Live IT Projects link practice and education
The transfer of data between nearby devices, a parking lot monitoring system, an application for evaluation of candidates' technical knowledge, an interactive map of a company's premises, a GL attendance system, and an application for employees' registered absence from work. These are just a few interesting solutions resulting from a unique linkage of practice and education in the Košice IT Valley cluster. The project called Live IT Projects has brought to the educational process at the Technical University in Košice and its Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics a new dimension which is unique in the Slovak Republic.
“One hundred and sixteen students in twenty-nine teams addressed topics assigned mainly by IT companies and the Košice Region and Region of Eastern Slovakia. I am delighted that fourteen companies took part in this event. This project is very important for us as it holds up a mirror for the education system in Slovakia, the companies and all persons involved in it. The students worked together with potential employers and they worked more than twelve thousand hours together solving the assigned topics,” was how the Head of the Department of Computers and Informatics at Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics of Technical University in Košice, Jaroslav Porubän, described the project at a meeting with journalists.
“Košice is a city where global IT projects are developed, and our first task is to help the teachers at elementary and secondary schools to increase the number of young people who study IT. Then the second task is to improve the IT teaching quality at all levels of education, so that young people come into practice well-trained,” said Ivan Hruška, among other things the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Košice IT Valley, one of the sponsors of project solutions for students, who pointed out that the Live IT Projects activity is a perfect example of how education in the 21st century should look.
The vision of the IT Valley cluster is to create a regional partnership of IT companies, universities and municipalities which will contribute to the extension and improvement of educational programs, creation of a wide portfolio of employment opportunities for a skilled workforce, and development of a common strategy necessary to achieve prosperity in the Region of Eastern Slovakia and a gradual increase in the quality of life of its residents. The cluster currently represents more than eight thousand employees in the area of information and communication technologies.
