HONORARY DOCTORS 2009
Natalia Juristo
Natalia Juristo, Professor of Software Engineering at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid in Spain, will become an Honorary Doctor at Blekinge Institute of Technology at the degree conferment ceremony.
"She is an extremely important figure for BTH. It was on her initiative that BTH was invited to participate in the EU-funded European Master's Programme in Software Engineering", says Pro Vice-Chancellor Claes Wohlin.
Natalia Juristo has an internationally strong position in the field of software engineering. She has contributed with a great deal of research in areas such as empirical software engineering, requirements engineering, and testing. In Europe she has been a driving force behind establishing empirical software research and she has also written a book on the subject.
At Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Natalia Juristo has led the Master's programme in software engineering for 10 years and she is also the co-ordinator for the European Master's Programme in Software Engineering, which is being run at four academic centres in Europe. The programme is an Erasmus Mundus programme. For BTH her role has been of great significance as she invited BTH to participate in this programme, which is the only European Master's Programme at BTH and also the only one in software engineering in Europe.
"For BTH our involvement has given us invaluable knowledge which we have also passed on internally at BTH. It has also led to BTH reinforcing its position in this field, both within and outside Europe," says Claes Wohlin, who himself is Professor of Software Engineering and a colleague of Professor Juristo.
Now that Natalia Juristo is being awarded an Honorary Doctorate in this anniversary year, BTH recognises that it is an appropriate way of highlighting what has been one of the core areas at BTH since the very outset - software engineering and computer science. The award also means that the time has finally come for the first female Honorary Doctor at BTH.
Professor Juristo will be an important partner for BTH in the future, reinforcing the contacts within the European Community.
"We're also working on a joint application for a European doctoral programme," says Claes Wohlin.
Martin Walfisz
Martin Walfisz, founder and former president of the computer game company Massive Entertainment will become an Honorary Doctor at Blekinge Institute of Technology at the conferment ceremony.
With his creative and successful entrepreneurship within a new IT industry he was one of the first generation of students to have inspired BTH to become an international leader in software engineering.
A native of Lund, Martin Walfisz's relationship with BTH began back in 1992 when he began studying to become a software engineer in Ronneby, which is equivalent to the present Software Engineering programme. He subsequently founded the company Massive Entertainment in Ronneby in 1997 at the age of just 23.
A strong and concise reason why BTH has conferred an honorary doctorate on Martin Walfisz is that through his education and entrepreneurship he personifies the ambitions of BTH to become innovative in applied IT. Martin Walfisz has on the other hand also lauded BTH for providing him with an outlet for his considerable interest in computers and that the whole environment during his education and at the Soft Center supported him as an entrepreneur.
At the turn of the millennium, Massive Entertainment was able to release the strategy game Ground Control, which met with an enormous response throughout the world. In recent years the computer game World in Conflict has also enjoyed major international success.
Following several changes of ownership, Martin Walfisz left the gamesdeveloper in March this year. At the time the company, now called Ubisoft Massive, had around 130 employees in Malmö. Many of the company's employees have a background from BTH.
Recently, Martin Walfisz started a new company, Planeto, which develops games for a broad market although of a different type compared to what is produced at Massive.
It could be appropriate to mention two interesting things about the new honorarydoctor.
At one point, when Martin felt that he had enough of high school, his interest in computer games was so great that his parents were finally compelled to put a lock on the computer. Martin succeeded in picking the lock, his parents relented and the rest is history. And if you ask this 36-year-old today whether he has a CV the answer is no. The fact is that no one has ever asked him for one.
