1. Computer Science & Software Engineering challenges in Albania

2. Organisation of this presentation Computer Science in Albania Efforts to modernize the curriculum of Computer Science according to Bologna Declaration Software engineering in old and new curriculum

3. Computer Science in Albania The possibility to study and obtain a diploma degree in computer science was first introduced in the University of Tirana in 1984. For many years, the computer science degree was intended and treated more as a degree in applied mathematics, due to the lack of computers in Albanian universities. Last year(2002) computer science was introduced for the first time at Shkodra University.

4. Computer Science in Albania(cont.d) Currently the study includes:  9 Semesters of study with a total of 140 weeks  1 Semester (10 weeks ) for the preparation of the diploma thesis The total number of hours is divided in:  52%computer science subjects  38%mathematics and physics subjects  10%others

5. Changes in the curriculum The old curriculum hadn‘t undergone any substantial changes since its creation To much theory was included in the old curriculum to fill the lack of computers The Bologna Declaration, approved in 1999 to unify the higher education in Europe

6. Changes in the curriculum(cont.d) All these reasons combined with the help from german partners(Dr.J.W.Münch and Prof.Dr.B.Freisleben) and financed from DAAD brought a new curriculum for CS in the University of Tirana.

8. Improvements over the old curriculum The diploma thesis preparation period has been increased from 10 to 20 weeks. The ratio between computer science subjects and other subjects has been changed from 52:48 to about 70:30. The number of laboratory hours has been increased to 660 (1 hour = 45 minutes) which are about 20% of the total hours, to give the students the needed practical skills. The subjects are divided in such a way among the semesters that if sometime in the future the introduction of a bachelor degree will be allowed in Albania, three years of study will be necessary to receive this degree with the appropriate education.

9. Improvements over the old curriculum Two special seminars are introduced, one in the 4th semester and the other in the 7th semester, which require are intended to give the students the opportunity to work on their own on a topic (e.g. given out as a research paper or a book chapter), writing a brief report and then presenting this work to the other students and the teacher. In the 4th semester, it is possible to instead do some work (roughly 3-6 weeks) in industry, also write a brief report and present the work to the other students and the teacher. Special Courses are flexible courses intended to cover hot topics depending on the time they are taught.

10. Improvements over the old curriculum “Special courses” in the 7th and 8th semesters are introduced to add some flexibility to the curriculum. They are intended to cover any kind of interesting contents, such as currently “hot” topics in computer science or also possibly social/philosophical aspects of information technology. Ideally, there are several offerings from which the students can choose from. There are many new subjects in the curriculum to reflect the modern trends in computer science education, such as: Multimedia Systems, Theory of Computation, Computer Graphics, Software Engineering, Distributed Computing, Parallel Computing, Artificial Intelligence, Expert Systems, WWW Technology & Programming, Data Mining & Machine Learning, Soft Computing, Image Processing, Computer Simulation, User Interface Design.

11. Software Engineering in the old and new curriculum Software Engineering in the old curriculum was included in the 5th year, one semester with an old program of the eighties In the new curriculum it is divided in two semesters. The program is similar to american/westeuropean universities and some modern books are provided with DAAD help

12. My own interest and research on Software Engineering Introducions with the SE methods in financial systems. Aplying SE methods in a albanian software companies. (IMB). Requirements Handling Developing user-inferface (GUI) and prototyping.

13. My own interest and research on Software Engineering (cont.d) Making UML the standart modeling language in software development process in Albania. Focusing the Software Engineering I course on learning and aplying UML. Making Computer Science and Software academic departments a place to find good models of Software Engineering