Reinforcing Students’ Research Abilities via Digital Repositories

Computer science graduates are requested to possess complex professional abilities including research skills. In this paper we justify the development of a departmental repository to assist all non-auditorium activities and summarize its benefits. We are convinced that this is the way students and teachers to form interim learning societies

Exposing the Intellectual Assets of a University Department

Works for designing and deploying a university department repository are presented. General considerations about policies and functional requirements are outlined with respect to the institution context. Technical and system issues are briefly discussed. Finally the benefits and usability of the repository are summarized

Opportunities for developing communist heritage tourism in Bulgaria

The paper analyses the possibilities to develop communist heritage tourism in Bulgaria. After a review of related literature, the paper identifies five characteristics of communist heritage tourism: ideologically overburdened type of tourism, controversial, represents a limited time period of history, represents a personality cult, concentration of resources in places related with communist history in the country (in cities and the countryside). The paper summarizes some of the most important resources for communist heritage tourism development in Bulgaria and the potential market segments for communist heritage tourist products. The key market segments are considered Bulgarians and Westerners born before 1960 as they were at least 19 years old when communism fell and had clear memories of the period. The final section of the paper presents the structure of a proposed future museum of communism and analyses its three possible locations

Multi-objective Optimization of Industrial Ammonia Synthesis

The thesis describes modelling and optimization work of an industrial ammonia synthesis. Author developed first-principle mathematical model of the commercial converter based on gas-solid reaction and heat transfer within the system. The model is validated with industrial data and showed satisfactory accuracy. Further, optimization study is performed in multi-objective manner to intensify ammonia production and decrease heat duty of the process. Result have revealed a potential to improve current operating condition int terms of both objectives

Beyond the Regular University Education in Computing: the Move towards Blended Learning

Nowadays enlarging competences in computer science and improving their conformance with the needs of software industry is an activity of great importance. The university education needs to diversify and intensify its forms in order to achieve this goal. This paper focuses on some didactic issues that relate the development and delivery of courses in the area of computer science so that they can be used in different forms

Academic Use of Open Digital Archives

Open access academic archives are the proper instrument to make visible the majority of the coursework done during the years and to propagate the results of already paid research activities, thus raising their value. By offering proper services, archives become the media which facilitates the forming of interim research and learning societies among students and teachers. This is the way to achieve an improved management of intellectual assets of the whole university community. In this paper the authors try to summarize the advantages of open access university archives and to discuss some issues arising from rules for deploying and accessing course materials and research papers. ACM Classification Keywords. H3.5 On-line information services– Data sharing; H3.7 Digital libraries-Collection

Teaching Information Systems for Bachelor Programs in Computer Science

Today the information systems are common basis to achieve operational excellence, managerial diversity and improved decision making. The study of information systems involves sources from technical and behavioral disciplines. The technical approach includes computer science, management science, and operations research. The behavioral approach concerns psychology, sociology, and economics. This paper focuses on some didactical issues when implementing the technical approach to the study of information systems. The main discussion concerns the choice of the topics and learning activities for a course in information systems delivered to students majoring computer science or information technologies. We assert that students have to achieve information’s systems literacy which encompasses how and why the technology is applied in organizations. We adhere to ACM and AIS IS 2010 Curriculum Guidelines

Information Systems for Sustainable Organizations

Nowadays sustainability is a broad and complex concept, which should be applied to any significant economic activity. Sustainable development involves environmental, economic and social aspects of long-term local and global processes implying an overall progress. Various contradicting requests arise which organizations should resolve in their projects and the proper information support becomes a key factor for this. In the context of the above, the goal of this paper is to examine how information systems within the organization contribute for sustainable development by providing appropriate information services. The monitoring and reporting of the organisational impact on sustainability is constantly required both by members and business partners. Thus, sustainability can be viewed as a new dimension of information system assessment

The content of software production course

Software production is an integral activity that encompasses the majority of computer science and information technologies knowledge and skills such as algorithms, programming, databases, networking etc. Referring to this, an introductory course on software production summarizes and upgrades the learning achievements of students in bachelor programs of computing. This paper focuses on some curriculum issues in software engineering course. The main discussion concerns the choice of the topics and learning activities. The course should expose fundamental concepts and principles that underlie current and emerging methods, tools, and techniques for cost-effective production of high-quality software systems

Worth it? The usefulness of information technology to read ID cards and passports for hoteliers in Bulgaria

Purpose – The case study investigates whether a particular IT is worthwhile, in view of its perceived, potential and actual usefulness. It answers two research questions: How necessary is an automated ID card/passport reader for hoteliers? and Which characteristics of such software do hoteliers most favour? Design – Data collection took place in 2013 through an online questionnaire. The sample includes 70 hotel managers in Bulgaria. Methodology – Kruskal-Wallis χ2 test and Wilcoxon signed ranks test were used in the data analysis. Approach – The case study adopted survey as a research strategy. The sample includes only respondents from Bulgaria. Hence, findings are generalisable only in this cultural setting. Findings – Findings revealed that the most important software characteristics desired by hotel managers are: quality, price, easy to use interface, speed, integration with the existing hotel software and completeness of the extracted data. However, results suggest that there is little necessity of an automated ID card reader due to limited time savings offered by the new technology and few mistakes during the manual entry of ID card/passport data in the information systems of hotels. Originality of the research – This empirical research practically assesses the viability of specific technology adoption by hoteliers in Bulgaria. This research was implemented by the authors in response to a request by a company that produces software for ID card/passport readers. The results helped the company in its product launch and follow-up marketing strategy