Centre
for Space Science & Technology Education in Asia &
the Pacific
Dr. V.K. Dadhwal
Director in charge, CSSTEAP
IIRS Campus, 4 Kalidas Road, Dehradun - 248001
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Introduction |
The Regional Centres for Space Science and Technology Education were created under the auspices of the United Nations through its Office for Outer Space Affairs (UN-OOSA). The Centre for Space Science and Technology Education in Asia and the Pacific (CSSTEAP) was established in India on November 1, 1995. UN-OOSA facilitated the establishment of the Centre, acting on recommendations by the UNISPACE-II (1982) Conference and the UN Committee on the Peaceful Use of Outer Space (COPUOS) and endorsed by the UN General Assembly.
The Centre's headquarter is located in Dehradun, India, and its programmes are executed by staff of the Department of Space (DOS) at campuses in Dehradun and Ahmedabad. The DOS institutions involved include the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS) in Dehradun, and the Space Applications Centre (SAC) and the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), both at Ahmedabad. An agreement between CSSTEAP and UN-OOSA was signed in May 1996 to formalize the affiliation of the Centre to the UN.
Similar UN-affiliated Regional Centres for Space Science & Technology Education have been setup in Morocco for Francophone Africa, in Nigeria for Anglophone Africa (1998), in Brazil/Mexico for Latin America and the Caribbean (1999). A centre in West Asia region (Jordan) will be established. In addition, a network of collaborating institutions and countries is being established in Eastern Europe.
Each regional centre is conceived as an institution that should offer the best possible education, research and applications programmes, opportunities and experience to the participants in all its programmes. The centers aim at the development of the skills and knowledge of university educators, research and applications scientists through rigorous theory, research, applications, field exercises and pilot projects in specific aspects of space science and technology that can contribute to sustainable development. The mission of the Regional Centres is to establish national capabilities in developing countries to design and implement education, research and application programmes in space science and technology, in particular, in the areas of (1) remote sensing & geographic information systems, (2) Satellite communications & global positioning systems, (3) satellite meteorology & global climate, and (4) space & atmospheric sciences.
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Objectives of CSSTEAP |
More than half the world population lives in the Asia-Pacific Region. As a result, there is a large pressure on the natural resources of the region. There are widespread concerns about the quality of the environment, ranging from the consequences of climate change on food security and sea-level rise, to loss of biodiversity in marine and terrestrial ecosystems and the degradation of land and water resources. Other areas of concern in the Asia-Pacific region relate to the management and mitigation of natural disasters, the occurrence of widespread and persistent poverty, poor education and health care facilities in rural areas, poor physical and communication infrastructure, etc.
Against this background, a major objective of the Centre is to create awareness regarding the potential of space science and technology for contributing to the solution of these environmental and related problems, and to establish and strengthen national capabilities in space science and technology, through education, training, application programmes and regional cooperation. To this end, the Centre organizes post-graduate level courses of 9-month duration in the major disciplines of space science and technology, workshops and short-term courses, and promotes cooperation in the field of space science and technology among institutions in countries in the Asia-Pacific Region.
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Organization and Management of CSSTEAP |
Ten countries signed the agreement for the establishment of CSSTEAP during a signing ceremony held on November 1, 1995 in New Delhi. Last year, Thailand joined the Governing Board in August, 2005. As of today, fifteen countries have signed the agreement. In addition to providing a formal UN affiliation to the Centre, UN-OOSA extends support in terms of expert advise, technical assistance and relevant documentation.
The Government of India has concluded a Host Country Agreement with the Centre (March 1998) by which it has accorded specific privileges and international status to the Centre, similar to the privileges enjoyed by UN Specialized Agencies. Under the Host Country Agreement the Centre also has access to facilities, infrastructure and expertise of DOS institutions, including IIRS, SAC and PRL. The Government of India has brought out an official gazette notification in pursuance of the host country agreement.
The activities of CSSTEAP are administered by an international Governing Board (GB) consisting consisting of members from 15 signatory countries and two observers namely, United Nations (UN-OOSA) and the International Institute of Geo-information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) in Enschede, The Netherlands.
While GB formulates polices, reviews progress, approves budget and administration of the centre, its technical arm is the Advisory Committee (AC). Advisory committee (AC) is an independent body of experts for guiding the technical programmes of the centre, evaluating the course, advice CSSTEAP in technical facilities, address all issues of coordination with other institutions. The AC is chaired by UN-OOSA representative, while its members include Directors of host institutes, Course Directors of four courses, observers and two international experts in each subject area. At present there are 19 members in the AC.
CSSTEAP conducts all of its educational programmes in close collaboration with one of the DOS institutions and thus has direct access to their physical facilities and intellectual capabilities. In addition to providing facilities, infrastructure and skilled manpower, the Government of India, through the Department of Space provides most of the funding. The Ministries of Finance and External Affairs of Government of India also provides some fellowships to the CSSTEAP students. Some contribution is provided mainly by UN-OOSA, the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) in Bangkok, Thailand and UNDP.
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Educational Programmes |
The Centre offers post-graduate (PG) level training in 4 areas of specialization namely,
- Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems (RS & GIS)
- Satellite Communication (SATCOM)
- Satellite Meteorology and Global Climate (SATMET), and
- Space and Atmospheric Sciences.
The educational programmes are conducted in English and for students who may expect to improve their English language skills, facilities are made available upon their arrival on campus. The courses are taught in classroom environments with the use of modern teaching methods and tools, and also include multimedia tutorials for self-study. Practicals are given in the laboratories and skill development environments of the DOS institutions.
On each of the campuses, most of the teaching staff are drawn from the host institution (about 80% of the teaching time). Where desirable or needed, staff is drawn from other DOS institutions, or professional, scientific or academic institutions in India (some 10%) or from institutions or organizations outside India, that is, from the AP Region as well as globally (some 5% of the teaching time).
Successful completion of the 9-month PG-phase of the programme leads to the award of a post-graduate diploma by the Centre. For the students who successfully finish their PG course and are interested in continuing for a Master of Technology (M.Tech) degree, the Centre offers the opportunity to do so, in collaboration with Andhra University (AU) in Visakhapatnam, India. To this end, the student has to complete a 1-year research project in an application of space science or technology. This project has to be approved by CSSTEAP and AU, and the research is supervised by designated academic staff of CSSTEAP, AU and the institution where the research is carried out. In most cases the 1-year project is carried out at the home institution of the student concerned. Since 2004 onwards every year selected meritorious PG students in RS & GIS are being given fellowships to complete their M.Tech thesis work at CSSTEAP. In year 2004 four PG students (one each from Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Kyrgyzstan and Nepal) were given fellowships and all have completed and submitted their phase-II project work for M.Tech. Recently they have all been awarded their M.Tech degree. In year 2005 three students from 8th RS & GIS batch (one each from Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka) accepted the M.Tech fellowships. Of these, two had joined in 2005 and are currently pursuing their project work and one from Sri Lanka is to join this month.
Till date 75 PG students (40 in RS & GIS; 13 in SATCOM; 12 in SATMET and 10 in Space Science) from 15 different countries have been awarded M. Tech degree. The countrywise distribution of M.Tech degree awarded in RS & GIS course is shown in adjoining panel.
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Remote Sensing and GIS course |
In contrast to other three streams, the RS & GIS course is offered every year and is most popular. The Post Graduate course is divided into two semesters. First semester is of four months duration, with first three months covering fundamentals of remote sensing, photogrammetry, digital image processing, GIS and GPS, various aspects of Remote Sensing and GIS technology and their applications in natural resources inventory and management. On their arrival in India, one week of induction programme to familiarize students with culture and diversity of India is organized. Last month in module-I starts with a common stream in recent trends in RS & GIS and environmental analysis and management. The common stream includes topics such as advances in RS & GIS, satellite meteorology, earth processes, natural disaster monitoring and management, sustainable development and integrated natural resource management, environmental analysis monitoring and management. This is followed by semester-II (5 months duration) in which first two months is optional thematic stream. Each of the course participant chooses one optional thematic application discipline based on his/her academic qualification, professional experience and requirement of his/her parent organization. The thematic optional streams offered covers RS & GIS applications to (i) Agriculture and soils, (ii) Forestry and Ecology, (iii) Geosciences, (iv) Water Resources, (v) Urban Analysis and (vi) Marine Science (vii) advances in RS & GIS technology. Module-III (3 months) consists of a pilot project which forms the basis for a one year project to be carried out in the home country of the course participant. The discipline-wise distribution of the students in the RS & GIS PG course is indicated in accompanying figure.
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Semester -I : 4 Months Duration |
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Achievements |
Till date the Centre has conducted 23 PG course
: 10 in RS & GIS, 5 in SATCOM and 4 each in SATMET and Space &
Atmospheric Science. In addition, the Centre has conducted 16 short courses and
workshops in the past 10 years. These programmes have benefited some 643
participants from a total of 30 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. In
addition to this about 26 participants from 16 countries outside Asia Pacific
region have also benefited from these educational programmes.
The
centre has played a major role in the development of curricula of four courses
which are currently being followed by all the CSSTE's. All course materials are
published by the Centre in the form of hard-copy lecture volumes and CD-ROM's.
The Centre further publishes conference proceedings and other outreach
documents, such as general information brochures, course announcement brochures
and memoirs marking the end of every PG course. A quarterly newsletter is
published regularly and sent to all alumni and to persons and institutions
associated with the Centre.
Pilot research case studies in
the form of students project works showing the potential application of space
science and technology in natural resources management, improved meteorological
and communications studies etc., in Asia-Pacific region have been accomplished
by the centre. Recently, the centre initiated research activities in the form
of phase-II of PG course i.e., M.Tech thesis work by selected meritorious students with all the financial support.
Centre maintains a website (www.cssteap.org) having information on the
educational activities of the centre. The centre has established international
linkages with various organizations viz., UN-OOSA, ICIMOD, COSTED, UN-ESCAP,
START-SASCOM, NAM S& T, JOFCA, IITO, WMO, TWAS etc.
A
commemoration function was organized on November 8, 2005 at National
Agricultural science Centre (NASC), New Delhi to celebrate the successful ten
years of CSSTEAP. A compendium listing achievements and abstracts of all
student project work was published The function was attended by around 200
participants. Shri Prithviraj Chavan, MOS, Prime Minister Office, Government of
India, Dr Sergio Camacho, Director, UNOOSA, Representatives from GB countries,
Past Directors, Deputy Directors CSSTEAP, Selected past student from each
course, current CSSTEAP students, Government of India, associated institutes
& guests were invited.
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Future Strategy |
Centre has completed a decade of its existence
and in the coming years has plans to achieve status of international centre of
excellence in training, education and research. It has embarked on the journey
by establishing a vision and long term strategy. This has led to identification
of specific steps to increase visibility of training and education in space
science and technology areas, develop and advanced research program with
linkages to international programs for Asia-Pacific region wide research and
applications.
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