Events Calendar

Gabor Bojar: "Software Engineering"

April 02 1:30 PM - 2:30 PM

Alumni Hall, Trustees Room (302)

Free

This event is open to the public.

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Gabor Bojar, the founder of AIT-Budapest, will be at Knox all day today, meeting with Start-Up Term students and speaking about entrepreneurship and software engineering, as well as the prestigious AIT-Budapest computer science study abroad program he created (which is on the Knox pre-approved list for study abroad!).

You are most welcome to join Gabor for his presentation at 1:30. (And you are also most welcome to come to the info session about AIT study abroad at 4:30 in Wallenberg, Alumni Hall (AH 217)!

In Gabor's own words:

"In the early 1980s, dissatisfied with the life-options a centrally planned economy could offer, I chose to become an entrepreneur and set up a private company. In a modest and very personal sense that choice was driven by the ambition to change the world around me. Defying the “rules of the game” in Communist Hungary, Graphisoft quickly found a niche in the global software industry, focusing on 3D architectural design. With the fall of the Iron Curtain, the world really changed, and by the turn of the millennium, I found myself chairing a public company listed on the Frankfurt and Budapest stock exchanges. My initial ambition was completed in 2007 when Graphisoft was acquired by Europe’s leading player in our sector.

In the meantime, having recognized the importance of “investing in people”, I was led towards another undertaking, which, once again, aspires to change the status quo.  Inspired by the idea of social entrepreneurship, I have used a substantial part of my proceeds from selling Graphisoft to establish the Aquincum Institute of Technology. This is a new international institution of tertiary education earmarked to demonstrate the viability of a high-quality, research-intensive educational operation. AIT is based on a business model which focuses on its primary client-cohort of international colleges and universities with a global commitment and outreach, offering a unique study abroad experience for their students. The new Institute is meant to heed the most important lessons of the Graphisoft venture: a good product needs demanding customers just as much as it needs dedicated producers.

The main areas of the emerging institution are (1) Foundational courses in computer science, (2) Advanced Applications, (3) Creative design and entrepreneurship, (4) Humanities courses related to Hungary’s rich cultural heritage. It is in these areas where the achievements of Hungarian researchers and entrepreneurs have perhaps been the most remarkable. One of AIT’s unique features is that global players of ICT and biotech industries are involved in its planning and management. More importantly, AIT consciously builds upon country-specific entrepreneurial experiences to provide added value for its students."