TSPC News

Kanat Sultanaliev, Executive Director of Tyan Shan Policy Center at AUCA, recently participated in The SWITCH-Asia Programme's Steering Committee Meeting

On October 4, 2023, we hosted our first joint online course, Introduction to Geospatial Data Visualization (IGVI), within the framework of the Network Collaborative Course (NCC) initiative.
 

Students from the AUCA, Zhypara Kadyrakunova and Savlet Nishanbek visited students from the 8th and 9th grades of School No. 41 named after Ibrahimov Umarov in the village of Zhany-Zhol in the Jalal-Abad region.

Zere Abisheva from AUCA, Environmental Management 4-year

Asel Dzhovozova from American University of Central Asia (Software Engineering, 4- year) about Summer school in Budapest.

Anipa Almazbek kyzy, student of AUCA, Liberal Arts,Urban Planning and Design, 3-year

From July 24 to 28, a group of 6 students and 4 faculty from the American University of Central Asia (AUCA) participated in a five-day summer school on "Geospatial Technologies for Building Resilience" at the Central European University (CEU) in Budapest, Hungary. The workshop, which included attendees from various departments such as Environmental Sustainability and Climate Science, Applied Geology, Economics, and Software Engineering, aimed to explore the practical applications of geospatial technologies in disaster resilience and climate change mitigation.

Today marks the successful conclusion of the three-day Summer Workshop on Policy Labs, organized by the Tian Shan Policy Center under the "Learning by Doing: Policy Labs and Civic Engagement" program. The workshop aimed to establish connections between academic policy research curriculums and organizations, practitioners, and policy makers dedicated to addressing global challenges of sustainable and peaceful development.

From June 25th to 29th, 2023, the Tian-Shan Policy Center organized a summer environmental camp for students "Sustainable Natural Resource Management and GIS in Chychkan."
 

The ever-present topic of Big Data was once again in the spotlight with the talk by Chrys Margaritidis on the ethical implications of Big Data, particularly addressing the field of geographic information systems (GIS). This public lecture, organized by the OSUN GeoHub project, was held at the American University of Central Asia (AUCA) on June 7 and gathered an audience both in-person and online.
The talk recognized the predominant role of Big Data and metadata in our daily lives. One day we are witnessing the positive impact of Big Data analytics on consumer experience and the management of global crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The next day, we hear about the misuse of personal information by technology giants like Facebook and Cambridge Analytica or the reports about the effect of fake news on the electoral process.
Focusing more on the potential "dark" side of Big Data, the lecture discussed such examples as predictive policing, real-time surveillance, and pre-emptive punishment, showing how otherwise beneficial uses of Big Data can pose significant risks to our society if we don’t develop a comprehensive understanding of their importance and an ethical framework to handle their potential consequences. The last part of the presentation explored the challenges in the GIS field, particularly looking at the ways the geospatial data is gathered, stored, analyzed, and used.
The lecture sparked a lively discussion among both online and in-person participants about the ethical aspects of Big Data and GIS, highlighting the relevance and importance of the issue and encouraging further exploration of this crucial topic.