Professor Andreas Rienow is Assistant Professor for Interdisciplinary Geoinformation Sciences. © RUB, Marquard

Geography Brave new digital world

Fewer accidents, more sustainability, more effective learning, more democratic societies: digitalisation can deliver all of this.

If digitalisation continues at the current rate, then I, as an optimistic person, can look forward to a near future in which the responsible use of geodata has become commonplace for everyone, satellites can guide autonomous traffic without accidents and monitor our ecosystems in real time. A future where technological progress and social and environmental sustainability go hand in hand, where meat comes out of the printer and there are no more exhaust fumes from cars. A world in which problem-based learning is the standard, not the exception in schools, where there’s more to e-learning than just owning a laptop, where augmented reality facilitates complex tasks and informs us about our environment and its state. I see a digital society that is resilient to pandemics and uses real-time information to strengthen our democracy, support the weak and empower the vulnerable. And I see a future where I have fast internet even at home in the south of Bochum.

About the person

Andreas Rienow studied Geography, Modern History and Modern German Literature at Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, where he received his Master’s degree in 2010. He then continued working there as a research assistant in the Remote Sensing Research Group and was awarded the PhD degree in 2014. In 2016, he joined the Geomatics Research Group at the RUB Institute of Geography. In January 2020, he was appointed Junior Professor for Interdisciplinary Geographic Information Science.

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Published

Thursday
17 December 2020
9:24 am

By

Andreas Rienow

Translated by

Donata Zuber

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