>> Narrator: From Miami Beach, Florida
it's theCUBE, covering Acronis Global Cyber Summit 2019.
Brought to you by Acronis.
>> Okay welcome back everyone.
This is theCUBE's coverage
here at the Acronis Global Cyber Summit 2019.
I'm John Furrier your host at theCUBE.
We're at Miami Beach, at the Fontainebleau Hotel
with the second day,
and excited to have this next guest on.
Cristian Garcia Vice President
of Finance and Administration
of the Schaffhausen (laughter)
Institute of Technology.
Did I get it right?
>> Almost right.
Schaffhausen Institute of Technology.
>> Schaffhausen, Schaffhausen.
Welcome back, welcome to theCUBE, good to see you.
>> Good to see you,
thanks for having me here.
>> This is a really cool story
because you guys are doing something very entrepreneurial
with education. >> Right.
Inspired by the founder of Acronis
as well as (mumbles), he's made a lot of money these days
so he's doing some good things with it.
But this is an interesting opportunity.
>> Right.
>> Could you take a minute to explain
what this institute stands for, it's SIT for short.
>> Yeah, so SIT actually as a name it says
Schaffhausen Institute of Technology.
So we are actually starting up a university
in Schaffhausen.
Schaffhausen is a beautiful tiny city in Switzerland,
30 minutes from the Zurich airport,
which is the biggest airport in Switzerland,
close to Germany at the border, with Germany.
And so that's kind of we're in the center of Europe
and that's where we plan to have our main campus.
Now let me tell you the story about the vision,
about Serguei's vision on this project.
He said that,
he needs to have skills in 10 to 15 years time
that nowadays the institutions do not bring.
There is the need of computer scientists.
There are not enough computer scientists.
And we are having emerging technologies
and this is something that provides us
with tremendous opportunities
which we can not even imagine nowadays
what type of opportunities.
And to be on the forefront there,
that's why we want to found this
or we have founded the Schaffhausen Institute of Technology.
>> Schaffhausen Institute of Technology
just formed the other day,
was it just two months ago, couple months ago?
>> It was two months ago,
where we have started up the legal structure
and now we are really lying the foundation.
We have the funds that are kind of secured
for the next 12 to 18 months.
And we are defining the strategic advisory board,
we are setting up the curriculum for our students
and so it's everything up and running and to be defined.
>> So this is right at the creation,
present at creation, we are talking about this.
This is the origination story- >> Exactly.
>> Of the Schaffhausen Institute of Technology.
>> Exactly.
>> What's the vision?
I mean obviously getting skills for jobs that are,
our century, our time,
that haven't been teached in universities before,
I get that. >> Exactly.
>> But is it about being open
and what's the vision?
Is it just Switzerland, is it going to be global?
Can you just share what you guys are thinking.
>> Sure, absolutely.
So basically what we are trying to do
is to design a curriculum in computer science and physics.
Because we think that computer science represents a software
and physics represents the hardware.
And these two things need to be combined
in a entrepreneurial mindset
or with an entrepreneurial mindset.
Which means that we also want to foster
the transformation process and the entire entrepreneurship.
Now let me go back to the software part.
Our curriculum will cover software engineering,
cybersecurity, that's why we are here today.
The curriculum will also cover,
on the physics part, on the hardware part,
we'll cover quantum technologies, quantum physics
and also new materials.
And this will be kind of the foundation
that will build the curriculum for students.
Computer scientists to have physics
and physics to have computer science in their curriculum
so that at some point in time they can come together
and do research together.
>> This is the digital transformation
that we're talking about.
The intersection and the confluence
of physical reality, our world that we live in,
whether it's a baseball game or a soccer match
to the digital culture,
they're not mutually exclusive anymore.
>> Exactly.
>> They're together, and then the impact is profound.
I can only imagine IOT, industrial IOT, airplanes,
cars, electricity, electronic batteries,
all these things.
>> Correct.
>> Its software and digital and physical material.
>> Exactly.
>> Is that what you guys are thinking?
>> Exactly that.
Actually, also considering the industry,
talking to the industry, talking to
chief information technology officers around the world
to understand what they needs are
and what type of, they believe, of skills are needed
in 10 to 15 years time.
And that's what we want to build up now
to get ready for the transformation--
>> Well you guys got to go faster
because there's jobs now,
there's thousands of jobs right now in cybersecurity.
There's thousands and thousands of jobs
for provisioning, cloud computing, Amazon educate
we talk to them all the time.
They just can't get the word out fast enough
that, "Hey if you're unemployed,
"there's no excuse for being unemployed right now.
"There's so many new jobs."
But because someone didn't go to the linear school--
>> Exactly.
>> And go step by step over the years.
Now you could level up very quickly--
>> Exactly.
>> For certification, but you guys are taking
a much more bigger idea around real kind of masters level
is that what is?
Undergraduate, masters level, what's the level of--
>> So actually we are starting up this university
and we have already students
that are at our or with our partner universities
currently in Singapore with NUS
and will then move to Carnegie Mellon here in the US
in order to have a dual degree.
So that's a unique opportunity
to already start up with some presence
in education.
And ultimately, they will be then acquired, so we hope,
by the industry and to a terrific career there.
>> So the next Elon Musk is in there somewhere,
innovating with who knows what's next out there.
>> And if he's around there--
>> And the next Serguei is out there too.
>> Exactly, exactly, so just look at our homepage
look at the curriculum which we are currently defining now
that would be great on SIT.org.
>> Cristian take me through how it works.
I know you're just starting,
but as you guys look at the world,
first of all I can see the attractiveness of a dual degree.
Because most kids get bored in college,
they're freelancing anyway, they're learning on their own,
I get that.
So as you guys start building it out,
what's going on?
How's it work?
What are you guys doing, are you recruiting?
Take us through the factory of work that needs to get done,
if you will.
What's the workflows look like, what's happening right now?
>> So currently, we are talking about the University
because we have students and we want to have students
and we want to have the best talents globally available
and that's why we are building institution
that attracts those talents.
And this is kind of the first priority, to have the talents.
To get the talents, to get students come to SIT.
And obviously the second part
is that we're talking to the CIOs and CTOs
and to understand what are the needs in 10 to 15 years
has now come of this digital transformation.
I mean that the world is computerized,
as you just mentioned before,
there are not enough computer scientists currently available
so four out of five companies in Switzerland actually,
and also globally are lacking of computer scientists
and they understand what the digital transformation means
and that's something
that we really try to understand as well
to build up the curriculum.
>> What's the timeline of starting with students?
Is it right away, do you have a location?
Is there a building?
Give us a timeline, when does classes start?
When do you start bringing people in?
Is it happening now?
>> Absolutely.
So actually,
currently we're hunting at some campus locations,
looking at some campus locations in Schaffhausen
where our main campus will be located.
At the same time we are really building structure.
So we are appointing the strategic advisory board
which will direct the curriculum of the University,
and which is represented already by very great scientists.
One of them, the president of the strategic advisory board
being Professor Dr. Novoselov,
which is a Nobel Prize winner
and which actually brings in that new material science
in our physics curriculum.
So that's another thing that we are currently trying to do
to build up the governance appropriate components.
A third element that we are looking at
is also to attract industries, companies
that sponsor the students
and that's actually an attractive ecosystem
that we are trying to build up
to combine science, education
and also entrepreneurship and business
in order to foster them.
Which means that we are looking at the campus,
we are setting up a research center
and I'm talking about two three years down the line,
the research center, and then
also a tech park where we can commercialize the innovation
that the science brings in.
So all in all, we really aim to have a closed ecosystem
and self-sustaining ecosystem, hopefully,
that we are going to establish.
>> It's a really big idea.
Congratulations, it's bold--
>> Thank you very much.
>> It's big and it's relevant.
>> Absolutely.
>> So I got to ask you the question,
how do you finance all this, who's paying for it?
Tell us how it gets funded.
>> It's very important, otherwise we couldn't start out
with such a tremendous pace.
Actually the vision is from Serguei Beloussov,
founder and CEO of Acronis.
He has actually secured the initial funding
of the institution.
And now really we need to have more partners on board
in order to make this self-sustaining education
top edge educational system sustainable.
>> Is it going to be tuition base or scholarship base?
Have you guys thought about that in terms of students?
>> It would be tuition based. >> Okay.
>> That's a classical model, at least in Switzerland.
And obviously to get the industry sponsoring students
in order to also down the line employ them later on
that would be the idea situation.
>> Nice vision for Serguei and nice gesture.
But you got to look at what his business is doing,
they created a category called cyber protection.
>> Exactly.
>> The benefit to him is more candidates know physics edge
so why not incubate this? >> Absolutely.
>> It's a great vision. >> Absolutely.
>> It's a win-win.
>> Absolutely.
And and we all believe in that.
The entire startup team believe in that vision,
that's why we are here and building up this institution.
>> Well when you need to go global,
we'll be in Silicon Valley
waiting for you guys to come there
and collaborate with us there.
>> I hope that that happens
because we want to complement each other.
As I mentioned computer scientists are needed globally.
>> Yeah.
>> And obviously also in the Silicon Valley and why not.
>> I think the collaboration aspect
is going to be a big part of the growth
as you guys get settled in on the first use case
in Schaffhausen, >> Exactly.
>> And get that built out.
But I think with digital technologies
I think they'll be a great collaboration.
Bring some good talent in as faculty and advisers.
>> Exactly.
>> Get the flywheel going. >> Exactly.
>> Congratulations. >> Thank you very much.
>> Thanks for coming on theCUBE share.
>> Thanks for having me here.
>> The education game is changing
with modernization of a global impact of technology for good
you're seeing the landscape of innovation hit education.
This is another great example of it,
super proud to interview, thanks for coming on
and sharing the insights.
The world continues to evolve,
of course theCUBE is there watching every turn.
I'm John Furrier here, in Miami Beach
for the Acronis Global Cyber Summit 2019.
Back with more coverage after the short break.
(upbeat music)