Project: EXCEL 100 TASKS FOR BEGINNERS
Project Leader - Giorgi Datukishvili
Professor of Caucasus University
The book consists of 90 simple and 10 complex tasks in Excel, accompanied by a video lesson and video solving QR code, which enables the user to learn the skills needed to solve a particular task.
IDENTIFYING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE BANKING SECTOR AND ECONOMIC GROWTH
Establishing Relationship between Banking Sector Growth and Economic Growth in Georgia (Based on International Experience and Research)
Project Leader David Aslanishvili, CSB, Associate Professor
The major problem for the Georgian economy is the large-scale disproportion between the successful performance of the banking sector and the often unsuccessful development of the real economy. The research will focus on the study of population demand for loans. The research will also examine the correlation between credits and GDP. The study will identify positive or negative correlations between financial development and economic growth.
INFLATION REGULATION IN GEORGIA
Project staff Lasha Kavtaradze, Nodar Kiladze, CDS
The purpose of this study is to identify the causes of inflation in Georgia and to analyze the main factors that, according to economic theory, influence the change in the price level, based on which relevant recommendations will be developed. Inflation, because of its negative effects, causes negative emotions in society. Both high and zero inflation (or approaching zero) are associated with different types of costs to society, which ultimately result in welfare losses. Changing price levels in a real economy is a very dynamic process and it is difficult to pinpoint a specific cause or factors causing inflation. Price stability is a fundamental factor required for achieving high and stable economic growth. Accordingly, the regulation of inflationary processes is quite important. The practical significance of this issue is of high importance, as it is possible to make credible forecasts with the help of factors selected from the peculiarities of the Georgian economy and then use them effectively in the monetary policy process.
Random number generator for post-quantum electronic signature
Google Corporation, NASA and the Universities Space Research Association are working with D-Wave to create a quantum processor. A quantum computer will have the ability to destroy most or all of the standard cryptosystems that are widely used in practice today, such as RSA. The RSA cryptosystem is used in many products in different fields on different platforms. Various alternatives to RSA are offered, but they still have security and efficiency issues. Consequently, their use in practice is impossible. One of the proposed alternatives is a hash-based electronic signature system. Merkle's signature schemes are a hash-based electronic signature scheme with a public key. The crypto system has efficiency problems and therefore it cannot be used in practice. World scientists are working to improve the schemes. One of the improvements is the integration of PRNG (a pseudo-random number generator) so that a large number of single-key pairs are not counted and placed. This approach can be considered unsafe because our research has shown that quantum computers have the potential to destroy existing PRNGs. A quantum computer can give us the ability to generate real random numbers. Accordingly, Merkle will be secure with integrated TRNG (true random number generator). Also, creating TRNG via a quantum computer will be very useful for other cryptographic algorithms, lotteries, gaming machines, simulation processes, and more.
Project Objectives:
- Create a real random number generator (TRNG);
- Perform this TRNG software implementation using programming language and simulation techniques;
- Integrate TRNG into Merkle to get an improved secure version of Merkle;
- Perform improved Merkle software using programming language and simulation techniques.
Project staff:
Maxim Iavich - Professor, Giorgi Iashvili - Assistant, Caucasus School of Technology
Budget - 23 820 GEL
The two-year project is funded by the Caucasus University Research Internal University Financing Competition in December 2018.
Country wealth, financial accounting infrastructure, and quality of financial information: An international analysis
Project Leader Erekle Pirveli, CSB, Associate Professor
The purpose of this research project is to illuminate why rich economies publish better managerial but equivalent financial information than poorer ones. According to previous literature, the wealth of a country should be associated with a better financial accounting infrastructure, which in turn should reflect better financial information. Contrary to the theoretical assumption underlying this intuition, Pirveli’s and Zimmermann’s (forthcoming) research across 40 capital markets empirically suggests that wealthier countries publish more control-oriented (managerial) and approximately the same level of valuation-oriented (financial) accounting information than poorer countries. The purpose of this research project is to develop an index of financial reporting infrastructure that covers accounting, financial, legal and policy systems to identify the reasons for this discovery. Developing an index of financial reporting infrastructure will help us understand where the link between a country's wealth and the quality of financial information is. This is due to the fact that the wealth of the country does not provide a better infrastructure needed for financial accounting, if such a link exists, but the infrastructure itself cannot provide a better quality of financial information? The results should be of interest to both scientists and investors, as well as policy and standard-bearers.
Supervisors’ Reciprocation Decisions in the Psychological Contract
Organizational effectiveness depends in large part on the relationship between employees and supervisors (Bolino, Turnley, & Bloodgood, 2002). This relationship can be described in terms of the psychological contract that exists between employees and supervisors. Grounded in inspiring studies (Argyris, 1960; Levinson, Price, Munden, Mandl, & Solley, 1962; Schein, 1965), psychological contract theory has been developed by Rousseau (1989; 1995) as a framework for understanding the employee-supervisor relationships. Psychological contracts concern the beliefs held by employees and supervisors regarding the terms and conditions of their exchange agreements (Rousseau, 1989; Robinson, Kraatz, & Rousseau, 1994; Turnley, Bolino, Lester, & Bloodgood, 2003). Specifically, psychological contracts are about the reciprocal exchange of inducements for contributions between employees and supervisors. Employees promise and deliver contributions of time and effort toward organizational goals to their supervisors. In return, supervisors’ promise and deliver inducements of compensation and other rewards to their employees.
This study contributes to psychological contract theory in three ways. First, PI will develop a theoretical model for supervisors’ perspective of their psychological contract. Second, will develop a theoretical approach to reciprocity and predict specific exchanges of inducements for contributions. Third, PI will examine supervisors’ perspective of breach and fulfillment of specific contributions and their reciprocation with specific inducements.
Principal Investigator (PI): Paata Brekashvili, Caucasus University Professor.
Project was funded in the frame of the Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia grant call for Young Scientists research funding.
Assessment of the Ongoing Accounting and Audit Reform in Georgia: Regulatory Base, Enforcement Level and the Quality of Financial Statements
Laws in general and accounting standards in particular are often elaborated based on the experience of the developed world. Under-developed economies, on the other hand, merely (have to) mirror those regulations. In the absence of a theory on how the ‘copy-paste’ approach of regulation affects the under-developed world, we are in need to consider countries on a case-by-case basis. This is because specific institutional basis within the under-developed markets warrants a close inspection.
With this research project we aim to assess the efficiency of the currently ongoing international accounting standards’ adoption in the light of an under-developed economy of Georgia. In June 2014, the EU and Georgia signed an Association Agreement. In the context of the harmonization with the EU acquis, Georgian government enacted the Law of Georgia on Accounting, Reporting and Auditing on June 8, 2016. As such, for the first time in the history of Georgia, about 84.000 private sector entities have to go transparent by October 1 st, 2019. Before this massive dataset breaks a transparency threshold, we are already now in need to have a valid estimation of what to expect.
This change is unprecedented; and this research project is likely to also bear some outstanding merits as it will be dedicated to the assessment of these unprecedented changes. It is a unique possibility for the academia, but also the regulators in Georgia and within the EU to detect how successful and efficient the EU funded (overall budget: €5.85 million) reform is.
This research project aims to address three bulk sub-questions:
- a) how good is the quality of the enacted law – disclosure quality;
- b) how well is the law enforced – compliance level;
- c) how well is the final target of the reform met – the quality of financial information provided within the reports.
Our data will be automatically collected from three sources. First, we will collect the descriptive data of the entities from the open public source of https://reportal.ge/" by using the “Link Clicker” and “Scrapestorm” techniques. Second, based on an official letter, we will withdraw the systematized financial information (all four financial statements) of the entities through the Ministry of Finance of Georgia.
Finally, we will manually download the pdf formatted annual financial reports of the entities by Python programming language. We employ descriptive analysis to assess the disclosure quality and enforcement levels (including timeliness) and we will employ: time-series properties of earnings, earnings management (earnings smoothness and earnings discretion) and accounting conservatism to assess the quality of financial information.
For the purposes of analysis of the textual parts of the financial statements, we will additionally rely on Fog index, (key) word counts and text length or file size. The lessons learned from Georgia would be crucial as today’s affairs of Georgia are likely to be recalled tomorrow and a day after in other Eastern Partnership countries – also subject to current changes in accounting and audit field.
Project Budget 167 800 Gel
Project Duration 3 Years
Principal Investigator Jochen Zimmermann, Bremen University Professor
Coordinator Erekle Pirveli, Caucasus University Professor
Computer Science and Cyber Security University for Children
Technologies advance very rapidly. This advancement takes place in terms of the constant empowerment of the computer hardware, as well as, almost daily growing software capabilities. The topical challenge for the scholars from the computer science fields is the timely analyses of the threats that derive from the advancement of the cyber technologies, prognosis of the new security risks and the development of the efficient security mechanisms. Latter is rather important, since delayed response to a cyber-threat might cause huge losses for the state and the private sectors.
In the frame of the project it is planned to found Computer Science and Cyber Security University for Children.
The aim of the university is to develop fields of cyber security on both, theoretical and the practical levels.
Project was funded in the frame of the Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia call for targeted grants for science popularization.
Principal Investigator: Maxim Iavich, CST.
Financial management for NGOs
For non-governmental organizations, the main importance of financial planning and management is determined by achieving organizational goals and solving set tasks. Most NGOs are based on external funding sources, and therefore financial management plays a key role in maintaining the sustainability of the organization. The Financial Management Guide for NGOs under the project will help non-profit organizations plan, coordinate and control their finances properly. Developed training materials and standard administrative forms will help NGOs to effectively manage their own financial resources and, at the same time, make all the necessary decisions to allocate resources, raise funds and mobilize.
Principal Investigator - Aleksandre Mikeladze.
The project is funded in the frame of the Caucasus University research internal funding Call.
Security of 5G cellular networks
The telecoms industry is undergoing a major transformation towards 5G networks in order to fulfill the needs of existing and emerging use cases. Novel networking, service deployment, storage and processing technologies will be used to provide the necessary services envisioned by 5G. These technologies should bring a lot of new challenges for the 5G cybersecurity systems and its functionality.
Therefore, it is highly important to investigate most important security challenges in 5G networks and propose the potential solutions that could lead to secure 5G systems. In these conditions, it is necessary immediately to define new architecture for the 5G and future 6G networks in order to provide novel AI/ML based algorithms which should give great opportunities to provide the highest cybersecurity level and to ensure mobile subscribers, industry, government etc. in overall safety of all processes and lives. That is why the main goal of the project is to develop novel 5G cybersecurity platform with new relevant for the modern and future society trust models, cryptographic algorithms, enhanced critical information infrastructure security etc. This platform will integrate User, Application, and Network Operator-provided preferences, rules, and parameter values to provide the best Cyber Security Level for the user while not compromising network and application providers’ interests.
The platform will also contribute to a higher quality of experience (QoE), reduces user and operator burden for different network devices security management, and keeps the device optimally securely connected. It allows users to define preferences and/or permissions for automatic management of connections and services, and allow application/service providers to better adjust application-level QoS to network conditions to result in higher QoE for their users. It also allows operators to retain control of the subscriber’s use of the network and to give the best service possible at a specified price points.
PI - Maxim Iavich, CST Professor.
Project was funded in the frame of the SRNSFG Applied research (CARYS) grant call, duration – 2 years, total budget 204 330 GEL.
MEDIA LITERACY AGAINST GAMBLING
The aim of the study is to create a training program that, through a media literacy approach, explains to schoolchildren the ways in which the gambling industry is trying to engage them in the game using a variety of advertising tricks.
Principal Investigator - Giorgi Jologua, CSM.
The project is funded in the frame of the Caucasus University research internal funding Call.
Review of Contemporary Georgian Case Law
The project envisages finding, studying and generalizing the case law of the existing judicial law - common courts. This process, as an empirical part of scientific research, is carried out in each case for the purpose of creating a separate paper by the researcher or in solving a problem by a practicing lawyer. Until now, it has been carried out in a more or less systematic, organized way by the Supreme Court, the result of which is to collect decisions and issue them in the form of collections in order to ensure uniform practice.
The texts of the decisions are reflected in the original form in the publications without any explanations or annotations.
Project Manager - Sophio Shengelia, CSL.
The project is funded by the Caucasus University Research Funding Internal Call.
Review of Pandemic Period Georgian Case Law
Project is dedicated to the studying and generalizing the decisions of the common courts from the beginning of the pandemic to the present day, analyzing the new legal regulations adopted on the basis of the decree issued by the President and the legislative changes adopted based on it, legal evaluation of their implementation. The study will also focus on the analysis of legal procedures required for the collection and processing of personal data in a pandemic and the development of specific recommendations, as well as draft new legal regulations, including compliance with Article 6 of the Convention on Human Rights and Freedoms.
Project Manager - Sophio Shengelia, CSL.
The project is funded by the Caucasus University Research Funding Internal Call.
Newsletters “Sakartvelo” and “Ertoba” 100 Years Ago
The aim of the project is to evaluate the publicist narrative of the two main periodicals of 1919-1920 - the print newspaper of the National Democratic Party "Georgia" and the print organ of the print newspaper of the Social Democratic Party "Ertoba", to understand the historical context, to establish language policy, thematic electronic catalog and e- book.
Project Manager – Ketevan Datukishvili, CST.
The project is funded by the Caucasus University Research Funding Internal Call.
Challenges of higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic and ways to address them
The aim of the research project is to study the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the higher education sector, to identify outcomes, problems and difficulties in the transition to the use of distance learning technologies. The results of the study are reviewed taking into account the international experience and trends of the higher education system during the COVID-19 pandemic. An electronic survey will be conducted as part of the quantitative and qualitative research. Caucasus University, La Trobe University (Melbourne, Australia), Iv. Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, European University lecturers and students of different levels and programs. The results of the project will be discussed at the policy forum, articles will be published in scientific journals, as well as a monograph will be published.
Project Manager – Tengiz Verulava, CMS.
Neurophysiology for students majoring in Psychology
The project envisages the creation of the first Georgian color illustrated textbook of "Neurophysiology" specifically for students majoring in psychology, which will take into account the experience gained in teaching the subject at the university in previous years. The textbook will be built on the principles of classical neurophysiology, but at the same time will be enriched with the latest scientific advances and information.
Project Manager– Tamar Chelidze, CSH.
The project is funded by the Caucasus University Research Funding Internal Call.
Sectoral analysis of the economic model of Georgia
The aim of the present study is to study the sectoral economic model of Georgia. This will be studied by analyzing the financial information of more than 2500 large and medium enterprises in the Georgian private sector.
The efficiency of enterprises will be analyzed in the following sectors: production, production, trade, services, agriculture, finance, construction and accommodation / catering. The object of observation will be studied in terms of the number, size and profitability of enterprises in each field.
Project Manager – Erekle Pirveli, CSB.
The project is funded by the Caucasus University Research Funding Internal Call.
Study and evaluation of the financial behavior of Georgian capital market players
Financial Behavior Research Project serves to study the financial behavior models of Georgian capital market players. The study envisages interdisciplinary approaches, including finance, economics, sociology, and behavioral psychology. Based on this, an article will be created in a peer-reviewed publication and the first training course in behavioral finance in Georgia.
Project Manager – Erekle Pirveli, CSB.
The project is funded by the Caucasus University Research Funding Internal Call.
Handbook of Finance and Accounting
There is a lack of textbooks for students in the fields of finance and accounting in Georgian. Because finance is taught in English at the university and because finance is also a new type of subject for new students (who previously studied a similarly familiar subject in Georgian (history, mathematics, etc.), there is some disproportionate difficulty in studying finance from the initial course. Simultaneously mastering new logic and learning a relevant foreign language, therefore, this project aims to create an auxiliary textbook in Georgian, which can be used in parallel with the textbook of basic finance to improve the quality of learning.
Project Manager – Akaki kapanadze.
The project is funded by the Caucasus University Research Funding Internal Call.
The project is funded by the Caucasus University Research Funding Internal Call.