The third Swiss-Baltic Geodetic Science Week in Tallinn.

Brucas, Domantas ; Buga, Arunas ; Ellmann, Artu 等

On September 10-12 2008, the 3rd Baltic-Swiss Geodetic Science Week was held in Tallinn, Estonia. This event, similarly to its predecessors, was organised within the frame of activities sponsored by programme of the Gebert Ruf Foundation. It is appropriate to reveal background of the parties involved and also the sequence of activities leading to this international cooperation.

Gebert Ruf Foundation was established as a private scientific foundation in 1997 by a Swiss entrepreneur and philanthropist Heinrich Gebert (1917-2007). The foundation had a starting capital of CHF 220 million. The foundation is named after his first wife Paula Ruf who passed away in 1995. The founder Heinrich Gebert acted as a patron of many other private institutions in the fields of education and arts. Remarkably, he did not hold any office in the business operations of Gebert Ruf Foundation. The foundation is committed to follow the entrepreneurial approaches of its founder in all its grant making activities. The foundation supports projects at Swiss universities and other institutions of higher education by promoting innovation through the funding of new approaches and thus fosters the development of promising next-generation academics. The Foundation can support similar activities in Eastern and Central Europe, as long as their status of development is not comparable to that of Western Europe (for more details see http://www.grstiftung.ch/_english/).

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In particular, from 2000 to 2008, the Gebert Ruf Foundation also funded the Swiss Baltic Net programme. This programme has its own vision and organization with the aim of establishing scientific links between Switzerland and the Baltic States. The main objective was to encourage the academic development of mid-level faculty at Baltic universities. The Swiss Baltic Net has supported a large number of different projects. Fortunately, also a significant financial grant was allocated to Baltic- Swiss geodetic collaboration project in 2006.

Initiated by Prof. Hilmar Ingensand from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) and Prof. Vytautas Giniotis from Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VGTU), the first Baltic-Swiss Geodetic Week was held at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of Zurich in October 2-6, 2006. Hilmar Ingensand is a professor at the Institute of Geodesy and Photogrammetry, ETH. His main research activities are in the field of geodetic metrology and engineering geodesy.

It by Prof. Hilmar Ingensand and Prof. Vytautas Giniotis At that seminar only young Lithuanian researchers and PhD students and their Swiss colleagues participated. Nevertheless, this seminar laid a firm basis to the contemporary professional networking between Baltic and Swiss geodesists. As a result, these geodetic gatherings have taken place annually.

Even though the emphasis of the first workshop was given to the engineering geodesy-related issues, the general purpose of such cooperation is to draw together specialists for a discussion of the developments and challenges that arise when applying contemporary science and technology in a broad field of geodesy, as well as on the maintenance of an active network of people and organizations. As mentioned above, the overall intention of such cooperation is to extend relations between Switzerland and the Baltic countries.

The Second Baltic-Swiss Geodetic Science Week attracted 22 attendees. The event took place on 10-14 September 2007 in Nida--the resort town of Lithuania located on the Curonian Spit. Large Swiss and Lithuanian delegations arrived to Nida. This time two colleagues from the other Baltic universities joined the seminar: Prof. Artu Ellmann from Tallinn University of Technology (TUT) and Assoc. Prof. Harly Jurgenson from Estonian University of Life Sciences (EULS).

By invitation of the Tallinn University of Technology (TUT), the third Baltic-Swiss Geodetic Science Week moved to the capital of the most northern country of the Baltic States--Tallinn. Tallinn University of Technology is the largest technical University in Estonia and at that time was celebrating its 90th anniversary. Meeting of this year was mainly organised by the Prof. Artu Ellmann in close collaboration with Prof. Hilmar Ingensand. Participants from all the Baltic States, together with their Swiss colleagues, attended the conference and presented their research scientific works. The conference took place in two locations: the TUT's Council Hall and in the Hotel Mihkli conference facility, situated in Tallinn downtown.

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Altogether 42 registered attendees from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Switzerland mainly represented universities, research centres and the national mapping and cadastre agencies. Six universities--Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH), Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VGTU), Riga Technical University (RTU), University of Latvia (LU), Tallinn University of Technology (TTU) and Estonian University of Life Sciences (EULS) took part in the conference. Moreover, researchers from Latvian Geospatial Information Agency, Estonian Land Board, Planserk AS, GeoST Ou, Finnish Geodetic Institute were participants of the conference. The conference was opened by the Rector of the Tallinn University of Technology, Prof. Dr. Peep Surje and Prof. Dr. Hilmar Ingensand from ETH Zurich.

The scientific program of the conference was divided into 6 sessions, dedicated to the following topics:

Session 1: Geodetic education and research at universities of the Baltic countries and Switzerland;

Session 2: Geodetic and GNSS networks;

Session 3: Engineering geodesy;

Session 4: Geodetic metrology and calibration;

Session 5: Height determination, gravity and magnetic field;

Session 6: Photogrammetry and laser scanning activities.

Altogether more than 30 papers have been presented during these sessions. Some 20 minutes have been allocated to each oral presentation. Complete list of the presentations can be found here: http://www.gece.ttu.ee/~artu/SWISS/index.html

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It should be noted that the scientific sessions were accompanied by technical excursions in the freshly renovated TUT's premises and the Estonian Land Board.

We should state that the the 3rd Swiss Baltic Geodetic Science Week was the one. Initially planned as possibility for communication and research presentations of young scientists, the Baltic Geodetic Science Week has developed to the conference with participation of wellknown professors. In fact, it was the best chance for communication of the Baltic geodesists since 1990-ies. Recall, that just before the Baltic countries regained their independence, the Geodetic Commission of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania was established. The Commission was active throughout the last decade, whereas professionals working at Universities contributed quite a lot to the Commission activities. As a continuation of this collaboration, a Committee on Geodesy, Cartography and Land Reform was established within the frame of Baltic Council of Ministers. Regrettably, the academic people have had very limited access (if any at all) to the work of this new Committee, comprising of civil servants from the corresponding governmental agencies. One may argue that the Baltic geodesists could meet each other during major international conferences anyway. However, the occurrence of such cases is rather random, preventing thus an orderly development of multilateral collaboration. All in all, an urgent need for renewal of regular cooperation among the Baltic geodesists in the manner of the 1990-ies has become rather obvious. Even though the time has passed, the contemporary geodetic problems are still quite similar in our countries.

As prof. J. Balodis acknowledged 'prof. H.Ingensand was a catalyst for reactivation of communication between geodesists from Baltic countries'. Indeed, as if is wellknown in chemistry, sometimes it is not enough to put the participating components together; also a catalyst is a needed for triggering the whole process.

The conference was concluded with an extended discussion. All participants agreed that the conference was very useful, both scientifically and in terms of professional networking. Importantly, new collaboration partners from Latvia have joined this year. The participants acknowledged the financial support given by the Gebert Ruf Foundation for organising the Conference and enabling the participation of the delegates. Unfortunately, it was the last event sponsored by Gebert Ruf Foundation and Swiss Baltic Net programme. Organizing such geodetic science events every year became a nice tradition in collaboration between Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH) and partners in the Baltic countries. Therefore it was agreed that such a co-operation should be continued. By a tentative invitation of the Latvian delegation, the 4th Baltic-Swiss Geodetic Science Week will be held in 2009 in Latvia (time and place to be announced). The participants also expressed heartfelt thanks to the local event organizers for their efforts when organising the conference and for an excellent organisation resulting in a very successful meeting.

Let's hope that the Baltic countries will find resources for organising the 4th Swiss Baltic Geodetic Science Week next year.

Domantas Brucas (1), Arunas Buga (2), Artu Ellmann (3)

(1, 2) Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (3) Tallinn University of Technology