Despite the challenges brought about by the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic, the organizers of the annual Geomundus Conference were able to push through and successfully mount the event last 27-28 November by having its first ever virtual video-conferencing-based edition. It was digitally joined by students, professors, researchers, and professionals in various geospatial industries and disciplines coming from different parts of the world; and was broadcasted live via YouTube for the benefit of other public attendees.
Similar with the conference’s previous editions, different activities were prepared by the event’s organizing committee who were virtually moderating the event from different control rooms located in Lisbon Portugal; Münster Germany; and Castellon Spain. Activities included keynote presentations, career development sessions, and workshop sessions, which were delivered by distinguished experts in the geospatial technologies industry; and paper presentations, which were delivered by students from various universities. They were specially selected and given the opportunity to present their respective studies to the conference attendees. Many interesting topics touching different aspects of geosciences and geospatial technologies were showcased, and some of which are specifically focused on how to address the ongoing COVID-19 crisis using a geographically motivated approach.
One of the student presenters selected for this year’s conference is Dennis Dizon, an alumnus of the MSc Cartography, who graduated from the program’s 8th intake. He was invited to present in the conference for the second time in a row, where his paper on the spatial autocorrelation analysis of voting participation in the Philippines got the selection committee’s nod and won one of the three Best Student Paper awards in the conference last 2019.
This year, Dennis was invited in the conference to present a follow-up to his previously presented study, where this time, he performed spatial regression techniques to explore the spatial interaction between voting participation and poverty.
A short version of his paper is available in the conference’s website, while his recorded presentation can be viewed on YouTube.
