Dependable Systems International Research and Educational Experience DeSIRE2
Project Duration: 48 months,


PARTNERS:

ATLANTIS
Atlantis is a group of cooperation actions in the field of higher education and vocational training jointly funded by the European Commission and by the U.S. Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education (FIPSE ). One of Atlantis actions supports transatlantic mobility of students. The proposed program provides option to spend one term overseas, taking a full load of courses, which will be recognized in their transcript toward their degree and will provide them with specific area of concentration identified in the USA as a "certificate" and in the EU in a "diploma supplement". Under this action, each institution will send a limited number of students in semester. Enrollment will be completed at the home institution; also, tuition will be paid at the home institution.

PARTICIPANTS
The project proposes mobility exchange of students pursuing graduate (Master level) engineering degrees in the areas supported by the consortium partners. All consortium partners offer graduate degree programs in engineering with a substantial computing component. The following areas were selected: A common thread of the programs at all the partner institutions is that their alumni are typically employed by industry to build dependable systems, which includes developing software, control, embedded hardware, and communication components. The selected courses from the above focus areas, related to building dependable, software intensive systems, will constitute a coherent value added when taken by overseas students. Regularly enrolled graduate students at the consortium partners will apply free of charge to participate in the DeSIRE2 program. Additionally, the European students on exchange to the USA require demonstrated capability to speak and write in English, which can be documented by successful completion of appropriate level language courses or/and submission of appropriate certificates.

LOGISTIC
Due to differences in the academic calendar one semester mobility exchange requires some modifications and planning. At this time the schedules for full academic terms are (approximate inclusive, based on the earliest start and the latest end dates): The optimal version of mobility exchanges would be to have the US student mobility period to be in the Spring/Summer term, allowing them to complete the Fall/Winter term in their home institution. For EU students the mobility period would be in the Fall/Winter semester, allowing them to continue in the Spring/Summer at home. The logistic of the mobility exchange will require a candidate student to register for course work at the home institution in coordination with the local mobility exchange project coordinator, who will help the student to find an appropriate set of courses in one of the overseas partner's schools. The students then takes the course overseas, and the grade gets passed back to the home school international office and records and registration office for inclusion in the student's official record. The administrative issues such as course equivalencies, satisfying core requirements, prerequisite requirements, etc. must be approved by the department and appropriate graduate program coordinator in advance before commencement of the mobility exchange. The preliminary set of mobility exchange courses for 2009 Summer/Spring and Winter/Fall has been identified and is available at the project website. The actual assignment will be done in coordination between the exchange partners on a case-by-case basis. The approved courses are counted towards a degree at the home institution. Successful completion of a semester abroad will result in:

GRANTS
Transatlantic mobility grants are calculated at EUR 5.000 per EU student or USD 5000 for US student. Grants are intended for full-time studies. Each mobile student is supposed to spend on the other side of the Atlantic at least one academic semester or term of no less then four months and such to bear at least 30 ECTS. The purpose of the grant is pay for those costs associated with study abroad that are over and above the cost for conducting the same study at the home institution.

IMPORTANT DATES
The DESIRE student mobility starts in Spring/Summer 09. The application procedure and deadlines are published at www.desire.agh.edu.pl