Singapore – The 5th Singapore Geospatial Festival 2023 (GeoFest) returns this year from 26 – 29 September 2023. Organised by the Singapore Land Authority (SLA), this year’s theme of “Enriching Minds, Empowering Lives”, focuses on mainstreaming the use of geospatial data and capabilities, promoting geo-education and building a talent pool to support the growing industry.
This annual event brings the international geospatial community together for talks, panel discussions, workshops and co-located activities promoting the innovative use of geospatial information and technology in Singapore and globally.
The opening session was held at the Lifelong Learning Institute on 26 September 2023, Tuesday at 9am, in conjunction with the Open Geospatial Consortium’s (OGC) Member Meeting.
Engagements with Industry Stakeholders
Launch of OneMap GPT Challenge
SLA will be launching a OneMap GPT Challenge next month, with the support of GovTech and Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) via the Open Innovation Platform (OIP), to engage organisations and professionals to leverage AI technologies and design principles to develop innovative solutions on OneMap. These solutions will bring together diverse data sets from both government and private sectors and present them in an easily digestible format.
Participants will develop creative location-based solutions that incorporate GPT technology and OneMap data to bring value to diverse communities for various purposes, from daily tasks to significant life decisions.
Engagements with Education Stakeholders
(A) Memorandum of Understanding with NUS
Given the constantly evolving geospatial technologies and growing demand for talent with geospatial expertise, there is a critical need to nurture local geospatial capabilities.
In a new partnership, SLA will collaborate with NUS (Department of Geography, College of Humanities and Sciences) to curate a holistic Geospatial graduate programme and other professional certifications, to equip prospective learners with skills for careers in applied GIS or related disciplines.
Witnessed by Dr Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman, Minister, Prime Minister’s Office, Second Minister for Education and Second Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed by Chief Executive of SLA, Mr Colin Low, and NUS Deputy President (Academic Affairs) and Provost, Professor Aaron Thean, at the opening ceremony of GeoFest.
(B) Collaboration with Ministry of Education – “Map Our World” Programme
In addition, SLA will introduce a new “Map Our World” programme to deepen geospatial interest amongst selected Pre-University students through experiential learning. An inaugural batch of about 45 students from the Ministry of Education’s (MOE) Geography Talent Development Programme will participate in the programme in November 2023.
(C) Geospatial Data Enlivens Learning
To build a nation of young spatial thinkers, OneMap has been integrated with MOE-EduGIS, a geographic information system deployed by MOE. MOE-EduGIS makes the learning of Geography come alive through curriculum-aligned digital map content.
This year, SLA also introduced geospatial concepts to primary and secondary students to ignite early interest in geospatial knowledge.
