Eurecom: new director's challenge

At the head of the Sophipolitan Institute specialized in networks administration, Ulrich Finger, will have to develop a strategy to adapt education to pending changes.

At last! This is what people at Eurecom Institute, one of the French Riviera most prestigious engineers' schools, could say. The arrival of Ulrich Finger, at the beginning of last month, should mark the end of a period of instability. Since Claude Guéguen's departure, two years ago, the school has been 'sailing without captain'. The interim had lasted one year, then a director recruited thanks to a headhunter office, Ernesto H. Peirera, an academic and a research director in the private sector, decided to go back to the private sector after six months. Then a new interim period began…Director of an E.N.S.T. departmentFormerly responsible for the Networks and Computer Science Department of the E.N.S.T. (Telecommunications National Superior School), Ulrich Finger seems to be the right man of the moment. His biography lets suppose it. Born in Stuttgart, Germany, on July 8th 1950, he obtained his Engineer degree at Stuttgart University in 1975, and a specialization diploma in Communication Systems at ENST the year after. In 1980, he received the title of Engineer Doctor in Computer Science and Networks.He began his professional carrier at the National Center of Telecommunications Studies (CNET), Issy-Les-Moulineaux, where, during 14 years he made research activities at Microprocessors and Software Systems Department. In 1990, he was elected Responsible for the Computer Science at the ENTS, and has been leading since 1998, the Computer Science and Network Department, recently created. For Eurecom, he has been since May 1997, the President of the Scientific Council.Opening to start-ups and to continuous trainingUlrich Finger's challenge will be more difficult than it seems. Eurecom is at the moment in a changing period because of the deep change the NTIC boom provokes. Since its opening in March 1992, the Institute has succeeded in becoming one of the best schools in engineers' training (firm communication, mobiles and multimedia). It has created deep links with the industrial sector, and all its teachers are world wide recognized. The education is adequate to market needs. Eurecom benefits from partnerships with the industrial world.But in telecom galaxy in wide expansion, things are going very fast. The nowadays booming of Information and Communication Technologies implies new questions like convergence wired/cellular/multimedia. With effects on information systems and networks security. This booming has been joined by deep mutations in behaviors and services. The Institute must now adapt its education, its research and its organization to these changes.Ulrich Finger has thus begun to think and to work about these problems. He will try Eurecom keeps its abilities. But in the new finalized strategy, the Institute is going to take more in account uses and services. It will open towards start-ups and continuous training. And the organization of conferences confirms it, and also the creation of start-ups founded by Eurecom graduates, like Castify or Wimba.