News

Dr Stamatopoulou and Dr Dranidis participate in International Conference on Education in Lisbon

Dr Ioanna Stamatopoulou, Lecturer, and Dr Dimitris Dranidis, Senior Lecturer at the Computer Science Department of the International Faculty, participated in the International Conference on Education and New Developments that took place in Lisbon, Portugal, 24-26 June 2017. Dr Stamatopoulou and Dr Dranidis successfully presented their academic papers attracting the interest and positive feedback by the event’s participants. Focusing on computer science students’ employability skills, the paper presented by Dr Stamatopoulou was entitled ‘Developing a graduate employability profile: how do we ensure we deliver what we promise?’ and was co-authored by Ms Anna Sotiriadou, Head of the Computer Science Department, and Prof. Petros Kefalas, Vice Principal for Learning and Teaching at the International Faculty, CITY College. Dr Dranidis discussed the importance of entrepreneurial skills of computer science students and suggested ways with which they can be further enhanced in his insightful presentation entitled "Strengthening computer science students’ entrepreneurial skills: a step forward". The paper was co-authored by Mr. Thanos Hatziapostolou, Senior Lecturer at our Computer Science Department. Alongside teaching, our academic staff is highly involved in academic research, promotes dissemination of knowledge, liaise with the wider academic community and works towards the exchange of ideas with their peers. Participation in global international conferences enables the effective dissemination of the latest research findings to the benefit of the academic community and society at large. The International Conference on Education and New Developments (END) is a high impact International Conference which accepts 30% of the submitted papers and runs under the umbrella of the World Institute for Advanced Research and Science (WIARS). It attracts educators who are interested in research methods related to teaching, learning and applications, and aims at promoting growth in research methods intimately related to teaching, learning and applications in Education nowadays.

30/06/2017

Google Study Jams successfully completed at the International Faculty CITY College

Google Study Jams was successfully completed in early June, after 6 intensive sessions, at the International Faculty CITY College in Thessaloniki, with the final project presentation of 9 android apps by individual and group participants. Google Study Jams was organised by the Computer Science Department of the International Faculty in collaboration with GDG Thessaloniki, and attracted approximately 150+ participants. The Study Jams presented two different courses, the ‘Udacity Android Development for Beginners’ and the ‘Google A/B testing’ course, giving the opportunity to registrants to attend the Google tailored course of their particular interest. The Google Study Jams were led by Certified Google Developers Experts and were completed in 5 weeks +1 demo-day. Participants had to attend one session per week and worked towards the development of an android app project. At the closing of the Google Study Jams all passed participants received an Udacity Certification. With this initiative the Computer Science Department presented a unique educational opportunity to those who wanted to learn the basics of Android and Java programming, and take the first step on your journey to becoming an Android developer, as well as to those who wished to learn more about Google A/B testing tools and use them to create business insights. This first Google Study Jams that took place at the International Faculty served also the Computer Science’s and the International Faculty’s mission to liaise academia with the industry, bridge the gap knowledge and practice and enhance its extroversion.

16/06/2017

Ms Sotiriadou participates in Google - Women Techmakers Summit 2017

Ms Anna Sotiriadou Ms Anna Sotiriadou, Head of the Computer Science Department at the University of Sheffield International Faculty, CITY College joined, as invited speaker, the ‘Women Techmakers Greece | Telling Our Story’ event, together with other inspirational women from the fields of technology, innovation and entrepreneurship who shared their stories to inspire others to follow their dreams. The event took place 13-14 May at the City Hall of Thessaloniki. The event, which took place in over 50 countries, was co-organised in Thessaloniki by GDG Thessaloniki and the Municipality of Thessaloniki.  

01/06/2017

16th Students Spring Symposium

A great event for students by students *Watch video at the bottom of the page On 18 May 2017 CITY College, the International Faculty of the University of Sheffield successfully held for the 16th Students Spring Symposium at its main campus in Thessaloniki aiming at enhancing student research and showcasing remarkable research projects. Entitled ‘Create to Share, Share to Inspire’ the Symposium was part of the ‘2nd Young Researchers Skills Development Week’, an event that celebrated academic research and featured a series of research-related workshops and activities. As always, the Symposium was organised for students by students being one of the major events and traditions of the International Faculty. With more than 160 registrations, 14 high quality student presentations, a workshop on “hate speech” and a plenary talk by the Mayor of Naousa, Mr Nikos Koutsogiannis, the Students Spring Symposium this year was characterised by its high quality, quality that can now easily match that of a professional conference.  Furthermore, the Symposium this year innovated with a new addition, the open competition. In the competition two teams composed of students from different disciplines presented a problem related to the migration crisis, and suggested a solution. The completion was judged by two invited guests from NGOs. The two judges were extremely impressed by the work of the teams, the quality and depth of the presentations, and especially the suggested solutions. The Symposium concluded with the announcement of the best three presentations that won a prize from the event’s sponsors, and the Open Competition’s winners: Winning Presentations Ali Honoramiz ‘Feminism Edoardo Brizi & Ioannis Liakouras ‘New Package - The Case of Fin Carre Ardea Xhema & Natyra Xharavina ‘Innovative Tailored Apparel Store “Suits’ Open Competition’s on ‘Dealing with Migration’ Winners Theodore Sullivan Cassidy and Ester Hoxha Refugee camps & R.I.S.S- A mobile application solution to camp life   The International Faculty, CITY College, congratulates all students that organised the Students’ Spring Symposium this year.   Photos To view more photos from the event please see the link below: 16th Students Spring Symposium photo gallery   Video   Special thanks to our sponsors:   MAIN SPONSOR    

24/05/2017

Computer Science students accept Programming Challenge for DEVit tickets

A group of ten students from the Computer Science Department accepted the Programming Challenge, prepared by the academic staff of the Department, in order to win free tickets for DEVit Conference the important event on Web Development taking place in Thessaloniki. The competition took place on Friday, 5 May 2017. The two students that won the challenge are Ioannis Boutsikas and Arlind Avdullahi. Congratulations to the winners! The Computer Science Department of the International Faculty, CITY College is happy to support for the 3rd consecutive year, DEVit.

08/05/2017

Professional Skills Seminar Series by the Computer Science Department

28/04/2017

Programming Challenge for Computer Science students, for 2 DEVit 2017 free tickets

27/04/2017

Google Study Jams at CITY College

  FREE ENTRANCE Online Participation Form Join and share! Study Jams will take place in English

21/04/2017

P&I Company presentation for our Computer Science students

On Tuesday, 7th of March, one of the biggest and renowned companies in the HR software industry in Europe, P&I AG, gave a presentation at our university. P&I AG representatives, P&I Greece CEO, Mr. Ioannis Tsilimbaris and Ryan Brandon P&I Technical Director shared with our Computer Science undergraduate and postgraduate students a huge wealth of knowledge. After the short presentation made by Mr. Tsilimbaris, Mr Brendan shared with our students the essential elements, which differentiate P&I form other German and international companies. Eventually, both of the guest lecturers talked about the goals and future plans of the company, which include setting up a data development center in the capital and largest city of Epirus, Ioannina, by 1st of April, 2017, and evaluating and hiring over 100 new developers by the year of 2019. Systematic innovations and further developments in the product and service area, are key characteristics, which secure P&I’s high-ranked position in the market. Today, P&I is an impulse initiator for more than 15,000 European customers, large computer centers, as well as international HR service providers. P&I offers a revolutionary HR system that improves the complex processes of modern personnel management on a sustained basis. Nevertheless, it is worth mentioning that the company with 13 different locations and 399 employees, occupies 63rd place in European software vendors in 2016, and 10th place in Germany overall. Overall, our students were very excited about the presentation. The event concluded with the Q&A session between students and guest lecturers.

16/03/2017

Successful startuppers share their expertise with our postgraduate students in Athens

On Saturday, 11th of February, an interesting event took place for the MSc in Management of Business, Innovation and Technology students at Athens Tech College in Athens, Greece. Three successful entrepreneurs delivered insightful guest talks to our students, shared their expertise and generated inspiration. The first guest speaker, Mrs. Natasa Apostolidi from Orange Grove, talked thoroughly about the company’s services and goals, and gave examples of practical help and empirical data about the OG participants, teams and startups. She drew attention to the uniqueness of the space and opportunities the company provides. “Orange Grove” was founded by the Netherlands embassy in Athens, with the help of a number of Greek and Dutch corporate sponsors, charity foundations and universities. Orange Grove is a flexible working space / pre-incubator for startups. Next guest lecturer, was Mr. Georgios Gatos, well known from his active participation inpromoting entrepreneurship and innovation, through the Open Coffee Thessaloniki events. This time as “Workable” representative, he talked about the company’s business and revenue model, marketing, expansion and growth policy. The last guest lecture to address our students was another Greek startupper, Mr. Apostolos Apostolakis, who has associated his name with e-shop.gr, e-food.gr, doctoranytime.gr, taxibeat.com and many more. After a quick overview of the projects he has dealt with in the past he focused on his latest project as an investor at “Venture Friends”. He talked about VF latest investments and gave precious insight on what investors are looking for from a startup. The students found all presentations particularly inspirational while the event concluded with a discussion between students and guest lecturers. High profile and high energy entrepreneurs are often invited in the classroom to share their journey, their experiences, lessons learnt, inspire students and help them move from theory to practice. The event took place in the context of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship unit led by Ms. Violeta Sfouri.

01/03/2017

Professional Seminar Series by the Computer Science Department

This academic year, the Computer Science Department of the International Faculty has been running a successful Professional Skills Seminar Series at our main campus in Thessaloniki aiming at enhancing our students’ practical skills and employability profile. So far the series has featured contemporary topics, including Website boost with SEO; Open source on GitHub using Git and Image Processing with Photoshop, presented by guest lectures who are experts in their field. All speakers brought their expertise in the classroom giving students first-hand industry insights and latest trends with their lively presentations. The seminars are mainly addressed to 3rd level Bachelor students of Computer Science Department, but also open to all students. The diversity of the considered topics aims at providing high coverage on a wide area of ICT-oriented subjects. Along with skills enhancement, the series also aims at that improve students professional attributes by addressing various issues related with the acquisition of a professional position. In view of the radical developments in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector the Computer Science Department puts efforts at better preparing graduates for the job market’s demands for well-equipped professionals. The rapid evolution of all individual ICT fields has given rise to new methodologies, tools, and applications. The series is designed to furnish our students’ skills with more practical and technical knowledge and prepare them for real life challenges in their future working environments. New seminars will be scheduled and announced for the Spring semester.

14/02/2017

An interesting internship: Computer Science students work as IT consultants for Business students

A very special internship was successfully completed by a team of computer science students who had the opportunity to work as IT consultants for fellow-students from our Business Department who were their ‘clients’. During the internship entitled ‘Technology Consulting Services for Entrepreneurial Endeavors’ the computer science team, comprised Galica Dielleza, Arieta Shabani, Diamant Hasani, Erigon Kastrati and Athanasios Doulgeris, acted as IT consultants to a team of business students who had to develop a business plan within the frame of the unit Entrepreneurship and Small Business". Throughout the fall semester CS interns assisted business students to define and realize technology-oriented services and proposed appropriate technical solutions and trends, as well as ways that these could be applied to the business processes they chose to follow within the business plan. Part of their responsibilities also was to advise on options, risks, costs, benefits, impact of alternative technological solutions. The students worked under the supervision of Mr. Thanos Hatziapostolou, Senior Lecturer at the Computer Science Department. It was the first time for the Computer Science Department to offer this type of inter-departmental internships which proved to be mutually beneficial both for the student interns and for the ‘client-students’ from the business department. This was only one within a series of internships run this academic year by our Computer Science Department offering students an immense educational experience and an opportunity to build professional skills and build their employability profile. The internships are designed towards career preparation and carry all the benefits of experiential learning: applying classroom knowledge in real-life cases, advancing self-awareness and self-confidence, working in teams, developing skills in interacting and understanding others (especially when they come from non-IT related industries) in a working setting, exploring career interests, developing soft skills and many other. Currently there are another three internships running for Computer Science students in the frame of the department’s internship scheme expected to be completed by the end of the academic year. The members of the Internship team commented: "Business students asked our guidance regarding the technological issues involved with their products, and we were there to help! Suggestions were mostly about the kind of technology they would use, the people they should recruit,expected costs, the projects feasibility, etc. These suggestions were given in detail by our team – this was proven by the successful presentations that they delivered in the end." "The biggest challenge with the internship was trying to find the best solutions possible for the clients, within the range of their resources. Some ideas were advanced, and it was very hard to provide accurate estimations, therefore, we had to do serious research."  "­We helped the students design their ideas, make them more realistic so that the result would be a more suitable and find application in the real world. "We got a glimpse of how it is to work with people outside our field of study. So, cross-disciplinary work was a new and exciting experience for us!" "We were proud that we managed to assist BAED students with their projects and we are looking forward for another opportunity to help our fellow students."  

03/02/2017