Riga Technical University is the oldest and the largest higher
educational institution in Latvia to offer advanced study programs
in Engineering, Technology and Architecture. Founded in 1862 as
Riga Polytechnic following similar technical institutions in Switzerland
and Germany, the RTU serves the needs of rapidly growing industry
of the Baltic region. RTU has been an international institution
from its inception distinguished scientists from Germany,
Poland, Sweden and Russia have studied and worked here. Riga Technical
University is a state-owned university financed by the Latvian
government. Research is mainly financed by research grants allocated
by the Latvian Council of Science and the Latvian Ministry of
Education and Science with R&D projects financed by EU programs
and industry.
After Latvia regained its independence, Riga Technical University
completely reformed its process of education with the clear goal
to meet education and research standards set by the European Union.
The university actively participates in a large number of European
programs of education and science. In the 2000-2001 academic year
there are approximately 12 500 students at RTU and academic staff
over 2000. The annual budget is approximately 6.65m LVL (¤
10m).
International students attend courses from Bachelor's, Master's
and Doctoral programmes, which are held in English and taught
by professors of the RTU and Academy of Sciences of Latvia. RTU
provides Bachelor's and Master's study programs in English in
the following areas: Architecture, Computer Engineering, Civil
Engineering, Economics and Industrial Management, Engineering
Mechanics, Heating, Gas and Water Technology, Electric Engineering,
Electronics and Telecommunications, Textile Industry, Transportation.
Faculty of Electronics and Telecommunications has been established
as independent unit in 1966. Study programs in Electronics and
Telecommunications are offered to more than 1000 students by faculty
staff comprising of 53 academic staff members. Research interests
of staff members range from Microwave Scattering to Microelectronics
and Signal Processing. New emerging research areas are Telematics
Applications in Education and Multimedia Design.
The Distance Education Study Centre of Riga Technical University
is a unit of the Faculty of Electronics and Telecommunications.
It was founded within the framework of the PHARE "Multi-country
Co-operation in Distance Education" Programme in 1997. The
objective of the Centre is to develop distance education in Latvia
using innovative applications of information and communications
technologies. has already undertaken a number of IT-based distance
education projects, funded under the PHARE program. Distance learning
courses created in the Centre incorporates multimedia materials
and Internet-based student support forums.
Key persons to be involved in the project:
Peteris Misans
Peteris Misans - Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sc. Ing., the Head of Latvian
Electronic Nose Project. Experience details: lectures for students
and masters in programming (FORTRAN, C, MATLAB, SIMULINK, Unix,
MS-DOS, Windows), numerical methods and its applications in circuit
analysis, systems and circuits simulation, digital signal processing.
Text books about MATLAB and numerical methods. Research interests
in applications of linear transforms and neural nets for patterns
recognition in electronic nose. Development of unified algorithm
for synthesis of fast linear transforms. Published 30 papers on
programming and signal processing. Participated in design of data
acquisition systems, various interfaces for computers, CPLD chips
for 1.2 GHz data acquisition system control, set of CPLD chips
for artificial nose using LABSI - package for block-wise simulation
of electronic systems and signal processing and large collection
of other software tools for electronic nose (MATLAB, SIMULINK,C,
DSP TI3705x assembler). Image processing tools for industrial
testing of fiber cords (MATLAB).
Ilmars Slaidins
Ilmars Slaidins, Dean, Dr. Sc. Ing., is the Head of Distance
Education Contact Point of Latvia. Member of IEEE. Lecturing RF
Engineering and Telematics in Education. Research interests in
e-Learning and Mobile Multimedia Communication. Over 30 publications.
EADTU Certificate from Train the Trainers Course in Distance Education
methodology, Phare project Manager of Multi Country Programme
in Distance Education, National Facilitator of LOLA course (Learn
About Open Learning), Task manager in Socrates programme project
ADIS.