The Faculty of Informatics of the University of Debrecen celebrated its 20th anniversary with a room inauguration, a panel discussion, and the placement of a time capsule. At the ceremony, it was emphasized that the department has become the region’s and city’s leading knowledge base in the field of informatics and plays a strategic role in the training of IT professionals through its industrial connections.
The independent Institute of Computer Science emerged from the Faculty of Informatics in 2003, and a year later, the Computer Science Department (CS) was established under the leadership of university professor Attila Pethő. Over the past twenty years, the CS has strived to meet the demands of the market as comprehensively as possible, amidst the growing presence of industrial companies, by training professionals who can hold their own in the labor market.
At the jubilee event on Friday, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the department’s founding, Zoltán Szilvássy, rector of the University of Debrecen, emphasized that there is no field of science at the institution that is not influenced by informatics.
“The most important strategic directions were formed at the university more than ten years ago, for example, the main goals of medicine, pharmacy, and health sciences were formulated, the institution’s agricultural and food industry profile was significantly strengthened, and the technical sciences also accelerated. Two defining elements permeate all sciences and developments at the university: economics on the one hand, and informatics on the other. What the latter has achieved is truly fantastic, as all branches of this science are present in everything that happens at the institution, there is no development in which informatics is not involved, which moves both the university and society forward,” said the rector.
At the Computer Science Department, there is an increasing emphasis on knowledge related to data science and data processing, including artificial intelligence and cloud technology, and in 2020, the CS became the Microsoft Artificial Intelligence Knowledge Center. Professor Kálmán Győry, on behalf of the rectorial leadership at the time of the founding, delivered a festive greeting, drawing attention to the fact that these twenty years are a real success story.
“Development made the introduction of university-level computer science education and research necessary. Older teachers with their mathematical knowledge, and younger ones with their dedication to informatics, strengthened the department and led the CS to successful corporate collaborations, a steady increase in student numbers, and infrastructural developments. Today, this department is one of the most successful and dynamically developing organizational units of the University of Debrecen,” emphasized the professor.
Attila Pethő, professor emeritus and founding dean of the Debrecen Computer Science Department, recalled the beginnings and listed the most important milestones leading to the creation of the department.
“The creation of the CS was the result of a long development process. The work of the experts involved in the complex preparatory processes is of historical significance for the institution. This is the moment when it is important to commemorate those founders of the department who cannot be present at the jubilee event,” added the former dean.
Informatics is present in all areas of life and science. According to András Hajdu, the current dean, the CS has shown several times in the past two decades that it is capable of preparing future professionals at the highest level for the challenges of the future.
“Informatics has never been as diverse and defining as it is today. New fields are shaping our daily lives, the economic environment, helping healthcare, agriculture, transportation, and education. We try to adapt to this rapidly changing world, we develop new laboratories, we support students with practical experiences in addition to supporting research, and we try to open international doors in education. We provide internationally competitive education with which we can increase the level of basic and applied research, and through domestic and foreign relations, we expand our research portfolio. The expectations are high for informatics, and we try to meet them to the maximum extent,” said the head of the department.
István Csont, president of the Student Union of the University of Debrecen, spoke about how the students of the twenty-year-old Computer Science Department are constantly developing not only the technology of the future but also themselves and their own vision of the future.
“Twenty years ago, everything changed dramatically. It was still a science fiction dream to know the whole world with a phone, but today informatics has become an integral part of our lives. Artificial intelligence, augmented virtual reality define our daily lives, and the Computer Science Department is constantly working to ensure that students are ready to meet these challenges. They receive tools and knowledge with which they can have a real impact on their present and get closer to their future vision,” emphasized the president of DEHÖK.
After the opening of the jubilee ceremony, one of the CS’s new classrooms was inaugurated, which was named after the mathematician Mátyás Arató in honor of his outstanding professional activities, recognizing the expert’s impact on the development of computer science education in Debrecen and his key role in the creation of the department.
The former and current leaders of the department, as well as the Student Union of the CS, placed a time capsule in the park in front of the building on Kassai út for the next fifty years, thus sending a message to future generations. The event concluded with a panel discussion where the circumstances of the department’s founding, the results achieved so far, and the challenges of the future were summarized.
(unideb.hu)
