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Dieter Fritsch:
Life:
Professor Fritsch is one of the innovators who assisted a great deal in the
construction of the German University in Cairo. In 1982, Prof. Fritsch earned his Ph.D.
in Signal Processing, from the University of Bonn. Hi thesis was entitled “Design of Non-
recursive FIR Digital Filters”.
Contribution to the GUC:
January 2001 Fritsch got a phone call from his Rector colleague from Ulm
University, Prof Hans Wolff: “Dear Herr Fritsch, in my office is an Ulm Postdoc, Prof
Ashraf Mansour from Cairo University. He wants to develop a German University in
Cairo. The University of Ulm is too small to support this project alone from the German
side, and you know, my relations to Karlsruhe are not the best. Stuttgart would be a
great partner for this project. Please let him present his ideas.” Next day, Prof. Ashraf
Mansour, Cairo paid a visit to Fritsch in Stuttgart to request his support to establish a
German University in Cairo. Fritsch was fascinated by the conception; however, he was
extremely skeptical, as he was not certain he would be able to attain adequate backing
from the basis, especially from the university professors. Without soldiers, no general
can win a battle!
It took some time to arouse the interest of some Stuttgart professors for this
defying project – Profs. Kuehn, Zahn, Roos, Goertz, and Weitkamp – eventually, the
University of Stuttgart developed to be the Patron University for the GUC, in summer
2001 (together with the University of Ulm). Fritsch visited Cairo frequently, to discourse
further developments of the GUC. In parallel to these stopovers, he quite often visited
the Ministry of Higher Education and Arts Baden-Wuerttemberg to achieve maximum
encouragement from Minister Frankenberg and MD Froehlich for this stimulating
project. With time passing on, Fritsch became enthusiastic, as the young GUC Team
was very motivated and fully determined to create an outstanding envisage. BTW,
Fritsch comprehended that through his commitment he could also give something back
to Egypt as a professional surveyor. It is undeniable; Egypt has devised many surveying
technologies. Leveling and land allotment were born in Egypt, as the river Nile flooded
regularly through the adjoining fertile agricultural land. The pharaohs perceived
astronomic observations, they had the ability to measured azimuth directions e.g. to
impart the pyramids of Giza a North orientation. Last but not least, the first
determination of the real figure of the Earth was carried out by Eratosthenes in
Alexandria (220 BD).

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In summer 2001, Profs Mansour, Wolff and Fritsch handed over the GUC
Concept and vision to the Ministry of Higher Education in Cairo. This was truly an
unbeatable instant, as nobody could foresee the decisions made by the government.
However, Prof. Mansour and the German partakers were exceptionally optimistic and
determined; they could foresee the promise in it. And yes, they were right.
During the summer of 2002, Profs Wolff and Fritsch attained green light from
the High Education Ministry BW to second scientific personnel to Egypt, this was
another accomplishment. After acquiring the Presidential Decree in Sept 2002, the
constructions of the GUC were launched and the dream came true.
It was a miracle that touched reality; the GUC was opened on Oct 3rd, 2003, with
a number of 850 scholars. A gigantic delegation of Stuttgart partook in this episode –
Fritsch was very gratified, the achievements of his Egyptian associates turned a reverie
into a reality.
The opening was a distinguished episode. After Speeches of President H.
Mubarak and German Chancellor G. Schroeder, MinPres ErwinTeufel handed over a
nice present … a cheque with EUR 200,000 which was an agreement between Fritsch
and Mr. Kammerlohr of MWK BW. 2004 was the 1st year of GUC operations as well as
the 25th Anniversary between the cities of Cairo and Stuttgart. With a delegation of the
city of Stuttgart, Lord Mayor Wolfgang Schuster visited the GUC and was graciously
mesmerized by the realizations of the newly established GUC.
Fritsch had a great collaboration with Prof. Berthold Lei binger, Owner of Trump
GmbH & Co KG, Ditzingen. At that point in time, the chairman of the Board of Trustees
University of Stuttgart, the boss of rector Fritsch settled to call on the GUC to carry on
discussions about the possible collaboration of Trumpf with the GUC. In the spring of
2005, Fritsch planned a program and Leibinger arrived to Cairo. He aspired to view the
pyramids of Giza. Fritsch’s was continuously visiting Giza and commenced to crack
jokes, naming every stone of the pyramids with a unique nickname.
Life and Achievements:
1979-83 Member Special Study Group 4.60 “Parameter Estimation” of the International
Association of Geodesy (IAG)
1983-87 President of IAG Special Study Group 4.60 “Parameter Estimation”
1988-92 Member WG III.2 “Digital Terrain Models”, International Society for
Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS)
1992-96 Co-Chair of ISPRS WG V/3 “Close-range Image Processing and Computer

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Vision”
1996-2000 President ISPRS Technical Commission IV “Mapping and GIS”; Organizer of the
TC IV Symposium 1998 in Stuttgart with 350 participants
1994-96 Dean Faculty Civil Engineering and Surveying, University of Stuttgart
1998-2000 Vice President University of Stuttgart, Section “Higher Education and Life Long
Learning”;
2000-06 President University of Stuttgart;
2000-now Academic Co-Founder of the German University in Cairo (GUC), Egypt, Member
GUC Board of Trustees; Member Academic Promotion Committee, Member GUC
Academic Committee, GUC Visiting Professor, Lectures Surveying for
Architecture, in Berlin and Cairo (since 2014);
2002-06 Member Board of Directors, Leica Geosystems, Heerbrugg, Switzerland;
2006-now Chairman Board of Trustees the ISPRS Foundation (TIF);
2006-11 Member of Apple’s University Education Forum (UEF), Apple, Cupertino, USA;
2009-13 EuroSDR Vice President Research; Member of OEEPE/EuroSDR: 1993-2013, in
total 20 years of service;
2014-19 Member Advisory Board Center of Excellence Laser Scanning (CoLaS),
Academy of Finland, Helsinki, Finland;
2014-19 Member Advisory Board Munich Aerospace, Munich, Germany;
2014-now Visiting Professor in Computer Science at the Sudan University of Science and
Technology (SUSTECH), Lectures in Geoinformatics, Supervisor of dissertations
of Master’s Students and Supervisor of 4 PhD students;
- IAG Fellow (1987), MeDiDaPrix Winner (2005) with “eLearning Concept Univ Stuttgart
(EUR 50,000), Honorary Professor Wuhan University, Wuhan, China (2007), ISPRS
Fellow (2012).
- : Since 1992 Organizer of the Biennial Symposium “The Photogrammetric Week
Series”; Research Areas: Photogrammetry, GIS, Computer Vision, Statistical Inference,
Signal Processing, Laser Scanning, Augmented and Virtual Reality;
- Many case studies for geospatial associations and industry on: Airborne Camera
Calibration, Dense Image Matching, UAV Photogrammetry, Laser Scanning,
Geographical Information Systems;
- More than 360 publications, thereof 30 textbooks/proceedings;
Supervisor of 35 PhDs (finished), 12 are still under supervision, Co-Supervisor of more
than 60 PhDs.