Quick Facts about Famnit 2013/14

On 26 January 2013, Professor Diego de Leo, DSc, Chair of our Department of Psychology, was awarded with the title Officer of the Order of Australia. His title, the second highest award available, was announced by the Governor-General, Ms Quentin Bryce, on Australia Day.

He received his honours for distinguished service to medicine in the field of psychiatry as a researcher and through the creation of national and international strategies for suicide prevention.

In November 2013 our professor Dušanka Janežič, PhD, received the prestigious Zois award for her achievements in the field of Mathematical and Natural Sciences. The Zois awards are conferred to researchers in the Republic of Slovenia for their outstanding achievements and lasting contributions to scientific, research and development activities in the Republic of Slovenia.

Prof. Janežič is a full professor at UP FAMNIT and a Scientific Councillor at the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology of the University of Ljubljana. Her scientific research work is focused on enhancement, development and introduction of new methods and algorithms in molecular modelling. With her long-time scientific, research, pedagogic and professional work she gained significant reputation among the leading experts all around the globe.

In 2013, four of our teaching and research staff received special recognition for their work. In collaboration with the University of Primorska and the University of Nova Gorica, media houses Radio Koper, Television Koper-Capodistria and Primorske novice awarded Assoc. Prof. Štefko Miklavčič for introducing cutting-edge knowledge into practise. For his article on dolphins in the Slovenian sea in the magazine Proteus, assistant Tilen Genov was awarded with Kavčič award for best short article from the field of Natural Sciences in 2012. In October, the Slovenian Research Agency presented our Prof. Dušanka Janežič's work in the field of computationally intensive methods and applications as an outstanding scientific achievement. Later on, Prof. Janežič from our Department of Applied Natural Sciences was also awarded with the prestigious Zois award. The Slovenian Science Foundation, which tends to accelerate and promote science in research, honoured Assist. Prof. Andraž Teršek with the ''Prometheus of Science'' award for Excellence in Communicating Science in 2013.  Prof. Teršek was also listed among the top ten most influential lawyers in 2013, a ranking, which is gaining increasing recognition in both professional as well as the general public and is carried out on Slovenian central legal portal IUS-INFO.

2013 was a very successful year for our students. In the strong competition of 50 students from all three academic levels, our first year students of mathematics Anastasiya Tanana and Ratko Darda achieved 13^th and 15^th place, respectively, at the IV Open Mathematical Olympiad of the Belarussian-Russian University (International Student Olympiad).

In April, six of our students participated at the Vojtěch Jarník International Mathematical Competition in the Czech Republic. Ratko Darda was particularly successful and gained half of all points in this very demanding competition.

Soon after, our mathematics students competed at the online Open International Olympiad in Higher Education, which covers 9 different scientific disciplines. In the final round of the math competition Bećo Merulić won silver medal, while Anastasiya Tanana and Edin Husić won bronze. Computer Science students Tomaž Tomažinčič, Aleksandar Todorović and Andrej Godec won 9th place among 623 contestants in their category.

International Natural Sciences competition Primatijada 2014 was held in June in Montenegro and brought lots of success to our students. In the mathematic competition Marija Jurković won 1st place and Nastja Cepak 3^rd, while in the competition from informatics and programming Andrej Godec and Rudi Kovač shared 1^st place and Matjaž Šuber got 3^rd.

Mathematical competitions continued in August with International Mathematics Competition for University Students 2013. Anastasiya Tanana won second prize and Edin Husić and Radovan Krtolica got Honourable mention. Let us emphasize in this place that all participating students from all over the world competed in the same category and our students were among the youngest contestants.

In October, Tomaž Tomažinčič and Andrej Godec competed at the national University programming marathon. As the winning team of the internal competition of the University of Primorska they represented our University and took 15th place among 49 competing teams.

Computer Science students Tomaž Tomažinčič, Aleksandar Todorović and Aleksandar Tošić won the Actual I.T. entrepreneurship contest with the presentation of their business idea 'Non-intrusive attendancy counting system'.

Our Bioinformatics graduate Miha Šaberl presented his business idea »MORSKA« at the regional entrepreneurship contest Podjetna Primorska and was listed among the finalists in his category.

Last but not least, our mixed team of students won the University of Primorska handball contest in May and the overall University of Primorska student sports competition “Perfect Ten” (Čista desetka) in October.

In 2013 UP FAMNIT successfully accredited new master’s programme Biopsychology, which provides an upgrade to existing undergraduate study. First students have already enrolled in the new programme in 2013/2014 academic year.

Six study programmes, which were for the first time implemented in the academic year 2007/2008, have been reaccredited. Those are the undergraduate, master’s and doctoral programmes of Mathematics and undergraduate, master’s and doctoral programmes of Computer Science. The Faculty was preparing for the reaccreditations during the whole year 2012 and in the final stage we were also visited by a group of external evaluators. The procedures of programme reaccreditations are dictated by the Higher Education Act and take place every seven years. We will undertake the reaccreditation procedures for the study programmes Biodiversity and Mediterranean Agriculture in 2014.

In July 2013 we got our first graduates of undergraduate interdisciplinary programmes Biopsychology and Bioinformatics. The two Biopsychology graduates were also the first of that kind in Slovenian higher education, as the programme is being implemented only at UP FAMNIT.

At the beginning of the academic year 2013/2014, Professor Dragan Marušič, PhD, rector of the University of Primorska, welcomed seven excellent international students from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Belarus, which enrolled to our undergraduate Mathematics programme. They joined the company eight other international colleagues, who enrolled in our programmes in academic years 2011/12 (2) and 2012/13 (6).

The Faculty observes and records increased interest and enrolment of foreign students in our programmes. In the academic year 2013/2014 we host 52 of them on all three academic levels. They come from Belgium, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Italy, Macedonia, Mexico, Montenegro, Poland, Russia, Serbia and Ukraine. Particularly those, who enrolled to the mathematical programmes, own excellent references from national and international mathematical competitions. For their needs, we provide lectures also in English. However, we decided to offer them and future generations full English programmes, which will start in the academic year 2014/2015.

Despite its youth, UP FAMNIT is strongly involved in international higher education and research sphere. Every year we host a number of high-profile international lecturers and researchers and encourage our own teaching and research staff to actively participate at international conferences, workshops and summer schools.

In 2013 we welcomed 31 foreign professors and researchers from 17 different countries – Argentina (2), Australia (1), Czech Republic (1), Philippines (1), Finland (1), Croatia (3), Italy (1), Japan (1), South Korea (2), China (1), Hungary (2), Germany (3), Norway (2), Poland (1), Russia (2), USA (4), United Kingdom (3).

Among them was for two months our guest also the world-renowned professor Alexander A. Ivanov, PhD, from the Imperial College London. Prof. Ivanov researches in the field of Group Theory and has authored many scientific articles as well as five scientific books, published by Cambridge University Press (4) and Oxford University Press (1). For many years he has been a member of the editorial boards of six SCI magazines (European Journal of Combinatorics, Journal of Combinatorial Theory (A), Journal of Algebraic Combinatorics, Combinatorica, Contributions to Algebra, Journal of Group Theory).

According to its tendency towards strong international cooperation and engagement, UP FAMNIT organized or co-organized 14 international scientific meetings and conferences in 2013.

Among all, we would like to emphasize three – Triple I conference on intuition, imagination an innovation in suicidology, mathematical conference CSASC 2013, where we have been honoured with the presence of a special guest - professor John Erik Fornaess, PhD, and international conference from the field of applied theoretical computer science MATCOS-13. With mentioned three conferences in particular, UP FAMNIT has proven its high standards of international research cooperation and intends to do so also in the future – several conferences have already been placed on our 2014 calendar.

Scientific journal Ars Mathematica Contemporanea is published by the University of Primorska and the Society of Mathematicians, Physicists and Astronomers of Slovenia (DMFA). In 2011, the journal was included in Science Citation Index (SCI) list, which was a historical moment for mathematic science in Slovenia. In 2012, the journal already listed in the second quarter of the SCI journals from the field of mathematics. The editors-in-chief are our professor Dragan Marušič, PhD, and Tomaž Pisanski, PhD.

In 2013 UP FAMNIT started with its first national research program, the psychiatric research program Alive? Alive! Research and Prevention of Suicide (ARRS no. P3-0384) led by Prof. Diego de Leo, DSc. The program represents a comprehensive approach to suicide prevention as one of the biggest social and public health problems in Slovenia, offering innovative ways to the study suicidal behaviour. The main objectives of the program are: to reduce suicide rate in Slovenia, to contribute to the multidisciplinary and multi-level suicide prevention, and to bring a wide range of research methods into suicidology in order to better understand and explain suicidal behaviour. The program is implemented in collaboration with researchers from the Slovene Centre for Suicide Research, which operates within the UP IAM.

2013 was the second year of the GReGAS project, the first European mathematical project coordinated from Slovenia. The collaborative research project GReGAS (Geometric representations and symmetries of graphs, maps and other discrete structures and applications in science) is comprised of a total of 16 projects. The main objective of the project is to develop a geometric representation and symmetry of graphs, maps and other discrete structures and applications in science.

The leading organization of the project is UP IAM. The project is coordinated by Prof. Tomaž Pisanski, PhD and Prof. Dragan Marušič, PhD and is conducted in the context of the Eurocordes / Eurogiga programme. It includes not only partners from Croatia, Germany, Slovakia, and Turkey, but also associated partners, high-profile mathematicians from Austria, Israel, New Zealand, Great Britain and the United States.

At University of Primorska living laboratory SME ViLLab, which was developed in the frame of EnergyViLLab project in 2012, successfully continued its activities. The mission of the SME ViLLab is to increase energy efficiency of houses and consequently reduce the air pollution in the region, by providing a platform of SMEs and information to residents about how to retrofit their existing home or how to build an energy-efficient new home.

Living laboratory SME ViLLab is an environment in which small and medium enterprises, which work in the area of energy efficiency of houses, university, municipalities in the region and citizens are intergraded. The stakeholders of SME ViLLab, lead by University of Primorska, are Mestna občina Koper and SMEs that use wood for creating health living environment:

• Kager hiša d.o.o. - Slovene brand, which associate building engineers, architects, and numerous tradesmen at building the unique, tailormade houses.
• Rihter montažne gradnje d.o.o. – Manufacturing custom-made wooden houses
• Rima hiše d.o.o. - Technological and ecological orientation in the construction of prefabricated houses, low energy houses.
• Montažna gradnja Tadej Zimic s.p. - Production, sale and installation of cellulose insulation ZIMICELL, construction of passive houses and Blower Door airtightness tests.
• Brest-pohištvo d.o.o. - Furniture design and manufacturing, and R&D experience in the field of furniture and beyond
• Silvaprodukt d.o.o. - Products for wood protection and thermally modified wood
• MSora d.d. – producing technologically advanced and visually sophisticated wood windows, made exclusively from Slovenian wood.

In 2013,  SME ViLLab performed the following activities:

• Meeting with Alberto Cayuela, Associate Director of UBC Sustainability from UBC (The University of British Columbia, Canada). Attended stakeholders learned about UBC as a living laboratory, collaborative initiative that brings together education, research, operations and partnerships to advance sustainability on campus and beyond, including green buildings and Canadian WoodFirst program. The meeting was attended by a total of 28 participants. The meeting was promoted on a national television and internet.
• Workshop with well-recognized experts from America, Canada, Norway, Italy and Slovenia. The aim of the workshop was to answer the question ''how to functional introduce user-lead innovation in the Slovenian wood industry through SME ViLLab''. The participants of the SME ViLLab workshop concluded that SME ViLLab can lead to increased use of wood in construction and contribute to the energy efficiency of private houses in the region with carefully selected activities and clearly defined goals.
• Workshop about Life Cycle Assessment and Environmental Product Declarations for wooden products and their role in sustainable buildings. The stakeholders of SME ViLLab learned the importance of including environmental impact assessment tools to their product development and services and how to obtain an Environmental Product Declaration for their products.
• With the aim of sustainability of SME ViLLab joint project applications of the stakeholders in national and European calls, which resulted in two successful applications in ERA-net+ WoodWisdom programme. The successful joined project proposals are ensuring continuation of the established successful relationships. The sustainable stakeholders relationships is achieved with good communication, trust, reciprocity, and commitment.

Seven students – tutors were awarded with certificates for their valuable work with their protégés in the past two years.

Tutoring system was introduced in order to strengthen the ties between students and encourage the exchange of information and experience among them. It relies on personal approach and is implemented in the University of Primorska policy through the official act on tutoring system. Every year, the University provides training for student - tutors and acquaint them also with the specific needs of foreign and disabled students.

Our Faculty sincerely supports the tutoring system and we encourage our students to get involved as tutors. We believe that with doing so, they not only give their time, energy and experiences, but also gain valuable competences for their future careers.

The recipients of the certificates in 2013 were: Mitja Črne (Nature Conservation), Matej Filipović (Computer Science), Boštjan Hafnar (Biopsychology), Jan Magdić (Computer Science), Janja Rudolf (Mediterranean Agriculture), Miha Šaberl (Bioinformatics) and Borut Umer (Mathematics).

UP FAMNIT teaching staff enthusiastically continued with their work in popularization of Natural Sciences among young and general public.

In the academic year 2012/2013 we successfully performed already the fourth consecutive cycle of FAMNIT Excursions into the Mathematical Universe – a series of popular lectures on mathematics, its tricky questions and its amazing role in our everyday life. Biological evenings at FAMNIT with a wide range of lectures from exciting field of Biology were organized for the 3^rd year in a row.

In April 2013 Faculty organised very well attended Science Day in Strunjan for Secondary School students, while in August, third Mathematics is Cool camp took place and gathered many Primary School students from all over the Slovenia and abroad in Koper. In September UP FAMNIT co-organised (together with The Society of Mathematicians, Physicistrs and Astronomers of Slovenia and UP Faculty of Education) the so called Mathematics research days, which were attended by 27 most successful participants of Vegovo priznanje national mathematical competition and other selected students from Slovenian Secondary Schools. Our students, assistants and professors gave lectures of selected topics from mathematics and so contributed to participants’ preparations for International Mathematical Olympiad and other international mathematical competitions.

In 2013 we organized our first Mathematical day for Primary School students and welcomed among us pupils and teachers of Primary School Sostro. Our lecturers presented them with various topics from Mathematical, Computer and Natural Sciences.

Finally, in order to promote Natural Science to students, employees and general public, we set up two exhibitions in 2013 – an exhibition on the development of the Graph Theory (still available for viewing in the Faculty hall) and exhibition ‘From atom to ecosystems’, where we presented topics our students deal with during their study programmes.