The record breaking, 206 projects from all over Europe have been submitted to RegioStars Awards 2020 Competition. The competition recognizes good practice of regional development every year. Awards go to innovative, EU-funded projects, that may inspire other regions and project managers across Europe.
The University of Gdańsk submitted the following project to the competition: ‘The Expansion of the Building of the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics of the University of Gdańsk in Gdańsk for the Purposes of Practical Education’. The University received funding under the 2014-2020 Regional Operational Programme for the Pomeranian Voivodship of almost EUR 4.7 million, the remaining amount came from University’s own funds. Kainos Software Poland Sp. z o.o. is the partner of the project.
The project is a response to the needs of IT industry and business environment of Pomorskie region. The state of the art educational facility is located at UG campus, equipped with smart solutions, also in terms of ecology, perfectly suited for XXI century education, with high performance computing cluster. The building serves students of new field of study Applied Informatics- Specialization Web Applications Developer.
Cooperation with IT companies:
The modern curriculum is a result of Institute of Informatics staff experiences and longstanding, direct cooperation and consultation with business environment of IT sector, with whom the Faculty has high quality, substantive contact. As a consequence this field of study combines theoretical basis with multiple current programming languages and app creation technology trainings. Portion of the classes, starting from the freshman year, is thought by experienced specialists form Tricity companies.
Educational capabilities for the XXI century:
The crucial action that allowed for launching the new practical field of study, thus enrolling more students, was the extension of the existing Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics building. The additional floor space has been used to open state of the art, highly equipped laboratories, seminar halls, auditoriums and academic offices.
The only such field of study in the region:
The project is a response to the diagnosed needs of employers from Pomorskie region. Although Informatics as a field of study is available at 8 regional higher education institutions, only 3 private universities offer practical education of the field. For that reason IT graduates have to often take additional trainings after their graduation. It is a particularly unfavorable situation, because IT sector is a thriving job market in Pomorskie region. Multiple large companies and branches of international corporations are located here.
Graduates of Applied Informatics:
Graduates of the new field of study will be able to apply various database models: relational, graphic, document. Will learn the basics about algorithms, data structures and computational complexity. That is why project brings measurable social and economic benefits, developing the market by providing specialists with unique qualifications when it comes to online and mobile apps. The implementation of the project will allow for further development of IT sector in Tricity and the whole Pomeranian Voivodeship.
The project submitted by the University of Gdańsk, called in short ‘Institute of Informatics’ is included in ‘Inclusive growth - Skills & Education for a digital Europe’ category.
Online voting lasts till 9 July 2020 at: regiostarsawards.eu
Translation: Adam Myzyk
