Dr. Mugheer Khamis Al-Khaili Accepts Making a Difference in Education Award

Redlands, California — August 11, 2010 — The annual Esri Education User Conference (EdUC) provides the opportunity to not only exchange information and ideas among educators but also honor individuals and organizations for their exceptional work in implementing geographic information system (GIS) solutions. At this year's conference, Dr. Michael Gould, Esri director of education for industry solutions, presented the Making a Difference in Education Award to His Excellency Dr. Mugheer Khamis Al-Khaili, director general, Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC).

"The conference is a perfect opportunity to recognize those who have made special contributions to GIS in education," says Gould. "Abu Dhabi Education Council provides an example of best practices in education because it has rapidly implemented a coordinated series of enterprise GIS projects throughout its entire system, including the Office of Strategic Affairs, Infrastructure and Facilities Department, and the Schools Licensing Department."

GIS is used at ADEC to help it implement its 10-year strategic plan. This includes

• Analyzing the use of current school buildings
• Planning the location of new schools
• Reducing student performance gaps between schools
• Balancing the classroom instruction load among the teachers

GIS is also used to achieve other ADEC initiatives such as the management of student transportation, replacement of aging facilities, and improvement of student access to high-quality education. In addition, the ADEC GIS has been successfully integrated with its other enterprise databases, including the student information system, which maintains student records and is used as a basis in preparing administrative reports, and its enterprise resource planning system, used for educational resource management.

"It is a great honor for both me and ADEC to be recognized by Esri for our efforts in the implementation of GIS technology throughout our country's entire educational system," comments Al-Khaili. "This is particularly important to us as we transition to a diversified, knowledge-based economy. 'Education First' is our call to action in Abu Dhabi. The Making a Difference in Education Award from Esri is a tribute not only to the dedicated staff at ADEC but to our entire country and provides us with a great incentive to continue our work."

Al-Khaili went on to say that Abu Dhabi's nationwide GIS has greatly improved the decision-making process within the government and that he envisions a time when all seven emirates in the national federation will be working from a common geodatabase. "This growing use of GIS will provide rewarding employment for our country's youth as well as allow us to achieve a vital part of ADEC's 10‑year strategic plan with the help of sharing and receiving accurate data," he concludes.

For more information about Esri's educational programs, visit www.esri.com/education.

About Abu Dhabi Education Council

ADEC was established in accordance with law No. 24 of 2005, issued by His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, United Arab Emirates (UAE) president, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, and Ruler of Abu Dhabi. The chairman of ADEC is His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, and the vice-chairman is His Highness Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, Minister of Presidential Affairs. The council seeks to develop education and educational institutions in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi; implement innovative educational policies, plans, and programs that aim to improve education; and support educational institutions and staff to achieve the objectives of national development in accordance with the highest international standards.

For more information about ADEC, go to www.adec.ac.ae.

About Esri

Since 1969, Esri has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS, 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 www.esri.com/news.



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