YEREVAN, Armenia – After taking the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing course at the American University of Armenia (AUA), offered by adjunct lecturer Aghavni Harutyunyan, Bachelor of Science in Computer Science student Suren Poghosyan (BSCS ’29) was inspired to turn his interest in the field into something more. As a result, he launched QGIS Armenia, an initiative aimed at helping introduce others to the possibilities of GIS.
We spoke with Poghosyan about what inspired him to start QGIS Armenia, what he hopes to achieve through the initiative, the challenges he faced along the way, and his goals for the future.
What is QGIS and what is its purpose?
QGIS is a free open-source software that allows you to create maps and visualize geospatial data. In particular, QGIS makes it possible to load, convert, and process raster and vector data, turning these into an interpretable visualization. Specialists in the field use it to address issues related to urban planning, agriculture, forestry, infrastructure, disaster response, and more. In general, QGIS is a powerful tool for approaching data that has a geographic or spatial component.
How did the GIS course you completed at AUA inspire you to launch QGIS Armenia?
The Introduction to GIS course I completed at AUA served as the main source of motivation for creating QGIS Armenia. I found the course genuinely interesting, informative, usable, and applicable, and it aligned with my vision. Ultimately, it helped stepping closer to employing technology to reduce redundant operations and free up human resources to focus on critically important tasks. Overall, GIS serves as a great field of study for optimizing human logistics, monitoring the environment, and conducting analysis. Additionally, since the course had students from various majors and backgrounds, it grew my curiosity towards the field, and I realized how widespread the interest is in it, and that served as a good ground for focusing on a community initiative.
What were the main challenges you faced while creating the platform?
After studying the QGIS’s community guidelines, securing the domain qgis.am, initiating communication channels, and creating a social media page, I had to contact the committee for official acknowledgement of the community, and it took a lot of consistent efforts in getting in touch with them. However, after raising the issue during the regular videocall/livestream that the committee was having on YouTube, it received momentum, and the initiation process began. It led to the recognition of QGIS Armenia and started our relations with the global QGIS network. That challenge was establishing contact with the committee and coming to a mutual understanding, which we successfully did, thanks to Tim Sutton, Marco Serusi, and Marco Bernasocchi.
I would also like to thank my instructor Aghavni Harutyunyan as well as Dr. Habet Madoyan for supporting the idea since its initiation.
What are your future goals regarding the tool?
The main goal for QGIS Armenia is to bring local GIS professionals, students, and enthusiasts together both offline and online around QGIS. In the long term, we hope to strengthen the local GIS ecosystem by creating more opportunities for people to learn from one another and collaborate on local geospatial projects. As QGIS is already a well-maintained project, what I see us doing with it is maintaining a complete localization of its desktop application as well as documentation in Armenian through organizing contribution sprints. Once that’s accomplished, we may focus on technical segments of the tool and help make it better through issue triage and particular solutions.
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Founded in 1991, the American University of Armenia (AUA) is a private, independent university located in Yerevan, Armenia, affiliated with the University of California, and accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC) in the United States. AUA provides local and international students with Western-style education through top-quality undergraduate and graduate degree and certificate programs, promotes research and innovation, encourages civic engagement and community service, and fosters democratic values.