By Nikolay N. Mirenkov Director of the Department of Computer Software
By Nikolay N. Mirenkov
Director of the Department of Computer Software
A main goal of the University of Aizu is to foster IT experts for the 21st century. The basis of the University of Aizu education system is a combination of (1) a classical university style, providing fundamental knowledge in Computer Science, Mathematics and English, (2) a highly-trained engineering style, oriented to fostering human resources with advanced skill in programming languages, workstations, PCs, the Internet and other information technologies, (3) a research project style, with a focus on developing student creativity, that is, the ability to generate novel and useful ideas and solutions to scientific or everyday problems and challenges.
So, a main task of the Software Department is to provide the right contribution into the right combination of the above-mentioned components. Each student has a talent. We should not only provide knowledge, but also discover talent and help highlight it. Challenging but friendly classes, learning via research, various contests, diversity of elective courses, active supervising are just a few examples of how we are going to act to satisfy students' personal goals, abilities, and curiosity. We will also support the use of the student festival and the university home-page as test-beds of student creativity.
We have to think about professors, too. Professors should know that their initiatives, contributions, and achievements will be recognized and encouraged. Though, it is a very difficult issue and depends on many aspects and opinions, nevertheless, greater contributions and achievements should get greater attention and support in our future plan of the university restructuring, as well as in evaluation for tenure, explicit or implicit promotion, Monbusho sabbatical, inviting visiting researchers, conferring Professor Emeritus title, etc.
Education related to Information technologies is becoming a very competitive area. We should work hard and in real-time. However, I am optimistic and believe in the great potential of our faculty members.