Redlands, California — March 15, 2011 — While select German universities have taught geographic information systems (GIS) for more than 20 years, three new statewide Esri education site licenses will make the technology available to all 700,000 students attending the 165 universities in Baden-Wurttemberg, Bavaria, and Lower Saxony.

"Through the implementation of these multistate GIS site licenses, all our teachers and students have the opportunity to apply modern geographic information technologies to innovative research and future problem solving," said Peter Castellaz, director of information and communication technologies in teaching and research at the Ministry of Science, Research, and Arts in Baden-Wurttemberg.

Participating universities receive

• Unlimited use of Esri's full range of ArcGIS software
• Free access to Esri Virtual Campus courses
• Free software licenses for the students' personal computers

In addition to the geography and geodesy departments that traditionally use GIS, the technology is also regularly used in the biology, archaeology, forestry, and landscape design departments at German universities. The universities' economics, engineering, and computer science departments have also recently discovered the power of GIS tools.

"Engaging university students with modern geotechnologies provides the basis for a sound education in the many fields where geospatial issues are involved," said Daniel Schober, education manager at Esri Deutschland GmbH. "In addition to its use in teaching and research, university administrators can use ArcGIS for facilities management, campus mapping, and safety planning."

For more information about Esri's higher education program, visit esri.com/highered.

About Esri

Since 1969, Esri has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS technology, Esri software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. Esri applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world's mapping and spatial analysis. Esri is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit us at esri.com/news.



Contact:

Jim Baumann
Esri
Tel.: 909-793-2853, extension 1-1807
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