Giving students a competitive edge

By Clare Speak

For the Post

Charles University is now opening up complete study programs in computer science to international students.

One of the most highly regarded universities in Europe, Charles University has been attracting foreign students and teachers ever since its founding in 1348. Its academic staff most famously included theoretical physicist Albert Einstein, who taught there from 1911 to 1914. Today, the university consistently ranks among the top 2 percent of universities worldwide.

There have been a range of courses taught in English at Charles University for some time, and from this academic year onward the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics (known as "Math-Phys") will offer its successful bachelor's and master's degrees in computer science programs in English as well.

"Many professors from Charles University are known worldwide; there are many international projects at our university, and yet the number of foreign students and professors at Charles University in Prague is still quite limited," says Petr Kolman, the vice dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics. "As we believe that foreign students and professors bring immeasurable benefit to the university, both for local students and local academics, we have begun working toward change in this respect."

The university is keen to attract foreign students, and the timing of the new program's introduction is partly due to the appointment of the current Math-Phys dean, Jan Kratochvíl. "The opening of the English program is one of his priorities," Kolman says. "Also, the steep decline in the Czech population of 18- to 19-year-olds in recent years makes it an ideal time for opening the university to students from other countries."

The bachelor's program aims to provide a sound theoretical base which, as Kolman explains, is invaluable for working with applications and software development. Meanwhile, the master's program is designed to give students a broad overview of computer science, along with the practical application of core principles.

"The strong theoretical underpinning of the master's study program gives our graduates a competitive advantage in a dynamically evolving world, where today's technologies are often obsolete tomorrow," Kolman says. "In our curriculum we put a strong emphasis on ideas and concepts that have stood the test of time and will endure. This is the reason for the large number of classes in mathematics, compared with most other computer science programs at other universities."

Students of any nationality are welcome to join the courses, including Czech students interested in studying in English, although Kolman explains the faculty had three main groups of students in mind when preparing the programs and admission procedure. The first are international students who have already been living in the Czech Republic, and in many cases have been studying at English secondary schools in the country. The second are students from other European countries, specifically the United Kingdom and Germany, and the United States. The third group consists of students from rapidly developing countries in Asia, specifically India, China, and Malaysia.

Many former students have gone on to work for established companies such as Facebook, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and Avast; others have established new companies like Inmite, a firm that develops mobile applications. Still others have continued their academic careers at ETH Zürich, the University of Cambridge, and Stanford University.

"I graduated relatively recently and almost immediately was packing my bags to go and work in Ireland, where Google was waiting for me," alum Jan Rouš says. "I've been working there as a site reliability engineer. The work is great, and I think I owe it to Math-Phys that I was prepared for something like this."

One example of the success former students have enjoyed during the course is the BIRD routing system, software that originated as a student project and now affects 40 to 50 percent of all Internet traffic.

"Over the years, the system has become the most widely used tool of its kind among Internet peering centers around the world," Kolman explains. "Very roughly, peering centers are responsible for traffic exchange between different Internet service providers, and they need software that organizes the exchange. When you send an e-mail, it typically has to pass though several such centers. Thus, whenever you get an e-mail, most likely the BIRD routing system took care of it at some point."

This year, an English-language master's program in mathematics has also been introduced, and the faculty is considering opening a bachelor's program in mathematics or physics in the near future as well.

Clare Speak can be reached at specialsection@praguepost.com