Temple IT Program Offers New Enhancements to its World-Class Software Systems Development Curriculum

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tokyo, Japan, March 10, 2004-Temple University, Japan Campus (TUJ) is pleased to announce enhancements to its Information Technology (IT) Program. These upgrades result from an ongoing review of the program by its originating partners: TUJ and iCarnegie, Inc., an educational affiliate of Carnegie Mellon University, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., the world’s top computer science research and educational institution and software development training specialist. In particular, feedback from Carnegie Mellon faculty, from IT employers and software personnel, and from student performance data since the program’s introduction in fall 2003 have led to enhancements that ensure that TUJ students keep pace with this rapidly changing field.

Keeping apace of changes in the IT field ensures, in turn, that students are equipped with the skills needed in the modern IT workplace. Toward that purpose, highlights of the upgrades to TUJ’s IT Program include a greater curriculum-wide emphasis on software design and engineering practices, additional project development that heightens practical experience, and the increased application of web-centric technologies and development tools.

Overall, the enhancements to this iCarnegie-run program fall into four major categories:

1.	Software engineering processes. Across all iCarnegie courses, there is an even stronger emphasis on studying and practicing modern software engineering processes, with new training additions in the areas of software systems architecture, reusability and design patterns, and commercial-grade testing.
2.	Technologies. Updates to the courses have been made to provide greater focus on widely used tools and technologies for web-centric computer programming and software development, stressing the closer integration of HTML and Java programming.
3.	New IT trends and issues. Software security and software engineering ethics are topics that can be found in several iCarnegie courses, keeping students current with broader IT workplace issues.
4.	Overall curriculum design. Because of the importance iCarnegie places on having students connect fundamental concepts to real-world experience, several projects have been added to the curriculum, including the development of an online auction system and the design of a point-of-sale cash register kiosk. Also, there is improved articulation between iCarnegie courses, so that students experience seamless transitions from one course to the next.

“These new enhancements,” comments Dr. Allan Fisher, iCarnegie’s cofounder and chief executive officer, “further bolster our leadership position in giving educational institutions the ability to offer their local students excellent, workforce-focused professional training and iCarnegie certifications. From the time the iCarnegie curriculum was created in partnership with Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science faculty, we together have continued to refine and improve our courses to prepare students and IT employees for the demands of a globalizing software development workforce.”.

Further information on the program is available on the Web site: http://www.tuj.ac.jp/itp/. For inquiries on this press release, please contact Eriko Kawaguchi, Communications, TUJ. Tel: 03-5441-9801, or e-mail: pr@tuj.ac.jp.