NESSI ETP, BCI2007, Sofia, 29 October Bulgarian Technology Platform NESSI – Mission, Goals and Perspective Roumen Nikolov, Assoc. Prof., Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics

NESSI ETP, BCI2007, Sofia, 29 October Contents oBackground oThe Bulgarian NTP NESSI main goals oActivities so far oPerspectives oThe role of Sofia University as a NTP NESSI catalyst

NESSI ETP, BCI2007, Sofia, 29 October Background See presentation of Mr. Josema Cavanillas, Director Atos Research – Atos Origin, Vice-Chairman - NESSI Steering Committee; See presentation of Ms. Totka Chernaeva, SAITS; “Expanding NESSI Across Europe” decision of NESSI General Assembly – 08/06/2006 Mechanisms for expanding NESSI: MSC : Member State Committee NTPs : National Technology Platforms ONESSI: channel towards Open Source Community other

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5 NTP NESSI – main goals Opening wide channels for cooperation with the EC, ETP NESSI and its members Building a large network of prospective stakeholders in Bulgaria and SEE Supporting R&D activities in cooperation with knowledge intensive SMEs Building links and joint investment between public research and industry Building a knowledge hub in the area of software and services; Exchange and dissemination of information related to NESSI; Training and competence building; Establishing of working groups on different NESSI topics Defining a national roadmap and Strategic Research Agenda (SRA), based on the NESSI SRA, for the future evolution of the national R&D and innovation program related to S&S Implementing the NESSI principles at a national level; Coordination of existing research activities in S&S and promote their deployment to i2010

NESSI ETP, BCI2007, Sofia, 29 October NTP NESSI Goals (2) Supporting the implementation of the national ICT strategy in the area of S&S and providing valuable feedback for improvements; Developing S&S related strategies for Bulgaria and SEE and bridging them with the EC strategies and policies; Opening new channels for participation in EC projects; Exchange R&D results in S&S with other member states Nominating national projects to the NESSI Steering Committee for a NESSI label Searching for new opportunities and capacity for development of a competitive Bulgarian and SEE ICT and service industry; Working for improving ICT infrastructure and for providing global access to S&S; Identifying and promoting best practices; Promoting new service oriented business models; Making the NTP NESSI a reference point for end-users (national, regional, global); Creating a common virtual workplace on the internet for supporting the above mentioned goals and activities.

NESSI ETP, BCI2007, Sofia, 29 October Activities so far – Awarness phase + Established cooperation under the ETP NESSI (3-4 years ago); Contribution to the ETP NESSI strategic development and documents preparation, development of EC FP7 proposals, organising conferences and workshops, etc. The State Agency for Information Technology and Communication (SAITC) nominated Bulgarian representatives for a “MSC enabler” – member of the NESSI Member State Committee; A network of National Agents to support the Bulgarian “MSC enabler” under preparation Identification of the NTP NESSI stakeholders: Large ICT companies and SMEs; State institutions - State Agency of IT and Communications, Ministry of Economy and Energy, Ministry of Education and Science, Council of Ministers, etc.; Universities and research organisations;

NESSI ETP, BCI2007, Sofia, 29 October Activities (2) Identification of a network of networks as mediators for NTP NESSI: ICT Cluster, Bulgarian Association of Software Companies - BASSCOM, European Software Institute - ESI Center Eastern Europe, Bulgarian Association of Information Technology - BAIT, Confederation of Empoyers and Idustrialists in Bulgaria – CEIBG; Association Telecommunications - ASTEL, Open Source related associations, etc. National Academic Network (link to GEANT); Bulgarian Virtual ICT Department (a network all ICT departments in the Bulgarian Universities and Bulgarian Academy of Sciences) Initial meetings, awareness rising events, nominations of NTP NESSI members:

NESSI ETP, BCI2007, Sofia, 29 October Activities (3) Identification of a regional for South-Eastern Europe network of perspective stakeholders: BCI2007 conference and workshops, e.g: ETP NESSI workshop; “ Bridging the Digital Divide in South-Eastern Europe ” workshop, Network and GRID Infrastructure workshop, Multicore computing workshop, etc. SEE IT - South-Eastern Europe: MoU for Regional cooperation for ICT industry excellence, promotion and branding, signed on September 27 th, 2007 in Skopje. Endorsement and accession letters are to be added to the mentioned Memorandum as new organizations or groups of organizations from the different pillars (ICT industry, Investment promotion institutions, Governmental and executive bodies, Universities, academies and technology training centers, Business support organizations and donor programs).

NESSI ETP, BCI2007, Sofia, 29 October Perspectives Continue the intensive discussions and meetings with prospective stakeholders; Active participation in ETP NESSI related initiatives and projects; Official establishment of the Bulgarian NTP NESSI and Core Management Board; Development of a common virtual working place; Establishment of the NTP NESSI stakeholder network; Establishment of the NTP NESSI Working Groups;

NESSI ETP, BCI2007, Sofia, 29 October Sofia University  Over 35,000 students  80 Bachelor’s and over 200 Master’s degree programmes  Over 3000 teachers and researchers  17 Departments (Faculties). A new department – Faculty of Medicine (July 2006)  Very important role for the development of the country  Challenges: economic and social changes, new models of education, new role of universities, brain drain  European Higher Education Area  A Challenge - Sofia University to become a National and Regional Centre of High- Technologies, Innovations and Entrepreneurship

NESSI ETP, BCI2007, Sofia, 29 October Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics Established in 1889 BSc Programs: Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, Mathematics and Informatics, Informatics, Computer Science (2004), Information Systems (2006), Software Engineering (2006), Statistics (2007) More than 25 MSc programs PhD Programs Over 2500 students; Over 180 instructors Gradual increase of number of students and instructors

NESSI ETP, BCI2007, Sofia, 29 October Basic changes Open to the needs of the country Stronger links between education, training, R&D and innovations – towards a research university model Stronger links with industry – students ’ internships, training, cross-sector mobility, innovations, technology transfer, entrepreneurship, start-ups, joint projects, etc. Cooperation with Industry Associations, SMEs, Atos Origin; Intel, Cisco, HP, Oracle, Microsoft, SAP, Siemens, Software AG, etc. Active international cooperation - more than 60 projects related to the European Higher Education Area, FP4, FP5, FP6, FP7, Tempus, Leonardo, Phare, etc Building a Knowledge Triangle model (education, research, innovation);

NESSI ETP, BCI2007, Sofia, 29 October The need of new ICT programs

NESSI ETP, BCI2007, Sofia, 29 October E-Skills Summit, Kopenhagen,

NESSI ETP, BCI2007, Sofia, 29 October E-Skills Summit Industry Consortium

NESSI ETP, BCI2007, Sofia, 29 October E-Skills Summit: Documents & Guidelines Curriculum Development Guidelines New ICT curricula for the 21st century: designing tomorrow ’ s education Determining the future demand for ICT skills in Europe ICT Job Profiles Etc.

NESSI ETP, BCI2007, Sofia, 29 October The importance of ICT for Europe

NESSI ETP, BCI2007, Sofia, 29 October USA – Report of the 21st Century Workforce Commission

NESSI ETP, BCI2007, Sofia, 29 October ACM/IEEE Computing Curricula Vice-President, IEEE-CS Education Activities Board Carl Chang Chair, ACM Education Board Peter J. Denning IEEE-CS delegation James H. Cross II (co-chair) Gerald Engel (co-chair and editor) Robert Sloan (secretary) Doris Carver Richard Eckhouse Willis King Francis Lau Susan Mengel Pradip Srimani ACM delegation Eric Roberts (co-chair & editor) Russell Shackelford (co-chair) Richard Austing C. Fay Cover Gordon Davies Andrew McGettrick G. Michael Schneider Ursula Wolz

NESSI ETP, BCI2007, Sofia, 29 October ICT Standards – ACM/IEEE Computing Curricula 2005 (CC2005)

NESSI ETP, BCI2007, Sofia, 29 October Implementing ACM/IEEE CC2001/CC2005 at Sofia University Adapted to European context Adapted to Sofia University specifics Top-down process BSc, MSc & PhD Programs in: Computer Science Software Engineering Information Systems

NESSI ETP, BCI2007, Sofia, 29 October Designing and reasoning about algorithms Development of new software technologies Design of programming languages Business value of information technology Strategic use of information technology Business processes Evaluation of emerging information technologies Hardware-software interfaces Software methodologies, standards and metrics Software performance, security and safety Database design Info storage and retrieval Artificial intelligence Intelligent decision systems Programming environments and tools Operating system design Software specifications and design Project management Documentation Human-computer interaction Programming Databases Networks Hardware concepts Legal and ethical issues

NESSI ETP, BCI2007, Sofia, 29 October Some new topics, e.g. Social and Professional Issues (SP) Professionalism, ethics, and law courses. These courses are one semester long and expose students to issues of professional practice, ethical behavior, and computer law. Topics could included also history of computing, impact of computers on society, computing careers, legal and ethical responsibilities, and the computing profession. SP1. History of computing [core] SP2. Social context of computing [core] SP3. Methods and tools of analysis [core] SP4. Professional and ethical responsibilities [core] SP5. Risks and liabilities of computer-based systems [core] SP6. Intellectual property [core] SP7. Privacy and civil liberties [core] SP8. Computer crime [elective] SP9. Economic issues in computing [elective] SP10. Philosophical frameworks [elective]

NESSI ETP, BCI2007, Sofia, 29 October MSc Programs at FMI Artificial Intelligence Bio-Medical Informatics Computer Graphics Computational Science and Engineering eBusiness and eGovernance eLearning Information Systems Mathematical Logic (and Applications) Mobile Technologies and Distributed Systems Software Engineering Information Security Mechatronics and Robotics Mathematical Modelling Mathematical Modelling in Economics Probability & Statistics Technology Entrepreneurship and Innovation in ICT Nano & Information Technology Etc.

NESSI ETP, BCI2007, Sofia, 29 October PhD Program Mathematics Applied Mathematics Informatics and Computer Science

NESSI ETP, BCI2007, Sofia, 29 October ICT Curricula Dynamics Computational Science and Engineering (towards interdisciplinary education) Intel Multicore Curricula (following recent advancements in technology) CISCO Academic Initiative (up-to-date technology knowledge and skills)

NESSI ETP, BCI2007, Sofia, 29 October Science and Industry Advance with Mathematics (SIAM) Working Group on Computational Science and Engineering (CSE) Education

NESSI ETP, BCI2007, Sofia, 29 October Intel Multi-core Curriculum Program Sofia University joins the Top Tier University Club

NESSI ETP, BCI2007, Sofia, 29 October Regional Cisco Academy

NESSI ETP, BCI2007, Sofia, 29 October Education and Research as a ‘Meta-Industry’ ICT is the main instrument for turning education and research in an industry (eLearning, eResearch, eWork, eInfrastructure); this industry could be considered a ‘meta-industry’ since it could positively influence all other industry sectors; It could become the most important asset of Bulgaria on their way to the Knowledge Economy; Bulgaria is an attractive destination for foreign direct investments (FDI), that have radically changed many industry sectors, e.g. the food and beverages sector, cement industry, non-ferrous metallurgy, wholesale trade and banking in Bulgaria; Need of large investments in Higher Education: FDI could radically change the ’knowledge sector‘ of the industry which should be built around the real knowledge producers – universities and research institutions; We might expect a radical change in building sustainable ‘university- industry-government’ partnerships in Bulgaria; This is a real chance for Bulgaria to leap forward into the ‘Knowledge Economy’, and Sofia University is prepared to take a leading role.

NESSI ETP, BCI2007, Sofia, 29 October Thank you for your attention!