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Oracle sponsors five brilliant Romanian PhD students
Funding from Oracle Romania is enabling five outstanding students at the University Politehnica of Bucharest to complete PhD research projects into aspects of Grid computing technology. The research projects not only highlight Romania's advanced IT skills, but will also help to establish Bucharest as a centre of R&D excellence in the area of large-scale computing for the academic, scientific and enterprise sectors.
Founded 180 years ago, the University Politehnica of Bucharest (UPB) is the most important technical university in Romania. It has 14 engineering, biotechnical and chemistry
faculties and more than 30 research centers.
Historically, local and international companies operating in Romania have not sought to forge partnerships with the country's academic and research sector. In 2006 Oracle bridged this divide by becoming one of the first companies to offer sponsored PhD grants for five brilliant UPB students. The partnership was made possible due to the strength of the collaboration between
Oracle and the University, and because of the talent showed by the young Romanian researchers.
Under the terms of the collaboration, Oracle will fund grants for the next three years to enable five promising young Romanian researchers at the Faculty of Automatic Control and Computer Science to complete their PhD research projects. The five researchers represent Romania's technological and academic elite, and
will be key assets for the future of the country as an EU Member State.
The research topics for each PhD were agreed by Oracle and UPB. Each will focus on a different aspect of Grid technology and related issues. Building on UPB's existing extensive experience in the areas of scientific and academic Grids, students will investigate deeper Grid systems optimization and resource monitoring in their R&D environment. At the same time they will develop more experience with Enterprise Grids, which differ from scientific
and academic grids in terms of their drivers, focus and implementation.
In the medium and long term, the Oracle-UPB collaboration aims to address the gap between the two Grid approaches and exploit areas
of convergence for mutual benefit.
This is not the only project developed by UPB and Oracle in 2006. The two partners have also jointly developed a Masters in Business Informatics Program, with 20 students
currently enrolled for a January 2007 start.
"In the three semesters' time we'll have the first generation of business informatics masters in Romania," says Ioan Dumitrache, Professor at UPB and President of the National Council for Research in Universities. Since its creation in 1995, the Council has allocated
funds to 600 projects and is working on a new strategy for R&D and innovation in Romania.
Dumitrache is keen to get other Romanian universities involved too: "In October we discussed with other universities how to enlarge Oracle's footprint in education by creating a center of excellence for young and talented
people," he says.
The professor is also actively trying to get other faculties of UPB to participate in Oracle's educational initiatives. His immediate goal is to involve the Faculty of Automatic Control and Computer Science, which prepares graduates for work in fields such as structure and architecture of computer systems; microprocessor-based systems; system software; application software systems; artificial
intelligence, and expert systems.
"Oracle's presence and commitment provide a great support to UPB," he says. Indeed, the success at UPB is the result of many years of effort on the part of Oracle Romania. Initially rewarded with a number of smaller-scale successes, the Oracle Romania team has now raised Oracle
to national prominence in the field of R&D and Education.
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