One-week program brings French, Greek exchange students to Purdue

By Kelly Lucas
Summer Reporter

Six students from universities in both Greece and France are joining six Purdue students for a one-week course in remote sensing.

The six students are participating in an exchange program called Earth Imaging, an educational exchange program which teaches earth imaging techniques to students attending European and American universities.

Olivier Frendo, a visiting student from the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Mines de Paris and majoring in applied probabilities, said the techniques he is learning from the one-week course will help him in his future endeavors.

"I would like to work in the management of natural resources and remote sensing is the most useful tool for that," said Frendo.

Jean-Marie Monget, European project leader and professor at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Mines de Paris, said the program is an exchange to share teaching, learning and remote sensing techniques.

During their stay, the students will learn about various analysis techniques and applications of satellite images of the earth's surface. The students will immerse themselves in the intensive one-week course and work with professors and students of various academic and cultural backgrounds. In addition to students and professors visiting from France and Greece, Purdue international students and faculty members from Egypt and China will also take part in the Earth Imaging program.

Guofan Shao, U.S. project leader and assistant professor of remote sensing and Geographic Information systems at Purdue, said some students have very little or no knowledge of the different aspects of remote sensing and said most visiting students are studying either physics or mathematics at their home universities.

Over the course of one week, the students will be assigned to study a satellite image of Tippecanoe county, attend lectures and demonstrations, and participate in field activities to help familiarize them with remote sensing.

Monget said they chose Purdue because Purdue was one of the driving groups, in the U.S., in terms of their involvement in remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems as well as Purdue's LARS program, Laboratory for Applications of Remote Sensing.

LARS is a multidisciplinary research laboratory established in 1966 and is internationally known for its research efforts in remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems.

Antonia Tzampazy, a visiting student from Demokritus University of Thrace in Greece, said she is majoring in electrical engineering and heard of the program from a fellow student who had taken part in the program the previous year.

Tzampazy said the course has allowed her to expand her education and will provide many more job opportunities in the future. She said a company using remote sensing in Athens, Greece will be opening soon and she is looking to that as a great job opportunity.

The Earth Imaging program is sponsored by the Joint European community/United States Consortia for Cooperation in Higher Education and Vocational Education and Training.

Purdue, West Virginia University, Ecole Nationale Superieure des Mines de Paris, Institut National Agronomique de Paris-Grignon and Demokritus University of Thrace in Greece comprise the Earth Imaging consortium.