“ Open communication about ICT makes everyone stronger. The competitive advantage of a company doesn’t lie in the use of a particular network technology or a piece of software, does it?”
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nnemie Depuydt is a onecompany woman. The ICTS (ICT systems) director comes from Merkem, in Westhoek. She studied at KU Leuven and then began working there, first as a programmer-analyst and later as a project leader. Since 2008, she has headed the ICTS division. “The university offers a fascinating environment for working with ICT,” she says. “Not only is technology constantly evolving, but so is the organization in which we work.” For instance, the past few years have seen the integration of various colleges from the Associatie KU Leuven. “This was a long process that presented many ICT challenges, including in terms of teaching environments and administration.”
Supercomputer Annemie Depuydt’s ICT team not only manages administrative applications and infrastructure, it also takes care of the ICT facilities that support education and research at the universities and colleges. “We will shortly be home to the fastest supercomputer in Flanders, among other things,” says Depuydt. The supercomputer is an initiative of the
www.proximus.be/one
Flemish Supercomputer Center – a joint project of the five Flemish university associations – and is housed in the datacenter at the Leuven university. “The supercomputer allows us to offer our researchers, as well as start-ups and businesses, access to huge computing power. Among other things, we want to support developments in big data, the Internet of Things and all sorts of simulations.”
International reputation The university ICT team is currently focusing a great deal on new e-learning solutions, too. “A huge procurement contract is underway for video streaming and recording. The aim is to provide footage for students during their classes – whether conventional or online – that they can watch again later.” KU Leuven ranks among the international leaders in online education. The university is part of the edX project at MIT and Harvard. This provides a platform for online classes, given free of charge by the most renowned universities from all four corners of the world. “It is a great way of establishing a global profile for your university,” says Depuydt. “Millions of students use edX to look for information.” The university is now taking its first steps in the development of MOOCs (massive open online courses) for edX. “Professors and researchers provide the content, but the ICT department acts as project leader and is responsible for the platform.”
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