Category: News

High Tech Institute organizes a webinar on 22 March 2021, 5 PM (GMT+1) in which the new System Architect Development Program, called ‘System Architecting Masters’ will be introduced.

 

The essentials for leadership in highly demanding development environments

The nine months long System Architecting Masters (Sysam) program focuses on practical no nonsense system architecting development, as well as the essential leadership skills that are vital to exercise this role in technical development environments.

Sysam offers a deeply immersive, rigorous experience for professionals in research, development and engineering organizations who are committed to driving meaningful change within themselves, their teams, and their organizations. Check out the entire description here.

For whom?

Professionals in a technical development and engineering environment with:

• at least five years of experience
• at least half a year experience in a system architecting or system engineering role or a leading position that requires you to communicate with a team, customers and management
• an ambition to bring your leadership skills to a higher level and improving your overall effectivity

Indicators
Sysam helps you to avoid common pitfalls in system development and engineering. You might recognize some them the mentioned below.

• timing is a problem. Projects run late and over budget;
• products do not meet the requirements the client needs;
• technical decisions are done too much separately from other important aspects of the business;
• technical leaders are not visible enough in the organisation;
• it is not clear where the responsibilities of the system engineer or system architect starts and ends;
• systems do not meet the stakeholders expectations, not only from a functional, but especially from a quality point of view.

Webinar outline

• Introduction by Ger Schoeber & Jaco Friedrich
• Explanation of the new program
• Q&A

 

Ger Schoeber, trainer of e.g. System architect(ing) and program manager of High Tech Institute’s software & systems trainings, is announced as “Teacher of the Year”. The training scored high praise and an overall rating of 9.2, as Schoeber notched a 9.8 for him as lecturer.

In October 2020, Ger Schoeber was asked to come to IMEC in Eindhoven to deliver two catch-up lessons of the popular 5-days “System architect(ing)” training to a group of 8 employees. When asked if the course was recommended for others, participants responded with an emphatic 9.2 points out of a possible 10, and handed the lecturer a score of 9.8. Respondents also offered several praising comments. “I really appreciate the experience and examples brought in by the trainer,” one of the trainees commented. Another pointed out that there was a good balance between theory and practice, with lots of interaction. Other positive comments: “The course brings all the bits and pieces in daily work together. More structure can now be applied in my activities” and “Good training, good reference material and good interaction between theory vs. practice.”

Since 2001, Ger Schoeber has been coaching and training system architects, for instance at Philips CTT. Schoeber considers system architecture to be a relatively new profession. Therefore, system architects often lack support, unlike engineers and project managers. “That’s why I’m delighted to continue training system architects at High Tech Institute.”

The selection of the “Teacher of the Year” award is based on all training evaluation forms acquired in that year.

A glimpse at our Sysarch and Metron trainings in week 40, 2020.

We did hold our breath in the last week of September 2020, but luckily our trainings could continu – with minor adjustments. Here are some pictures to get an idea of the atmosphere.

At AG Zalenverhuur (also known as Academisch Genootschap) the body temperature of all guests was measured before they could enter the building. The electronic thermometer typically shows normal values of 36 degrees. At 38 degrees people are asked to return home.

Even system architecting trainer Ger Schoeber was not able to skip this procedure.

The common thread during the system architecting training (Sysarch) week is an assignment to make a first proposal for the development of a totally new product or instrument and pitch a proposal to a board of management. The picture shows one of the four teams preparing for this.

Lunch is always a pleasant break after such intensive work – please note the 1,5 meter distancing that AG Zalenverhuur organized perfectly.

During the Metron training at BCN Eindhoven, that ran parallel to Sysarch, the organizing team had to switch to a hybrid edition from the middle of the week. Two participants decided to go online. One because his wife was tested positive and the other one because he caught a cold.

High Tech Institute organized a webinar in which the new System Architect Development Program, called ‘System Architecting Masters’ was introduced.

The essentials for leadership in highly demanding development environments

The nine months long System Architecting Masters (Sysam) program focuses on practical no nonsense system architecting, as well as the essential leadership skills that are vital to exercise this role in technical development environments.

Sysam offers a deeply immersive, rigorous experience for professionals in research, development and engineering organizations who are committed to driving meaningful change within themselves, their teams, and their organizations. Check out the entire description here.

For whom?

Professionals in a technical development and engineering environment with:

• at least five years of experience
• at least half a year experience in a system architecting or system engineering role or a leading position that requires you to communicate with a team, customers and management
• an ambition to bring your leadership skills to a higher level and improving your overall effectivity

Indicators
Sysam helps you to avoid common pitfalls in system development and engineering. You might recognize some them the mentioned below.

• timing is a problem. Projects run late and over budget;
• products do not meet the requirements the client needs;
• technical decisions are done too much separately from other important aspects of the business;
• technical leaders are not visible enough in the organisation;
• it is not clear where the responsibilities of the system engineer or system architect starts and ends;
• systems do not meet the stakeholders expectations, not only from a functional, but especially from a quality point of view.

Webinar outline

• Introduction by Ger Schoeber & Jaco Friedrich
• Explanation of the new program
• Q&A

High Tech Institute and Cydrill organized a 45 minutes session on October 6, 2020 that gives you a thorough overview of how ML applications can be hacked, and what you can do about it.

This recorded webinar is an excerpt from the brand new face to face or online course on machine learning security that High Tech Institute and its partner for software security Cydrill are launching.

In this webinar, security expert Balázs Kiss will teach you:

• About the cat and mouse game of software security;
• Why machine learning security is important, and why it is difficult;
• About the many ways the bad guys can compromise your ML systems;
• Some real-world attacks on machine learning systems and how to defend against them;
• How Cydrill courses can raise your paranoia to a healthy level and make your machine learning systems more robust and secure.

Outline

Introduction

• What makes machine learning a valuable target?
• Threats from the real world:
  – Some real-world abuse examples
  – Dealing with AI/ML threats in software security

Machine Learning Security

• Adversarial ML examples
  – Poisoning and evasion attacks
  – Demo – ML evasion attack
  – Case studies
• The ML supply chain
  – TensorFlow security issues and vulnerabilities

Learning how not to code

Conclusion, Q&A

Presenter: Balázs Kiss

Balázs has been working in the software security field for more than 13 years as a security evaluator, researcher, and mentor. Recently, he has focused on helping developers learn how typical vulnerabilities are introduced during software development and how to stop these problems at the source. To date, he has taught more than 60 training courses worldwide.

 

Also, read this newsitem with photos of trainings during the Netherlands’ 2nd corona wave.

 

 

In the week of 8 to 12 June High Tech Institute organized its first one and a half metres Sysarch training in Zwolle. The intensive week for system architects led by Luud Engels was originally on the agenda last March, but was postponed to this month.

Coincidentally, this was the first Sysarch with open registration in the North of the Netherlands. It was a nice bonus that training location BCN – with a view of the NS railway station in Zwolle – is spacious. The wide corridors and large classrooms offered sufficient space to carry out the corona rules practically well.

Everyone knows that the current circumstances occasionally cause some uncomfortable encounters: a colleague who almost runs into you because he or she is just around the corner or who wants to come through the same door. At BCN the tightness was limited to the narrow stairwell. Only one person was allowed in the elevator at a time. In practice it was not that bad, especially since we were about the only guests.

Personally, I found it especially a disadvantage that lunch was served in the training room. Anyone who wanted to stretch their legs had to stand in the classroom or walk around the block. At BCN they always serve an excellent lunch, so it’s a pity to have to miss the extensive meal choice this time.

Furthermore, the usefulness and nonsense of specific measures and possible solutions in a corona crisis naturally lead to pleasant discussions – something that system architects naturally excel at.

Classroom at BCN Zwolle with a setting for 10 participants and 1 trainer in times of COVID-19 measurements. 

Training in software engineering can be done online, one might say. But when Onno van Roosmalen and Martijn Ceelen sat down last month to make their Object-oriented analysis and design course corona-proof, they could not come up with a 100-percent remote version.

For the two seasoned trainers, who are mainly driven by effectiveness, the problem to solve was the extent to which the training would stick with participants. It is through this lens, however, that the gentlemen decided that  Corona was not going to win without a fight. Instead, Onno and Martijn came up with a blended learning variant of their much sought-after OO design training, one of which they expect the fabric to stick even better, through more practice and intensive personal online guidance.

In the training ‘Object-oriented analysis and design’ participants draw their designs out of hand. Trainer Martijn Ceelen even still likes to use overheadsheets for that.

The duo will use Canvas, the online learning system that High Tech Institute has been using for the past several months. Martijn was already familiar with it, and Onno was “pleasantly surprised” when he saw the possibilities. Unlike the physical training, Onno and Martijn explicitly ask the participants to bring their own work with them. They expect that by utilizing existing cases, course-goers will be better able to put what they have learned into practice.

On 18 and 19 June, the course will kick off from the virtual classroom, with a maximum of twelve students joining the online training for six hours each day. The two-day completion of the course will be held in-person in September.

During the months in between, there will be an online question session every two weeks. The students ask questions and discuss the cases they have brought in from their own practice. “That’s the crux,” says Onno. He expects that this will ensure that the methods learned will stick even better.

In the future, Onno and Martijn expect to offer online coaching and guidance to former students as a refresher opportunity. “But first, we want to gain experience with it during the next session.”

In the past, Onno provided online training via another system. At the time, that was a bit of help. “I couldn’t see the students, so I set up a second screen with the photos of my students.” The preparation for the blended version is almost finished. “I’m going to buy another new router, so my Wi-Fi works perfectly.”

Jaco Friedrich and his team have developed an online version of the “Effective communication for engineers” training, as an alternative for their classroom course. The e-learning program is full of interactive assignments and several virtual classroom sessions. The first edition is scheduled for this June.

To learn about communication via an online course calls for more than just a webinar or video conference. Such a course needs to provide lots of interaction like break-out rooms, individual and group exercises, role plays, feedback rounds (both giving and receiving), all under the constant guidance of the trainer. As a result, the first online course for ”Effective communication for engineers” will be offered in our completely new online-learning platform together with six live virtual classroom sessions.

The focus of this online course will be on the three most important topics in corporations:

• Create clear communication and mutual understanding.
• Convince (mixed) groups of stakeholders and transform resistance into buy-inn.
• Learn the psychology behind your own behavior and that of others.

For those who prefer the classroom training, a new session is available in October.

High Tech Institute is planning a special edition of the training System architect(ing) in November 2020.

 Tech companies in Belgium have shown an increasing appetite for the System architect(ing) (Sysarch) training, and that’s why High Tech Institute decided to plan a special edition in the city of Leuven – which is easily accessible from Brussels, Liège and Antwerp.

Luud Engels will be the trainer for Sysarch in Leuven. Engels is a senior systems architect with extensive experience in the consumer electronics and high tech industry.

The course is being held at ‘De Hoorn’, located at Sluisstraat 79 in Leuven near the train station. Ample parking, all within walking distance, is available.

All social distancing measures, aimed to prevent the spread of COVID-19, will be taken care of by De Hoorn and High Tech Institute.

This special edition takes place from 16–20 November 2020.