Reykjavík University

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Reykjavík University
Háskólinn í Reykjavík

Established	1998
Type	Private
Rector	Ari Kristinn Jónsson
Academic staff	320 (part-time teachers 200)
Admin. staff	100
Students	3,200 (2012)^[1]^[2]
Location	Reykjavík, Iceland
Campus	Urban
Colors	Red and White
Nickname	RU
Affiliations	University of Cambridge^{[citation needed]}, University of Camerino,^[3] MIT^{[citation needed]}
Website	http://www.ru.is/

Reykjavík University (Icelandic: Háskólinn í Reykjavík), also known as RU, is the largest private university in Iceland with more than 3,200 students^[4]^[5] and over 500 employees (professors come from over 26 countries).^[6] It is chartered by the Chamber of Commerce, the Federation of Icelandic Industries, and the Confederation of Icelandic Employers.^[7]

The university is fully bilingual (English and Icelandic) by the beginning of 2010, and it consists of four academic schools: School of Law, School of Business, School of Computer Science and the School of Science and Engineering.

The university's Executive MBA program was awarded 5-year accreditation by the London-based international accreditation organisation Association of MBAs (AMBA) in October 2011.

History

Reykjavík University has its roots in The Commercial College of Iceland, School of Computer Science (TVÍ), founded in January 1988 and run in The Commercial College of Iceland (VÍ) housing for ten years.

Reykjavík University started its first semester on September 1, 1998 in a new building under the name Reykjavík School of Business. TVÍ became one of two departments within the school. A name change was inevitable because the school's name was not descriptive for the variety of the school's operations.

In January 2000 the name was changed to Reykjavík University. In the autumn of 2002 the School of Law was established at Reykjavík University and in 2005 Reykjavík University was merged with the Technical University of Iceland (THÍ) under the name Reykjavík University. Following the merger, the School of Science and Engineering was established, partly built upon the old foundation of THÍ with the addition of new engineering fields.

Entrance of Reykjavik University's Nauthólsvík campus.

Reykjavík University sponsoring the Icelandic Center for Research on Software Engineering (ICE-ROSE),^[8] the Icelandic Center Of Excellence in Theoretical Computer Science (ICE-TCS),^[9] the Icelandic Institute of Intelligent Machines (IIIM) and the Icelandic Society for Intelligence Research (ISIR).

In the autumn 2005 the School of Health and Education was established in Reykjavík University.

Reykjavík University have opened the Center for Analysis and Design of Intelligent Agents (CADIA).^[10] CADIA was founded by Kristinn R. Thórisson and Yngvi Björnsson, two professors at Reykjavík University, and it is the Iceland’s first AI research lab. Among others, during the years, CADIA has been collaborated with Honda on developing software for the ASIMO robot and with CCP Games on development of intelligent software for EVE Online. Moreover, CADIA has developed a General Game Playing (GGP) AI that won the World GGP Championship in 2007 and 2008. In 2009, CADIA has even received a prestigious European grant for the HUMANOBS project.^[11] Finally, CADIA and IIIM together have sponsored an AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle) developed by students of Reykjavík University. The AUV is called Freyja^[12] and compete every year at the RoboSub^[13] International Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition hosted by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) and the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and took in San Diego, California.

From 2008, with the partnership of some computer security companies (e.g. Videntifier and Frisk) and of the Icelandic government, Reykjavík University have opened the The Laboratory for Dependable, Secure Systems (LDSS Lab).^[14] The LDSS Lab was founded by Úlfar Erlingsson^[15] and Ýmir Vigfússon and it conducts research and education to advance the state-of-the-art in the security and dependability of computer systems. In 2011, the LDSS Lab has been integrated into the SysLab (Systems and Security Laboratory),^[16] that is now leading by Ýmir Vigfússon.

Administration

Dr. Ari Kristinn Jónsson has been appointed the president of Reykjavik University succeeding Dr. Svafa Grönfeldt from January 2010. The chairman of the university council (Háskólaráð) is Finnur Oddsson, CEO of Iceland Chamber of Commerce.

Schools and Offerings

The university features five schools:

School of Business
School of Law
School of Computer Science
School of Science and Engineering
School of Health and Education

Entrance of Reykjavik University's Nauthólsvík campus (Sun).

In addition, Reykjavík University offers Executive Education for managers and business professionals. All the Schools offer a three-year study programme leading to a BSc or BA degree. In addition all four Schools offer Graduate programmes.

HMV is a programme that enables people to study and work full-time at the same time. Students in HMV are offered shorter diploma programmes as well as a BSc study. The School of Business and School of Computer Science offer HMV. In addition to the four schools Reykjavík University has an Open University that serves individuals and the business community with a range of courses.

Campus

Reykjavik University operates in Nauthólsvík in a new building that opened in January 2010. The structure of the building remember the sun with its rays that extend from its core, as a symbol of the culture that spreads in the same way.

Reykjavik University's Nauthólsvík campus.

References

External links

Coordinates: 64°07′25″N 21°55′37″W / 64.12361°N 21.92694°W / 64.12361; -21.92694

v t e Universities in Iceland

Bifröst HA HÍ Hólar LbhÍ LHÍ HR

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.