New Off-Site Department at the Faculty of Informatics

The Faculty of Informatics of the University of Debrecen has established a special research and education oriented organizational unit with the Hungarian subsidiary of one of the fastest-growing software engineering companies in the world, EPAM Systems Inc. The objective of the relevant agreement is to facilitate the integration of international market expertise and up-to-date technological knowledge into the channels of education.

This recently signed cooperation agreement on the establishment of EPAM Információ Technológia Kihelyezett Tanszék [EPAM Information Technology Off-Site Department] aims to deepen the relationship between the company and the faculty and to institutionalize the joint work and efforts of the participants.

“It is indeed a great pleasure for us that EPAM can now act as a pioneer in implementing a cooperation initiative that is unique in the history of the Faculty of Informatics of the University of Debrecen. Due to the top quality programs already available at the university, the international market expertise provided by us and the up-to-date technological knowledge and skills we have gained from our global clientele projects, everything is at hand for creating an even more state-of-the-art form of education,” said Bence Vinkó, Managing Director of the Hungarian branch of the tech company.

The agreement focuses on broadening the activities pursued in two chief areas, including education and research, as well as on offering marketable knowledge and skills to the students at the Faculty of Informatics of the University of Debrecen.

“In this mission, the corporate partners of our faculty, including EPAM, play a decisive part through their special courses and assistance offered for writing theses on real-life problems and practices by providing our students with information that is ideal for utilization on the labor market. Another milestone in the joint efforts is the establishment of this off-site department, which implements the highest degree of cooperation between us and our partners,” said András Hajdu, Dean of the Faculty of Informatics of the University of Debrecen.

With the help of the off-site department, EPAM will give opportunities and professional guidance to the students of the faculty to complete their student academic circle projects, diploma and thesis work and Ph.D. dissertations, in addition to taking part in the evaluation and assessment of these.  Thanks to the recently signed cooperation agreement, the relationship between the faculty and EPAM is expected to become even more intense than before.

“As a result of this cooperation, there will be further opportunities for us to assist in preserving and developing the quality of university education by representing the side of the relevant industries,” said György Barna Iszály, the head of the newly inaugurated department. As department head, Dr. Iszály now formally returns to his own alma mater, since he has received all of his degrees from the University of Debrecen, including his BSc, his MSc and even his Ph.D. degree. Parallel with and after completing his studies, he spent several years employed by the University of Debrecen as an instructor.  Following this, he worked at the University of Nyíregyháza as an associate professor. He joined EPAM in 2021, where he has been responsible for university relations and junior programs launched in the vicinity of the Debrecen EPAM office since.

Dr. Iszály will take part in the work of the faculty council primarily as a department head, and he will assist in the decision-making processes as a consultant and advisor.

“As the official representative of EPAM, I am responsible for contacts with the faculty leaders and for supervising the educational activities of our company as well as the instructors and the subjects they teach,” he added.

The strong and stable relationship between EPAM and the University of Debrecen could be demonstrated by the fact that, during the course of the past ten years, more than thirty employees of the company have given lectures, presentations and different courses on a variety of topics, ranging from software engineering in practice through cloud based IT services to software testing and test automation and even the practical application of agile business analysis techniques and models. As an integral part of the current cooperation, the instructors from EPAM will continue to participate in the BSc and MSc programs Gazdaságinformatikus [Business Informatics], Mérnökinformatikus [Computer Science Engineering] and Programtervező informatikus [Computer Science], in addition to which EPAM will offer professional visit and internship opportunities to the students based on individual agreements.

Besides all of the above, the parties will do their bests to participate in submitting joint research and educational applications and to jointly host professional events, where the representatives of the faculty and EPAM can both share their previous experience and most recent academic and practical findings.

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