Dubai Women's College to host HCT's first ever Student- centered Conference on IT and Entrepreneurship

The conference, which has been jointly organized by IT departments across the HCT system, will be inaugurated on Wednesday April 22, by His Excellency Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research and Chancellor of the Higher Colleges of Technology.

Every year since 2000 the IT division of the Higher Colleges of Technology has organized a major event to support student learning but this year's event, which is being sponsored by Jumeirah Group, will be the first ever HCT IT student-centered conference on IT and Entrepreneurship.

"The conference aims to reinforce vital links between the educational sector and industry as well as to provide a forum for students to exchange experiences and increase their knowledge of cutting-edge developments in industry and technology. It will also give the students the opportunity to interact directly with professionals from the IT industry," commented Mr. Hassan Khabbazeh, Chair of the IT conference at the Higher Colleges of Technology.

The keynote speaker will be Mr. Sam Alkharrat, managing director of Cisco for the Gulf region and Pakistan, and Mr. Kurt Guenther, award-winning technologist from Infusion Development, will give a demonstration of the interactive Microsoft Surface. Dr. Behjat Al Yousef Associate Director of Dubai Women's College and Ged Ryan, Associate Director at the Sharjah Higher Colleges of Technology, will speak and moderate discussions at the conference.

Other presenters include Mr. Floor Bleeker from Jumeirah Group and Dr. Lejla Vrazlic, campus program coordinator for business and IT programs at Middlesex University in Dubai. HCT students and graduates will take part in a panel discussion and an information technology entrepreneurs' forum and a number of HCT IT faculty members will lead the afternoon's parallel sessions.

The HCT has an excellent reputation for providing quality IT courses and the Higher Colleges of Technology currently offer diplomas, higher diplomas and Bachelor of information technology degrees in database, networking, information management, web development and IT business to more than 2,000 students.

Industry standards and certification are incorporated into the IT programs as a result of industry partnerships with, amongst others, Cisco Networking Academy, Microsoft Academy Alliance, Oracle Academy, IBM Academic Initiative and the Red Hat Linux Program and student work experience outside of the colleges is an integral part of all IT programs across the system.

The IT conference, which will be held on April 22, is expected to attract over 1,000 students from colleges across the whole of the HCT system along with participants from universities and other higher education institutes in the country.