Since 2015, University of Luxembourg and ILNAS are offering an original training, the university certificate Smart ICT for Business Innovation, a one-year continuous training (evening classes) linking together technologies, technical standardization and innovation. The national organizations could therefore seize the opportunities offered by new ICT developments like Internet of Things, Big Data, Cloud Computing, and others. A new academic year will start in February 2018, and on this occasion we would like to learn more about the training from its course directors, Prof. Dr. Pascal Bouvry, Chargé de mission auprès du Recteur at the University of Luxembourg and Dr. Jean-Philippe Humbert, Deputy Director at ILNAS.

How was this training created?

JPH: Since 2010, ILNAS, the Luxembourg standardization body, has been strongly involved in strengthening ICT standardization and developing trainings to enable professionals to understand and grasp current and future challenges in the sector. Indeed, technical standardization is now essential for the development of the new ICT technologies that are ubiquitous and become more and more interconnected and smart. Interoperability, security, portability, trust and privacy are some of the challenges this economic tool is fit to address. It also constitutes a huge source of knowledge capitalizing on the know-how of the international pool of experts to answer the market needs. As we want to share this knowledge through the national economy, we accomplished in 2015, in collaboration with the University of Luxembourg, the first step of our educational vision: we created the university certificate Smart ICT for Business Innovation. Now, we also receive support of European and national organizations that believe in the importance of this training: Ministry of the Economy, CEN-CENELEC, ETSI, Chamber of Commerce, Digital Lëtzebuerg, FEDIL ICT and Technoport. We are preparing, with the University of Luxembourg, the next step of our strategy of development concerning Education about Technical Standardization, namely a Master program, as an extension of the university certificate.

 

What are the objectives of the university certificate?

JPH: This training offers a broad view on current and future ICT, as well as associated challenges, and considers technical standardization as a tool to address them. Its objective is also to show business innovation perspectives to the students so that they could understand how Smart ICT could support the market development and use it for the benefit of their organization. In this way, students will build business innovation projects with the support of their organizations and using the knowledge they will acquire during the university certificate. At this end, they will have an internship directly into their organization and will provide a business innovation report at the end of the year. Therefore, one of the main objective of the training is to better position the economic market in the Smart ICT landscape, by strengthening the importance of technical standardization as a key source of knowledge and as a force multiplier for ICT innovation.

 

How does the program of the certificate fit those objectives?

JPH: This university certificate will focus on important aspects of Smart ICT and their applications. The global approach is to present technology from three points of view: technical aspects, economic and business perspective, and from technical standardization. Therefore, we first present the Smart ICT concepts. After that, we will introduce technical standardisation and explain the benefits of using and developing the standards. These two modules will serve as a basis for the next courses that will deal with more advanced topics such as Big Data and Analytics, Cloud Computing, Internet of Things, Smart Cities and environmental issues related to ICT, considering business and economic perspectives. In addition, we will address the transversal topics including data digitization and trust issues, information security and ICT governance. Thus, we will prepare the technical ground for the business innovation internship that will rely on the business innovation module providing the required business guidelines.

 

As a potential student, why should I register in the training?

JPH: The university certificate is a continuous training for ICT or business development professionals. The program will encompass many ICT developments and demonstrate the interest of technical standardization as good practices and important source of knowledge in constant evolution. Students who will participate in the certificate will be able to better understand current Smart ICT technology developments and forthcoming challenges. They will be able to find solutions to implement inside their businesses. Students will have the opportunity to participate directly in the work of international standardization committees, as national delegates, and to use technical standardization for the benefit of their organizations, through the business innovation project. They will be able to follow also current standardization developments, to better understand the standardization development process and how technical standardization is dealing with some of the challenges in current Smart ICT technologies (Big Data, IoT, Cloud Computing). It will allow them to analyze the market evolution. In this frame, we have received some very positive feedbacks from graduate students who were able to appropriate the ideas presented during the certificate and to turn them into concrete business developments in their companies. Most of them are still participating in standardization technical committees to catch the relevant information for their businesses. To make a long story short, we think that this diploma can bring a real added value into the CV of ICT professionals and definitively help their professional and personal development.

 

How is the training organized?

PB: The university certificate is a one-year program dedicated to professionals. The new promotion will start in February 2018 and the final presentation of the business innovation reports will be organized in January 2019. The certificate is organized to be compatible with a full time employment, and even operates in synergy with it. Courses take place at the Maison du Savoir of the University of Luxembourg in Belval on Thursday and Friday evenings and on a few Saturday mornings. Like any university program, it is organized in two semesters and respects the academic calendar including vacations, exam sessions, etc. The assessment of the students is done through continuous evaluation based upon a number of practical exercises and projects, and at the end of the program students will present their internship reports. The successful graduates receive a university certificate worth 18 ECTS.

 

Who are the lecturers?

PB: The university certificate counts among its lecturers academics as well as experts from industry, standards bodies and research institutions actively participating in the development of ICT technologies. Lecturers are coming from all across the world. From Luxembourg, we will have ICT professionals like Mr. Pascal Steichen, the CEO of Securitymadein.lu, and Mr. Cedric Mauny, Senior Manager for the Cybersecurity in Telindus, standardization experts like Dr. Jean-Philippe Humbert and academics like myself. The European standardization organizations will be represented by Mr. Ashok Ganesh from CEN-CENELEC, Mr. Ultan Mulligan from ETSI and Mr. Volker Jacumeit from DIN, the German Standards Body. The research world will be represented by Prof. François Coallier from ÉTS in Canada, Dr. Tuan Trinh from BME in Hungary and Dr. Robert van Wessel from Rotterdam School of Management. Finally, our international business experts are featured by Mr. Terry Landers from Microsoft and Mr. Dany Donnen, an entrepreneur and current board member of CasterStats - Neuromedia Software and Bidfood.

 

Who can register and how to proceed?

PB: The potential audience of the university certificate is very large. The training was initially targeting IT professionals having the ambition to identify and develop new ICT skills and turn them into business opportunities. However, the certificate can interest anyone who has an entrepreneurial mindset and a strong affinity for ICT. During the first academic year we had students from different backgrounds and business developers succeed as well as ICT specialists. Therefore, we have defined as entry requirements a Bachelor degree with a minimum of three years of professional experience in ICT or a Master degree in ICT. We will study all the registrations and we will pay a particular attention to have strongly motivated students. Most of our students perform these studies in close collaboration with their companies that usually also support the registrations fees. And therefore the final project are often performed in the context of their current jobs, looking for strengthening existing departments, diversifying skills, or spinning off new activities. The registration procedure is very straightforward and should be done through the university website before the 31st of December. After that, the candidates will be required to send the supporting documents and upon acceptance pay registration fees. The Smart ICT certificate gives access to financial public support regarding continuous vocational training as part of different legal and regulatory provisions.

 

More information:

- University certificate webpage

- Registration in the university certificate

- Informative brochure

- Video – Students testimony