Majid Eskafi, a recent graduate of the Coastal and Marine Management program (2016) just published his master´s research titled “Feasibility of seawater heat extraction from sub-Arctic coastal water; a case study of Onundarfjordur, northwest Iceland”, in the international journal Renewable Energy.
Last month UW sought to temporarily fill the position of master’s program coordinator for the two programs at UW, Coastal and Marine Management and Coastal Communities and Regional Development. Sixteen applicants expressed interest in the position, eight of which were located outside of the Westfjords.
Since the UW is located at the edge of the Arctic in Ísafjörður, 66.0611° N, 23.1889° W, the important issues of Arctic change are a common thread in our masters programs. In September, Masters Program Director Catherine Chambers organized a session on fisheries and aquaculture in the Arctic at the University of the Arctic (UArctic) congress science session in Oulu, Finland.
September 27. and 28. Ísafjörður turned into a vivid conference venue for the reoccurring CoastGIS symposium.
About a 100 people from various backgrounds had found their way to Ísafjörður, from 20 different nations. More than 50 presented their research orally or with a poster, including 6 former students of the Coastal and Marine Management masters program at UW. We enjoyed many interesting talks on how spatial data and information technologies can help in better understanding and managing coastal space and resources.
The conference was held at Edinborg Culture House as well as the University Centre and offered plenary sessions, parallel sessions, a poster session and a workshop – all in 2 days.
Ísafjörður might be small but has no trouble in serving a conference of this size thanks to many participating facilities and services (Edinborgahús, Edinborga Bistro, Vestfirskar Ævintýraferðir, Hotel Ísafjörður, Fræðslumistöð Vestfjarða, Fisherman Suðureyri, Gústi Productions, Sophus Magnússon bifreiðastjóri).
Photos from the symposium:
The International Symposium of GIS and Computer Cartography for Coastal Zone Management will be held in Ísafjörður 27-29 September 2018. It is still possible to register for the conference!
Soon our Icelandic Language courses will come to an end as the final days of the Intermediate course are upon us. The courses began on July 31 with the three-week Beginners A1-A2 course, followed by a one week Crash Course A1 and finally the ongoing Intermediate course. This year we have had over 60 students in the courses, including a Crash Course taught in May.
The University Centre of the Westfjords is in the process of switching email services from Snerpa to G Suite and therefore the Snerpa webmail is now closed.
Even though UW's weekly Lunch Lectures are on summer holidays, some research students from SeaTech Toulon are at work together with their supervisor, Björn Erlingsson. They are modelling the ocean currents in Skutulsfjörður, the fjord where the town of Ísafjörður is located on a sandreef in the middle of the fjord, and will present their findings on Friday, 27.02.2018, at 12:10, the normal time of Vísindaport Lunch Lectures.
Even though the University Center of the Westfjords (UW) is still a relatively young institution, some of its activities have already put down long roots. For the first time now, alumni from the School for International Training (SIT) have met in Ísafjörður for a ten years reunion to reminisce in good memories.
Today we welcomed a group of 17 very interested US - High School students and their leaders Patrick Hagarty and Steph Yin traveling with the New York Times. The group is visiting the Westfjords to learn about renewable energy and the impacts of climate change in remote arctic communities.
