PITTSBURGH and FRANKFURT, Germany -- Carnegie Mellon University announces the international expansion of its Software Engineering Institute (SEI) with the opening of an office at An der Welle 4 in central Frankfurt, Germany today. The opening is in response to strong European demand for the development of products based on quality software. The SEI-Europe, in partnership with its licensees, will provide the training, knowledge and research to support the development of quality software. Mark Kamlet, provost of Carnegie Mellon University, explained that the opening of an office in Europe enhances Carnegie Mellon and the Software Engineering Institute's ability to serve its European research customers and technology licensees. "By expanding our borders internationally, Carnegie Mellon is positioned to provide top-tier educational resources, and research and development opportunities. The office in Europe serves as an important gateway for us and embodies the principles of education and training on which Carnegie Mellon was founded," Kamlet said. Stephen E. Cross, chief executive officer of the SEI, stated that European industrial users, licensees and research partners will be better able to adopt the institute's advanced software engineering practices. "Over the past five years, Europe has grown to be a very strong commercial-user community in the usage of new SEI technologies," Cross said. "This office demonstrates our commitment to our diverse European stakeholders, licensees, industry users and academia." The SEI-Europe office will promote the institute's commitment to quality software development through public course offerings, colloquia and meetings, as well as providing university-level courses. The public courses, which include courses about Capability Maturity Model Integration(R) (CMMI(R)), support the adoption and transition of SEI technologies. Most important, European organizations licensed by the SEI as transition partners, along with SEI staff and visiting scientists, will deliver these courses to key European industries such as aerospace, automotive, automation, telecommunications and finance. Heading the SEI-Europe office is Geir Fagerhus. Fagerhus is the founder and former chief executive officer of Q-Labs, a leading international professional services company specializing in software engineering practices headquartered in Denmark. "Our vision is that European users of SEI practices routinely deliver the right software, defect-free, on time, on cost every time," said Fagerhus. "Quality software is industry best practice. Quality software is software that always works." Born in Karlsruhe, Germany, Fagerhus holds a B.Sc., combined honours degree in physics and computing science from the University of Glasgow, Scotland, and now lives in Sweden. Prior to leading Q-Labs, Fagerhus worked with advanced, software-intensive communication products for air traffic control, holding positions first in development and later in management and customer support at Ericsson. He is also a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the International Software Engineering Research Network (ISERN).