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Esri Canada GIS Centre of Excellence

Esri Canada logo with roadway cutting through forest

Esri Canada, a leading GIS solutions provider, launched its Centres of Higher Education Excellence initiative in 2014 to foster GIS research and promote teaching excellence in spatial data management across Canadian universities.

Since 2017, the Department of Geography and Environment has been one of 11 institutions in Canada hosting an Esri Canada Centre of Excellence (ECCE). ECCE students participate annually in the App Challenge using open data and Esri technology and gain access to free training and local Esri Canada User Conferences.

To discover more GIS workshops, training sessions, and professional development opportunities, be sure to visit our Events page. 

 

The ECCE Annual App Challenge is a national coding competition organized by Esri Canada to foster innovation and creativity among students at Centres of Excellence. Each year, student teams develop unique apps using Esri technology and open data to address a theme-based problem. Submissions—including apps, documentation, and videos—are evaluated by a panel of external judges, with winners selected based on overall scores. The challenge offers students valuable experience in GIS, app development, and teamwork.

2026 ECCE App Challenge Team

This year, we proudly had four teams participate in the Esri ECCE App Challenge, and we are thrilled to share that all of our students delivered outstanding work on March 2nd. Using powerful tools such as ArcGIS Dashboard, ArcGIS StoryMaps, and ArcGIS Experience Builder, our students created engaging, user-friendly applications that demonstrated not only strong technical skills, but also creativity, critical thinking, and effective storytelling.

Throughout the competition, students collaborated intensively—transforming data into meaningful insights and building applications that communicate complex spatial information in clear and compelling ways. We are incredibly proud of all participants for their dedication, teamwork, and innovation. Their achievements highlight the strength of our GIS program and our commitment to experiential learning.

Congratulations to (first row) Nick, Samantha, Angelica, Chang (Maggie), Chris, Oliver, Connor, Tyson, (second row) Olivia, Elefteria, Chrishma!

Past entries are available on the ECCE GitHub.

 

The ECCE Student Associate of the Year Award recognizes a student who has shown consistent and meaningful involvement in ECCE activities, such as the ECCE Blog and the App Challenge. The award highlights the student’s dedication to the ECCE’s mission and vision and serves as a nomination for Student of the Year.

Past Recipients

  • 2024/25 - Samantha Sharp
  • 2023/24 - Eunice Chu
  • 2022/23 - Milad Malekzadeh
  • 2021/22 - Ben Klar
  • 2020/21 - Jack Mcilraith
  • 2019/20 - Victoria Barlow
  • 2018/19 - Alexander Wray
  • 2017/18 - Aiden Poole

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For more information about ECCE at Western, please contact:

Director: Jinhyung Lee
Phone: 519-661-2111 x.85025
Office: SSC 2422
Email: jinhyung.lee@uwo.ca

Deputy Director: Kathy Tang
Phone: 519-661-2111 x.85014
Office: SSC 2208
Email: ktang28@uwo.ca