| Ulrich Finger is director of Institut EURECOM, [8] a leading engineering school and a research center specializing in communications and networking with an emphasis on corporate, mobile, and multimedia communications. Institut EURECOM was jointly founded by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne and the Ecole Sup rieure des T l communications in Paris. The school is administered by a staff of academic and corporate professionals including individuals from the companies Ascom, Swisscom, Bouygues, France Telecom, Thales, Motorola, Hitachi Europe Ltd., Texas Instruments, STMicroelectronics, and Cegetel. The founding schools were joined by the Politecnico di Torino in 1995, and the Helsinki University of Technology in January 2001. From the outset, Institut EURECOM was intended as a prototype for tomorrow's advanced training requirements. When the institute admitted its first students in 1992, it immediately won acclaim within the international scientific community. Ulrich Finger stresses the importance of a close relationship with industry players, and of promoting interdisciplinarity and extracurricular activities in order to educate students in a way that keeps up with the rapid pace of developments in the telecommunications sector. Ulrich Finger Entrepreneurial environments need to be international Since telecommunications in of itself is international, there is a need for students who are experienced in working in international teams and overcoming cultural and language barriers. Nationality is something you are born with, but culture is something you learn. Seventy percent of the professors at EURECOM are foreign, and 60% of the lessons are held in English. The cultural mix intensifies the development of imagination . A further, very important factor for this development is sunshine and a pleasant and inspiring environment, both of which are present in Sophia Antipolis. These were two major motives for the joint venture between the two schools of French and Swiss nationalities to locate in Sophia Antipolis. An extremely fast-moving discipline such as telecommunications does not fit with the traditional style of teaching. A rapidly adaptable and continuously evolving curriculum is therefore a necessity. As a private university with one-third of its finance and control originating from its industrial partners , the industry largely determines Institut EURECOM's curriculum, making sure it is always in step with the latest developments in the industry. The mutually beneficial partnership with industry allows for a practical and highly applicative education centered around company projects, internships, and other forms of cross-border collaboration. Its financial situation enables the Institute to hire first-class professors from the international market and to pay them higher wages than those paid in state-run academia. In return, EURECOM expects its professors to keep up with the pace of technological advancements, and to experiment and adapt to the applicative side of research. Unlike within a traditional university environment, EURECOM professors are evaluated on the successful application of theory, in addition to the papers they publish. Many of the school's professors are actively involved in local start-ups. I am also aware of the need to integrate different disciplines in order to enable innovation through cross-fertilization. In early 2004, a large new interdisciplinary campus (STIC ” Le Campus des Sciences et Technologies de l'Information et de la Communication de Sophia Antipolis/Nice) will open in Sophia Antipolis, bringing together different higher educational and research establishments as well as some of the entrepreneurship clubs and associations of Sophia Antipolis. Creating a "little Stanford" in the south of France is a revolutionary concept for traditional French academia, as it puts less of an emphasis on purely academic facilities, while focusing on creating a pleasant, light-filled environment conducive to an exchange of ideas, creativity, and innovation, and allowing everyone to have a broader perspective. Students and teachers of different disciplines alike will have an opportunity to interact over lunch in the marketplace and enjoy themselves on the campus' new athletic fields. The concept corresponds to the original vision of Senator Pierre Laffitte and is expected to play an important role in enabling and facilitating technology transfer in Sophia Antipolis in the near future. | |
