During the interval of GIS International Forum, we got the chance to interview some of the speakers who are also SuperMap’s global partners about their feelings of the conference as well as their cooperation relationship with SuperMap.Below is the interview with Mr. Ali Abdullah Aldosari, president of Saudi Geographical Society.
Q: Okay, so I heard that this is your first time to China, right? How do you feel about China?
A: This is my first visit to China. It's an amazing place. I love to see it again and again. I like to spend every single moment to discover about Chinese culture, Chinese people, Chinese landscape and also the whole atmosphere, the culture of food and culture of communication, culture of understanding people. It takes time, but for me, in my first visit, it went smooth. I enjoy my visit very much.
Q: Thank you. Then what kind of food did you eat these days?
A: Yes, the first food I tried was ducks. Very, very delicious. And it was new. I ate ducks before, but not in the way I had here. It's totally different, different in the way of preparation, and eating. So, it's very enjoyable. Next time I will come with my family.
Q: That is great. So, you have attended the plenary conference yesterday, how do you feel about it? Could you please share with us?
A: Yes, I've been to many different conferences across the world, but here, I feel different. It is well organized and there are many companies, many organizations and everything were well prepared and well organized.
People pick me up with hospitality from the airport to the hotel, and then to this conference. I feel that I don't need to ask anything because everything is prepared. I enjoy the conference on the first day, which is pure information about the technology of SuperMap, the future and new tools. Second day, it is amazing. People from Europe, from America, from Asia, everyone came with their own experience and presented it here in one place. It is great.
Q: Yeah. You know that we have released the new product yesterday. The SuperMap GIS 2023. What kind of features do you like?
A: I like the digital twin. It's amazing because it takes you to the reality in the future before the design, before the people realize what is going on around. That is amazing. And it also supports the decision makers to know what the facility and the projects will face in future either positive or negative, so they will take action on that.
Q: Then will you apply those new features to serve the industry in your own country?
A: Yes, I am teaching in the King Saud University, teaching geography. And we have a class of GIS and this will be one task for my students to search and work on it. Also, I got some consultation from companies or ministries. So, I will also pass this knowledge and ideas.
Overall, I am also president of Saudi Geographical Society, so I already make a plan to have a joint workshop to introduce these new future tools to the community of geospatial people in Saudi Arabia.
Q: So, you plan to bring what you have learnt here back to your own country, to your own society to let more people know about the conference?
A: Exactly, yes. But I cannot tell alone. The workshops will be cooperated with SuperMap, so we'll invite some SuperMap speakers to be involved in this event.
Q: Look forward to it. Then have you and your students used SuperMap Software in your class before?
A: Yes, in the university, we teach our students all kind of software, licensed or open source, so the students know about SuperMap, but we leave the choice for them to do their projects with the software they like.
But in our duty, we explain to them all the kind of software including SuperMap and tell them the power of SuperMap in AI and also in big data, simulations, it is better than others. So, we encourage the students to be aware of this powerful tool.
Q: Okay. In today's forum, do you have anything that's very impressive to you, or how do you think of today's forum?
A: It was surprise to me, all the leaders of SuperMap stay with us, talk to us and listen to us. I don't feel they are leaders or head of the company. I feel like they are colleagues, they are very friendly.
Q: Yeah, I also like the environment, the atmosphere. Just one more question, how do you think of GIS development? Um, I mean in today's society, we have so many kinds of IT technologies that develop so fast, like AI, especially ChatGPT. What kind of benefits, or even threats, do you think will bring to this industry?
A: Yeah, for the benefit, I think it will help us as professors, as researchers to get the knowledge and information in an easier and more convenient way.
And the threat is how to assess people or human work regarding the ChatGPT, this is a bit difficult for us. Among our students, or if we assign a task in a project, we are not sure if their work is done by themselves or if they are artificial work. I think its verification is important after we get these results. We cannot avoid it. We have to live with it.
Q: Yes, many people say that we have to live with new technologies. Even though they may bring some kind of benefits to us currently, in the long-tern, they'll bring benefits to us. Then what kind of benefits do you think the cooperation between you or you as the head of your society and SuperMap will bring to China and Saudi Arabia?
A: Yeah, I think there will be great benefits for both of us. We can be a facilitator and let's say experience center for SuperMap. Saudi Arabia has mega projects, yes, lead and constructed by many Chinese companies. So, it will be easy for us to introduce SuperMap to the companies because they are already involved.
This is in the level of business and as for the level of people, we are umbrella for all of geographer society and geographer departments in the country, so we can provide all information in hand to them. Once we make a workshop or training, everyone gets benefit of it, not only members, because we are open to everyone.
Q: So, our joint workshop, or those training courses have benefited many students or industry practitioners in your country, right?
A: Yes, and for us, absolutely we are benefiting from it. We are contacting or cooperating with this high technology company leading in the world in term of 3D, big data, simulations, image analysis, it's all will be in our hands and close to us and we learn from it and we need it, so it is benefiting us very much, so that's win-win cooperation.
Q: Alright, one last question. Will you come to our conference next year? And what kind of expectations do you have towards it?
A: My expectation, I hope there will be a section for student presentation show. And I can manage to bring some of my students and then they can come with me to present their work and learn directly from here.
Q: Yeah, so they have their own physical experience.
A: Exactly, yes, yes. And I will encourage my colleagues in the society to join me next time. One of my professors want to come, but for some cases, he canceled the trip, but next time, I'm sure more will be with me.
Q: Yeah, we hope more people could get involved in this conference and have communications and exchange ideas so that we can promote the development of this industry.
A: Yeah, and especially, we have a common environment in terms of desert area, mountains, area, I mean geography of China, geography of Saudi, they are common in terms of the deserts, mountains, coastline. And partly, we both are counted as a large country, so to control the country and collect data from a huge area, geo-specialists should be there. They are very much needed.
Q: Thank you very much, do you have any other thing you want to share with us?
A: I enjoy my visits to China and I look forward to the two days trips to the forbidden city and the Great Wall. This is very good chance to visit with my colleagues here in the conference.
Q: Great, hope you enjoy your journey here in Beijing.
A: Thank you.
