Quick facts about Famnit 2014/15

Prof. Dragan Stevanović became a member of the editorial board of SCI listed journal Linear Algebra and Its Applications while Assist. Prof. Andreja Kutnar became a member of the Policy and Critical Issues Committee of the American Association Society of Wood Science and Technology (SWST). At the annual electoral general meeting of the Slovenian Academy of Engineering, Prof. Tomaž Pisanski was elected a regular member of the Scientific Research Group.

Among the awardees of the Gala Academy held within the University of Primorska week (March 2014) were the following successful teachers, researchers and student from our Faculty:

• Prof. Diego De Leo received The Gold Medal of the University of Primorska Acknowledgement,
• Prof. Cene Bavec received the honorary title Professor Emeritus of the University of Primorska,
• assistant Tine Šukljan received The Pedagogic Excellence Award of the University of Primorska in the School Year 2013/2014,
• assistant Vita Poštuvan, PhD received The Scientific Excellence Prize of the University of Primorska for 2014 from the field of social sciences,
• Assist. Prof. Marko Orel received The Honor Role of the University of Primorska,
• Olga Kaliada received an Acknowledgment of the University of Primorska for the students of the University of Primorska.

In the summer, during a research trip of UP FAMNIT mathematicians  to  China, Prof. Dragan Marusič received the honorary title"Advisory  Professor of Beijing Jiaotong University". This is the highest prize awarded  by the Autonomous Beijing Jiaotong University, one of the leading Chinese state universities in the field of electrical engineering.

In 2014 UP FAMNIT enthusiastically started with the implementation of theproject »UP and the WORLD«. This resulted in 41 foreign lecturers visiting the Faculty - 32 attended and delivered a lecture at our international workshops, 9 held lectures within the courses of our undergraduate (Computer Science, Mathematics, Biopsychology, Mathematics in Economics and Finance) and master's study programmes (Nature Conservation, Mathematical Sciences, Biopsychology and Mathematics with Financial Engineering) and one professor, Assoc. Prof. Francesco Belardo, was employed at our Department of Mathematics for one year.

In addition to visiting professors within the above mentioned project of internationalization of the University of Primorska, many other foreign experts visited, lectured and performed research on our Faculty.

In February 2014 Edin Husić and Beco Merulić, both undergraduate Math students, attended the International Mathematical Olympiad in Mogilev (Belarus). In strong competition of many (also doctoral) students Edin Husić finished the competition on 14^th and Merulić on 38^th place.

In March and April our students competed at several disciplines of the Open International Internet-Olympiad. Twelve undergraduate Math students participated in the first round of the contest from the field of Mathematics and six of them qualified for the second round where the most successful two finished on 3^rd (Roman Solodukhin ) and 5^th (Marko Palangetić ) place. Six undergraduate students of Biodiversity participated at the internet olympiad in the field of Ecology. All of them successfully qualified for the second round and at the end Živa Muhič won the bronze medal. In the field of Computer Science students Aleksandar Tošić, Aleksandar Todorović, Alen Redek and Marko Tavčar won the bronze medal. According to the organizing team of the International Internet Olympiads, the University of Primorska achieved the best team result among all the participating Universities.

In April our undergraduate Math students (Marko Palangetić, Marko Rajković, Roman Solodukhin, Ratko Darda and Anastasiya Tanana) participated at the Vojtěch Jarník International Mathematical Competition in the Czech Republic. All together they gained the sum of 66 points and finished in second place among all teams. The most successful competitor among our students was Anastasiya Tanana.

In April our Computer Science students participated in the first round of the University Programming Marathon. Team StackOverflow (Aleksandar Todorović and Marko Tavčar) performed very well, among 48 participating teams they finished 14^th. In the second they improved their performance and finished the 2^nd round on 11^th place. In October UP FAMNIT hosted the finals of the University Programming Marathon. Two UP FAMNIT teams competed, besides team StackOverflow, which made an impressive 6^th place in overall Marathon standings, the champions of our university became team TopCoder (Vladan Jovičić, Marko Palangetić and Roman Solodukhin).

In May, the 4^th Student Congress of Neuroscience - NeuRi 2014 was held in Rijeka, Croatia. Our student of Biopsychology, Nina Kočar, presented her work from the field of therapeutic games for hyperactive children and won the Audience Award.

Between 29 July and 4 August 2014, Blagoevgrad (Bulgaria) hosted 21^st International Mathematics Competition for University Students 2014. All three participating students from UP FAMNIT were very successful - Anastasiya Tanana won 1^st prize, while Marko Rajković and Marko Palangetić won 3^rd.

Within the Conservation Biology course, our 3^rd year Biodiversity students mentored by Assoc. Prof. Elena V. Bužan and assistant Sara Zupan participated at the contest E-clic Online Community of the cultural landscape. With his project Re-Vive, Martin Senič won 1^st place and qualified for European competition in Estonia. Martina Tekavec won 3^rd place with project IzKAZ and Teja Zakotnik finished 4^th with her project GETexploring.

The successes of Biodiversity department students continued at the Marine Biological Association’s 49^th European Marine Biology Symposium in St. Petersburg (Russia), where Sara Hočevar, our 2^nd year student of Nature Conservation was awarded 3^rd prize for best student oral presentation.

University of Primorska successfully applied to a public call for funds for implementation of »Creative pathways to knowledge« projects, published by the Slovene human resources development and scholarship fund. Among 14 approved projects at the University level, 9 were performed at our Faculty. Projects involved 45 students from different study programmes, 7 companies/organizations and 8 mentors–UP FAMNIT teachers.

On 1^st September 2014 UP FAMNIT presented the first graduate of Master’s Study Programme Nature Conservation. Tea Knap, mentored by Assist. Prof. Dunja Bandelj , received her Master's degree for thesis "Microsatellite analysis of olive fly populations (Bactrocera oleae Gmelin) in the Slovenian Istria". In her Master’s degree she discussed olive fly on the level of DNA molecule, which makes her study the first of the kind in Slovenia. Only four such studies were previously presented in the scientific journals worldwide.

Prof. Dragan Marušič, Rector of the University of Primorska, welcomed talented international students who enrolled in our undergraduate study programmes Mathematics and Mathematics in Economics and Finance in this Academic year. Daniel Silađi, Nikita  Akulich, Marija Tepegjozova, Miloš Tomić,  Palina Kaliada and Anes Valentić are coming from Serbia, Belarus, Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

 International publisher Springer published a scientific monograph Contemporary Slovenian Timber Architecture for Sustainability by authors Assist. Prof. Manja Kitek Kuzman and our colleague Assist. Prof. Andrea Kutnar while international publisher Elsevier published a book by Prof. Dragan Stevanović - Spectral Radius of Graphs, dedicated to the development, proofs and open problems in the field of spectral graph theory.

Our colleague Jure Pražnikar, PhD and Prof. Dušan Turk from Jožef Stefan Institute published an article »Free kick INSTEAD of cross-validation and maximum- likelihood refinement of macromolecular crystal structures« in the journal Acta Crystallographica Section D Biological Crystallography, which ranks first by the impact factor in the field of crystallography (IF 2013: 7232).

In 2014 UP FAMNIT continues with organization and co-organization of international scientific conferences and other forms of scientific meetings. Under the auspices of the Project UP and the world, UP FAMNIT successfully carried out four scientific events in the field of mathematics (International Conference on Graph Theory and Combinatorics, 2014 PhD Summer School and Discrete Mathematics, Conference Symmetries of Graphs and Networks IV, Ljubljana-Leoben Graph Theory Seminar) and the conference Smart Cities.

In May, Piran held the fifth conference about the study and prevention of suicide (Triple I: Intuition, Imagination and Innovation and Suicidology), in autumn, our colleagues as co-organizers participated in the conference COST Action FP1303 in Kranjska Gora, in the 1st Student Computer Science Research Conference and in the 3^rd annual Mississippi Discrete Mathematics workshop in Starkvillu in USA. In addition, UP FAMNIT and UP IAM organized a one-day conference European research and the forest value chain.

University of Primorska with the Association of Mathematicians,Physicists and Astronomers of Slovenia publish a magazine Ars Mathematica Contemporanea. In 2011 the magazine was listed on the Science Citation Index (SCI), which was a historic event for Slovenian mathematicians, in 2012 the magazine was ranked in the second quarter of SCI journals in the field of mathematics. Chief Editors of the magazine are our professors and researchers Prof. Dragan Marušič  and Prof. Tomaž Pisanski. In 2014, two new numbers of the magazine were published.

In 2014 UP IAM hired four new young researchers, three of them are enrolled in Doctoral Study Programmes at UP FAMNIT. Young researchers are, in the areas of mathematics, cryptography and suicidology, working under the mentorship of Prof. Dragan Marušič,  Assoc. Prof. Enes Pasalic, Assoc. Prof. Štefko Miklavič and Prof. Diego De Leo, DSc.

In this academic year (2014/2015) UP FAMNIT launched the Mathematics Study Programme in English. Five foreign students are enrolled in the Undergraduate Study Programme Mathematics in English and three in the Doctoral Study Programme. With this step the Faculty open the door to promising young mathematicians from all over the world.

In 2014, Faculty successfully completed several projects, including two international projects (EnergyViLLab, GreGAS), two fundamental project ARRS (The last contact with a health professional before suicide: What was missed? Algebraic Graph Theory and Applications) and one project with local community (Legal Identity and Development of the Municipality of Koper). Energy ViLLab was aimed for creating an area of good practice for the use of renewable energy, energy efficiency and sustainable mobility. GreGAS was the first mathematical project, coordinated from Slovenia. It was financed by the European Science Foundation under the program Eurocordes / Eurogiga.

The Faculty was successful in the application for tenders for new projects and in 2014 began to implement four new basic ARRS projects.

• Algebraic Methods and Functional Analysis in the theory and practice of financial mathematics,
• Algebraic Graph Theory and Applications,
• Chemical Carcinogenesis - Computer Approach,
• The development of computational tools for modelling pharmaceutical molecules of interest.

and one international project:

• What we Wood believe? Societal perceptions of the forest-based sector and its products towards a sustainable society

we also acquired a new ARRS program:

• Conservation biology, from molecules to ecosystem

in which the Faculty is included as a partner.

In the framework of bilateral cooperation we have started to implement three new projects:

• Computer modelling of  Biological  Macromolecules (partnership with Russia)
• Distribution, ecology and genetic structure of flowering plants in poljes of the Dinaric Alps: Chouardia litardierei (Liliaceae), Trifolium velebiticum (Fabaceae) and Edraianthus dalmaticus (Campanulaceae) as model flowering plants (partnership with Bosnia and Herzegovina)
• Using probability in Graph Theory and Networks (partnership with USA)

In autumn we acquired a new COST Action FP1407: Understanding wood modification through an integrated scientific and environmental impact approach (ModWoodLife), which has a special weight, because it is, in the history of COST Actions, the first action in the field of forest-wood, which has a Slovenian coordinator - our colleague Assist. Prof. Andrea Kutnar.

In February 2014 UP FAMNIT held 1^st career day at which potential employers, in the field of agriculture, environmental protection and nature, were presented to the students: JP Komunala Koper d.o.o., JZ  Krajinski Park Strunjan, DOPPS BirdLife Slovenia, KZ Agraria Koper z.o.o. in Kmetijsko svetovalna služba Koper (KGZ Nova Gorica).

On 14 March 2014, UP FAMNIT and Actual I.T. signed an Agreement of Mutual Cooperation. By identifying areas of cooperation, institutions upgraded their multiannual connection, which was based, so far, mainly on scholarships for Computer Science students.

In June, the letter of intent was signed between University of Primorska and Kmetijska zadruga Koper. The letter of intent provides additional efforts in the fields of developing new technologies, products and services, education and scientific research, in order to develop knowledge, achieve market success and create new Slovenian brands. The signing of this letter was particularly important for our students of the Undergraduate Study Programme Mediterranean agriculture, because they are already involved with Kmetijska zadruga Koper in the implementation of academic practice.

In collaboration with Franka Cepak, MSc from Port of Koper, superiors of two departments at UP IAM and our teachers and researchers Assoc. Prof. Janez Žibert and Jure Pražnikar, PhD prepared an article, Long-term analysis of elemental content and airborne particulate matter by PIXE and positive matrix factorization: Annual trends and seasonal variability During 2003 and 2008, which was accepted for publication in Atmospheric Environment (vol. 94 , September 2014, pages 723-733), a journal with a high impact factor and so expanded the successful cooperation with this company.

UP FAMNIT actively participated with many companies, as part of this year successfully completed project EnergyVillab.

With the desire to approach science to the general public of all generations, in 2014 UP FAMNIT colleagues organized a number of well-attended events.

In the context of Biological evenings at UP FAMNIT, Department of Biodiversity have organized three lectures: Consumer protection in terms of providing safe food (lecturer Elizabeth Mićović, PhD), Protection and proper management of Karst grasslands in the areas Natura 2000 (lecturer Jernej Figelj) and Biodiversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, archaea and bacteria in natural CO2 springs (lecturer Nataša Šibanc).

On FAMNIT Excursions into the Mathematical Universe, the participants listened to a series of lectures: Prof. Sebastian Brešarj  "Sensor networks and Wedding Planning", Assoc. Prof. Klavdija Kutnar '' The number π '', Sebastian Frelih, PhD '' Mathematics in sport '' and Assist. Prof. Arjan Brezigar Masten ''Are you guys more talented in mathematics than girls?" Within those Excursions, we organized a competition called Plezija in Slovenian, which resulted in quite a few original poems, among all of them the best was declared on 14.3.2014 (day π) and belonged to Ivan Lisac. As a novelty in the academic year 2014/15 this cycle of lectures was offered as one of the programs of continuing education and training for professionals in education.

In February 2014, professors and assistants from UP FAMNIT Department of Information Sciences and Technologies visited Primary School Koper and Primary School Anton Ukmar and have given lectures on the safe use of the Internet.

In March, Faculty organized the second Mathematical day for Primary School students and welcomed pupils from Primary School Sostro, Primary School Oscar Kovačič (Lubiana), Primary School Jožef Moškrič (Lubiana), Primary School Ketteja in Murna (Lubiana) and Primary School Ivana Roba (Sempeter near Nova Gorica). In April, colleagues of the Department of Biodiversity organized a Science day for primary and secondary schools, which was attended by more than 80 pupils.

In the summer, 4^th camp Mathematics is Cool was successfully implemented. For the first time the camp was held separately for primary and secondary schools. It was attended by 38 young mathematics enthusiasts, the highest attendance ever.

To celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of a famous Slovenian mathematician Franc Močnik, assistants Ana Zalokar and Karla Ferjančič together with student Tadej Vodopivec visited Primary School Cerkno in September. They held three mathematical workshops for pupils from 6^th to 9^th grade.