Hellenic American University Provost Dr. Triant Flouris has been elected to serve on the Board of Trustees of the Aviation Accreditation Board International (AABI), the world’s leading accreditor for aviation programs in higher education. Whereas regional accreditation agencies, such as NEASC and its Commission on Higher Education, accredit colleges and institutions as a whole, specialized accreditors such as AABI accredit programs in a particular discipline.

Dr. Flouris, elected as an International Trustee, brings to AABI extensive experience as a senior officer in university administration as well as his academic and professional expertise in the field of aviation.

A paper co-authored by Dr. Evangelia Siachou, Assistant Professor of Management and Director of the General Education Program, has been selected as a Highly Commended Paper in the 2016 Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence.

The paper, entitled “Individual variables with an impact on knowledge sharing: The critical role of employees' ignorance,” was published in the Journal of Knowledge Management and is co-authored by John Israilidis, Louise Cooke and Russell Lock.

Now in their 23rd year, the prestigious Emerald Literati Awards were established by Emerald, a global publisher with a portfolio of more than 290 journals, to commend outstanding contributions to scholarly research. The Editorial Board of each participating journal is invited to choose a winning paper from the previous year’s volume and three others that deserve a highly commended award. The winning authors thus enjoy the prestige of their work being recognized as one of the most impressive articles that the judges have seen in the previous year.

Dr. Siachou’s study investigated the role of employee ignorance in managing an organization’s knowledge. She and her fellow researchers discovered that employees’ ignorance can negatively affect their intention to share knowledge, thus leading to poor decision-making and communication in organizations. Additionally, their findings suggested that ignorant employees could limit the organization’s ability to repel external threats, implement innovation and manage future risks.

To find out more about Emerald and the Emerald Literati Awards, and view this year’s winners visit http://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/authors/literati/awards.htm?year=2016. 

Hellenic American College and American Community Schools (ACS) are pleased to announce the launch of Robotics Academy. The Academy, which the two institutions have jointly developed, will offer its first course, Introduction to Robotics, June 21st – July 5th for high-school students. The course will be held at ACS.

• Αpply now!
• Download the course descripion here . You can apply for the course online.
• Download the Robotics Academy brochure .

Introduction to Robotics is a university-level course that teaches students the fundamentals of creating and programming a robot to interact with its environment and perform basic tasks involving motion, sensor data and decision-making.

After a review of relevant topics in linear algebra and geometry in the context of robotics, students are introduced to mechanical engineering concepts such as motor control, timing sequences and sensor systems. They are taught essential concepts and skills of programming. Both the engineering concepts and programming skills are reinforced as they work in a supervised, hands-on, team-based project.

In this project, students work in teams to build and program a robot. Students develop their project in the framework of the engineering design process—from the analysis of requirements and initial design to implementation and testing. The course concludes with the students’ presentation of their team’s robot.

The course will be led by Dr. George Bravos, Director of Information Technology and Engineering programs at Hellenic American University.

This year’s program features courses with Theodoros Antoniou (Hellenic American University) and Dr. Panos Liaropoulos (Berklee School of Music) in composition, and Dr. Konstantinos Papadakis (Boston University, New England Conservatory) in piano.

“Composition for the String Quartet” is taught by Dr. Panos Liaropoulos and includes a workshop led by internationally acclaimed composer Theodore Antoniou. During the course, which will take place in Athens and on the island of Amorgos, June 27 – July 23, students work on composing an original string quartet, which is performed, videotaped and recorded at the end of the course.

“Piano Seminar”, which will be held July 4 -17 in Athens, is an intensive directed study in piano performance. Taught by Dr. Konstantinos Papadakis, the course features both individual lessons and team workshops, during which students work on specific pieces of the standard piano repertoire and develop their musicianship. Students perform at a public concert at the end of the course.

The Hellenic American University Aviation & Flight Academy is geared to high school students with an interest in science and aviation. The program will be held June 27 - July 15, 2016 and is offered in Greece through Hellenic American College and in cooperation with Athens International Airport.

• Download the Aviation and Flight Academy brochure .

SUMMER SESSION FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

June 27 – July 15, 2016
45 hours of instruction, 3 college credits, 6 ECTS credits

Designed for high school students aged 14 – 16, the Aviation and Flight Academy uses in-class instruction and hands-on learning to teach students the principles of aviation and flight.

The material covered in the in-class sessions is reinforced through the University’s Learning Management System and is followed up with first-hand observation and experiential learning at a number of sites. These include:

• Aviation History at the Athens Military Museum
• Flight Operations & Aircraft Maintenance at Aegean Airlines & Athens International Airport
• Ground Operations & Air Traffic Management, Athens International Airport
• Flight Operations, Megara General Aviation Airport

The program leads up to a day-long session where students learn to fly with a state-of-the-art flight simulator.

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

Class sessions will be held at Hellenic American College, Massalias 22, Athens. Buses for the on-site sessions at the museum and airports will also leave from the College.

All class sessions include a one-hour lunch break, provided by the Academy. The Academy also provided round-trip transportation to the practicum site and lunch.

COURSE INSTRUCTOR

The course is taught by Dr. Triant Flouris, Provost and University Professor at Hellenic American University. Dr. Flouris, previously Dean of the School of Aviation Sciences at Daniel Webster College in New Hampshire, USA, is the author of over 200 publications in such areas as aviation strategic and risk management, aviation policy, and aviation project management.

Dr. Flouris is a professional pilot and certified flight and ground instructor with over 6,000 hours of total flight time.

CONTACT

For more information contact us at:

Hellenic American University Aviation and Flight Academy
Massalias 22, Athens
2103680919

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Image: "B757" by Bernal Saborio used under CC BY 2.0

Two CUNY York College Aviation Management students, Dianna Rodriguez and Thinley Wongmo, spent their summer in Athens on an internship with Athens International Airport supervised by Hellenic American University and facilitated by the University Provost Dr. Triant Flouris, who once served as director of the Aviation Institute at York.

For the duration of their stay, the students lived on campus at Hellenic American University, where they both stated they experienced the opportunity of a lifetime. The two students also completed projects at the University for which they earned credits towards their degrees at York. Student Thinley Wongmo referred to the experience as “transformative”.

Dr. Flouris, and Dr. Chun-Pin Hsu, present director of the Aviation institute at York, began the internship project almost a year ago, and hope to deliver more success stories.

Image: Dianna Rodriguez and Thinley Wongmo, CUNY York College Aviation Management students

Hellenic American University received conditional approval from the New Hampshire State Board of Education to offer a Professional Education Preparation Program (PEPP) in English for Speakers of Other languages as part of its Master's in Applied Linguistics (MAAL) degree. The PEPP program enables mainstream teachers in the US to specialize in teaching classes for English Learners in New Hampshire as well as in other states which recognize New Hampshire teaching credentials.

The approval process for the endorsement was conducted by the Council of Teacher Education and the New Hampshire Department of Higher Education Credentialing Division. According to Dr. Christine Irvine-Niakaris, Coordinator of the MAAL program, "the process was rigorous and provided the University with feedback that helped us strengthen our program. The Self-Study we submitted to the Council demonstrated how well the institution used evidence-based decision-making to meet state standards and Department of Education's priorities."

The MAAL program, which has already been offered in Athens for the last 10 years, will be available for teachers in the US starting June 2016.

Hellenic American University MBA Student Laura Simoes has put her Capstone Consulting Project into practice and as a result has changed the live of several people in need. The University’s unique international MBA program educates its students to make a difference in both the business world as well as in the wider community.

When asked about her project, Laura explained “With skills learned through the MBA program, I undertook feasibility planning, worked on a detailed budget and sustainability plan, and wrote a marketing fundraising plan. Following this work, I believed I could design a project to make this vision a reality.”

In Laura Simoes’ case, she developed the innovative concept “Share Your Load”, a project that brings clean laundry, dignity, health, hygiene and supportive services such as counseling, education and financial assistance to the homeless community in Concord, New Hampshire and the surrounding areas. Laura explained that she had estimated an annual budget, but as she managed to raise more than required, the extra money was used to install showers for the homeless in the Center.

Her work has been highly appreciated by the local community and non-profit organizations, and as a result, she has been asked to join the Board of Directors of Concord Homeless Resource Center.

In May 2015 a new collaboration began between the Master of Arts in Translation & Master of Arts in Conference Interpreting and the Terminology Coordination Unit – TermCord of the European Parliament.

TermCoord collaborates with universities that teach Terminology courses as part of their Bachelor and Master programs on terminology research projects for IATE. Hellenic American University met all the criteria for collabotrating on the project and is now actively participating in the program for the academic year 2014-15.

Specifically, our students conduct terminology research under their professors' supervision. Afterwards, this newly created termbase is submitted to TermCoord where the terms are evaluated and are, finally, inserted into IATE's database. For their part to this important EU project, the students of the Master of Arts in Translation & Master of Arts in Conference Interpreting will receive a certificate for their contribution while at the same gaining hands-on experience in terminology work.

Upon completion of the research project and until the final incorporation of terms in IATE's database, our students will have the opportunity to view their glossary of terms on TermCoord's website, under the Blossaries section, where the names of Hellenic American University and our students will be visible.
Congratulations and best of luck in this new endeavor!

Dr. Themis Kaniklidou
Academic Coordinator of the Master of Arts in Translation

The Linguistics Department of the Hellenic American University has been invited by the Language Policy Unit of the Council of Europe to participate in a study related to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: learning, teaching, assessment (CEFR). The study, which began in March 2015, involves further development of the illustrative scales used to measure language proficiency in the area of mediation.  As Johanna Panthier, Head of the Language Unit Policy noted in her letter of invitation, this study is an “extremely valuable contribution for all professionals using the CEFR.”

The participants of the study include University faculty members, Christine Irvine-Niakaris and Charalambos Kollias, and fifteen graduate students studying in the Master of Arts program in Applied Linguistics (MAAL). All of the participants are involved in a series of activities conducted in workshops at the University and surveys administered online. The activities aim to finalize and validate a set of descriptors for mediation activities and mediation strategies used in a number of languages. According to Professor Irvine-Niakaris, the MAAL students participating in the project feel privileged to be part of this work for the CEFR, which has had such an impact on learning, teaching, and assessment of foreign languages in Europe and worldwide