Some of you might have noticed it on my LinkedIn profile (somewhere at the end ;): one of the things I do to give something back to the community is to sit on the Advisory Board of EPITECH, a great French technical school, a sister school of my engineering school alma mater, EPITA.
Apart of a splendid focus on building the right skills in computer science, of fostering very interesting projects (including taking over the the Videolan project from Ecole Centrale de Paris, or building a from-scratch real-time OS), EPITECH is looking into developping international mindsets for its students.
The latest development is that EPITECH has now signed 3 student exchange deals with top 10 Chinese universities. As a result, starting from this november, 50 students from EPITECH are going to China to study for 1 year: they are going to live with Chinese people, attend Chinese classes (taught in English though) with Chinese students, etc. This is a first, as normally foreign students just attend Western-style courses in special classes in China with little or no mingling with the local people.
Here the Chinese press release of the agreement signed with Dalian. Other topics we discussed last week was ongoing education for adults & professionals, and also how to improve the business acumen of students.
Have a look on Epitech's site. It's really an interesting and innovative school. Comments and suggestions are welcome: our next Board is in October.
