[edu-eu] Aristotle University of Thessaloniki joins the FTA

[Franco Iacomella]

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki joins the FTA
Web version: http://ftacademy.org/announce/auth
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The Free Technology Academy is pleased to announce the inclusion of the 
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH) in the FTA Partner network.

The Aristotle University will participate through its Programming 
Language and Software Engineering Lab and will contribute to the FTA 
curriculum by co-developing new courses in the fields of Mobile 
Development, Data Analysis, Intelligent Systems, Reuse Methods and others.

AUTH's Software Engineering group (http://sweng.csd.auth.gr/) is known 
for its research in the area of Free and Open Source Software and 
participates in many national and international research projects. They 
will make their expertise available to the international educational 
community through course materials that will be used at the FTA.

About this new alliance, Prof. Ioannis Stamelos from Aristotle 
University explains:
"The Software Engineering Group at the AUTH Department of Informatics 
researches and publishes on Free Software and Open Source since the year 
2000. The Group supports actively the use of F/OSS both in the public 
and private sector in Greece and abroad, and has extensively introduced 
F/OSS in their education process. Accordingly, the Group supports the 
idea of free knowledge, and therefore joining FTA partner network comes 
as a natural development. We look forward to a prosperous collaboration 
with FTA."

Wouter Tebbens, Director of the Free Technology Academy, says:
"Aristotle's participation will strengthen the international 
collaboration to provide high level course modules on the latest 
developments in Software Engineering. This is in particular of interest 
for our common effort to work towards a complete master curriculum on 
Free Technologies."

Professor Stamelos and his team are actively involved in the design of a 
common master curriculum, driven by a cluster of universities and FTA 
partners. The core idea of this initiative is that collaboration within 
specialised groups is the only way to sustainably develop such master 
programme and keep it up-to-date.


== About the Free Technology Academy ==

The Free Technology Academy (FTA) is a joint initiative from several 
educational institutions in various countries. It aims to contribute to 
a society that permits all users to study, participate and build upon 
existing knowledge without restrictions. The FTA offers an online master 
level programme with course modules about Free Technologies. These 
courses are taught completely online in a virtual campus based on the 
Campus Project interoperability framework.

The FTA is a collaboration between the Free Knowledge Institute, the 
Open University of Catalonia (Spain) and the Open University of the 
Netherlands. A larger group of Associate Partners adds to the founding 
base with a network of organisations that share a common interest in 
offering courses in the area of Free Technology. The FTA is extending 
the current network of partners and collaborations continuously and 
encourages both individuals and organisations to contribute to the 
community.

* More information: http://www.ftacademy.org
* Contact information: contact[AT]ftacademy.org
* About FTA Associate Network: http://ftacademy.org/about/associate-network
* FTA Study Programme 2011: http://ftacademy.org/courses/programme/2011
* Common Master Curriculum "FTM": http://freeknowledge.eu/FTM
* Mapping common expertise, materials and interests for the FTM: 
http://campus.ftacademy.org/wiki/index.php/Master-Curriculum


== About Aristotle University of Thessaloniki ==

The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki is the largest university in 
Greece. The University Campus covers some 23 hectares close to the 
centre of Thessaloniki. It comprises 7 Faculties organised into 33 
Schools, 5 faculties with only 1 school each, as well as 4 independent 
Schools.

* Main website: http://www.auth.gr/
* The PLASE Lab website: http://plase.csd.auth.gr/
* The Software Engineering Group: http://sweng.csd.auth.gr/
* AUTH Free Software publications: 
http://sweng.csd.auth.gr/wb/pages/publications/freeopen-source-software-engineering.php