Academic Partnerships

Carnegie Mellon University In partnership with Carnegie Mellon University’s Information Networking Institute (CMU-INI), AIT offers a Master of Science in Information Networking (MSIN), which is now a paragon for international education within Carnegie Mellon and around the world. INI and AIT have each invested significant resources to create the Athens MSIN program, which combines local and distance education to train students in cutting-edge technologies. The INI also offers executive education courses for chief information officers at its Athens campus.

Students In 2002, 23 students joined the MSIN program from Greece and Turkey; in 2003, we had 28 students from Bulgaria, Cyprus, FYROM, Greece, India, Lebanon, Romania, Turkey, USA; in 2004, 18 students from Greece, India, Iran, Lebanon, Pakistan; in 2005, 13 students from Bulgaria, Greece, Iran, Lebanon, Nigeria; in 2006, 16 students joined the program from China, Greece, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, the Philippines, Skopje, Venezuela; in 2007, 10 students joined the program from China, Greece, Jordan, Lebanon, Romania; and in 2008, 9 students joined the program from Armenia, Greece, Srilanka. The criteria for enrolling in the MSIN program are extremely high and all applicants have to meet CMU admission standards. The Degree The degree is awarded to the graduates of the MSIN in Athens directly from the CMU-INI. The MSIN degree from Carnegie Mellon is fully accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE). The graduating ceremony takes place in Athens and is organized by the CMU-INI following the traditions of Pittsburgh’s ceremony. Admissions All admitted students must satisfy INI admissions criteria. Admissions are decided by a joint INI-AIT committee, with the INI Director having veto power on admissions. Degree Standards The Athens MSIN degree standards are based on the Pittsburgh MSIN program and approved by the Engineering College Council. Coninual educational assessment to assure program quality and standards are maintained. Course Delivery Four to five courses (of which three are core courses) are taught from Carnegie Mellon through distance learning technologies (real-time videoconferencing). Co-instructors and teaching assistants at AIT support the remote students. All courses are evaluated according to Carnegie Mellon standards. AIT faculty teaches the remaining courses on-site in Athens using MSIN curriculum guidelines and materials. Carnegie Mellon faculty also spend at least one week per semester onsite in Athens. During their week in Athens, faculty typically teach at least two lectures from Athens to Pittsburgh using distance learning technologies, giving the Athens INI students an opportunity to experience face-to-face instruction while the Pittsburgh INI students experience class as remote students. Course Delivery Technologies MSIN core courses are delivered in real-time using video teleconferencing (VTC) technologies. Lectures are also videotaped, digitized, and converted to streaming format within 24 hours - CDs are then sent to Athens overnight. A smartboard is used an electronic whiteboard that enables annotations to be streamed in real-time to AIT and saved. The Blackboard course management system acts as a central interactive repository for all course materials (i.e.,online grade book, asynchronous discussion forums and a virtual chat for synchronous exchange of information). Faculty The hiring process and standards for AIT faculty are the same as at Carnegie Mellon. The faculty teaching the MSIN courses in Athens have adjunct faculty status in the INI. Obtaining adjunct status requires a one-semester residency at Carnegie Mellon. Once obtained, the adjunct status is reviewed and renewed every three years. INI and AIT encourage research collaboration between Carnegie Mellon and AIT faculty. Library MSIN students in Athens have full access to the CMU library. Books required by the students in Athens are sent from the library in Pittsburgh. Educational Assessment The Athens MSIN is assessed on an ongoing basis to ensure the integrity of the degree being conferred. The components of the assessment includes: direct classroom observation, inter-rating grading analysis to ensure grading consistency, tracking of overall performance, online surveys and focus groups to measure student satisfaction, faculty course evaluations rating overall course quality and quality of the instructor, and continuous evaluation of distance learning technologies.   Alumni Graduates of the MSIN degree in Athens are Carnegie Mellon alumni and are included in all CMU communications, invitations, events, retaining their CMU email account. They have the same rights and obligations as their fellow graduates in Pittsburgh.   Carnegie Mellon CyLab Athens Executive Education Under the designation Carnegie Mellon CyLab Athens, Carnegie Mellon and AIT have expanded their collaboration into executive education and research. Carnegie Mellon CyLab Athens will offer a new Chief Information Officer executive program, “Leading and Building a Secure Enterprise,” at AIT. This four-day training program is designed to teach participants the leadership, management, and analytical skills, critical for reducing organizational risk and improving information security across an enterprise. The program takes place in Athens with faculty from both Carnegie Mellon CyLab and AIT. Topics include: An Overview of the Future Challenges to Information Security; Risk Management and Business Continuity Planning; Law, Investigation, Ethics and Privacy; and Key Technologies and Emerging Trends. Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is one of America’s most prestigious and well-known universities. The university consists of seven colleges and schools: the College of Engineering (Carnegie Institute of Technology), the College of Fine Arts, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Mellon College of Science, the David A. Tepper School of Business, the School of Computer Science, and the H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management. Carnegie Mellon's schools and specialty programs are consistently ranked among the best in the country by national publications such as U.S. News & World Report, Business Week, and The Wall Street Journal. more

Carnegie Mellon CyLab
Carnegie Mellon CyLab is a bold and visionary endeavor aimed at creating a public-private partnership to develop new technologies for measurable, available, secure, trustworthy, and sustainable computing and communications systems, and to educate individuals at all levels. CyLab is an interdisciplinary initiative involving more than 200 faculty, students, and staff from six departments within Carnegie Mellon.

CyLab is the research partner of the Information Networking Institute. Current research areas include: next-generation response and prediction technologies, resilient and self-healing networks and computing systems, secure access to physical devices and spaces, software measurement and assurance technologies and practices, data and information privacy, threat prediction modeling, and business risk analysis and economic implications.

CyLab’s faculty and research program expertise is transferred to the private and public sectors through education, training, and outreach initiatives. As a result of their educational activities, CyLab and the INI have been designated by the National Security Agency as a Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education.
http://www.cylab.cmu.edu/
 

AIT's PhD program in collaboration with Aalborg University in Denmark

Athens Information Technology's recent establishment of a collaborative program provides qualifying students with a strong will to perform academic research the opportunity to pursue a PhD degree with Aalborg University (AAU) in Denmark (http://en.aau.dk/).

Following a modern approach to teaching and research, Aalborg University's
key features are interdisciplinary, cooperation with the industry and internationalization, resulting in study programs that are organized around problem-oriented group work. This hands-on approach to teaching and research, emphasizing relevance, collaboration and excellence, combined with its long successful track record in collaborative research in the field of ICT, makes AAU an ideal partner for AIT in the area of PhD degrees and has made the launch of this collaboration possible.

Qualified students with a desire to pursue high-quality research in any ICT field of interest to both AIT and AAU may apply for this program. The selected applications will be judged by the Doctoral School of AAU. Once approved, the students will acquire the status of Doctoral Student at AAU and will be supervised by AAU and AIT professors.

Students that enroll successfully on this program will have to comply with all academic procedures and practices of Aalborg University, including the acquisition of required course credits for the PhD degree, but will also enjoy access to all privileges of AAU doctoral students. The added value of the program is that doctoral students will be given the opportunity to benefit from the people, lab infrastructure, services, research projects and other activities at both institutions, as well as from their joint collaboration.

All students that enroll to the program will have their progress periodically monitored by the supervising professors and will have to file the requested reports. A joint faculty committee will also oversee the overall progress of all enrolled students and will provide any further administrative or other help needed by the students in order to guarantee a smooth and efficient PhD work.

Upon successful completion of the required course credits and research work, as judged by the academic supervisors and AAU's Doctoral School, the PhD candidates will present their thesis defense before a PhD Examination Committee at Aalborg, which will decide on the awarding of the PhD degree of Aalborg University.

PhD applications for this program may be submitted to:
Mr. Iraklis Bourantas (ibour [ a_t ] ait.edu.gr) throughout.

For more information, please contact:
Ms. Didoe Prevedourou (dpre [ a_t ] ait.edu.gr) or Prof. Constantinos Papadias (papadias [ a_t ] ait.edu.gr). 
 

Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

A series of executive programs, developed by Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and co-organized by the Kokkalis Foundation, address the themes of negotiation, conflict management, leadership, strategic and technology management, the growing need to deepen and consolidate political and economic reforms, reinventing traditional approaches to governance and promotion of communication in Southeastern Europe and the eastern Mediterranean.
Senior executives, senior government representatives, elected officials, policymakers, leaders in the private sector and their non-profit sector counterparts benefit from these programs.
Upon completion, participants are awarded a certificate from Harvard University and become members of the Kokkalis Leadership Network (KLN), the alumni association of the Kokkalis Program at Harvard University. KLN alumni are continually updated on and informed of Kennedy School of Government and Kokkalis Program initiatives such as educational refreshers, symposia, and special events.

For more information on these programs, please contact:
Catherine Cynthia Protonotarios
Executive Training Manager
T: +30 210 6682806
F: +30 210 6682719
e-mail: kpro [ a_t ] ait.edu.gr

More than 8,000 undergraduate and graduate students study at the Pittsburgh campus. Carnegie Mellon also has campuses in California and the Arabian Gulf nation of Qatar, and the university is expanding its international presence in Europe and Asia with master's programs and other educational partnerships, such as its partnership with AIT.
http://www.cmu.edu/

The Information Networking Institute
The Information Networking Institute (INI) was established by Carnegie Mellon in 1989 as the nation’s first research and education center devoted to information networking. As a cooperative endeavor of the schools of Engineering, Computer Science, Business and Public Policy, the INI’s professional degree programs represent an exceptional fusion of technologies, economics and policies of secure global communication networks. Top students from around the world attend the INI, seeking the broadened perspective and enriched skill sets necessary to design solutions, manage teams, and lead enterprises in today’s global networked information technology marketplace.
http://www.ini.cmu.edu/