Κατεύθυνση: Major in Software & Data Systems

Digital Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship

This course focuses on the interconnection between entrepreneurial thinking and innovation. Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:

  • understand the differences between innovation and entrepreneurship and how the two work in conjunction to create dynamic startups.
  • learn how to analyze markets when searching for potential segments to target
  • select among strategies that could aid in growing customer base through inbound and outbound marketing
  • recognize business innovation opportunities
  • create a business plan around a minimum viable product

Course Contents

  • Methods and tools of enhancing innovativeness and creativity (Mindmapping, SixHats, SCAMPER)
  • Why startups are not smaller versions of large companies. Why Do Startups Fail
  • How do you find your customer archetype? Types of Customers & Types of Business Models
  • Relationship between Value Proposition and Customer Segments
  • Customer Acquisition Models and Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
  • How do you make your money? Revenue Stream and Pricing Revenue Streams
  • What is most important for the business? Financial Resources & Financial Planning
  • Intellectual Property – Patents & Trademarks
  • Presenting your startup–pitching for funds(seed & venture capital, angels, etc)
  • Business plan competitions and accelerator programs

Recommended Readings

  • Adedeji, B. & Rahman, M. (2018). Innovative Teaching Methods and Entrepreneurship Education: A Review of Literature. Journal of Research in Business, Economics and Management 10 (1), 1807-1813
  • Ghulam, N., Liñán, F., Fayolle, A., Krueger, N. y Walmsley, A. (2017). The Impact of Entrepreneurship Education in Higher Education: A Systematic Review and Research Agenda. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 16 (2), 277-299.
  • Lindberg, O. J., Olofsson, A.D., Fransson, G., Hansson, A. (2017): Developing awareness of digital competence and skills through dialogue: a methodological reflection, The International Academy of Technology, Education and Development, p. 5679-5686.

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.

Network Management

Learning Outcomes

  • Upon successful completion of the course, the students will be able to:
  •  select the adoption of appropriate models and protocols for network management, depending on their technical characteristics
  • design solutions for the initial design and the development of computer networks, in the context of specific business objectives and technical requirements/problem
  •  analyze, recognize, and assess design issues in wireless sensor networks
  •  identify and evaluate technical and business conditions and clauses to monitor the required level of service in networks through a service level agreement (SLA).

During the laboratory practice, the student exercises to monitor and control the operation of remote network elements with the utilization of specific protocols.

Course Contents

•The architecture of the Internet, Review of basic concepts of networks and network protocols
•Subnetting and Hierarchical Routing
•Software Defined Networking (SDN), Network Function Virtualization (NFV)
•Data center networking
•Role of management systems, Introductory management concepts, Management functions: configuration, fault, accounting, performance and security management, Management levels: element management, network management, service management, business management
•Management entities and managed nodes, Design and development of management applications
•SNMP Protocol (Simple Network Management Protocol), Management Information Base (MIB), MIB-II
•RMON (Remote network Monitoring)
•NETCONF protocol
•Web-based Management
•ISO/OSI management standard
•TMN management model
•Design of fixed and wireless access networks
•Design Issues of Wireless Sensor Networks
•Network performance monitoring through a Service Level Agreement

Furthermore, in the platform eclass /Aristarchus lecture notes and laboratory exercises are posted for the students.

Recommended Readings

•Miliou Amalia N., Nikopolitidis Petros, Pomportsis Andreas S. (2007): Management of computer networks, A. Tziola & Sons Publications
•Development and Management of Computer Networks, Fouliras Panagiotis, Greek Academic Electronic Books – “Kallipos” Repository
•Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach, James Kurose, Keith Ross, Pearson Education Limited
•P.Oppenheimer (2010): Top-Down Network Design, 3rd Edition, Cisco Press
•Sudhir Dixit, Ramjee Prasad, Wireless IP and Building the Mobile Internet (Artech House Books, 2003)
•Nathan Muller, LANs TO WANs: The Complete Management Guide, (Artech House Books, 2003)
•Matthew Liotine, Mission-Critical Network Planning, (Artech House Books, 2003)
•Nihal Kularatna, Dileeka Dias, Essentials of Modern Telecommunications Systems (Artech House Books, 2004)

Knowledge and Competence Management

Learning Outcomes

Students will be able:

  • to know and understand the key concepts of knowledge management and competence management.
  • to analyse, assess and select systems that support the management of organisational knowledge and the management of professional competences.
  • to know, understand and apply international and European standards for modelling and describing Individual and Organisational Competences.

Course Contents

  • Knowledge Management:
    • Introduction to Knowledge Management
    • The Nature of Knowledge: What is Knowledge, Alternative Views of Knowledge, Different Types of Knowledge, Locations of Knowledge
    • Knowledge Management Methods and Tools: KM Processes, KM Systems, KM Infrastructure
    • Organizational Impacts of Knowledge Management
    • Factors Influencing Knowledge Management
    • Case Studies: Professional Knowledge and Professional Practices Management through Online Professional Communities
  • Competence Management:
    • Introduction to Competence Management
    • Definition of Competence. Competence vs Competency
    • Competence Models: Definition and Methods for developing Competence Models
    • Case Studies:
      • Individual Non-Professional Competences: the European Digital Competence Framework for Citizens (DigComp 2.1)
      • Individual Professional Competences: the UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers (ICT-CFT).
      • Organizational Competences: the European Framework for Digitally-Competent Educational Organisations (DigCompOrg)

Recommended Readings

  • Textbook in Greek (provided for free)
  • Additional Open Access Educational Resources available through the course management system

Systems Interoperability

Learning Outcomes

The course’s material includes the basic concepts related to system interoperability, and international standards and initiatives on system interoperability. The European Interoperability Framework is analyzed and crrent technologies / standards / standards / specifications are presented for different domains (indicative: eGovernment, eProcurement, eInvoicing, eHealth).

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

  • Explain the key concepts related to system interoperability.
  • Explain the basic principles of the European Interoperability Framework.
  • Apply design methodology for interoperable digital services.
  • Evaluate and select the appropriate specifications to ensure interoperability of systems in various eGovernment domains.

Course Contents

  • Introduction to systems interoperability
  • Basic principles, definitions and benefits
  • Main approaches and requirements
  • International Standards and Initiatives
  • European Interoperability Framework
  • Interoperability at organizational, semantic and technical level
  • Methodology for designing interoperable digital services
  • Interoperable public services
  • Interoperability in eProcurement
  • Interoperability in eInvoicing
  • Interoperability in eHealth

Recommended Readings

  • Notes and course slides
  • Papers

Web Programming

Learning Outcomes

This course aims to familiarize students with web programming technologies and provide a clear understanding of the design and management challenges inherent in modern web systems and applications. The curriculum covers the design and implementation of RESTful APIs, as well as critical issues such as security, performance, scalability, and extensibility.

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

  • Design and implement RESTful APIs from the ground up.
  • Apply best practices for API design, versioning, security, and documentation.
  • Develop applications using Java EE and the Spring Framework.
  • Leverage methodologies and best practices for developing multi-threaded applications and managing concurrency (threads, locks, synchronization).
  • Integrate authentication and authorization techniques (including IAM) to secure web services.

General Competences

  • Search for, analysis and synthesis of data and information by the use of appropriate technologies
  • Development of free, creative and inductive thinking
  • Decision-making
  • Individual/Independent work
  • Group/ Team work

Course Contents

  • Introduction to RESTful APIs (RESTful architecture, REST constraints, HTTP methods, and status codes)
  • Design of RESTful APIs (best practices in API design, resource identification and URIs, HATEOAS (Hypermedia as the Engine of Application State), pagination, filtering, and sorting)
  • Implementation of RESTful services, use of frameworks (e.g., Spring Boot – Java, Flask – Python, Ktor – Kotlin), data serialization formats (JSON, XML)
  • Error handling and validation (error handling strategies, effective use of HTTP status codes, custom error responses, input data validation techniques)
  • Security in RESTful APIs (API security best practices, authentication and authorization (OAuth2, JWT), HTTPS and data encryption)
  • API documentation and testing (Using Swagger/OpenAPI for documentation, unit and integration testing with tools like Postman, JUnit)
  • Implementation of architectural patterns and design patterns like MVC and MVVM.
  • Design and implementation of GraphQL schemas and services.
  • Communication between applications and systems via Sockets.
  • Optimization of server application performance through caching, load balancing, and other techniques.

Suggested Bibliography

  • ARMANDO FOX, DAVID PATTERSON (2017), ΤΕΧΝΟΛΟΓΙΑ ΑΝΑΠΤΥΞΗΣ ΛΟΓΙΣΜΙΚΟΥ ΩΣ ΥΠΗΡΕΣΙΑΣ: ΜΙΑ ΕΥΕΛΙΚΤΗ ΠΡΟΣΕΓΓΙΣΗ ΜΕ ΧΡΗΣΗ ΥΠΟΛΟΓΙΣΤΙΚΗΣ ΝΕΦΟΥΣ
  • Χρήστος Δουληγέρης, Ρόζα Μαυροπόδη, Εύη Κοπανάκη, Απόστολος Καραλής (2021): Τεχνολογίες και Προγραμματισμός στον Παγκόσμιο Ιστό
  • Ι. Κ. ΚΑΒΟΥΡΑΣ, Ι. Ζ. ΜΗΛΗΣ, Α. Α. ΡΟΥΚΟΥΝΑΚΗ, Γ. Β. ΞΥΛΩΜΕΝΟΣ (2011): ΚΑΤΑΝΕΜΗΜΕΝΑ ΣΥΣΤΗΜΑΤΑ ΜΕ JAVA, ΙSBN: 9789609732376
  • Sanjay Patni (2017): Pro RESTful APIs, Design, Build and Integrate with REST, JSON, XML and JAX-RS, ISBN: 9781484226650
  • Fernando Doglio (2018): REST API Development with Node.js, ISBN: 9781484237151

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.

Mobile and Wireless Communications Security

Learning Outcomes

The aim of the course is to familiarize students with the concept of security in mobile / wireless communications. Mobile / wireless communications provide mobile users with a wide range of multimedia services that already exist for non-mobile users and stable networking, regardless of location. Along with new prospects, however, mobile / wireless communications raise new concerns about security issues.

Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to handle, apply and evaluate the security techniques and measures applied to mobile and wireless environments.

Course Contents

  • Wireless security
  • WLAN, IEEE 802.11
  • Authentication check on IEEE 802.11
  • RADIUS & EAP methods
  • IEEE 802.1x
  • WEP
  • IEEE 802.11i, WPA, WPA2 (TKIP, CCMP)

Recommended Readings

  • Zhang Y., Zheng J. & Ma M. (2008): Handbook of Research on Wireless Security, Information Science Reference.
  • Butty L. & Hubaux J.-P. (2007): Security and Cooperation in Wireless Networks: Thwarting Malicious and Selfish Behavior in the Age of Ubiquitous Computing, Cambridge University Press.

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.