Recent advances in industry-university cooperation

1
Recent advances in industry-university
cooperation a Hungarian view

• Gábor Péceli
• (peceli_at_mit.bme.hu)
• John von Neumann Computer Society
• and
• Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics
• Budapest University of Technology and Economics

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Introduction
The central building of the 225 years
old Technical University of Budapest
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Infopark Budapest
IBM Hungary, Hewlett Packard Hungary, Hungarian
Telecom Research, T-Online,
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Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics

• - 10 departments,
• - 4500 students,
• - BSc MSc in
• electrical and
• computer
• engineering,
• BSc MSc in
• computer science
• and engineering,
• MSc in biomedical
• engineering.

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The message of this talk

• In Hungary there are new mechanisms, supported
  by the government, to improve industry-university
  cooperation

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The Mobile Innovation Centre (MIK)

• The mission of the Mobile Innovation Centre is as
  follows
• - Supporting research and development of
  high-speed mobile
• and wireless technologies, including the B3G
  technological trends
• following the 3G mobile systems.
• - Promoting implementation of 3G/4G mobile and
  wireless
• technologies, network services, systems and
  applications based
• on these technologies and testing them in an
  independent
• environment.
• - Encouraging establishment, development and
  practical use
• of the latest mobile and wireless
  technologies/services.
• - Supporting tough cooperation of universities,
  industrial
• companies and small and medium size
  enterprises, and
• supporting small and medium sized enterprises
  established
• for the development of mobile and wireless
  technologies and
• services.

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Regional Knowledge Centres (RKC) Péter Pázmány
Programme
Supported Regional Knowledge Centres 2004

• University of Debrecen High-technologies around
  the University of Debrecen
• University of Szeged Szeged Neurobiological
  Knowledge Centre
• Semmelweis University Szentágothai János
  Regional University Knowledge Centre
• BME Advanced Vehicles and Vehicle Control
  Knowledge Centre
• University of Miskolc Knowledge Intensive
  Mechatronics and Logistics Systems Knowledge
  Centre
• University of Western-Hungary Regional Knowledge
  Centre of Forest and Wood Utilization

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Regional Knowledge Centres (RKC) Péter Pázmány
Programme
Supported Regional Knowledge Centres 2005

• BME Innovation and Knowledge Centre of
  Information Technology
• University of Szeged Environmental- and
  Nanotechnology RSC development of integrated
  systems for the improvement of the quality of
  human life
• University of Pécs University Innovation
  Knowledge Centre for Developing Life
• Quality Improving Medicines and Methods of
  Treatment
• Széchenyi István University University-based
  Regional University Knowledge
• Centre for Vehicle Industry
• Eötvös Lóránd University
• E-Science Regional University Knowledge Centre
• Szent István University Centre of Excellence in
  Environmental Industry
• Eszterházy Károly College EGERFOOD Knowledge
  Centre

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Regional Knowledge Centres (RKC) Péter Pázmány
Programme
Supported Regional Knowledge Centres 2006

• University of Pannonia
• Information Security Research and Development
  Centre
• Corvinus University of Budapest Research and
  Development in the
• Food chain Regional Science Centre
• College of Nyíregyháza FOOD-ENERG Regional
  Knowledge Centre
• Eötvös Lóránd University Cell-communication
  Knowledge Centre
• College of Dunaújváros Regional Material Science
  and Logistics Knowledge Centre
• Budapest Tech Polytechnic
• Transportation Informatics and Telematics
  Knowledge Centre

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Advanced Vehicles and Vehicle Control Knowledge
Centre (BME)

• The five research programs
• (1) Control of a Vehicle Group,
• (2) Direct Vehicle-Environment Contact based
  Control,
• (3) Control on the Vehicle Level,
• (4) Intelligent Actuators,
• (5) Platform Systems, Solutions

The Knowledge Centre conducted notable
educational and training activities even during
its first year of operation, involving 15
undergraduate and 18 PhD students in its RD
activities, coming from various departments of
BME, and other universities.
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Innovation and Knowledge Centre of Information
Technology (BME)

• e-Document program
• (1) content and document conversions, (2)
  authenticity and quality audit,
• (3) document management, are linked to existing
  products of the industrial
• partners, and aim at updating existing modules
  and developing new ones by
• putting into practice research achievements.
• Middleware, knowledge base and graphical
  applications program
• (1) transport logistics, (2) geographic
  information system databases,
• (3) internal security algorithms, and (4)
  real-time rendering methods.
• e-Security development program
• (1) establishing IT quality laboratory, (2)
  log-gathering and analysis, and
• (3) virtually closed networks.
• 4. Grid and security lab program
• (1) planning distributed and extended file
  systems, (2) industrial applications
• of Grid systems, and (3) maintaining an IT
  security lab.

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IBM Centre of Advanced Studies (CAS) Budapest

• Its mission is as worldwide
• Innovation through collaboration
• 1. Facilitate the exchange of academic research
  knowledge and real world industry challenges
  towards enhancing IBM products, processes
  services 
• 2. Establish IBM as the partner and employer of
  choice for top students as they learn and develop
  skills to create the technology of the future
• 3. Build and foster relationships among
  researchers, funding agencies, IBM, and
  customers
• 4. Expose IBM developers to current research
  directions, and identify new and emerging
  technology issues for academic research.

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IBM Centre of Advanced Studies (CAS) Budapest

• The current activity is related to the
  integration SOA (Service
• Oriented Architecture) and SOA management
  concepts into the
• curricula, and increasing the exposure of IBM
  Tivoli, Rational
• and other SWG products to students. It will also
  continue the
• IBM local history of supporting collaborative
  research through
• Faculty Awards and other funding mechanisms.

The centre currently sponsors a visiting
professor within his organization, with plans to
increase the university activities sponsored by
CAS Budapest over the coming years, including
outreach to other universities. The centre is
currently supported by Sales Distribution (SD)
(specifically SWG Technical Sales and Services)
and represents a successful model for a CAS
created and sustained by that business unit.
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Education new structure, new requirements ...
Traditional 10-semester Diploma programs in
Engineering (300 ECTS credits) ? 7-semester BSc
(210 credits) 4-semester MSc (120 credits)
BSc should be more practical than university
programs, and should be more theoretical than
college programs
MSc should be as high level as Diploma programs
or higher ...
Learning outcome ...
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Some other motivating observations ...
(See also Proc. of the IEEE, January 2000,
Special Issue Electrical and Computer Engineering
Education)
Math and Physics background of incoming students
... Experimental background of incoming students
... Lack of motivation and patience ... Lack of
good study skills ... Increasing volume of core
ECE material ...
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Internal problems of our Faculty
Due to historical and structural problems, and
the financing scheme applied at BUTE, the 10
departments are in permanent competition with
each other to increase their loads in education
...
Any idea to change the curriculum is a beginning
of heated debates ...
The staff is seriously overloaded ... only 50 of
the budget comes from the Ministry of Education
...
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The BSc program in ECE at BUTE ...
FEEI decided to keep the basic structure of the
first five semesters of the ongoing 5-years
curriculum, only minor structural changes were
introduced.
What was changed is simply the content and the
style of the subjects to meet the
before-mentioned requirements. The price paid is
the number of the contact hours 24 ? 28/week.
We decided not reduce the math and physics
courses like some other programs did, but we try
to be more practice oriented we have rearranged
our courses to offer more design examples,
pre-engineering home-works, etc.
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The BSc program in ECE at BUTE ...
Basics (50 credits) Math (20 cr.), Computer
Science Basics (6 cr.), Physics (10 cr.),
Material Science (4 cr.), Informatics I-II (10
cr).
Economics and humanities 20 credits
Core courses (86 cr.) Programming Basics (9
cr.), Digital Design (12 cr.),Signals and
Systems (12 cr.), Electrotechnic (6 cr.),
Electromagnetic fields (5 cr.), Electronics (12
cr.), Microelectronics (5 cr.), Measurement
technology (5 cr), Electrical power engineering
(5 cr.), Info-communication (5 cr.), Electronic
technology (5 cr.), Control engineering (5 cr).
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The BSc program in ECE at BUTE ...
Specializations (including thesis-work) (44 cr.)
Embedded information systems Energy transducer
systems Info-communication systems Control
engineering and robot informatics Micro-systems
and circuit-modules Computing systems and
engineering Broadband and media
communication Electrical power systems
Electives 10 credits
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Conclusions

• In Hungary several promising governmental
  actions attempt to improve industry-university
  cooperation. These include
• innovation and knowledge centres
• located at major universities offering BSc MSc
  programs in computer science engineering, and/or
  electrical and computer.

The majority of these programs are rather new,
the outcome is hard to predict
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Thank you for your attention !