Quick facts about Famnit 2019/20

Prof. Enes Pasalic, PhD, has been recognized as one of the world's leading researchers in the area of design and analysis of symmetric ciphers and cryptographically interesting discrete combinatorial structures, especially the Boolean functions. He was part of the research team that developed the new S-box used in the 3G mobile network protocol and in the stream cipher SNOW for use in the 3GPP standard. Between 2012 and 2018, he published 41 scientific articles in high quality journals such as IEEE and Finite Fields and their Applications. Since 2018, he is also leading the UP FAMNIT Center for Cryptography at the University of Primorska.

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Prof. Enes Pasalic, PhD awarded with the Zois Award for outstanding scientific achievements

Assoc. prof. Irena Maček, PhD from UP FAMNIT Department of Biodiversity was the first and leading author of an article published in the renowned journal Molecular Ecology. The paper entitled Impacts of long-term elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations on communities of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi examines the effect of increased atmospheric CO2 concentration on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi that live in symbiosis with 2/3 of terrestrial plants. The journal Molecular Ecology is published twice a month and has an impact factor of 6,855, which ranks it among the best magazines in the field of biochemistry and molecular biology, ecology and evolutionary biology in the ISI database.

In March 2019, the University of Primorska held the Gala Academy to award successful professors, researchers and students. Awarded colleagues of UP FAMNIT were:

• Asocc. Prof Ademir Hujdurovic, PhD, professor and researcher at UP FAMNIT and UP IAM, who received the 2018 Scientific Excellence Award in Natural Sciences and Engineering,
• Assist. Prof. Michael David Burnard, PhD, professor and researcher at UP FAMNIT and UP IAM, who received the award for young professors for the excellence and top achievements in the field of scientific and pedagogical work,
• Maja Jerman, graduate of Applied Psychology MSc, who received the Srečko Kosovel Award for Students of the University of Primorska. She received the award for her outstanding achievements in preparing her final thesis entitled Self-awareness of gender identity in transgender persons (mentor: Assoc. Prof. Gregor Žvelc, PhD co-mentor: Assist. Prof. Maja Smrdu, PhD).

Former Dean of the UP FAMNIT, Prof. Klavdija Kutnar, PhD was appointed the new President of the Council of the Republic of Slovenia for Higher Education. Among the new members of the council are also Prof. Štefko Miklavič, PhD (UP FAMNIT and UP IAM), former Rector of the University of Primorska, Prof. Dragan Marušič, PhD (Rector Member), prof. dr. Igor Žagar Žnidaršič, PhD (UP PEF) and Assoc. Prof. Gregor Pobežin, PhD (UP FHŠ).

The Bank of Slovenia annually awards the best masters and doctoral works in the field of finances. Noemi Matavulj, a graduate of the Master's Program in Mathematics with Financial Engineering at UP FAMNIT, was one of this year's seven recipients of the plaque and monetary prize. The title of the awarder master's thesis is Analysis of the availability of financial resources for companies.

At the end of the year, the Head of our Higher Education Library for Engineering, Medicine and Natural Sciences - TeMeNa, operating within UP FAMNIT and UP IAM, dr. Petruša Miholič Received the 2019 Kalan Fund Prize for Scientific Monograph entitled Scientific Publication of Researchers.

2019 was also marked by success in obtaining projects under various national and international programmes. UP Famnit has a wide network of links with reputable universities and research institutions around the world. Many of them were ranked very high in the 2019 rankings of the Shanghai World's Top Universities. Lecturers and researchers come to us, both within projects and independently. In 2019, their numbers have remained similarly high as the year before, with 111 researchers and faculty attending, while the number of guest visits by our employees has doubled over the past 12 months compared to 2018 and exceeded 200.

An indicator of the international involvement of the faculty is also the large increase in enrolment of students from abroad. In the academic year 2019/20 they represent 41,5 % of all students enroled. Our programmes currently include students from Slovenia and the following countries: Argentina, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, Czech Republic, Germany, Montenegro, Croatia, Italy, Israel, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Macedonia, Mexico, Russia, Serbia , Spain, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Uzbekistan and the United States.

Strengthening openness, accessibility and cooperation with international partners has enabled the faculty to include a greater number of foreign experts in the teaching processes and in research, and to offer study programs in both Slovenian and English. The success was also confirmed by U-Multirank's latest rating, which ranked UP in 2019 as »Global Top 25 Performers« in the category of internationally directed programmes. Recognition was provided by UP FAMNIT's study and research areas - mathematics, computer science and biology.

Our researchers have continued to work on major international projects that have received funding over the years from the European Union Framework Program for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020 (InnoRenew CoE, Starbios2 and Pro-Enrich) and the European Commission's Life Programme (Life Euroturtles). At the same time, we have acquired a new project from Horizon 2020 entitled RESponsible Research and Innovation Grounding Practices in BIOSciences - RESBIOS and a new COST campaign entitled An Integrated Approach to Conservation of Threatened Plants for the 21st Century.

The Department of Applied Science continued its activities as a partner institution under the project SUSGRAPE - Promoting sustainable viticulture through ICT in the ITA-SLO cross-border area (Interreg V-A Italy-Slovenia 2014-2020). The Department of Biodiversity, together with partners from Slovenia and Croatia, intensively worked on the project within the framework of the Interreg V-A Slovenia-Croatia Cooperation Program entitled LIKE - Living on the Karst Edge and as partners, our researchers started working on the project from the Interreg Italy - Slovenia Cross-Border Cooperation Program entitled Enhancement of Green Infrastructure in IT-SI Cross-border Landscape.

In addition, we were successful in obtaining new research projects on the Call for Proposals for co-financing of research projects for 2019 by the Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS). Within four core projects and one core postdoctoral project, we will carry out research work in the fields of mathematics, psychology, computationally intensive methods and applications, and plant production. New are also the ARRS-funded bilateral co-operations with the US, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary and Austria.
Information on projects under implementation is published at this link.

In June 2019, UP FAMNIT and Oregon State University (USA) organized the third performance of the Alpine Europe International Summer School. As part of this year's title Innovation in the Circular Economy, 16 young researchers from Bosnia and Herzegovina, India, Kazakhstan, the US and the Czech Republic have been working on sustainability and sustainable built environments.

In 2019, UP FAMNIT Department of Mathematics continued its preparatory activities for the organization of the European Congress of Mathematics 2020. At the same time, Trieste will host ESOF 2020 - Open Forum of Euro Science and in an effort to link the highscientific events and offer participants additional opportunities for quality work and networking, an agreement on co-operation was signed between the organizers of scientific meetings and the municipalities of Trieste and Piran. In October, the President of the European Mathematical Society Volker Mehrmann, the President of the 8ECM Scientific Committee Maria J. Esteban and President of the 8ECM Awards Committee Martin R. Bridson visited UP FAMNIT, while in November we have the honour to host also the President of the European Research Council, Acad. Prof. Jean-Pierre Bourguignon.

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New research project in cooperation with Eötvös Loránd University (Hungary)
Erasmus+: new projects with 16 universities
Our younger generation of mathematicians closer to US researchers
New research project obtained in the field of Mathematics
16 international students will study innovation in the circular economy in Slovenia and northern Italy
University od Primorska became a grant holder of another COST action
8ECM: Mehrmann, Esteban and Bridson guests at UP FAMNIT
University of Primorska among the U-Multirank Top 25 performers in the area of International Orientation of Programmes
Students of Psychology from Augsburg (USA) visited us again
Ars Mathematica Contemporanea for the fifth time the most prestigious Slovenian scientific journal according to SCImago Journal & Country Rank

Also in 2019, our students have been successful in various competitions. In March, they participated in the 29th Vojtěch Jarník International Mathematical Competition in Ostrava, Czech Republic. Famnit was represented by Đorđe Mitrović (2nd year of Mathematics), Eva Siladji and Besfort Shala (both 1st year of Mathematics) and Roman Solodukhin (2nd year of Mathematical Sciences). Mitrović, Shala and Solodukhin received the certificate of a successful participant.

For the third year in a row, the student of Mathematical Sciences Roman Solodukhin received the gold award of the competition at the national competition for students in mathematics for Vega's recognitions, organized by the DMFA Society.

Besfort Shala (1st year of Mathematics) and Đorđe Mitrović (2nd year of Mathematics) received the silver medal at the Open International Internet Olympiad in Mathematics, which was attended by 6,215 students from 157 universities.

Between July 28th and August 3rd, Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria, hosted the 26th International Mathematical Competition for University Students 2019 (IMC), which Famnit students have traditionally participated in and have also traditionally been successful on. Besfort Shala and Roman Solodukhin received the silver medal and Đorđe Mitrović received the bronze medal.

Our students also participated in the international competition of Primatiada, the traditional meeting of the faculties of natural sciences and mathematics of the former Yugoslavia. 1500 students from 18 faculties and from six countries participated in this year's performance.

Famnit was represented by 19 students who participated in competitions in mathematics, computer science and biology, and also in futsal.

In the Mathematics Competition, Đorđe Mitrović and Aleksandar Avdalović took 1st place, Kenny Štorgel and Tilen Sabadin took 2nd place and Roman Solodukhin took 3dr place (all Mathematics and Mathematics students respectively). Third were also Urška Gerič (Nature Conservation) in Biology and Mirza Krbezlija (Mathematical Sciences) in the Informatics category.

In October, the final round of the UPM - University Programing Marathon 2019 was held at the Faculty of Computer and Information Science in Ljubljana. The last programming battles were attended by 28 teams that achieved the best results in the first three rounds. In addition, 135 competitors in  48 teams competed this season. UP FAMNIT was represented by the champions of the University of Primorska neVEM (Mirza Redžić, Eva Siladji and Vladimir Bošković) and the following teams: Mango (Tilen Jesenko, Gašper Moderc and Goran Tubić), BHprog (Arber Avdullahu, Mirza Krbezlija and Hasan Mahmutagić), BNA (Arsen Matej Golubovikj, Hristijan Marinkovski and Predrag Zvezdakoski) and Real Slavs (Daniil Baldouski, Damjan Dimitrov and Aleksandr Kobrin).

The NASA Space Apps Challenge International Technology Hackathon in Sežana was attended by a team consisting of three students with UP FAMNIT: Maheshya Weerasinghe, Nina Klobas and Cuauhtlli Campos and two students with UP FM: Nikola Nakov and Łukasz Popowicz. Together, they created a game based on the challenge and qualified for Round 2. Space Apps Challenge is an international event where participants work together for 48 hours to solve problems, with the goal of creating open source solutions to the global challenges that plague the world. Over 29,000 participants participated in more than 230 performances in 80 countries.

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New medals for our Mathematicians
UP FAMNIT students won the first round of NASA Space Apps Challenge
Our mathematicians at the traditional Vojtěch Jarník International Math Competition
Our math students among the top students of the Open International Internet-Olympiad

• The current and future state of wood science education in Europe
• 7th annual Mississippi Discrete Math Workshop
• MATCOS-19: Middle-European Conference on Applied Theoretical Computer Science
• 6th Student Computer Science Research Conference - StuCoSReC '19
• New approaches to dizzy patients programme
• Women of mathematics on the Mediterranean shores
• 9th PhD Summer School in Discrete Mathematics
• Bled 19: 9th Slovenian International Conference on Graph Theory
• Triple i 2019 - Intuition, Imagination and Innovation in Suicidology
• Maps ∩ Configurations ∩ Polytopes ∩ Molecules ⊆ Graphs: The mathematics of Tomaž Pisanski on the occasion of his 70th birthday
• Timber – A healthy future for sustainable buildings / Les – Zdrava prihodnost za trajnostne zgradbe
• Discrete Biomathematics Afternoon at the Adriatic Coast 2019

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Record attendance at the 9th PhD Summer School in discrete mathematics at Rogla
Theoretical computing for solving practical problems
More than 320 mathematicians from 41 countries gathered in Bled

9th UP FAMNIT Graduation Ceremony and UP Doctoral Promotion

The ceremonial promotion of the Doctors of Science on March 18 and October 18 also included Alejandra Ramos Rivera, Slobodan Filipovski and Safet Penjić, who completed their doctoral studies in Mathematical Science at UP FAMNIT.

There are more and more visits by students from foreign faculties and various groups and organizations that also visit our faculty. A good example of such cooperation is, for example, the annual meeting of biology mentors, which is organized in cooperation with the Association for Technical Culture of Slovenia.

Of course, students also participate in most of the activities, and members of the Association of Biopsychology Students and the Society of Conservation Biologists Biodiva are particularly active.

Within the framework of a series of popular lectures Famnit Excursions into the Mathematical Universe on the topics of mathematics and its role in the modern world, participants attended different lectures given by dr. Klen Čopič Pucihar (Digital technologies - When the interplay between digital and real creates a new reality), dr. Jan Grošelj (Optimization and Planning of Transportation in GoOpti), dr. Nina Chiarelli (Everyday Problems - Mathematical Solutions - Examples of Using Domination in Graphs), dr. Jasna Prezelj (Soap bubbles, chains, trunks and the cathedral of St. Paul), dr. Gaj Vidmar (What do horse kicks, quadruplets, brewer's yeasts and call centers have in common? Poisson's division) and dr. Nastja Cepak (Chains + data = blockchain).

The Department of Biodiversity offered a rich programme of lectures as part of Famnit Biological Evenings given by: Klemen Leonard (Healthy Seas - How to Become Active in the Environment), Milena Gucić (Use, Management and Conservation of Natural Resources in Baja California (Lower California), Mexico), dr. Laura Iacolina (The wild boar, it's complicated), dr. Živa Justinek (The Pursuit of Sumatra Forest Singers), dr. Živa Pečnikar (Love, Lies and Deceptions - The Evolution of Mutualistic Relationships between Plants and Animals), dr. Katja Kalan (Invasive Zoonoses of Southeast Asia), dr. Tomaž Gorenc (What Does the Environmental Impact Tell Us?), Sabina Francek Ivović and dr. Vladimir Ivović (The Galapagos - A Thousand Faces of Nature) and Tadeja Kuret (Is it really all about genes and how we influence our offspring with our lifestyles).

In the first months of the year, we successfully organized two mathematical days. The first one was in January, when 95 students from Koper Gymnasium visited the Faculty. The other was in April with 111 students from Oskar Kovačič Elementary School, Ledina Elementary School, Šenčur Elementary School, Ivan Rob Šempeter Elementary School and Ruše Elementary School, which brought a pleasant spring atmosphere to the faculty.

In May, we also took care of promoting mathematics abroad. On Thursday, May 2nd, 16 students of the last year of the three high schools in Prishtina, »Sami Frashëri«, »Xhevdet Doda« and »Specialized Mathematics Gymnasium« participated in the third implementation of the International Mathematics Competition of the University of Primorska, Kosovo. The competition was organized and conducted by UP FAMNIT professors with the help of students of the mathematics, who, two years ago, gave the initiative to organize this competition.

The Department of Applied Science was also very active in promoting science in schools, especially in organizing workshops in which our researchers were presenting the production of oil and the ways of growing of Helichrysum italicum.

At the end of August we successfully organized the 9th Famnit Summer Camp - Math is cool, for pupils from Slovenia and abroad. While the mathematics department's summer school is a tradition, this year's the psychology department's summer school saw its premiere. From July 22 to 24, participants in the (Bio)psychological Summer School, which was aimed at students of (bio)psychology and related fields, as well as all those interested in research and its importance in psychological practice, attended lectures that were conducted by experts and researchers in various fields.

An important event, attended by faculty, researchers and students of the faculty, is the pan-European Researchers' Night, which was held as part of the nationwide Science for Life project. On Friday, September 27, 2019, participants at various locations in Koper, including the facilities of our Faculty, participated in interesting experiments, workshops, visits and socialized with researchers in the festival atmosphere.

• Effectiveness of preventive activities in people with cognitive decline and dementia (Gen Studio, Damjana Pangerčič s.p. and Zavod Preventiva Demeca, Pongrce),
• Urban pond with aquaponics - innovative nature conservation, self-care, and occupational therapy device in nursing homes (Zoosofia Peter Maričić s.p. and UIP University development center and university incubator of Primorska Primorske doo),
• Development of an application for the collection of used wood 2.0 (M SORA, trade and production, and the InnoRenew CoE Center of Excellence for research and innovation in the field of renewable materials and a healthy living environment),
• KAKIS SMART TOILET (KAKIS, sanitary services, engineering, sales, d.o.o. and BOOD, information technologies, d.o.o.),
• Involvement of young people in solving the problem of environmental management in the neighbourhoods of Prisoje and Markovec (Public company Marjetica Koper, d.o.o. - s.r.l. and the Institute for Education and Prevention NewPrevent).

The University of Primorska successfully acquired funds also for the implementation of 3 projects in the framework of the Open Call for projects for cooperation with NGO's. Our students have thus participated in the following projects:

• Studying the biodiversity of the Karst edge as a basis for protecting and recognizing the potential for sustainable tourism (Society of Conservation Biologists - Biodiva),
• Alzheimer's Disease Assistance 3.0 (Spominčica – Slovenian Dementia Assistance Association),
• Contribution to ecology knowledge and management of selected endemic or protected invertebrate species in the Pivka River Basin (Lokalni pospeševalni center Pivka).

At the same time, we continue to cooperate with other institutions in the field of nature protection, health care and psychosocial assistance, in which our students undertake study practices. Collaboration with non-governmental organizations and industry is also evident in the classrooms, as our faculty is regularly visited by practitioners both in lectures and seminars. Noteworthy cooperation with the economy is also being carried out within the framework of activities organized by the UIP of the University Development Center and the Primorska incubator for students.

A new Master's program in Data Science has also been launched at UP FAMNIT in the academic year 2019/2020. The program is implemented in Slovenian and English language. This is the first and only study programme of this kind in Slovenia, which was also supported by ten Slovenian companies and institutions in the accreditation process.

At the conclusion of 2019, the International Joint Doctoral Study Programme of Computer Science was also approved, which will be implemented at UP FAMNIT and the University of St. Andrews (School of Computer Science). This is a four-year study, in which the student will have to spend at least one year at each of the institutions.

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NEW: International Joint Doctoral Programme in Computer Science with University of St. Andrews