Week 6 in Malta

Everything is progressing smoothly. Lectures are being delivered; the APT courses are moving along fine. The APT students submitted their first assignment: a literature review of the topics they have been assigned. Surprisingly, only a few of them really understand what a literature review is. Essentially, I just asked them to redo the assignment. Next week, the System Architecture is due. I think they'll do much better on that part of the project.

I very interesting fact that I failed to mention earlier is that every Maltese citizen is afforded a free college education + some amount of stipend. Of course, only those who qualify get to study in the University. The others are likewise supported to go to technical schools like MCAST. They also have a socialized health care system that provides for all the citizens.

Here are some more pictures taken in Mdina and Rabat, where the early Christian catacombs are.

Week 5 in Malta

Nothing much has happened this week. I delivered a lecture on Layered Security at MCAST and a lecture on Intro to Information Security at UoM. I have completed my lectures for my two APT (Applied Practical Training) courses at UoM and it is now all up to the students to design and implement their own individual projects. Still, I have to meet with them every week to make sure that they are progressing.

Nimfa is under the weather these past days due to colds and allergy. Grocery stores do not carry medicine so I have to find a pharmacy to buy her some. The cost of medication is quite expensive here. Probably, because they have to import them.

I get to do some work for JSU while here in Malta. I am currently supervising a Studio II course and a Special Topics in CS course. The Studio II presentation will be made today. Thanks to Skype, I will be able to do a live teleconferencing. Also from here, I managed to submit an NSF grant proposal two weeks ago. Sometime in early May, I (with some other MCIS faculty and GSCC faculty members) will be submitting another NSF-CCLI grant proposal. I also will be on a comprehensive exam panel in a few weeks for another student who is finishing her MS degree in General Studies. Someone, please nominate me for dedication to duty! :-)

Ciao!


Here are some pictures: