GIS w polskiej edukacji wyższej – dyskusja

The idea for this publication was barn in June 2015, during a meeting of Polish teachers involved with Geographic lnformation Systems. The meeting was initiated by the Department of Geoinformation, Faculty of Geographical Sciences, University of Łódź, which received a grant to organize it. The discussion and presentations from academic teachers representing various universities in Poland were very interesting and sometimes heated. it would be advisable for other educators to familiarise themselves with the aspects of GIS education among Polish geographers, foresters, surveyors and other users. The experience of Geoinformation education in Poland is still modest, so the views of people who have been involved at Polish universities with it since the 1990s should be interesting to readers. Geographic lnformation Systems (GIS) – the integration of environmental and climate issues as an important factor for economic development and quality of life – an innovative second-degree studies. Akronim GIS-E-QL: GIS for environment and quality of life. Project objectives: The main aim of the project is to start-up attractive and innovative second­ degree studies – geoinformation in mutual cooperation of the FGS and the FMCS, students education, improving the competence of academic teachers, conference organization, publishing, cooperation with practitioners and establishing contacts with partners from Norway. This aim is consistent with the “Ana lysis of the economy's demand for graduates in key field of strategy in the context of the Europe 2020” 2012 and “Strategy for development of higher education in Poland 2020”, in the field of promoting innovative courses, formed collectively with practitioners, raising awareness of the environment. Joint actions of educators and practitioners, supported the by the strengthening of university's hardware, software and spatial data, will ensure a high quality project. The existing cooperation with practitioners indicate that further training is necessary and they would like to see postgraduates in their institutions. The final beneficiaries of the project will be the students and the academical teaching staff and indirectly the economy of the region. Students who graduate will be the main recipient of the project, the next will be teaching staff who will have contact with the practices and Norwegian partners with similar interests. In broad terms the project will benefit Polish and European economy and environment.The experience of Polish scientists and educators in the GIS has not been as long as mentioned by Michael F. Goodchild who jointly with Ross Newkirk (Goodchild 2006) started the fi rst GIS training course at the University of Western Ontario in Canada in 1975. Discussions on the scope of knowledge included in the GIS have continued at most universities that have offered such classes. In 1988/89, owing to the National Centre for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA), the 3-volume document of over 1000 pages was put together to include curriculums, student materials and other teaching aids. We have good models and we can use them. Meetings and discussions about the GIS education have been and still are regularly held all over the world (Forer P., Unwin D. 1999). When employees of Polish universities were starting to learn the GIS software and possibilities, Morgan J. M., Fleury B., Becker R. A. (1996) had already identifi ed over 800 higher education institutions all over the world that had offered at least one GIS course. The rapid development of new technologies, methods, the creation of new labour markets has arisen discussions on the contents GIS training in various centres of higher education, e.g. in the Netherlands, the US, and those have been similar to the ones presented in this article (Toppen F. J. 1992) and some issues needed to be resolved in court (DiBiase, D. 2008). You can see how important these meetings of educators are for exchanging opinions and experience. They have allowed to meed people representing various fi elds involved in the geoinformation, which may result in co-operation and new educational initiatives, and sometimes, competition. Finally, we should agree with prof. J. Gaździcki (2009 p. 12) that “It is obvious that the success of any measures to modernise education in the area under consideration depends on the interest of academic communities, involvement of research and academic staff in these endeavours, their will, ambition and willingness to co-operate”.This book has been prepared within the project „Geographic Information Systems (GIS) – the integration of environmental and climate issues as an important factor of economic development and quality of life – an innovative second-degree studies” supported by a grant from Norway through the Norway Grants and co-financed by the Polish funds. (Agreement No FSS/2014/HEI/W/0114/U/0013)

The Importance of SiC in the Process of Melting Ductile Iron with a Variable Content of Charge Materials

The article presents issues related to melting ductile iron grade EN-GJS-400-15, with different proportions of feedstock (steel scrap and pig iron). The main attention was paid to determining the impact of silicon carbide on the structure and properties of melted cast iron. In the conducted melts, carbon and silicon deficiencies were supplemented with a suitably chosen carburizer, ferrosilicon, and SiC metallurgical silicon carbide. The percentage of silicon carbide in the charge ranged from 0 to 0.91%. The basic condition for the planning of melts was to maintain the repeatability of the chemical composition of the output cast iron and cast iron after the secondary treatment of liquid metal with various charge compositions. Based on the tests, calculations, and analyses of the results obtained, it was concluded that the addition of SiC may increase the number and size of graphite precipitates. Increasing the SiC content in the charge also caused a change in the solidification nature of the alloy and the mechanism of growth of spheroidal graphite precipitates, causing their surface to form a scaly shell. The influence of the addition of silicon carbide on the reduction of the temperature of liquidus in the alloys was also observed. Silicon carbide had a positive effect on the structure and properties of melted alloys. The introduction of SiC into the melting in the studied range caused an increase in the content of carbon and silicon without causing an increase in the amount of impurities in the alloy

Various Aspects of Application of Silicon Carbide in the Process of Cast Iron Melting

The article discusses benefits associated with the use of silicon carbide in the process of melting gray cast iron and ductile cast iron in induction electric furnaces. It presents the analysis of the impact of various charge materials and the addition of a variable amount of SiC and FeSi to the fixed charge when melting cast iron of grades GJS 400-15 and GJS 500-7 on mechanical properties and microstructure. Moreover, the article includes an analysis of the efficiency of carburization and the increase in the content of silicon during the application of SiC. The article also presents the results of the study of primary modification using silicon carbide at the minimum temperature of Temin eutectic and Tsol solidus. Based on analysis of the literature, conducted research, and calculations, it was found that the addition of silicon carbide has a beneficial impact on the properties of melted cast iron. The addition of SiC in the charge increases the content of C and Si without increasing the amount of contaminations. The addition of SiC at reduced pig iron presence in the charge decreases production costs, while the use of SiC as an inoculant increases both Temin and Tsol, which is beneficial from the point of view of cast iron nucleation