Quick facts about Famnit 2016/17

At the end of 2016, UP FAMNIT celebrated its 10^th anniversary. The celebration was held in hall Sv. Frančišek Asiški in Koper.
On 20^th December 2006 National Assembly of Republic of Slovenia adopted an amendment of decree on the Establishment of the University of Primorska with enrolling a new member - UP FAMNIT. Besides our employees, representatives of other Faculties and the University of Primorska, there were many guests from partner organizations. Among important guest there were Dr. Stojan Sorčan, General Director of the Directorate of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, Science and Sport and Acad. Prof. dr. Andrej Kranjc, Vice-President of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

Mathematicians of the University of Primorska, in cooperation with the representatives of all Slovene mathematical research institutions, were granted the honour to organise the eighth European Congress of Mathematics in 2020 (8EMC). In July 2016, the Council of the European Mathematical Society, which gathered at the 7^th European Congress of Mathematics in Berlin, recognized the potential of the Slovenian candidates and selected us for the organization of the next congress. The decision was greeted with enthusiasm and satisfaction, as the Council expressed its deepest confidence and trust in entrusting us the organization of the congress.
After the International Congress of Mathematicians the European Congress of Mathematics is the second largest meeting of mathematicians in the world and is attended by approximately 1,000 researchers and doctoral students.

The candidature was launched by UP FAMNIT in collaboration with University of Primorska, UP Andrej Marušič Institute, University of Ljubljana Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, University of Ljubljana Faculty of Education, University of Maribor Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and all other organisations active in the field of mathematics in Slovenia, while it was supported also by the Slovenian Ministry of Education, Science and Sport, the Slovene Research Agency, the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and arts and the and Slovenian Rectors' Conference.

Slovene science recorded an important achievement: Science Citation Index for 2015 placed the journal Ars Mathematica Contemporanea (AMC) in the first quarter of scientific journals in the field of mathematics according to the journal's impact factor.
The Journal AMC was established in 2008 by prof. Dragan Marušič, PhD and prof. Tomaž Pisanski, PhD. Together with an enthusiastic team of international editors, they are still managing the journal today. AMC is published by the University of Primorska in cooperation with the Society of Mathematicians, Physicists and Astronomers of Slovenia and the Institute for Mathematics, Physics and Mechanics Ljubljana.
AMC journal is the first Slovene journal, who managed to get into the top quarter of scientific magazines with its impact factor, which represents a new milestone of the Slovenian science. This further defines the Slovenian research in the world.

Among the key projects in which our researchers are involved, we have to emphasis the Centre of Excellence for Research and Innovation in the field of renewable materials and healthy living environment - InnoRenew CoE (2016–2022) from the instrument Teaming European Union Framework Programme for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020.

The aim of the project is to develop the Centre of Excellence for Research and Innovation in renewable materials use and research in providing a positive health benefits in buildings. The centre will elevate Slovenia to the forefront of sustainable building research in Europe. Within the project our Living laboratory (LL InnoRenew) we already gathered 62 different companies, institutions and connections from 20 countries. They collaboratively explore and design themes, opportunities, and risks for new products, services and systems in the field of innovative renewable materials.
The European Commission recognised the potential of the consortium and awarded it with a grant of almost 15 million Euros to establish the Renewable Materials and Healthy Environments Research and Innovation Centre of Excellence (InnoRenew CoE). The Government of the Republic of Slovenia added 30 million Euros of investment funding to boost development of the new research centre.

Our department of Biodiversity is intensively working on the project »Euroturtle – Collective actions for improving the conservation status of the EU sea turtle populations« which is financed by the LIFE programme of the European Commission and is implemented in collaboration with partners from Croatia, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, and Malta. The leading partner in the project is the Croatian Natural History Museum from Zagreb (Croatia).
The project is oriented towards the complete protection of European population of loggerhead sea turtle through the development of coordinated protective measures and the integration of the main breeding and feeding habitats in the waters of the European Union.

In 2016 we started a new important project, STARBIOS2 (2016-2020) – Structural Transformation to Attain Responsible BIOSciences, which is financed by the European Commission under the European Union Framework Programme for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020. Within the project we are developing and implementing action plans that will lead to structural changes in the field of responsible research (Responsible Research and Innovation – RRI) and innovation in selected research institutions that are active in the field of bioscience.

In October 2016, Prof. Tomaž Pisanski, PhD received the prize »Donald Michie and Alan Turing« for Life Achievements in Slovenian Information Society. He received the award at the opening ceremony of the 19th International Multiconference Information Society - IS 2016 organized by the Department of Intelligent Systems, Jožef Stefan Institute (Slovenia).

The Department of Applied Sciences and Assoc. Prof. Andreja Kutnar, PhD received the award for excellent communication in science »Prometej znanosti za odličnost v komuniciranju« by the Slovene Science Foundation for their work in 2015.

In March 2016, the University of Primorska held the Gala Academy to award successful professors, researchers and students. Awarded colleagues of UP FAMNIT were:

• Assoc. Prof. Martin Milanič, PhD, who received the Scientific Excellence Award of the University of Primorska for 2015 in the field of natural sciences,
• Assoc. Prof. Nejc Šarabon, PhD, Scientific Excellence Award of the University of Primorska for 2015 in the field of Social Sciences,
• Noemi Matavulj, who received »Srečko Kosovel Award« which is given to successful students of the University of Primorska,
• Marko Rajković, who received the Acknowledgment for students of the University of Primorska.

In December the Minister of Education, Science and Sport, Maja Makovec Benčič received 150 students from Slovenia, who achieved outstanding results at international competitions in the study year 20015/16. UP FAMNIT students recognised for theis achievements were: Marko Palangetić, Marko Rajković, Vladan Jovičić, Daniel Silađi, Roman Solodukhin, Edin Husić in Marko Prcać.

On the Volunteering Day, the Association Slovenian Philantropy has awarded the public sector employees with the title »heroes of today«. UP FAMNIT Head of International Office Aleš Oven received the award for his work with refugees in Autumn 2015.

UP FAMNIT students have been very active in international knowledge competitions and they have also proved a high sense of initiative and entrepreneurship. 

In April,  the University development centre and incubator of Primorska has hosted the NASA Space Apps Challenge. Among 20 contestants from Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia and Hercegovina, United Kingdom and Chile, the team of UP Famnit mathematicians won the 2^nd prize (Marko Rajković, Daniel Silađi, Vladan Jovičić, Edin Husić, Marko Prcać in Marko Palangetić).

During the final competition for the best business idea of Primorska region Podjetna Primorska in May 2016, students Marko Prcać, Edin Husić and Vladan Jovičić received the first prize in the category »Rector's Award« for the application SHARK which helps sailors to find the nearest free quay in case they don't know where to overnight.
Biopsychology student Zala Gruden received the third prize for the app All You Can Try On which helps customers during shopping.

Our students Goran Tubić and Daniel Silađi have participated to the International Olympiads in informatics. Silađi was awarded with the bronze medal.

Three of our Mathematics undergraduate students went through the first two rounds of the Open International Internet Olympiads for Higher Education Students and entered the finals on 19 May 2016.
Among 5,525 participants from 183 university, Roman Solodukhin won the silver medal, while Marko Rajković won the bronze medal. Due to the excellent participation of our students, University of Primorska won the title »University champion«.

Our students also attended the Vojtěch Jarník International Mathematical Competition, which was held in April 2016 in Ostrava (Czech Republic). Anes Valentić, Marija Tepegjozova, Marko Palangetić, and Roman Solodukhin were among the 154 students participants from 35 different universities. Marko Palangetić received the certificate of »Successful participant«.

In May 2016, Marko Palangetić, Marko Rajković and Roman Solodukhin, attended Mathematical competition BMC 2016 in Barcelona, Spain. Despite to the strong competition, our students got great results. In five hours of solving the mathematical problems, each participant could get 35 points. Marko Palangetić got 21 points, Roman Solodukhin 16 and Marko Rajković 15.

At the International Mathematics Competition for University Students 2016 in which was held between 25 July and 31 July 2016 in Blagoevgrad (Bulgaria), Marko Palangetić won the 2^nd prize while Roman Solodukhin was 3^th.

Our Biopsychology students attended the 7^th International congress of Slovenian Psychologists’ Association, which was dedicated to »Applied neuropsychology: between small and large networks - from the brain world wide web«. In the student section of the congress, Martina Bažec, Špela Križanec and Urša Bernardič, presented their research work to the audience, while Nina Omejc was member of the organizing committee.

Our students were successful also in programming competitions. In the final round of UPM – University programing marathon 2016. Jan Grbac and Mirt Hlaj placed 24th, Marko Palangetić and Daniel Siladji placed 5th. Due to the great results, the last two, were selected to perform at the competition CERC Central Europe Regional Contest 2016.
The competition was held in November in Zagreb, Croatia. Anton Uramer joint to the group and with his help, they improved the result from the last year. They were ranked 30^th among 67 groups.

UP FAMNIT students are very active also in the sport field. Within the University league contests our basketball team won the golden medal, while the handball team got the silver medal.
Our students represented the University of Primorska at the 3. European University Games. The competition was held in Zagreb, Croatia. We are especially proud of our handball and water polo teams, which were ranked among the 5 best teams on the biggest academic sport event in Europe.

For the past 4 years, UP FAMNIT students have been winning the University competition “Čista desetka” which brings together students from all faculties during a day of sport and fun games. 

In 2016 UP FAMNIT has been particularly successful in obtaining founds within the EU ERASMUS + Programme which supports mobilities and cooperation projects between partner institutions. With the financial support of 100.000 eur, we will support 31 student motilities and 10 staff motilities with partner states.

Starting from 2016 UP FAMNIT and UP IAM carry out the following projects:

ECCUM – Establishment of Computing Centres and Curriculum Development in Mathematical Engineering Master Programme (with partners from Spain, Italy, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan)

ERGOSIGN – Novel learning approach for ERGOnomic principles for deSIGNers working in the upholstery and sleep sectors by using Virtual Reality (with partners from Romania, Spain and Poland)

DA.RE – Data Science Pathways to re-imagine education (with partners from Italy, Serbia, Portugal, United Kingdom and Slovenia)

CULTURESHAKE (with partners from Germany, United Kingdom, Sweden and Slovenia)

In the frame of the Operation Hosting foreign experts and professors at the University of Primorska - GUEST UP, which is co-financed by the Republic of Slovenia and the European Union under the European Social Fund, 34 professors from all around the world will offer lectures to our students.

In 2016, we have organised international research meetings, conferences and summer schools in fields of mathematics, computer science and informatics, psychology and health.

Among them we mention the following: Triple i 2016: Intuition, Imagination and Innovation in Suicidology, A comprehensive approach to the treatment and social and economic reintegration of illicit drug users, 2016 PhD Summer School in Discrete Mathematics, StuCoSRec: 3rd Student Computer Science Research Conference 2016, MATCOS-16: Middle-European Conference on Applied Theoretical Computer Science (MATCOS-16).

On 16 June 2016, UP FAMNIT held its 6^th annual Graduation Ceremony. 102 undergraduate and master's graduates received their graduations, 8 students also received rewards of the Faculty for their achievements active involvement in the Faculty life.

On 26 October 2016, 8 new doctors of science were promoted. Among them were also Nina Chiarelli and Pawel Petecki, who finished their doctoral studies of Mathematics at our Faculty.

Aiming to make science more accessible to general public, UP FAMNIT colleagues organized a number of well-attended events throughout the 2016.

Our Department of Biodiversity continued with Biological evenings at UP FAMNIT and organized three lectures: »Biology and ecology of dragonflies« (lecturer Costanza Uboni, PhD student form the University of Trieste), »Are we conscious of plastic in our water?« (lecturers: Manca Kovač Viršek and Uroš Robič from the Institute for Water of the Republic of Slovenia), »Legal aspects of nature conservation – NGOs experiences« (lecturer Senka Šifkovič Vrbica from the Legal-Informational Centre for NGOs).

A series of lectures was offered by the Department of Mathematics, which continued with its Excursions into the Mathematical Universe:  »Journey from root to fractal« (Assoc. Prof. Jasna Prezelj, PhD), »Gauss Curve« (Assist. Prof. Martin Raič, PhD), »Data Geometry« (Assist. Prof. Primož Škraba, PhD), »Mathematics and graduation exams« (Izok Banic, PhD), »Mathematics and Financial Literacy« (Assoc. Prod. Mihael Perman, PhD), »Mathematics of secret messages« (Assist. Prof. Ademir Hujdurović, PhD).
We continue to offer lectures as an opportunity for further education and training of professional workers in education.

In March and April, we organised 5^th and 6 ^thFAMNIT Mathematical Days for primary school pupils of 8^th and 9^th grade.
73 pupils from six different primary schools visited us: OŠ Sostro (Ljubljana), OŠ Kašelj (Ljubljana), OŠ Oskarja Kovačiča (Ljubljana), OŠ Jožeta Moškriča (Ljubljana), OŠ Ivana Roba (Šempeter pri Gorici) in OŠ Bežigrad (Ljubljana). Young math enthusiasts learnt about mathematics through a series of interesting lectures and workshops.

High school biology teachers-mentors from all parts of Slovenia have joined a special workshop in the University Campus Livade in Izola, where professors and assistants of the Department of Biodiversity presented to them some new, modern approaches in zoology, microbiology, taxonomy and genomics. The meeting,  co-organized by UP FAMNIT and ZOTKS, enabled knowledge sharing, exchange of ideas and practical work.

Past summer we successfully organized the Biological Research Camp. It was organized by Department of Biodiversity UP FAMNIT and the Association for Technical Culture of Slovenia. Participants and organizers were very pleased to get to know the animals and plant diversity of Slovenian Istra.

In August, primary and high school pupils participated to the 6^th FAMNIT Summer Camp »Mathematics is cool«. Young math enthusiasts learned about mathematics through entertaining and educational contents, while the basic purpose of the camp was popularization of mathematics through interesting examples from practice.
15 primary school and 13 high school pupils attended 2016's summer camp. Lectures were held separately for primary and high school students.

Our professors, researchers and student successfully participated to the event Science for Life which was held in different locations in Koper and Izola. One of the locations was also the University Campus Livade, where the participants had the chance participated to many interesting experiments, workshops, tours and socialized with the researches.

The study year 2015/2016 ended with Research days in mathematics, organised for the 5^th 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 32 high school pupils 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.

Between 1 and 9 December, the Department of Mathematics UP FAMNIT organized the second FAMNITs’ quiz Mathematics advent calendar. It has been designed for both elementary and high school pupils. While solving interesting and funny tasks, young participants have tested their mathematical knowledge.
Three pupils won the free attendance at the 7^th Summer Math Camp Mathematics is cool.

Starting with the second semester of the Academic year 2015/16, students of the programmes Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Mediterranean agricolture, Biopsychology and Nature conservation started to use the laboratories at the University Campus Livade in Izola.
High-tech equipment in the campus now enables research in the field of applied sciences, biodiversity, agriculture and food, gastronomy, bioinformatics, health, urban planning, ergonomics, environmental technologies, and renewable materials.
Moreover, the new premises allow us the expansion of the existing range of diverse activities, which are carried out for the popularization of natural science and science, which we wish to bring closer to the pupils, their teachers-mentors, as well as the general public.

At the beginning of the year, new spaces for research activity have been renewed in Koper (Kettejeva 1). Two study rooms were also opened; one of them is the only study room in Koper which can be used every day at any time (24/7).

In 2016 we continued the collaboration with the Agraria Koper Agricultural Cooperative and the newspaper Primorske novice. In Sobota - the weekly supplement of the newspaper - experts of the cooperative, in collaboration with our professors and students of study programme Mediterranean agriculture, provided advice for gardening and at the same time they jointly cultivated the Purissima garden.

Past May we participated to the Employment day, which was organized by Koper Regional Service, Employment Service of Slovenia. Its goal was to present various employment, training and education opportunities in the local environment.
Our department coordinators highlighted the competences of our graduates.

After the successful implementation of 17 projects, within the ESS call “Creative way to practical knowledge” in years 2014 and 2015, we manage to receive founds for 5 new project. In 2016, within cooperation of 10 different enterprises and organisations, many ideas were created which will be realized until July 2017. 

Within the project What we Wood believe? Societal perceptions of the forest-based sector and its products towards a sustainable society, we enabled close cooperation with research and economic partners. The overall objective of the project was to create and demonstrate innovative and cost-efficient ways of communication towards stakeholders in relevance of the European forest-based sector and its products for a sustainable bio-economy. After having identified eight relevant topics that are of interest for stakeholders from forest based sector, we shared the results of our content analysis and present the ongoing public survey.

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 verifies the quality of the study programme in line with the national criteria and decides whether it fulfils the criteria for accreditation. If it fulfils the criteria, the study programme is accredited for another seven years.
In 2016, accreditation for three programmes has been prolonged (undergraduate study programmes Biopsychology and Applicative Kinesiology, master study programme Applicative Kinesiology).