FACULTY OF COMPUTER SCIENCE, UNIVERSITY OF MURCIA Decanato Campus Universitario de Espinardo. 30100 Murcia T. 868 884 822-F. 868 884 151 – www.um.es/informatica CONTENTS 1 BRIEF HISTORY .......................................................................................................................................................... 3 2 ORGANIZATION ......................................................................................................................................................... 5 2.1 Head Office ....................................................................................................................................................... 5 2.2 Administration Units ......................................................................................................................................... 5 2.3 Departments ..................................................................................................................................................... 5 2.4 General Services ................................................................................................................................................ 5 2.5 Computing centre ............................................................................................................................................. 5 2.6 The library ......................................................................................................................................................... 5 2.7 Student Services ................................................................................................................................................ 6 3 EQUIPMENT .............................................................................................................................................................. 7 4 STAFF ......................................................................................................................................................................... 8 4.1 Research and teaching ...................................................................................................................................... 8 4.2 Support staff ..................................................................................................................................................... 8 5 STUDIES ..................................................................................................................................................................... 9 5.1 UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES .............................................................................................................................. 9 5.2 GRADUATE STUDIES .......................................................................................................................................... 9 5.3 PhD PROGRAM .................................................................................................................................................. 9 5.4 ACADEMIC ORGANIZATION .............................................................................................................................. 9 6 RESEARCH ................................................................................................................................................................ 10 7 CONTACT INFO ........................................................................................................................................................ 11 7.1 Head Team ...................................................................................................................................................... 11 7.2 Postal Address ................................................................................................................................................. 11 7.3 How to get to the Faculty................................................................................................................................ 11 8 USEFUL INFO ........................................................................................................................................................... 12 8.1 Accommodation .............................................................................................................................................. 12 8.2 Weather .......................................................................................................................................................... 12 8.3 Life in Murcia................................................................................................................................................... 12 9 HOW TO STUDY IN MURCIA .................................................................................................................................... 13 9.1 Europe ............................................................................................................................................................. 13 9.2 Asia .................................................................................................................................................................. 15 9.3 America ........................................................................................................................................................... 16 Information available at: http://www.um.es/informatica/index.php?pagina=international_students 2 1 BRIEF HISTORY The University of Murcia started to teach a 3-years Computer Science degree in 1983-84 in the School of Computer Science. Since most of the students use to continue their studies in a different university to get a 5-years degree, the University of Murcia created the Faculty of Computer Science in 1990 and the 5-years degree was taught for the first time in 1991-92. In 1993, both the School and the Faculty were merged, so the Faculty of Computer Sciences was in charge of teaching both degrees. Both were undergraduate programmes, although the 3-years degree might be considered equivalent to a BSc and the 5-years one to a MSc. The structure of the degrees taught by the Faculty changed in 1994-95. Then, the undergraduate studies were organized in the Technical Computer Engineering (3 years) and the Computer Engineering (5-years). The Technical Computer Engineering was structured as two degrees with different professional profile: management and systems. The staff of the Faculty has also offered high quality PhD programmes, which have deserved the quality stamp awarded by the Spanish Government. These programmes cover hot research topics in ICTs. Figure 1 In Figure 1, the original building of the Faculty of Computer Science is shown. Due to the increasing relevance of computing studies in the University of Murcia and in the society, the Faculty needed for material resources to accomplish its social mission, so a new building was built. Figure 2 shows the building used by the Faculty since 2006. This constitutes a new era in the history of the Faculty, since it happens simultaneously to the development of the European Space for Higher Education. Two new research-oriented Master degrees were organized and have been successfully taught: “Advanced Information and Telematics Technologies”, and “Informatics and Mathematics applied to Science and Engineering”. Both degrees possess the quality stamp of the Spanish Government and are structured in 60 ECTS. The undergraduate offer will be changed in 2009-10, when the BSc in Computer Engineering (240 ECTS) is expected to be launched. In order to ensure the quality of our programmes, these are always designed by taking the ACM/IEEE recommendations into account. As it can be drawn from this brief history, the School of Computer Science and the Faculty of Computer Science have allowed the University of Murcia to participate in the revolution generated by computers in our socio-economic context, and has been capable to get adapted for the new challenges in teaching and research. 3 Figure 2 4 2 ORGANIZATION 2.1 Head Office The head of the Faculty is the Dean, who is elected by the members of the Faculty. The Dean is currently supported by a series of Vice-deans, which are in charge of the management of issues such as the design of new degrees, international affairs, students’ affairs and placements, the control of the quality of the Faculty activities, the budget or the equipment. The Secretary of the Faculty is also a member of the head team and supervises the bureaucratic and administrative issues. These people are chosen by the Dean among the research and teaching staff. 2.2 Administration Units There are three main administration units: Secretary Office: They manage of the registration of the students, keep all the academic information, and process the general queries of the students. Secretary of the Dean: Administrative support for the Dean and the Vice-deans. Concierge: They control the access to the building, offices and labs to ensure that the Faculty activities can be performed as scheduled. 2.3 Departments There are four Departments associated to the Faculty of Computer Science, which are responsible for most of the research and teaching carried out in the Faculty. Nevertheless, some external departments also participate in our degrees. Next, the name of the departments is shown as well as its location in the building: Applied Mathematics (third floor) Computer Engineering and Technology (third floor) Informatics and Systems (second floor) Information and Communications Engineering