Quick facts about Famnit 2015/16

On 20 November 2015, our professor and researcher Prof. Tomaž Pisanski, PhD received the Zois Award for outstanding achievements in scientific research work in the field of discrete mathematics and its applications. Zois Award is the most prestigious award for exceptional and lasting achievements in scientific research and development activities, awarded to researchers in the Republic of Slovenia.

In March 2015, the University of Primorska held Gala Academy to award successful professors, researchers and students. Awarded colleagues of UP FAMNIT were:

• Assoc. Prof. Enes Pasalic, Phd, who received the Scientific Excellence Award of the University of Primorska for 2015 in the field of natural sciences and engineering.
• Assoc. Prof. Andreja Kutnar, Phd, who received “Svečana listina”, University of Primorska’s award for outstanding results.
• Tea Knap, who received »Srečko Kosovel Award«, which is given to successful students of the University of Primorska.
• Aleksandar Tošić, who received the Acknowledgment for students of the University of Primorska.

On 30 June 2015, Prof. Diego de Leo, DSc received The Vice Chancellor's 2014 Research Excellence Award for outstanding research work and achievements in the category »Individual Mid-career or Senior Researcher who has demonstrated an outstanding record of achievement in research«, presented by Griffith University (Australia).

In January, Assist. Prof. Vita Poštuvan, PhD received an Award of the Slovene Science Foundation, »Prometej znanosti za odličnost v komuniciranju 2014«.

Assist. Prof. Irena Maček, PhD and Nataša Šibanc, PhD have been selected to participate in a series of events “Excellent in Science 2015”, which is organised by Slovenian research Agency. They were rewarded for their original scientific article Impacts of naturally elevated soil CO2 concentrations on communities of soil archaea and bacteria, which they prepared in cooperation with Alex Dumbrell, PhD and Ines Mandić-Mulec, PhD.

On the International Student's Day, 17 November 2015, nine students from our Faculty attended a reception, held by the Minister of Education, Science and Sport, Maja Makovec Brenčič, PhD. The Minister received 150 students from Slovenia, who achieved outstanding results at international competitions in the study year 2014/2015. UP FAMNIT students recognised for their achievements were: Ivan Bartulović, Ratko Darda, Vladan Jovičić, Marko Palangetić, Marko Rajković, Anja Rudež, Martin Senič, Roman Solodukhin and Tanja Štular.

In the beginning of March 2015, six of our undergraduate students of Mathematics attended The 9th South Eastern European Mathematical Olympiad for University Students SEEMOUS 2015, which was organised in Ohrid (Former Yugoslavic Republic of Macedonia). 91 mathematicians form 21 universities participated and UP FAMNIT students brought home silver and bronze medals. We congratulate Roman Solodukhin and Marko Palangetić for their success.

Our students also attended the Vojtěch Jarník International Mathematical Competition, which was held in March 2015 in Ostrava (Czech Republic). 74 students from 31 different universities participated. Among them were our students Anes Valentić, Marko Palangetić, Marko Rajković and Roman Solodukhin, who finished 7th in their category, which is an excellent result!

Student of undergraduate study programme Bioinformatics Tanja Štular presented her idea, on »Breaking the walls of drug discovery« at the event Falling Walls Lab in March 2015 in Ljubljana. Under the mentorship of Janez Konc, PhD and co-mentorship of Prof. Dušanka Janežič, PhD, she achieved excellent 3^rd place!

Between 11 and 17 April 2015 our undergraduate students of Mathematics attended International Scientific Student Conference ISSC-2015 in Novosibirsk (Russia). Eight of our students presented their researches and two of them achieved brilliant results. Marko Rajković finished took 1st place and Ratko Darda followed him in the 2nd place.

In April Tanja Štular and Anja Rudež, together with Tamara Lah, student of the Faculty of Tourism Studies, attended the national competition Microsoft Imagine Cup 2015. They presented their idea for a mobile application »Say Goodbye« and won the Slovene competition.

Biodiversity student Martin Senič was invited to participate at the international competition e-CLIC and conference Landscape of possibilities between 6 and 9 May 2015 in Tartu (Estonia). He developed the project Re-Vive under the mentorship of Assoc. Prof. Elena Bužan, PhD and co-mentorship of Sara Zupan and achieved excellent 3rd place in his category.

During the final competition for the best business idea of Primorska region Podjetna Primorska in May 2015, seven of our students presented their project Zaspanček.si and won the category »Best student project«. Urša Bernardič, Neli Kovšca, Viktorija Majger, Brigita Obreza, Matic Prinčič, Natalija Žlavs and Katja Praček formed the winning team.

Three of our undergraduate students of mathematics went through the first two rounds of the Open International Internet Olympiads for Higher Education Students and entered the finals on 27 May 2015. Among 5,948 participants from 195 university, Marko Palangetić and Roman Solodukhin won silver medals, while Marko Rajković won bronze medal.

Our students participated also at the International Mathematics Competition for University Students 2015 in Blagoevgrad (Bulgaria) between 27 July and 2 August 2015. Marko Palangetić won the 2^nd prize, Ivan Bartulović won the 3^rd prize, while Roman Solodukhin and Vladan Jovičić received an acknowledgment for participation.

On 10 October 2015, two teams from our Faculty attended the final round of the competition Univerzitetni programerski maraton (UPM) 2015. The team with Daniel Siladji, Marko Palangetić and Vladan Jovičić finished the competition 5^th, while the other team finished 15^th.

A regular evaluation of study programmes has to be carried out every seven years, in line with the Higher education act. During the accreditation process, the National Committee for Quality in Higher Education and independent experts verify the quality of the study programme in line with the national criteria and decide whether it fulfils the criteria for accreditation. If it fulfils the criteria, the study programme is accredited for another seven years.

In 2015, accreditation for three programmes has been prolonged (undergraduate study programmes Biodiversity and Mediterranean Agriculture and Master’s study programme Nature conservation). This was a result of the activities in 2014, when a group of external evaluators visited the Faculty and found all programmes suitable.

The process continues, as other programmes are in the process of accreditation prolongation as well. In 2015, the documentation was prepared for the study programmes Bioinformatics and Mathematics in Economics and Finance and we are expecting external evaluators in 2016. Simultaneously we launched the application process for extension of accreditation for the undergraduate study programme Biopsychology.

On 12 June 2015, UP FAMNIT held its 5^th annual Graduation Ceremony. 106 undergraduate and master's graduates received their graduations, which is the highest number in the history of our Faculty. 11 graduates also received rewards of the Faculty for their achievements.

During the University of Primorska week, a Doctoral Degree Conferment Ceremony was organised on 16 March 2015. 8 new doctors of science were promoted. Among them were also Alexander Vasilyev and Sergio Hiroki Koike Quintanar, who finished their doctoral studies of Mathematics at our Faculty.

The second Doctoral Degree Conferment Ceremony in 2015 was held on 22 October 2015. The rector of the university, Prof. Dragan Marušič, PhD promoted two doctors of science from our Faculty, Sašo Moškon and Andrej Panjan. Both of them studied Computer Science.

In collaboration with the Society of Mathematicians, Physicists and Astronomers of Slovenia and the Institute of Mathematics, Physics and Mechanics in Ljubljana, the University of Primorska publishes an international mathematical journal Ars Mathematica Contemporanea (AMC).

AMC was listed on the SCI in 2011, which was a historic event for Slovene mathematicians. In 2012 the journal was ranked in second qurter of SCI journals in the field of mathematics (IF 0.667) and in 2013 in third quartal (IF 0.449). In 2014 AMC was ranked as the 102^nd journal (IF 0.742) and was once again in the second quartal of SCI journals in the field of mathematics.

Portal SCIMAGO ranked the magazine in 2014 to the 1^st place among scientific magazines in Slovenia and to the 6^th place among scientific magazines in Eastern Europe. Chief Editors of the magazine are our professors and researchers Prof. Dragan Marušič, PhD and Prof. Tomaž Pisanski, PhD.

In January 2015, UP FAMNIT organised the 2^nd career day in cooperation with University Career Center and University Incubator. Potential employers in the fields of mathematics, natural science and information technologies were presented to the students: Actual I.T. d.d., KZ Agraria Koper, DOPPS, Kmetija Žiber, Elcomin d.o.o. and Oljarna Hrvatin.

In February 2015 regional daily newspaper Primorske novice, in cooperation with KZ Agraria and two of our Mediterranean agriculture students, Tine Matoš and Tadej Grbec, started with a weekly column Primorski vrtiček. The column offered advices for gardening. Simultaneously, our two students and KZ Agraria staff designed and cultivated the garden at Purissima in Ankaran. Articles were also showcased during an exhibition in the lobby of Armerija palace (main building of the University of Primorska) between 4 and 18 November 2015. Exhibition included 36 full-page articles, which were made during the project »Primorski vrtiček«. The column received excellent responses from readers and the Slovene Science Foundation awarded the project with “Promotej of science for communication excellence”.

With our business partners we also implemented 8 projects under the scheme “Creative path to practical knowledge” and further strengthened our partnerships. Please see below project descriptions for details.

Aiming to make science more accessible to general public, UP FAMNIT colleagues organized a number of well-attended events throughout the 2015.

Department of Biodiversity continued with Biological evenings at UP FAMNIT and organized three lectures in 2015: ISTRA-HIDRO – Sustainable management with cross-border underground water between the Gulf of Trieste and the Kvarner Gulf (lecturers from Geological Survey of Slovenia and The National Laboratory of Health, Environment and Food), Marine mammals in the 21st century (lecturer asisstant Tilen Genov) and Plant world of Sečovlje salt pans (lecturer assistant Peter Glasnović)

A series of lectures was offered by the Department of Mathematics, which continued with its Excursions into the Mathematical Universe: »Mathematics behind the web search engines activity« (lecturer Assist. Rok Požar, PhD), »Mathematics in computer vision« (lecturer Assist. Prof. Marko Boben, PhD), »From the smallest squares to the activity of a CT device« (lecturer Assist. Prof. Marko Orel, PhD), »Origami« (lecturer Prof. Bojan Kuzma, PhD), »Japanese temple geometry and western geometry« (lecturer Assist. Prof. Jurij Kovič, PhD) and »Symmetry, mathematics and music« (lecturer Boštjan Kuzman, PhD). In the study year 2015/16, faculty launched the 7^th cycle of lectures on mathematics and its role in the modern world. We continue to offer lectures as an opportunity for further education and training of professional workers in education.

In February 2015, Assist. Prof. Jernej Vičič, PhD from the Department of Information Sciences and Technologies talked about the traps and dangers on the internet and suggested how we can protect ourselves. In March 2015, Assist. Prof. Jernej Vičič, PhD and Assist. Prof. Branko Kavšek, PhD attended a 3-day workshop in Centre for School and Outdoor Education Vojsko, where they led a computer workshop »Production of entertaining content with tangible user interface« for primary school pupils. They learnt about the basics of computer science and programming through interesting contents.

On 21 March 2015, our Faculty hosted national competition for Proteus Award, where 370 high school pupils tested their knowledge of biology. As in previous years, our students of undergraduate study programme Biodiversity and master's study programme Nature Conservation helped with the organisation of the competition, while representatives of the faculty presented UP FAMNIT and its study programmes to mentors of high school students. They also had the opportunity to attend the lectures of Assist. Prof. Bojan Lazar, PhD from the Department of Biodiversity and Polona Kotnjek from Morigenos.

In April and May we organised 3^rd and 4^th FAMNIT Mathematical Days for primary school pupils of 8^th and 9^th grade. 81 pupils and 8 teachers from seven different primary schools visited us: OŠ Ivana Roba (Šempeter pri Gorici), OŠ Sostro (Ljubljana – Dubrunje), OŠ Jožeta Moškriča (Ljubljana), OŠ Ketteja in Murna (Ljubljana), OŠ Rodica (Domžale), OŠ Šmarje pri Kopru (Koper) and OŠ Šenčur. Young math enthusiasts learnt about mathematics through a series of interesting lectures and workshops.

In summer our faculty successfully organised 5^th FAMNIT Summer Camp »Mathematics is cool« for primary and high school students. Young math enthusiasts learnt about mathematics through entertaining and educational contents, while the basic purpose of the camp was popularization of mathematics through interesting examples from practice. 21 primary school 9 high school pupils attended 2015's summer camp. Lectures were held separately for primary and high school students.

In the end of August our Faculty, in cooperation with Faculty of Education from University of Primorska, hosted the 9^th Middle European Mathematical Olympiad. High school students from nine countries (Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Switzerland) attended the competition. Participants gained new experiences in international competitions and attended excursions, during which they saw the main Slovenian landmarks.

The study year 2014/2015 ended with Research days in mathematics, organised for the 5th consecutive year by UP FAMNIT in cooperation with Faculty of Education from University of Primorska and The Society of Mathematicians, Physicists and Astronomers of Slovenia. Invited were High school students from Slovenia, who achieved the best results at national and international competitions in the field of mathematics. They listened to mathematical lectures, which prepared them for International Mathematical Olympiad and other competitions.

Department of Mathematics organised UP FAMNIT Prize Quiz »Mathematical Advent Calendar« for high school students from Slovenia for the first time. Students could test their mathematical knowledge by solving interesting assignments offered each day between 1 and 18 December. The winner got free participation at the 6^th Mathematical Summer Camp »Mathematics is cool«, which will be organised in August 2016.

In the beginning of 2015, University of Primorska signed an agreement with the prestigious Oregon State University, which is ranked among the 200 best universities in the world. The agreement was a natural consequence of the previously established cooperation between OSU, UP FAMNIT and UP IAM. Collaboration includes numerous visits of foreign lecturers, their participation in the study process and cooperation in research projects. Oregon State University successfully cooperates with three of our faculty departments: Department of Applied Natural Sciences, Department of Biodiversity and Department of Psychology. Between 15 and 30 June 2015, we organised international summer school Production of Housing in Europe: Innovation, Conservation and Design with Natural Resources together.

University of Primorska received financial support for the implementation of 25 projects in collaboration with businesses. UP FAMNIT successfully implemented 8 projects. Students became familiar with business challenges and learnt how to solve them in a team. The process was guided by mentors from the faculty and companies. 56 students and 16 pedagogic and business mentors from 11 different companies cooperated in projects.

We implemented the following projects between February and July 2015:

• Identification of fishery products and declaration tracking
• Compact mobile data holder supporting different measuring devices
• Interactive information point
• Biometric reader as a tool for tracking of invasive animal species
• Establishment of IS for connecting participants in kindergarten
• Let's save endangered birds – a manual for reducing influences of predatory crows on colonial birds
• Planning the buildings of future – Computerisation of building planning (BIM Modeling)
• Personification in intelligent objects – PINO.

With these projects our faculty upgraded experiences gained in 2014, when we successfully implemented 9 projects, involving 45 students, 7 companies and 8 pedagogic mentors.

Projects were co-funded under the 2^nd public call for implementation of projects »Creative path to practical knowledge«, published by the Slovene human resources development and scholarship fund.

By the end of June, we have successfully finished the project “UP and the WORLD – the international integration of the University of Primorska”. The aim of the project was to promote internationalisation at home. The project lasted a year and a half, during which UP FAMNIT hosted 198 foreign lecturers from 37 countries. In addition, the Faculty organized 13 international workshops with over 800 participants, while 4 professors from abroad have been employed.

41 foreign lecturers have participated in the study process, presenting the latest scientific discoveries from around the world to our students. 31 of them visited us in the summer semester 2014/2015, which was overall a very international semester.

Other guests have been involved in at least one of the 13 international conferences we have organized. In the first half of 2015 we hosted 8 international conferences and one Summer School. With all these activities we promote and ensure “internationalization of higher education at home”. The entire Faculty participated in the implementation of the project, including management, departments, administrative staff, students and guests. We thank everyone for their contribution and for their patience and understanding in following all required procedures.

Project UP and the WORLD was co-financed by the European Social Fund and the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport.

During 2015 we organised 16 international meetings, conferences and summer schools. Two of them were organised in collaboration with institutions from the USA – summer school Production of Housing: Innovation, Conservation and Design with Natural Resources with Oregon State University and Mississippi Discrete Mathematics Workshop with Mississippi State University.

6 international meetings were organised in the field of mathematics, 4 in the field of environmental technologies, 2 in the field of biodiversity and environment protection, 2 in the field of computer science and informatics, 1 in the field of psychology and 1 in the field of agriculture.

 In the end of January 2015, European Commission announced its support for a partnership project Renewable Materials and Healthy Environments Research and Innovation Centre of Excellence (InnoRenew CoE). The University of Primorska is coordinating 9 partners from Slovenia and Germany, who cooperate in centre’s establishment. The centre will work in the field of environmental technologies and the usage of renewable sources.

 InnoRenew CoE will increase scientific excellence in Slovenia, especially in fields, closely related to renewable materials. Purpose of the InnoRenew CoE is to enable Slovenia a breakthrough in sustainable civil engineering.

Project partners will combine their diverse knowledge and skills and develop new, intelligent, sustainable and modern living environments, adapted to all generations.

The initial stage of project lasts one year, during which foundations for the Centre of Excellence will be laid down. The project was supported under the framework H2020 WIDESPREAD-1-2014-Teaming.

This year, UP FAMNIT announced candidacies for two major events. Department of Mathematics, in collaboration with all scientific and professional organisations in the field of mathematics in Slovenia announced its candidacy to organise the 8th European Congress of Mathematics 2020. Psychologists from the Slovene Centre for Suicide Research (SCSR) announced their candidacy to organise XXX World Congress of International Association for Suicide Prevention 2019 with the title Connectedness in suicidology: Bringing closer people, research and practice for suicide prevention.

From all the significant achievements in 2015, we are especially proud of two investments we finished. The first building of the University Campus Livade was open in autumn, where our students and researchers will be able to take advantage of modern research and teaching facilities.  We also received additional funds from the Ministry of education, science and sport to purchase, restore and equip 340,60 m2 of the ground floor of Galeb building in Kettejeva 1, Koper for research activities of UP IAM and UP FAMNIT.

University Campus Livade has four modern laboratories, which will be used by our students of study programmes Biodiversity, Mediterranean Agriculture and Nature Conservation. Lectures and practice for some courses of the study programmes Bioinformatics and Biopsychology will also be taught in Livade. With the largest investment so far, University of Primorska is one step closer to one of its basic strategic goals – guaranteeing appropriate infrastructure needed for development of higher education and research in the field of natural science and other technical disciplines.