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UNIVERSITY OF SOFIA |
Organization Profile
The Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" is the first school of higher education in Bulgaria. Its history is an embodiment and a continuation of centuries of cultural and educational tradition in this country. It was founded in 1888.
Today the Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" is the largest and most prestigious educational and scientific centre in the country. The choice of academic staff demonstrates a desire to establish an academic tradition in Bulgaria and create a university elite. It also shows ambitions to reach European standards by appointing prominent foreign scholars.
Now it has over 25000 students studying 76 profiles in 16 faculties - Faculty of Biology, Faculty of Chemistry, Faculty of Classical and Modern Philology, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Faculty of Education, Faculty of Geology and Geography, Faculty of History, Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication, Faculty of Law, Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics, Faculty of Philosophy, Faculty of Physics, Faculty of Pre-school and Primary School Education, Faculty of Slavic Studies, Faculty of Theology.
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Department of Information Technologies Tel: +359-2-6256 511, tel./fax:
+359-2-656157 |
The Department of Information Technologies (DIT) is one of the fourteen departments of the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics, University of Sofia. The Department was founded in 1995 as a successor of the Laboratory for Educational Computing. The activities of the Department involve teaching, research and development.
The main areas covered by the DIT are:
- Research and Development in Advanced Information and Communication Technologies: Networked Multimedia, WWW Data Bases, Artificial Intelligence, Intelligent Agents, Computer Supported Co-operative Work Systems, Virtual Environments.
- Application of Advanced Information and Communication Technologies in: Education and Training, Electronic Commerce, Business and Management, Telework, Social Sciences
Teaching Activities
The Department offers a number of BSc courses and three MSc programmes:
M.Sc. Program on Information and Communication Technologies
(http://www-it.fmi.uni-sofia.bg/MScProgramme.html)M.Sc. Program on Artificial Intelligence
(http://www-it.fmi.uni-sofia.bg/AIProgramme.html)M.Sc. Program on Management Information Systems
(http://www-it.fmi.uni-sofia.bg/MBA.htm)
at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Sofia, over 120 graduate students are studying in the M.Sc. programs.
Research and Development Activities
The Department is involved in a number of national and international educational and research and development projects within the framework of the National Science Fund, National Fund - Structural Policy, TEMPUS, PECO and INCO-Copernicus European programmes, including:
- Fifth Framework RTD Programme, A Picture of Social Observation of Call Centre - TOSCA, just approved
- PHARE TEMPUS Institutional Building Project Centre of Excellence in Information Society Technologies, just approved
- National Science Fund Project, Ministry of Education and Science, International Centre on Information Society Technologies (Centre of Excellence), a pre-5FP project.
- National Fund - Structural Policy Project, Ministry of Education and Science, A System for Telework Support on the Internet, a pre-5FP project
- INCO-Copernicus Project 977041 MALL2000 &endash; Mall for On-line Business beyond the Year 2000 - http://www-it.fmi.uni-sofia.bg/mall2000/
- European Telework Development &endash; ETD, Bulgarian Entry - http://www-it.fmi.uni-sofia.bg/etd/; http://www.eto.org.uk/)
- Copernicus 1445 project "Flexible and Distance Learning through Telematics Networks: A Case Study of Teaching English and Communication and Information Technologies" (http://www-it.fmi.uni-sofia.bg/Cop1445/)
- INCO-Copernicus Project PL961125 under EC Directorate General XIII Multimedia Applications for Educational Telematics Networks (MATEN). ( a continuation of COP1445) - http://www-it.fmi.uni-sofia.bg/MATEN/
- INCO-Copernicus Project No PL961125 under EC Directorate General XXIII: Intelligent Learning Environment for Course Telematics &endash; INTELLECT - http://www-it.fmi.uni-sofia.bg/intellect/
- INCO-Copernicus Project No 960106 under EC Directorate General III: Multimedia Authoring Environment for Children (MATCh) - http://www-it.fmi.uni-sofia.bg/MATCh/
- INCO-Copernicus Project 977074 LarFlast under EC Directorate General III &endash; Learning Foreign Language Terminology - http://www-it.fmi.uni-sofia.bg/larflast/
- National Science Fund Project: "Advanced Information and Communication Technologies in Education: Application of Artificial Intelligence Methods; Multimedia and Distance Learning"
- VALUE - a Virtual Almanac for Logo Users and Educators - http://www-it.fmi.uni-sofia.bg/%7Eiliana/value/
- PHARE Multi-Country Programme in Distance Education (1998-1999): "DEMAND: DEsign, implementation and MANagement of telematics based Distance education - http://www-it.fmi.uni-sofia.bg/DEMAND/
- PHARE TEMPUS CME 02527-96 Project: Institutional Internationalisation Policies of Bulgarian Institutions - http://www-it.fmi.uni-sofia.bg/TempCMP/TempCMP.html
- PHARE TEMPUS JEP: "Transferring Knowledge Based System Skills to Bulgaria".
- PHARE TEMPUS SJEP-07312-94 (1994-1997):"Development of an Inter-University Management Centre".
- UNESCO Project BUL/003/86: "New Information Technologies in Education" International Program: "Children in the Information Age
- IEA Network for Central and Eastern Europe (IEANCEE) Project (1992-1996), sponsored by UNESCO, World Bank, the Netherlands Government, OKI-EK-Hungary
- National Science Fund Project: "Approaches, Methods and Models for developing Intelligent Tutoring Systems and Learning Environments"
- IBM Educational Initiative for Bulgaria (teacher training)
Key Project Personnel
Roumen Nikolov
Education
1980 M.Sc.(Software Engineering),Faculty of Math. and Informatics, Sofia University1987 PhD in Computer Science, Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics, Sofia University
1992/93 Specialisation on Artificial Intelligence (AI in Education), University of Edinburgh, UK (a six month British Council grant)
1992/93 European Higher Education Training Course, Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies, University of Twente, The Netherlands (eight modules).
1996 Train the Trainers in Distance Education Course, PHARE Multi-Country Project in Distance Education, European Association of Distance Teaching Universities (9 modules)
1993/94 Visiting fellow at the University of Twente, the Netherlands, Division of Educational Instrumentation (a three month EC COST Program grant)
Current Position: Associate Professor in Informatics; Head of Department of Information Technologies; Director of Centre of Information Society Technologies.
EC and Other Projects: EC FP5 IST Programme National Contact Point; Project Contractor: INCO Copernicus Project MALL2000 and PHARE Project DEMAND, NSF Project: Centre of Excellence in IST and NSTPF Project: A System for Telework Support on the Internet; Project Co-ordinator: TEMPUS TEMPUS PHARE Institutional Building Project IB_JEP-14047-1999 Centre of Excellence in Information Technology, INCO Copernicus Projects FDLTTN and MATEN, IEANCE; Participant: INCO Copernicus Project LARFLAST, MATCh and INTELLECT; PHARE TEMPUS SJEP-07312-94 Development of an Inter-University Management Centre; UNESCO Consultant, etc.
Membership: Member of the Evaluation Commission &endash; Informatics, National Science Fund and IT, National Fund of Structural and Technological Policy; Member of the Editorial Board, Informatica, An International Journal of Computing and Informatics, ISSN 0350-5596; Member of the Faculty Council, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Sofia University; Member of the Management Board, Center for European Studies, Sofia University; Member of the International Federation of Information Processing (IFIP) Technical Committee 3; Chair, Bulgarian Telework Association (BgTA); Member of the Central European and Asia-Pacific Chapter of the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE); General Assembly Member (National Representative of Bulgaria), International Association of the Evaluation of Educational Achievements (IEA); Chair of Programme Committee of the EUROLOGO'99 International Conference, Sofia, Bulgaria, August, 1999; Member of Programme Committee of: the 3rd and 4th IASTED International Conference on Computers and Advanced Technology in Education CATE'99 and CATE'2000; 3rd and 4th Business Information Systems &endash; BIS'99 and BIS2k; IFIP WG 3.6 Conference Teleteaching'98, Vienna, 1998; 23th, 24th and 25th International IT&P'98 Conference; 8th International PEG Conference (PEG'97) Meeting the Challenges of the New Technologies; IFIP WG 3.3 Conference Human-Computer Interactions and Educational Tools;
Principal Publications
Nikolov, R. et al(Eds.) (1999) Proceedings of Seventh European Logo Conference Eurologo'99: Extending Educational Horizons in the Spirit of Logo: a 20th Century Epilog, Sofia, Bulgaria, August, 1999
Stefanov, K, Stoyanov, S., and Nikolov, R (1998), Design Issues of a Distance Learning Course on Business on the Internet, JCAL (Journal of Computer Assisted Learning), Volume 14, No 2
Stefanov, K, Dicheva, D., Nikolov, R., Djakova, I. (1998) User Interfaces for a Virtual Learning Environment: Two Study Cases, IFIP TC-3 Official Journal on Education and Information Technology, No.3
Stefanov K., Lomev B., Varbanov, S., Nikolov, R. (1998) Distance Learning Course on Business on the Internet: Some Implementation Issues, Proc. of IFIP WG3.6 Teleteaching'98 Conference, Vienna/Budapest, August)
Nikolov, R. (1997). Distance Education via Internet &endash; Education without Borders, invited paper, Proceedings of the Twenty Sixth Spring Conference of Bulgarian Mathematicians, Plovdiv, 22-25 April, pp. 53-66
Iliana Nikolova
Education
present: Ph.D study (topic: Methodology and Tools for Web-based education)1996: M.Sc. in Educational and Training Systems Design, University of Twente, NL
1981: M.Sc. in Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Sofia, Bulgaria
Specialisation abroad:
1995-1996: University of Twente, the Netherlands, M.Sc, programme
1994: Telecommunications in Education, 1 month, CPS, The Netherlands
1989: Public Domain Software for Education, 2 weeks, University of Vienna
1985: Computers in Education, 5 months, Imperial College, London
Current Position: Chief Assistant Professor, FMI, University of Sofia and
Head of IBM Teacher Training Centre, FMI, University of Sofia
Fields of Research
Flexible and Distance Learning through Telematics, Teacher Education and Professional Development, Logo and Applications, Educational Informatics;
Teaching Experience:
At university level and in in-service teacher education in Bulgaria: Logo Programming and Applications
Telematics and Distance Education, Information and Communication Technologies, Multimedia in Education
Internationally: University of Hartford, CT: "Constructionist Learning Project" Workshop; Syria (UNESCO): Teacher training courses in Educational Computing; University of US Virgin Islands: "Logo in Paradise" Workshop
Project Experience
International projects: 1999: BG project manager, EC NETLogo project; 1998-1999: WP leader, DEMAND project, EC PHARE; 1998-1999: developer, MATEN project, EC INCO-COPERNICUS; 1996-1998: Coordinator for Sofia University, EC INCO-Copernicus MATCh project; 1995-1997: WP leader, Flexible and Distance Learning through Telematics Networks project, EC COPERNICUS programme.
National projects: 1996-1997: Project initiator and manager: Design and development of VALUE - a Virtual Almanac for Logo Users and Educators; 1995-1997: Project initiator and manager, Learning by developing with Comenius Logo - for secondary schools in Bulgaria, supported by SOROS-Bulgaria
Recent Publications
Nikolova, I. (1999). Reshaping Academic Practices through Multi and Hyper Media. Invited paper at ED-MEDIA'99. Seattle, WA. In Collis B.&Oliver R. (Eds.) Proceedings, ED-MEDIA'99. AACE, USA
Nikolov, Sendova, Nikolova & Derzhanski (Eds.) (1999). Extending Educational Horizons in the Spirit of Logo: A 20th Century epilog. Proceedings, EUROLOGO'99. Virtech Ltd., Bulgaria.
Nikolova, I., Collis, B. (1998) Flexible Learning and Design of Instruction. British Journal of Educational Technology, Vol. 29, No. 1, pp. 59-72
Nikolova, I. (1996). Design of a Method for Flexible Instructional Modules Development. Master's Thesis, International programme "Educational and Training Systems Design", University of Twente, NL
Nikolov, R., Nikolova, I. (1996). A Virtual Environment for Distance Education and Training. Paper presented at IFIP WG3.6 Conference "Collaborative Learning and Working with Telematics", Vienna
Collis B., Nikolova I. (Eds.) (1995). Information Technologies in Teacher Education: Issues and Experiences for countries in transition. UNESCO, Paris
Krassen Stefanov
Education
1982 - MSc in Mathematics, University of Sofia..1987 - 1990 PhD student at the University of Sofia
1995 - PhD in Computer Science, Thesis: "Educational Logic Programming Environment"
1997 - MSc "Educational and Training System Design", University of Twente, the Netherlands.
Current Position
Senior Assistant Professor in Informatics
Head of the Laboratory of Information Services
Teaching experience
Logic Programming, AI Programming, Multimedia Systems and Technologies, Human-Computer Interactions, Web-based Multimedia Databases, Business on the Internet
International experience
Participated in the following international projects:
- INCO-COPERNICUS 977041 MALL2000
- PHARE ETF/98/VET/0003 - DEMAND - DEsign, implementation and MANagement of telematics based Distance education
- INCO-COPERNICUS PL961125 (1997-1999) MATEN - Multimedia Applications for Telematic Educational Networks
- INCO-COPERNICUS PL 961099 (1998-2001) LARFLAST - LeARning Foreign LAnguage Scientific Terminology
- Distance course "Business on the Internet"
- IEANCEE WWW site - Network for Central and Eastern Europe, which functions under the auspices of IEA, the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement .
Principal publications
1. Stefanov K., Lomev B., Varbanov S., Nikolov R. (1998), Distance Learning Course on Business on the Internet: Some Implementation Issues, in G. Davis (ed.) "Teleteaching'98: Distance Learning, Training and Education", Proc. of the XV IFIP World Computer Congress, 31 August - 4 September, Vienna/Austria and Budapest/Hungary, pages 973-980.
2. Stefanov K., Dicheva D., Nikolov R., Djakova I. (1998), User Interface for a Virtual Learning Environment: Two Study Cases, Education and Information Technologies, Vol 3 (3), Kluwer Academic Publisher, to appear in January 1999.
3. Stefanov, K., Stoyanov, S., Nikolov, R.(1998), Design Issues of a Learning Course on Business on the Internet, Journal of Computer Assisted Learning (1998) 14, Blackwell Science Ltd., pages 83-90.
4. Nikolov R., Stefanov K. (1997), A Virtual Environment for Doing Business on the Internet, in Proc. of IFIP WG3.3 Working Conference "Human Computer Interaction and Educational Tools", Sozopol, May 27-28, pages 207-214.
5. Dimitrova G., Stefanov K. (1991), Educational Knowledge Based Environment, in Proceedings of the Sixth International PEG Conference, Rapalo, Italy, May 31 - June 2, pp 120-123.
