Κατεύθυνση: Major in Communications & Networks: Optional Courses

Information Systems

Learning Outcomes

This course analyses the five main components of an Information System, the different types of IS and issues associated with the implementation and application of IS. With the completion of the course, the student will be in position:

  • to understand and become familiar with the key concepts and principles of information systems, addressing both architectural and implementation aspects.
  • to know the main characteristics of the programming languages used to implement information systems, as well as the key principles for the interconnection of different application components of an information system.
  • to be able to implement code artefacts that realize information systems.

Course Contents

  • Information system.
  • Hardware component, software component, data component, processes component, human actor component.
  • Information system lifecycles, types of ISs.
  • Critical path analysis, business process analysis, IDEF0, IDEF3, DFD.
  • Business process reengineering, business process improvement, factors influencing IS implementation.
  • The impact of information systems on organisation, practical examples of IS, case studies, IS implementation.

Moreover, the EVDOXOS system is utilized to provide additional useful information to the students as well as exercises that respond to the corresponding thematic topics / sessions covered by the course.

Recommended Readings

  • Stair R. & Reynolds G. (2007): Fundamentals of Information Systems, 4th Edition, Thomson Publications.
  • O’Brien J. (2005): Introduction to Information Systems, McGraw Hill.

Introduction to Cloud Computing

Learning Outcomes

The main objective of this course is to introduce concepts related to the analysis, design and implementation of computation and storage clouds. With the completion of the course, the student will be in position:

  • to understand the necessary theoretical background for computing and storage clouds environments.
  • to know the methodologies and technologies for the development of applications that will be deployed and offered through cloud computing environments.
  • to be able to realize cloud infrastructures by using IaaS software, while also developing cloud applications by utilizing PaaS software.

Course Contents

  • Introduction to cloud computing.
  • Objectives, challenges, application domains, advantages.
    • Computational and storage cloud architectures
    • Service level agreements, service lifecycle management
  • Infrastructure deployment, federation and management models.
    • Cloud service model, service provisioning and access models
    • Elasticity and scalability techniques
    • Information, account and billing management
  • Implementation and operation / management of computational clouds.
    • Software as a Service layer
    • Platform as a Service layer
    • Infrastructure as a Service layer
    • Virtualization and resource management
  • Implementation and operation / management of storage clouds.
    • Distributed object storage clouds
    • Data storage and retrieval based on content
    • Computational tasks execution in storage clouds
  • Quality of service approaches.
    • Requirements and parameters classification
    • Monitoring and control mechanisms
    • Quality of service guarantees
  • Laboratory exercises.
    • Google AppEngine
    • OpenStack
    • Apache Hadoop / MapReduce

Moreover, the EVDOXOS system is utilized to provide additional useful information to the students as well as exercises that respond to the corresponding thematic topics / sessions covered by the course.

Recommended Readings

  • Α. Velte, T. Velte, R. Elsenpeter, «Cloud Computing: A practical approach»
  • T. Erl, «Cloud Computing: Concepts, Technology & Architecture»
  • B. Sosinsky, «Cloud Computing Bible»G. Reese, «Cloud Application Architectures: Building Applications and Infrastructure in the Cloud»
  • R. Buyya, J. Broberg, A. M. Goscinski, «Cloud Computing, Principles and Paradigms»

Structured Representation of Information

Learning Outcomes

The course’s material includes standard technologies and languages of modeling/representation of data/metadata used on the web and web services and how they are implemented in practice with code development in XML, XSL, and XML Schema.

Upon successful completion of the course, the students will be in position to:

  • Explain the basic technologies and languages of data modeling/ representation of data/metadata used on the web and web services.
  • Design and develop programs using XML, XSL and XML Schema.
  • Evaluate metadata modeling and decide whether they follow the given requirements.

Course Contents

  • Introduction to markup languages and semantic web
  • Introduction to XML, basic structure of XML documents
  • Valid XML documents / Use of Document Type Definition (DTD)
  • Presentation of XML documents using CSS
  • XML namespaces
  • Presentation of XML documents using data binding
  • Presentation of XML documents using scripts of Document Object Model (DOM)
  • Transformation and presentation of XML documents using XSLΤ/XSL
  • Modelling of XML documents using XML Schema
  • XML applications

Recommended Readings

  • “XML Guide”, Edition: 1st, Author: S. Holzner, Publisher: M. Gkiourdas, 2009 (1st Book)
  • “XML step by step”, Author: M. J. Young, Publisher: Kleidarithmos Ltd, 2011 (2nd Book)
  • Notes and course slides

Business Process Management

Learning Outcomes

The objective of this course is to present fundamental principles of Business Process Management (BPM) and to study various methods and techniques for analyzing, modeling, automating, executing and optimizing business processes. The course will incorporate a laboratory component with well-known BPM software tools that allow students to practice some of the principles addressed.

Upon successful completion of this course student will be able to:

  • Create business process models by using BPMN based modelling tools
  • Execute business processes by using Business Process Management Systems
  • Analyze the performance of existing business processes and improve business processes that are not sufficient according to certain criteria
  • Create business process management strategies and business processes implementation plans within organizations

Course Content

  1. Business process definition, intra- and inter-organizational processes. Process-oriented organizations. Build processes’ business models. Virtual enterprises. Business processes and workflows.
  2. Process analysis techniques. Qualitative process analysis (e.g. Pareto analysis, value-added analysis, root-cause analysis). Quantitative process analysis (e.g. queuing analysis, simulation). Performance metrics (time, cost, quality).
  3. BPM life cycle. Discover, analyze, model, monitor, map, simulate, deploy. Business Process Reengineering-BPR and Business Process Improvement- BPI methodologies. Business Process modeling tools.
  4. The BPMN standard for business process modelling.
  5. Business process automation. Conceptual and executable process models.
  6. Business Processes Management Systems-BPMS (e.g. structure, architecture, standards).
  7. Process and activity life cycles. Workflow-based applications.
  8. Business processes and workflows, workflow categories, workflow dimensions, workflow management, workflow functional requirements, workflow specifications and execution languages.
  9. Workflow management using a specific BPMS software tool.
  10. Process Analytics. Metrics for evaluating business processes’ performance. Monitoring of standard metrics and process specific, user dined metrics.
  11. BPM methodologies (e.g. Six Sigma, Lean).
  12. Service-oriented and process-oriented information systems.

Suggested Bibliography

  • John Jeston and Johan Nelis (2008): Business Process Management, Second Edition: Practical Guidelines to Successful Implementations, Butterworth-Heinemann, Boston, ISBN: 0750669217.
  • Artie Mahal (2010): How Work Gets Done: Business Process Management, Basics and Beyond, Technics Publications, New Jersey, ISBN: 193550407.
  • Matias Weske, (2010): Business Process Management: Concepts, Languages, Architectures, Springer, New York, ISBN: 3642092640.
  • Simha Magal and Jeffry Word (2009): Essentials of Business Processes and Information Systems, Wiley, New York, ISBN: 0470418540.
  • Howard Smith and Peter Fingar (2003): Business Process Management: The third wave. Meghan Kiffer, ISBN: 0929652339.
  • Mark McDonald, (2010): Improving Business Processes, Harvard Business Review Press, Boston, ISBN: 142212973.
  • Business process management Journal, Emerald.
  • International Journal of Business Process Integration and management, Inderscience Publishers.

Quantum Computing

Learning Outcomes

The course seeks to familiarize students with the basic principles governing the use of quantum pheonomena for solving computational problems. It focuses on the presentation of the mathematical background that is required to model quantum phenomena related to computational processes and to the analysis of quantum operations and algorithms capable of being executed by quantum computers. Furthermore, the course analyzes the relation between classical and quantum computations and provides a survey of the many open problems that exist in the quantum computing field. At a more applied level the course describes modern programming environments for quantum computing.

Course Contents

  • Mathematical Background
    • Elements of Linear Algebra, Elements of Complex Analysis
  • Elements of Quantum Mechanics
    • Quantum mechanical behavior in electrons and photons (spin, polarization) – Quantum Mechanical Experiments
  • Qubits and their Attributes
    • Representation, Superposition, Tensor Product, Entanglement, Measurement, Bell’s Inequality
  • Classical Logic, Gates and Circuits
  • Quantum Gates and Circuits
  • Quantum Algorithms
    • Deutsch-Josza, Simon, Grover, QFT, Shor
  • Programming Environments for Quantum Computing

Recommended Readings

  • Nielsen, M. A., Chuang, I. L., Quantum Computation and Quantum Information, Cambridge University Press, 2010.
  • Instructor’s Notes

Database Systems

Learning Outcomes

The students upon the successful completion of the course will be able:

  • to apply the appropriate techniques for programming and managing database systems
  • to know the basic storage and data organization structures.
  • to apply query processing, query optimization and transaction management mechanisms.
  • to understand the mechanisms that ensure the integrity of the system in the case of multiple concurrent users with access to the same data and database recovery methods in case of failure.

Course Contents

  • Introduction to Database Management Systems (DBMSs). Fundamental concepts of DBMSs, database applications, overview of data models.
  • Data storage and file organization.
  • Query processing methods
  • Query optimization methods.
  • Transaction management: characteristics of a transaction management system.
  • Concurrency Control.
  • Database recovery methods.
  • Parallel and Distributed databases: design, query processing and transaction management in distributed systems.

Recommended Readings

  • Ramakrishnan R. & Gehrke J. (2002): Database Management Systems (3rd Edition), McGraw Hill.
  • Elmasri R. & Navathe S.B. (2007): Fundamentals of Database Systems (5th Edition), Addison-Wesley.

Network Security

Learning Outcomes

The aim of the course is to present and analyze the measures implemented on a network infrastructure, the policies adopted by the network administrator to protect the network and its resources against unauthorized access, and the effectiveness (or lack of) of them. The course focuses on the security of wired-fixed networks that use Internet technology. The mechanisms and security protocols that ensure the operation of the above networks and the data of their users are presented and analyzed.

Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be familiarized with and will apply different security measures and techniques applied to wired networks that aim to provide security services to users of a network as well as to its providers.

Course Contents

  • Security at lower layers.
  • Network layer security solutions.
  • Application layer security solutions.
  • Key management protocols; identity management protocols.
  • Firewalls.
  • Trust management.
  • Distributed authentication systems and intrusion detection systems.

Recommended Readings

  • Stallings W. (2007): Network Security Essentials, Applications and Standards, 3rd Edition, Prentice Hall.
  • Kaufman C., Perlman R. & Speciner M. (2002): Network Security: Private Communication in a Public World, 2nd Edition, Prentice Hall.