Johan Beekhuizen, a Dutch student studying GIS in the MA program at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, recently completed a 5 month internship in our Department of Geography under the tutelage of Professor Keith Clarke. The following excerpts of Johan’s impressions of his visit are taken from the Wageningen University web site:
“Santa Barbara is a beautiful town 200 km north of Los Angeles, situated between the Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific. The UCSB is (for American standards) a medium sized university with about 20.000 students and scores high on many university rankings, especially for the life outside of the study. The Geography Department, in which GIS plays an ever increasing role, ranked nr. 1 of the US last year. The campus really is magnificent. It lies at a perfect spot next to the beach and resembles a large park, where no cars are allowed and with separate biking paths.”
“So what do I do all day? My main research focuses on the classification of satellite imagery of Gorizia, a city on the border of Slovenia and Italy. The objective is to create a multi-temporal dataset which will be used to study the land use changes of the city of Gorizia and its surroundings. At the moment I am classifying ASTER-satellite imagery of 2004, coming months I will try to classify older Landsat imagery. This will be a challenge, as the Landsat imagery has a lower spatial resolution and different spectral bands. Next to the classification I got the opportunity to create a poster about my thesis work for the opening event of Spatial@UCSB, a large event with many interesting speakers. Needless to say that GIS will play an important role in the mission of Spatial@UCSB, and the interesting part is that it focuses on more than the ‘traditional’ spatial disciplines like geography and environmental sciences.”
“Thanks to the international students association I meet many interesting people from all over the world, and I’m starting to get used to the relax Californian way of living. Everybody is very easy-going, and the typical surf language is way cool. The housing costs are the only downside of this internship, as you easily pay 600 dollar for a shared room. The Santa Barbara area is one of the most expensive places to live in the United States, but once you’ve been here you understand why. I live in Isla Vista, a student town next to the campus, together with three American undergraduate students. Isla Vista is not the most quiet place to live, but I do experience the real American student life! Sometimes it feels like I just stepped on the set of movies like American Pie and Road Trip. In short, doing my internship here for five months is just plain awesome. Santa Barbara is a beautiful place with a great beach and climate, top level scientists, many interesting people in an even more interesting country. Life is great in the Golden State!”
I think Johan enjoyed his stay, on more than one level!
Editor’s note: Wageningen University ranked number 62 of the top 100 global universities, according to Newsweek International (August 13, 2006); UCSB ranked number 59.
Travel Johan_Beekhuizen_Golden_Gate_small.jpg<|>199<|>Johan checking out the Golden Gate Bridge. During his stay, Johan visited Yosemite National Park, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, and the Grand Canyon{|}Wageningen_University_campus.jpg<|>300<|>Wageningen University is a part of Wageningen University and Research Centre which has 9,600 students and is the leading European university in the Life Sciences. Researchers and students focus on the fields of nutrition, health, nature, and the living environment. Wageningen University has topped the list of 14 Dutch universities in the Guide to Choosing Higher Education for the past 3 years in a row.
