Welcome the 13th intake of the Cartography Master!

On the 7th of March, a new intake of the International Master in Cartography program started a new semester at the Research Unit Cartography of the TU Wien.

Twenty-eight students from 17 countries will study with us in Vienna for four months. We are very excited to exchange our different perspectives on cartography and to experience Vienna together!

Students of the 13th intake with Prof. Dr. Gartner (left) and the local coordinator, Sacha Schlumpf, MSc (right).
City tour with a professional guide, Jan Kepinski.

Shape2Gether workshop in Vienna

We recently concluded a workshop at TU Wien as part of the Shape2Gether project with all eight project partners. Shape2Gether aims to advance education by integrating geosciences, technology, and serious gaming to address climate change and its effects on Europe. During the workshop, we focused on laying the groundwork for three upcoming summer schools in Norway, Malta, and Germany, preparing to welcome students. Each university partner will send four students to accompany us to each summer school.

We’re looking forward to the first summer school scheduled for May 2024 in Tautra and Trondheim, Norway. The summer school will provide students with an immersive educational experience, including hands-on activities like VR, on-site exploration, and group work as an interdisciplinary, international team.

For more information and updates on the project, visit our project webpage.

Shape2Gether project leader Vít Pászto
© Jiří Pánek

In maps we trust!

We are pleased to share that the latest issue of the ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information features an article by Prof. Georg Gartner and his co-authors, Olesia Ignateva, Bibigul Zhunis and Johanna Pühringer, as the cover story.

“Conceptualizing and Validating the Trustworthiness of Maps through an Empirical Study on the Influence of Cultural Background on Map Design Perception” explores how cartographic modelling fundamentally shapes map comprehension and trustworthiness analysis. It also outlines key aspects of map trustworthiness and proposes an epistemological approach to research, demonstrated through an empirical study.

To read the paper in full, visit https://www.mdpi.com/2220-9964/13/2/39.

EuroCarto 2024

We are very pleased to announce that the European Cartographic Conference EuroCarto 2024, will be held from September 09-11, 2024, at TU Wien in Vienna, Austria. The conference is co-organized by us, the Research Unit Cartography at TU Wien, the International Cartographic Association (ICA) and the German (DGfK), Austrian (ÖKK), Swiss (SGK), British (BCS) and Czech (ČKS) Cartographic Societies.

We aim to bring together Cartographers and those working in related disciplines to offer a platform for discussion, exchange and stimulation of research and joined projects. If you are interested in participating or contributing to EuroCarto 2024, visit our conference website for general information.

We look forward to welcoming you to the beautiful Vienna and celebrating Cartography!

Shape2Gether Project Kick-off Meeting

From October 25 to 27, 2023, the three-year EU-funded Erasmus+ project Shape2Gether kicked off in Olomouc, Czech Republic. Managed by Palacký University Olomouc, this project unites institutions and experts across Europe, including the Research Unit Cartography at TU Wien, Ruhr University Bochum (Germany), University of Malta (Malta), Turku University (Finland), Utrecht University (Netherlands) and Lentävä Liitutaulu OY (Seppo gamification platform) (Finland). 

The core objective of this project is to explore and implement educational methods for sustainable development, with a particular focus on addressing the challenges presented by climate change and its effects on Europe. It does so by uniting three distinct areas of expertise: geosciences, new technologies, and serious game design. The ultimate aim is to establish a forward-thinking international master’s program in the following years.

We are very happy to be a part of this innovative project!

Shape2Gether project team at the kick-off meeting in Olomouc

Cartography M.Sc. defences at TU Wien

Three students from the 11th intake of the Cartography Master’s program have recently successfully defended their master’s theses at our research unit.

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Moreover, celebrating the defence of our programme’s 200th graduate, Julia Schiller, was a special occasion. She defended the thesis on the topic “Typology of Map Functions” under the supervision of Prof. Georg Gartner.

Oskar Baumann introduced his thesis “The Nuances of Mapping Street Art – Developing a Web Map for Interactive Graffity Exploration”. His supervisors were Benjamin Wild and Prof. Norbert Pfeiffer from the Research Unit Photogrammetry.

Sacha Schlumpf presented his thesis “Space as a Metaphor”, supervised jointly by Prof. Georg Gartner and Jethro Lennox from HarperCollins Publishers in the UK. Thus, he concluded successful defences of his intake at TU Wien.

Congratulations to them, and all the best in their future explorations!

Doctoral defense of Wangshu Wang

Wangshu Wang has successfully defended her dissertation “Please Follow the Signs: Considering Existing Navigational Aids in Indoor Navigation Services “.

Prof. Georg Gartner from our Research Unit Cartography was her supervisor, while Prof. Liqiu Meng from the Technical University of Munich and Prof. Haosheng Huang from Ghent University were the reviewers.

Congratulations, Dr. Wang, and all the best for your future!

Prof. Georg Gartner, Dr. Wang and Prof. Huang

A gallery of the students’ digital cartographic projects

In the summer semester of 2023, students designed and developed digital cartographic projects within the LBS course. We are happy to share with you the gallery of the best projects.


“Crowded Space”

An interactive 3D view of the Earth by Cartography M.Sc. students Janek Łyczakowski, Lennart Kerl and Nicolás Martínez Heredia, which shows all active satellites and presents how humans have colonized and increasingly populated space with devices, combining it with storytelling to educate science for a broad audience.


“Live UBahn Vienna”

An animated web map with live information about the underground trains’ position in Vienna by Cartography M.Sc. students Luka Laval and Ander Palacios Fraile.


“SOS4ALL”

An application by Cartography M.Sc. students Isaac Newton Kissiedu, Ching-Ting Chia, and Yanning Wang to request emergency services in English in Austria. The team developed the dashboard with a map for emergency service and a mobile application for users to send emergency requests.


“Location-Based Odyssey”

A combination of an interactive map and a story map by Stefan Blochberger, Sophie Haselsteiner and Philipp Zehetgruber introduces the journey described in the Odyssey for younger audiences aged 10-14 years old.


“Austrian Castles”

An interactive web map with information about castles in Austria by Cartography M.Sc. students Samuel Darkwah Manu, Yi Zhen Chew, and Ulrike Holfeld.


“Follow your favorite artist around the world!”

An interactive map dashboard by Stefan Christl, Lorana Myslimi, and Helena Anna Hettegger lets you easily explore your favourite artists’ concert locations worldwide.


“Global Fungi”

The project by Cartography M.Sc. students Phoebe Ly, Dilara Bozkurt, and Zhenjiang Li utilizes the Global Fungi fungi NGS dataset to help scientists better analyze and visualize this data through a web map.

Congratulations to our graduates for receiving AGEO Award!

Cartography M.Sc. graduates Valerian Lange and Josè Pablo Ceballos received 1st and 2nd place in the AGEO Awards 2023 for the best master theses in the Geographic information field in Austria.

The award took place on July 4, at the GI Salzburg Conference at the University of Salzburg. This prize, awarded for the 14th time by the Austrian umbrella organization for geographical information AGEO, pursues the goal of promoting excellent graduates from Austrian universities in the field of spatial information science.

Awardees of the AGEO Awards 2023, Josè Pablo Ceballos is third from the left

The winner of the Award – Valerian Lange, a photo from his LinkedIn page.

You can find master theses on the Cartography M.Sc. website:

Valerian Lange’s: MapColPal – a color palette generation and testing tool for thematic maps

Josè Pablo Ceballos’: Understanding Relevance in Maps through the use of Knowledge Graphs

Farewell to the 12th intake of the Cartography Master students

Twenty students of the Cartography Master Programme have completed their semester in Vienna. In a farewell session on June 28, we looked back at the semester and the results of the students’ work. As a tradition, we had a students’ map exhibition during that session. We wish our students to enjoy their summer holidays and to return rested and ready for the third semester at TU Dresden!