Still no Internet in my on-campus room, but I found a way to keep posting.
This Monday, I’ve started classes at French top-tier engineering institution Ecole Centrale Paris, where I’ll be studying within the Master in Information Technology, with a minor in Project Management. Upon successful completion of the program, I should graduate from HEC Paris, my home university, with a Master in Management Science.
I’m very excited at the idea of at last getting a good grasp of computer science, telecommunications and information systems. This year will for sure be challenging, and I hope I can make of this blog a window on what I learn everyday.
So far, I’ve enjoyed a lot interacting with both the faculty and the students. The intake is pretty small (25 people), which allows for many interactions and encourages students to basically shape the program so that it fits their needs and aspirations best.
The class is quite an interesting melting-pot.
Alongside the “regular” French would-be Centrale Paris engineers you may find a telco engineer from Lebanon, an American software development bachelor having worked for a couple years at Intel, 3 Chinese State-owned railroad executives, a Spanish student in robotics engineering, 3 engineering students from Senegal, a Moroccan engineering student, another one from Tunisia, etc.
Here’s a chart, on the right-hand of this column, summarizing the courses I’ll be taking this year (excluding the Project Management minor, which hasn’t started yet).
PS: though it was extremely brief, I was glad to get to meet with blogger Olivier Ezratty, who will also teach us about innovation strategies and supervise a bunch of hands-on projects. Olivier Ezratty, who has been a student in this same Master about 20 years ago, in an preliminary speech, made a point in reminding all students that IT is not a limited field of engineering and that this year should be the starting point of a life-long learning process. Let’s just hope I’ll have the energy to keep “Tech IT Easy” alive for such a long time 
Looks like you have a challenging year ahead of you. Best of luck with it.
Comment by Vincent van Wylick — September 8, 2006 @ 11:44
Nice Programm you have there! [Sorry, I am late but I was off some days]
Comment by Cedric — September 11, 2006 @ 13:51
[...] According to Dimitri Dagot, head of the Master of Information Technology at Ecole Centrale Paris, a very prominent school of engineering, the two best French software development teams are Dassault Systèmes and Business Objects. [...]
Pingback by The best French software development teams « Jeremy Fain - “Tech IT Easy” — September 12, 2006 @ 00:12
[...] I’m thinking of making this simple thought become a reality by making it a University project. One of my classmates, Pierre, is ready to jump in the bandwagon. Pierre’s really an expert in networks and security, and has a good software development background. We might get one or two more people on board before making a final go-or-not-go decision. We should first fine tune our goal and the raison d’être of such a network mapping software. [...]
Pingback by A Network Mapping Software - perhaps my University project this year. Inputs most welcome. « Jeremy Fain’s Blog - “Tech IT Easy” — September 20, 2006 @ 00:56
[...] “I knew I had seen this guy somewhere…” was I wondering right from the start of the class. Indeed, take a look at this video interview by Jean-Michel Billaut, the godfather of French – and more and more international, Internet-world interviews, I had watched some time ago. Jean-Louis Bénard is a prominent entrepreneur on the French Internet stage. Back in 1993, right after graduation from Ecole Centrale Paris, where I’m currently studying Information & Communication Technologies, Jean-Louis founded F.R.A., a B-to-B web service company, selling intranet/extranet/e-Commerce solutions to big corporate accounts. After growing from 1 to about 100 employees, the company was bought out in 2001 by Business Interactive, today one of the main players of Internet platforms (CRM, intranets, mobiles solutions, ad campaigns performance-tracking tools) and marketing (design, marketing, banners, affiliation programs). Jean-Louis remained at Business Interactive as a CTO for 2 years. As every entrepreneur, he probably couldn’t stand not starting all over again. I guess Jean-Louis could feel 3 years in advance the video hype coming, so he started in 2003 an IPTV servicing aimed at empowering corporate accounts (like IBM: see SoftwareTV, unfortunately in French) with the right tools enabling them to open personalized Web TVs. The name of the company’s Brainsonic, it was a pioneer and is the leader today on the French Web TV landscape although competition is getting tough. The emphasis at Brainsonic’s put on R&D, a key-driver for customer satisfaction and the top line: growth. For roughly 3 hours, Jean-Louis Bénard explained to us his vision of where the world computer sciences might be heading to. [...]
Pingback by Jean-Louis Bénard, founder of Brainsonic, came to teach us computer architecture yesterday « “Tech IT Easy” - Jeremy Fain’s Blog — September 27, 2006 @ 02:37
[...] Of course Tech IT Easy’s raison d’être isn’t to be a diary. But I don’t listen to a CEO speaking everyday. This week at Ecole Centrale Paris, we had the pleasure to host the CEO of energy company Areva, Anne Lauvergeon. [...]
Pingback by Anne Lauvergeon, Areva’s CEO, about being a top-manager and having an impact on the Planet « “Tech IT Easy” - Jeremy Fain’s Blog — December 2, 2006 @ 02:11
[...] ..i.e. in the Ecole Centrale Paris dorms (& about 20 minutes outside Paris). Jealous? [...]
Pingback by Parc de Sceaux, 1 minute walking from where I live.. « “Tech IT Easy” - Jeremy Fain’s Blog — December 19, 2006 @ 09:40
[...] picture: this is my building on campus at Ecole Centrale Paris / Right picture: from my windows the day before yesterday (a beautiful [...]
Pingback by Email change, and more « “Tech IT Easy” - Jeremy Fain’s blog — March 3, 2007 @ 02:23
[...] study trip will be put up on behalf of the Information Technology major at Ecole Centrale Paris. But it’s opened to all, although I have intentionally decided to restrict the number of [...]
Pingback by Study Trip to Silicon Valley / San Francisco « “Tech IT Easy” - Jeremy Fain’s blog — March 28, 2007 @ 23:42