October 24, 2006—Dr. Vincent Tao, Director of Microsoft Virtual Earth, will be one of the main speakers at NAIT’s GIS Earth Day this November. He is the second world-renowned GIS guru to confirm his attendance for the Nov. 16th event at NAIT. Google Earth’s Chief Technology Officer, Michael Jones, will also be at the conference and will be the keynote speaker that day.
GIS Day celebrates the importance of Geographic Information Systems and showcases the technology’s use in real-world every day and extraordinary applications.
Dr. Tao is responsible for the technology and business development of the Microsoft Virtual Earth program. He was the Founder of GeoTango International Corporation, a 3-D online mapping and visualization software company, acquired by Microsoft in 2005. Dr. Tao has developed several innovative technologies and products including: earth-based 3-D Web visualization and true 3-D modeling and reconstruction from single imagery. Prior to joining Microsoft, Dr. Tao held the eminent Canada Research Chair Professorship in Geomatics and was the founding Director of the Geospatial Information and Communication Technology Lab at York University in Toronto. Dr. Tao is an internationally renowned innovator in multiple sensor 3-D mapping and distributed geospatial visualization.
You can purchase tickets for NAIT’s GIS Earth Day by registering online at nait.ca. Tickets purchased before Nov. 1st are $175 while tickets purchased after Nov. 1st are $215. Ticket holders will enjoy a full day of GIS-related activities at NAIT – four different speakers, vendor workshops, and numerous mini workshops.
NAIT is one of the largest institutes of technology in Canada, providing education in business, advanced technologies, and skilled trades to more than 67,500 students annually at eight campuses in Alberta. Overall, the Institute offers some 250 programs and over a thousand continuing education courses, including 18 GIS and Google Earth related courses. Each year, about 4,000 graduates receive applied degrees, diplomas, and certificates and more than 2,000 apprentices complete their technical training component for journeyman certification.
NAIT is also home to Canada’s first commercial fuel cell, has the largest diploma-granting business school in western Canada, and has one of the most technologically advanced facilities in the world – the NAIT HP Centre for Information and Communications Technology.
For more information, please contact:
Raquel Maurier
NAIT Media Relations
Office: (780) 471-8447
Mobile: (780) 983-3241
Email: raquelm@nait.ca
Bob Hiew
Manager of NAIT’s Computer Training Centre
Phone: (780) 378-5349
Email: bhiew@nait.ca