projects together with highly talented students from the United States. This promotes academic exchange and fosters intercultural cooperation among the students.
Gernot Paulus, Professor for Geoinformation & Environment at the University of Applied Sciences Carinthia

With the aim of promoting scientific cooperation between Austria and the USA, the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation annually awards scholarships to students for research stays. Two students from Carinthia University of Applied Sciences will begin their projects at a U.S. university this summer, and the university is pleased to welcome four students from the United States who are currently conducting their research in the master's program "Spatial Information Management." On the occasion of this year's 75th anniversary of the Marshall Plan, the successful transnational university cooperation (since 2008) was presented in detail at the "Austrian Marshall Plan Research Symposium" on July 1 at FH Kärnten.

The Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation supports the scientific exchange of students and researchers from Austria and the United States in order to promote academic cooperation between the two countries. The awarding of this year's Marshall Plan scholarships to FH Kärnten continues the long tradition of scientific relations. Embedded in a large network of different actors in Austria and the USA, an intensive knowledge transfer has been cultivated at FH Kärnten since 2008, especially in the master's program "Spatial Information Management." Gernot Paulus, Professor of Geoinformation & Environment: "The 'Austrian Marshall Plan Research Symposium,' supported by the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation, the U.S. Embassy Vienna, and the Carinthian Chapter of the Austrian American Society, impressively demonstrated our successful transnational research collaborations and innovations in the field of applied research and development on July 1. Three internationally very renowned professors of our partner universities from San Diego State University (Piotr Jankowski), Louisiana State University (Michael Leitner) and the University of Florida (Hartwig Hochmair) gave an overview of our 15 years of cooperation from their point of view. The Marshall Plan Fellows from the U.S. and FH Kärnten presented their research projects at this symposium and we are very proud of these young talented researchers and wish them much success."

Springboard to International Research with the Marshall Plan Scholarship

Equipped with a Marshall Plan Scholarship, two FH Kärnten students will begin their research in the United States. Saghi Sarafi, a master's student in the Spatial Information Management program, will spend three months this summer conducting research at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. Her research project will focus on remote sensing technology to identify urban heat islands based on time series analysis of various satellite imagery data. This can be used to derive a spatiotemporal model for automated detection of urban heat islands. Isaac Owusu Mensah, a master's student in "Communication Engineering," starts his research stay this August at New Mexico Tech in Socorro. His research will be dedicated to the development of sensing devices based on photonic crystal fibers, which are capable of measuring chemical and biological analytes and thus detecting them.

Marshall Plan Scholarship Brings Students from the United States to FH Kärnten

"We are very pleased to welcome four students from the USA to FH Kärnten. The Marshall Plan Scholarship makes it possible to develop and implement joint applied research projects together with highly talented students from the USA. This promotes academic exchange and stimulates intercultural cooperation among the students," says Gernot Paulus, explaining the benefits of the coveted research scholarship program. This year's students come from the University of Florida, Louisiana State University and San Diego State University and will pursue their research questions at FH Kärnten under the supervision of Gernot Paulus. These cover a wide range in the research field of geospatial information and range from disaster management, data models on tourist visitation patterns, to a comparative study of the accessibility of health care in Carinthia and Louisiana. Other research topics are dedicated to tidal ecology for predicting changes in rising sea levels by unmanned aerial vehicles and automated detection of bark beetle infestation in alpine forests based on various multitemporal satellite image data.

The international exchange of innovative methods of geographic information systems (GIS) is an important pillar to gain insights into international research of renowned universities. The "Austrian Marshall Plan Research Symposium" provided an excellent opportunity to deepen and further expand existing networks. The symposium was ceremoniously opened by the Head of the International Office at the University of Applied Sciences Carinthia, Aleksandra Jama, the Counselor for Public Affairs of the U.S. Embassy in Vienna, Teta M. Moehs, and the President of the "Austrian American Society - Carinthian Chapter," Kurt Wagner. In his keynote address, the President of the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation, Ambassador Dr. Wolfgang Petritsch, pointed out the great significance and the international appeal and exemplary effect of the Marshall Plan, which is still valid today. The Marshall Plan was proposed 75 years ago by the then U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall and adopted by the U.S. Congress as the European Recovery Fund with a total endowment of 13 billion U.S. dollars for 17 European countries. This "help for self-help" made it possible to carry out numerous central infrastructure projects in Austria for rapid reconstruction after World War II. The Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation is now continuing this tradition in the area of funding innovative transnational research projects and the development of new technologies, and is supporting the sustainable development of international innovation networks at Carinthia University of Applied Sciences.

About the Marshall Plan Scholarship at FH Kärnten

The Marshall Plan Foundation promotes the academic knowledge transfer of students and researchers between Austria and the United States with the aim of fostering scientific cooperation between the two countries. Scholarships are awarded annually to students with excellent academic performance for research stays. The scholarship program focuses primarily on research projects in the field of technical sciences. On the initiative of the research area of geoinformation at the Carinthian University of Applied Sciences, a total of 64 student research projects have been carried out by Austrian and American scholarship holders with great success since 2008 and sustainable innovation networks have been established. The joint research topics include: Unmanned Aerial Systems and Environmental Monitoring, Climate Change and Natural Hazards, Saptial Decision Support and Spatial Data Science, Social Media and Big Data Analysis, Spatial Crime Annalysis, Applied AI and Machine Learning, Geospatial Health Analysis, Renewable Energy and Geospatial Data Privacy. These 64 projects were conducted by the Geospatial Information Research Division with nine U.S. universities (Central Washington University, San Diego State University, Louisiana State University, Texas A&M University, Indiana-Purdue University, University of Maine, University of Florida, Florida International University, and University of New Mexico); 13 doctoral students, 35 master's students, and 16 undergraduate students benefited from this unique opportunity to conduct their research as part of an international team of researchers. The total funding with which the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation has supported these "geo-research projects" at FH Kärnten amounts to approximately 341,500 Euro.

More information about the exchange program at UAS Carinthia:

www.fh-kaernten.at/international/incoming-exchange-students

Inquiries & Contact:

FH Carinthia
Alexandra MAURER, MA
International Coordinator
T: +43 (0)5 90500-7042
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FH-Prof. Mag. Dr. Gernot Paulus, MSc. MAS
Professorship for Geoinformation
T: +43 (0)5 90500-2240
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