The Department
21 January 2024 2024-01-28 18:51- January 21, 2024
- 8:50 pm
The Department
A few words about the department
The Department of Informatics of the University of Piraeus was founded with a F.E.K. of 1991 and has been operating since 1992. It is one of the oldest Departments of Informatics in Greece.
The main axes of the Department are education and research. The training is provided at 3 levels. At the first level, undergraduate studies are provided with the admission of students from the country’s Panhellenic exams leading to the acquisition of a Degree in Informatics. The second level offers postgraduate studies leading to the acquisition of a Master’s Degree and the third level offers doctoral studies leading to the acquisition of a PhD degree.
The UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM (B.Sc.) provides solid education in all subjects of modern IT science in line with current IT developments worldwide.In the 3rd year of studies, it is possible to choose one of the 3 offered tracks:
- Software Technology and Intelligent Systems,
- Information systems and Services and
- Networks and Computer Systems.
It is also possible to obtain a Teaching Proficiency so that graduates of the Department can teach IT at secondary and primary education level
Also, 2 Postgraduate Programs operate in collaboration with other departments.
In the Department of Informatics, high-level research is carried out, which is documented in a large number of publications in prestigious international journals and conferences. The Department has repeatedly been distinguished internationally for the research it conducts with “best papers” awards at international conferences and journals. Based on the research conducted in the research laboratories of the Department of Informatics, according to the Microsoft Academic Search academic tool that analyzes data from 25827 Universities and Organizations worldwide, the University of Piraeus is ranked the 1st leading University in the world for the research areas: Mobile Authoring Tools, Adaptive Teaching, Visual facial emotion recognition, Software personalization based on student modeling. It is still ranked 5th globally in the broad areas of 1. Educational Software and 2. User Modeling.
The Department of Informatics has completed its external evaluation process by top Professors from abroad in accordance with the procedures of the National Authority for Higher Education (ETHAAE). The external evaluation report recognizes the high level of undergraduate and postgraduate education provided and the significant participation of the Department of Informatics in international research. It is reported that some research activities of the Department have prominent visibility at the national and international level, that “the depth and breadth of PhD activity was found to be impressive”, as well as “the curriculum of the Graduate Programs of the Department of Informatics is very well defined and the results show that excellent work is being done”.
The following statutory laboratories and research groups operate in the Department:
- Laboratory of Software Technology.
- Laboratory of Information Systems.
- Laboratory of Decision Support Systems.
- Laboratory of Internet and Telecommunication Services and Security Systems.
- Laboratory of Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality.
- Laboratory of Integrated Computer Systems.
- Cyber-Security Research Laboratory.
- Laboratory for the Recognition of Standards and Machine Learning – Multimedia.
- Laboratory of Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Informatics.
- Laboratory of Digital Culture, Smart Cities, IoT and Advanced Digital Technologies & Services.
Postgraduate Programmes
The Department of Informatics of the University of Piraeus organizes and operates 4 Postgraduate Programmes (M.Sc.):
- Sc. in “Advanced Informatics and Computing Systems – Software Development and Αrtificial Intelligence”.
- Sc. in “Digital Culture, Smart Cities, IoT and Advanced Digital Technologies”.
- Sc. in “Cybersecurity and Data Science”.
- Sc. in ” Informatics”, which is a programme aimed at graduates of other sciences who wish to specialize in Informatics.
Research
The quality of the Department’s research is reflected in the number of scientific journals that publish it, in the scientific training and expertise of the faculty members, in the participation of dedicated and capable PhDs and Postdoctoral researchers, as well as in the research activities that take place in the Department.
The Department conducts research work – in which students are encouraged to participate – in a multitude of fields. For more information, students can contact the Department’s research laboratories.
Pedagogical Proficiency
According to the 13/06/2019 decision of the Assembly of the Department of Informatics and the 27/06/2019 decision of the Senate of the University of Piraeus, regarding the acquisition of the Pedagogical and Teaching Proficiency from the Special Study Program of Undergraduate Study Program of the Department of Informatics, the following apply:
1. The number of courses deemed satisfactory for the acquisition of pedagogical and teaching proficiency is six (6), with a total number of teaching units of thirty (30).
2. The Department of Informatics will offer a total of eight (8) courses in the context of the Special Study Program of Pedagogy and Teaching Proficiency (SSP_PTP).
3. Of the six required courses, two (2) are compulsory courses with credit units, which, however, are not included in the students’ grade point average. The remaining four (4) are either all electives or three (3) elective courses and one (1) major course from those offered in the Undergraduate Study Program.
4. The set of eight (8) courses will constitute the new Special Study Program of Pedagogy and Teaching Proficiency (SSP_PTP), which all students of the Department of Informatics will be able to attend and ensure the pedagogical and teaching proficiency of those graduates who attended and were examined successfully in six (6) EPS_PDE courses (2 Compulsory and 4 Electives), a total of 30 ECTS (6*5).
5. Students will be given the possibility to declare additional courses in each semester from 3rd to 8th so that the choice of courses in different directions is not circumvented. Therefore, students should be given the opportunity to choose and be examined in more courses than are absolutely necessary to obtain a degree, adding the rest to the diploma appendix.
6. The choice of courses that are included in the final grade of the degree should not be related to the possible acquisition of proficiency but should be decided by the student with a declaration to the Department Secretariat during the declaration phase.
7. It is pointed out that the last course to be submitted to the Department’s secretariat will be the Bachelor’s Thesis and beyond that there will be no possibility of any change.
Internship
The purpose of the Internship is to acquaint students of all study levels with the working reality of IT science and the application of theoretical knowledge in a real environment. More specifically, the Internship aims to:
A. adaptation of students to workplaces and the practice of their skills and abilities,
B. full utilization of the knowledge students have acquired during their studies,
C. strengthening the learning process through real working conditions,
D. creation of new opportunities for professional orientation and professional rehabilitation for the graduates of the Department of Informatics,
E. exploitation by the Department of Informatics of the experience gained by the students by adapting it to the educational process.
The Internship is optional for the students of the Department of Informatics, has a minimum duration of two (2) calendar months and a maximum of twelve (12) and refers to students of all levels (cycles) of studies. Employment refers to full-time man-month equivalents and can be either full-time or part-time with variable hours. The calendar duration of the contract will be adjusted accordingly, depending on the hours of employment, so that it corresponds to full-time man-months. The details of the terms of employment are described in the contract. The internship can be carried out internally or externally and take place whenever a student maintains his/her status as a student, especially for undergraduate students, as long as they have completed their first year of study.
The program is included as an optional elective course in the curriculum of the Department of Informatics and as an activity in the Department’s Master’s and Doctoral Study Programs (if it does not exist as a course), while its evaluation is based on the report of the student interns submitted after the completion of their internship .
In the Undergraduate Study Program, the grade of the course is indicated in the student’s analytical grade, when he registers for the Practicum course for the first time. In case the student performs an internship at home or abroad more than once (if allowed) e.g. execution through a Co-financed or other project, and through Erasmus+, or through a Co-financed or other project more than once, or through agencies, or any combination is allowed, then the grade entered in the Internship Course is the grade chosen by the student during examination period that declares the course for the first time, while the other Practical Exercise(s) and the relevant grade are listed in the Diploma Supplement and are not counted in the Final Grade. In the event that he never declares the Internship course, then the Internship and the relevant grade is listed in the Diploma Supplement. In the case of Master’s Degree Programs, if it does not exist as a course, then the Internship and the relevant grade are listed in the Diploma Appendix.
