news - Archive

Tuesday, 29 December 2020 Jamolbek Mattiev, new doctor of science

Yesterday, 28 December 2020, we welcomed another doctor of science at UP FAMNIT.

Jamolbek Mattiev, a student of Computer Science doctorate study programe at UP FAMNIT has succesfully defended his doctorate disertation entitled Clustering Class Association Rules to form a Meaningful and Accurate Classifier, mentored by Assist. Prof. Branko Kavšek, PhD and co-mentored by Assoc. Prof. Jernej Vičič, PhD.

We sincerely congratulate the new doctor of science and wish him much success on his future journey in research!

Tuesday, 29 December 2020 COVID-19 measures: No changes after new year

The Government of the Republic of Slovenia prolonged the Decree on temporary prohibition of gathering of people in the field of education. Simultaneously, the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport sent a note to universities in which they informed us that expected changes in the beginning of January will not afftect higher education. Besides, they also pointed out, that the Decree prohibits implementation of exams at the university premises. 

The University of Primorska would like to see gradual return of students as soon as possible and we are striving to improve the general situation of  students. We submited numerous proposals to solve current and sistemic issues, however, we are currently limited with the legislation and regulations. 

The ministry promissed to invite universitie to talks on the continuation of studies inthe beginning of January. As soon as we receive any information, we will pass it on to students. 

Therefore, unfortunately at the moment, we cannot specifically announce any changes and adaptations. We are aware that the unknown situation is causing discomfort, which is why we are preparing a number of different scenarios for returns, moving in, conlusion of the 1st semester and exams. 

We will inform you about any further changes or measures in time.

Monday, 28 December 2020 Micael Alexi Toledo Roy, new doctor of science

On Tuesday, 22 December 20202 Micael Alexi Toledo Roy, a student of Mathematical Sciences doctorate programme at UP Famnit, successfully completed his doctoral studies.

Under the mentorship of Prof. Primož Potočnik, PhD, and co-mentorship of Assoc. Prof. Ademir Hujdurović, PhD, he prepared and defended his doctoral dissertation entitled Cubic vertex-transitive graphs having an automorphism with few orbits.

We sincerely congratulate the new doctor of science and wish him much success on his future journey in research!

Thursday, 24 December 2020 The doctoral thesis defence of the student Jamolbek Mattiev

Jamolbek Mattiev, student of the doctoral study programe Computer Science at UP FAMNIT will defend his doctoral thesis Clustering Class Association Rules to form a Meaningful and Accurate Classifier (Uporaba razvrščanja v skupine na klasifikacijskih asociacijskih pravilih za tvorbo smiselnih in natančnih klasifikatorjev); under the mentorship of Assist. Prof. Branko Kavšek, PhD, and co-mentorship of Assoc. Prof. Jernej Vičič, PhD.

The defence will take place on Monday, 28 December 2020 at 11.00 on Zoom:
https://upr-si.zoom.us/j/2711197445?pwd=ZGk0ZDZQb1NkcG5yWnE4Z3Y4aS9Edz09

Thursday, 17 December 2020 Happy Holidays and a prosperous and successful New Year!

Click: Happy Holidays and Healty New Year 2021!

Univerza na Primorskem / University of Primorska

Wednesday, 16 December 2020 The fourth book in the Famnit Lectures series: Jonathan E. Leech, Noncommutative Lattices: Skew Lattices, Skew Boolean Algebras and Beyond published

We are delighted to announce that University of Primorska Press published the fourth book in the Famnit Lectures series: Jonathan E. Leech, Noncommutative Lattices: Skew Lattices, Skew Boolean Algebras and Beyond. The author is the internationally acclaimed mathematician Jonathan E. Leech.

The e-book is freely available at this link. We expect a printed version of the book to be available soon.

About the Book

The extended study of noncommutative lattices was begun in 1949 by Ernst Pascual Jordan, a theoretical and mathematical physicist and co-worker of Max Born and Werner Karl Heisenberg.  Jordan introduced noncommutative lattices as algebraic structures potentially suitable to encompass the logic of the quantum world.

The modern theory of noncommutative lattices began forty years later with Jonathan Leech’s 1989 paper “Skew lattices in rings.”  Recently, noncommutative generalizations of lattices and related structures have seen an upsurge in interest, with new ideas and applications emerging, from quasilattices to skew Heyting algebras.  Much of this activity is derived in some way from the initiation of Jonathan Leech’s program of research in this area.

The present book consists of seven chapters, mainly covering skew lattices, quasilattices and paralattices, skew lattices of idempotents in rings and skew Boolean algebras.  As such, it is the first research monograph covering major results due to this renewed study of noncommutative lattices.  It will serve as a valuable graduate textbook on the subject, as well as a handy reference to researchers of noncommutative algebras.

About the Author

Jonathan Leech graduated from the University of Hawaii and earned a PhD at the University of California, Los Angeles.  He has taught mathematics at the University of Tennessee, later at Missouri Western State University and finally at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California.  He was a Visiting Professor at Case Western Reserve University, the Universidad de Granada in Spain and Universidade Mackenzie in Brazil. He has been a scholar in residence at both the University of Sidney and the University of Tasmania in Australia.

Throughout his academic career Professor Leech has studied algebraic structures related to semigroups, with much of his emphasis being on the theory of noncommutative lattices and of skew lattices in particular.  He laid the foundations of the modern theory of noncommutative lattices in a number of (co)authored seminal publications.

His work has inspired many mathematicians around the world to pursue research in this area.

Sunday, 13 December 2020 Prof. Andreja Kutnar author of a new book published by Taylor & Francis Ltd.

Dr Andreja Kutnar, the InnoRenew CoE director, together with colleagues Dick Sandberg, Olov Karlsson and Dennis Jones finished writing the book “Wood Modification Technologies: Principles, Sustainability, and the Need for Innovation”.

The need for this book arises from the recognition that in the last years the market for durable products using modified wood increased and sustainability became a great concern. Therefore, authors put together key elements of changes in the wood modification filed, presented principal technologies used, and pointed out the need of considering environmental impacts, the whole life cycle and embodied energy of the materials used in construction.

“It was a long and exciting journey and I hope readers of the book will find it useful for broadening their horizons about wood modification and perhaps they find some interesting research inspirations. The field of wood modification offers several possibilities for developing innovations and for fostering sustainable practices,” said Dr Kutnar.

The book is being published by Taylor & Francis Ltd. and will be available for purchase on 15 March 2021.

Saturday, 12 December 2020 Additional Erasmus+ Open Call for traineeship in the academic year 2020/2021

An additional Erasmus+ Open call for students is published. Applications are now open for exchanges for the purpose of traineeship which needs to be carried out by 31 May 2021 at the latest.

The application deadline is defined as the open deadline and starts on the day the Call was published and lasts until there are available funds, but no later than 4 March 2021.

The Open call and the instructions on how to apply are available on this link.

For any additional information please contact the UP FAMNIT International Office via e-mail international@famnit.upr.si.

You are invited to apply!

Friday, 4 December 2020 Assoc. prof. Ana Grdović Gnip appointed to the Economic Council of the President of the Republic of Croatia

The President of the Republic of Croatia Zoran Milanović has reached a Decision to Establish the Economic Council of the President of the Republic, chaired by Assist. Prof. Velibor Mačkić, PhD, Special Adviser to the President of the Republic of Croatia for the Economy.

The council consists of 11 members, established scientists from the fields of business and economy, among them Associate Professor Ana Grdović Gnip, PhD, from the Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies, University of Primorska.

The newly formed council will “conduct expert discussions and give views on issues dealing with economic policy in order to prepare relevant strategic groundwork and analyses of the Croatian economy’s long-term trends and structures”, the Office of the President announced in their statement.

Assoc. prof. Ana Grdović Gnip is an expert in the fields of fiscal policy, monetary policy models and macroeconomic analysis.

We sincerely congratulate Professor Grdović Gnip on her new appointment!

(Assoc. Prof. Ana Grdović Gnip, PhdD)

Tuesday, 1 December 2020 Assoc. Prof. Lara Lusa, PhD awarded with the prestigious Zois Certificate of Recognition

On Tuesday, 1 December 2020, this year's Zois Awards and recognitions were officially delivered to researchers who have made an important contribution to the development of scientific research in the country. We are happy and honored to announce that our professor and researcher Assoc. Prof. Lara Lusa, PhD received the Zois Certificate of Recognition for important achievements, namely for scientific achievements in the development of the methodology of medical statistics.

Due to the current measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 disease, this year's ceremony was screened as a documentary with the title »Highlights of Slovenian Science in the light of award winners for outstanding achievements 2020« that contains portraits of all recipients of Zois Awards and Recognitions, the Puh Awards and the Ambassador of Science Award. It also includes speeches by the President of the Republic of Slovenia, Mr. Borut Pahor, Minister of Education, Science and Sport, Prof. Simona Kustec and the President of the Committee of the Republic of Slovenia for the Awarding of Prizes and Recognitions for Outstanding Achievements in Scientific Research and Development Prof. dr. Janez Plavac. The documentary is available on this link.

(foto: rtvslo.si)

Since 2016, Lara Lusa has been employed as an Associate Professor at the University of Primorska, Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technology. Her research work is focused on the development of statistical methodology for the needs of medical statistics. This is not only an important aspect of the actual analysis of the data, but it is also crucial for the development of new approaches to statistical modeling as well as to the mathematical and statistical issues that arise in such research work. Her work thus includes the entire path from statistical modeling, assessment of the suitability of statistical models, computer implementation and substantive assessment of results in a medical context.

Bibliography of Dr. Lara Lusa comprises 75 original scientific works, of which 71 in journals included in the Web of Science collection. Her publications range from methodological statistics to biomedicine, where her work is focused in the appropriate use of statistical knowledge. During her work at the Institute of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics of the Faculty of Medicine (University of Ljubljana), she established a completely new field in Slovenia – the analysis of high-dimentional data.

Since 2016 she has been a member of the STRATOS (STRengthening Analytical Thinking for Observational Studies) Initiative, namely in the High-dimensional data working group (Topic group 9) and in the working group Initial data analysis, Topic group 3.

Since 2013 she has been the co-editor of the journal Advances in Statistics and Methodology, and since 2016 she is also the president of the programme committee of the international conference Applied Statistics.

We congratulate Assoc. Prof. Lara Lusa and we wish her many more research successes!

Monday, 23 November 2020 Invitation to the event Experience the Exchange

The International Office of UP FAMNIT is organizing an
on-line event Experience the Exchange which will be held
on Thursday, 26 November 2020 at 18.30 via ZOOM.

If you would like to gain international experiences, expand your knowledge and travel abroad, join us at the event. We have all the answers to your questions and can help you with your application for the exchange.

During this event you will have the chance to meet FAMNIT students, who already have experienced an exchange in various countries, as well as several study programs and are willing to share their stories with you.

The registration via the online form is required in order to attend the event.

The event will be held in English language.

Join us for a chat!

Friday, 20 November 2020 Mathematical Advent Calendar 2019

Elementary School students (8th and 9th year) and High School students are invited to compete in solving problems as part of the  Mathematical Advent Calendar.

The competitors are divided into three categories: 1st level (Elementary School, 2nd level (High School, first and second year) and 3rd level (High School, third and fourth year).

You will have fun with the Mathematical Advent Calendar from December 1st to December 18th 2020.

There is one day (24 hours) available for solving each of the problems (from midnight till midnight). In each category  three awards will be given, each award will be  a USB together with a T-shirt.

Only High School students and Elementary School students  (8th and 9th year)  are allowed to compete; they have to create an account here. Others can join here.

The rules of the quiz are available here.

Have fun!

Thursday, 19 November 2020 Measures remain in place at least until the New Year

Yesterday a meeting of university representatives with the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport and National Institute of Public Health took place. 

We were informed about current COVID-19 situation, spreading trends and consequently expected gradual easing of measures. Considering all of those, we concluded, that the university premises remain closed at least until the end of the year. 

Wherever possible, studies continue to be implemented on-line, while we will be implementing practical exercises, which need to be implemented live, in the year 2021.  

We hope that we will be able to welcome students and staff in our buildings as soon as possible. However, this depends completely on the COVID-19 trends in the upcoming weeks. In December we will notify you about the specifics of study process after 4 January 2021.

Call of Minister of Health

Wednesday, 14 October 2020 The finals of UPM 2020 are concluded

On Saturday, 10 October, 2020, the final round of the University Programming Marathon - UPM 2020 took place. Out of 46 teams and 127 competitors, 15 best teams qualified for the finals. Due to measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19 disease, the preliminaries were conducted online, but the final competition was held live, separately at three universities - UL FRI, UM FERI and UP FAMNIT. The remainder of the programme for the finals took place online.

Participants had five hours to complete the nine tasks, which can be viewed here. The winning and second-placed team managed to solve 6 tasks, and the third-placed team solved 5, indicating that the tasks were indeed very demanding.

The top three teams in the overall standings were:

1st place: Final Solution (Žiga Željko, Tim Poštuvan and Marko Hostnik)
2nd place: Jam (Žiga Vene, Aljaž Eržen and Marko Rus)
3rd place: Ctrl Alt Defeat (Benjamin Bajd, Bor Grošelj Simić and Tevž Lotrič)

Champions by Universities:

University of Ljubljana: Final Solution (Žiga Željko, Tim Poštuvan and Marko Hostnik)
University of Maribor: BSoD (Vid Keršič, Mitja Žalik and Matic Rašl)
University of Primorska: COVID19 (M. Besher Massri, Nemanja Torbica and Mirza Redžić)

UP Famnit was also represented by another team - KProg (Mirza Krbezlija, Hasan Mahmutagić and Arbër Avdullahu).

You can see the official results of the UPM 2020 here.

Congratulations to all participants!

=

(Famnit competing team COVID19)

 The University Programming Marathon (UPM) is a Slovenian competition for students in programming, where the emphasis is on knowledge of algorithms and data structures. Students compete in teams while the Marathon consists of three preliminary rounds and a final round. UPM takes place at all three Slovenian universities at the same time (University of Ljubljana, University of Maribor and University of Primorska) and represents the qualifications for the CERC (Central Europe Regional Contest), which is an integral part of the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest. The latter is the largest, most prestigious and oldest competition of its kind.

Wednesday, 7 October 2020 UP acquired new bilateral scientific and research cooperation projects with Denmark and Norway

The Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS) announced that the University of Primorska again obtained funds for two bilateral scientific and research cooperation projects, this time with universities from Denmark and Norway.

The project Post-quantum cryptanalysis of block ciphers, whose principal investigator is prof. dr. Enes Pasalic, Chair of Center for Cryptography at UP FAMNIT, will be carried out in collaboration with researchers from the DTU Compute University in Denmark.

The aim of the project is to address an essential and contemporary research field of post-quantum cryptography and to also consider applications of Simon’s algorithm due to its polynomial complexity.

(Photo: Stamers Kontor, DTU Compute)

Another project is in collaboration with UiT - The Artic University of Norway and is entitled “Brand Equity Model in Higher Education”. The principal investigator of the project is Assoc. prof. dr. Tina Vukasović from the Department of Applied Natural Sciences at UP FAMNIT.

The main objective of this research is to enhance academic understanding of brand equity in the Higher Education (HE) sector and explore the implications for management practice. The last section of the project critically explains how a model, with appropriate adjustments, can also be extended as a basis for the construction of a general model for measuring brand equity in HE.

(Photo: Ruben (Breivang vgs.), UiT The Arctic University of Norway)

We wish all researchers successful work and further strengthening of cooperation with foreign institutions!

Saturday, 3 October 2020 Orientation Days 2020 welcomes students from abroad!

The beginning of the new Academic year marked the 4th Orientation days for all students from abroad that decided to study at the University of Primorska!

The event took place in Koper and Izola from 28 to 30 September 2020, and we are happy to report that more than 150 students attended the activities, coming to UP from the following countries: Bosnia and Hercegovina, Czech Republic, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, the Russian Federation, Serbia, Spain, Turkey and Ukraine.

Due to COVID safety measures some activities, as introductory lectures took place online, while other were organized either outdoors or in smaller groups at UP faculties. 

On Monday, 28 September 2020 introductory welcome reception was organized online where students found out some information about the university, Koper and the coastal region as well as some interesting facts about Slovenia. Along with presentation from Student organisation of University of Primorska – ŠOUP students also learned about various specifics of student status in Slovenia. 

Treasure hunt that was planned form Monday afternoon was moved to Wednesday, due to bad weather announcement, so the programme continued the next day with different activities on faculties. Among them were meetings with Faculty and Study programme coordinators, lecture about presentation of Slovene language and discovering new words in Slovene, followed by a session for filling in administrative forms regarding their residence in Slovenia. 

In the afternoon the students met up in San Simon, Izola in smaller groups to participate in sports activities, organized by SportUP. Throughout the event a Q&A section was set up, where students were able to talk to their international offices about their specific cases or problems they encountered when arranging formalities for their stay in Slovenia. But most of all, they enjoy good weather, pizza and company of their peers, paired with social games organized by University staff members.

After a busy day at their faculties on Wednesday, 30. September a Treasure Hunt was organized in Koper for all participants of Orientation Days! Students in groups of up to 8 people had to find their way through Koper, performing tasks and following clues. The winning group received a gift voucher for pizzas donated by the pizzeria Atrij. According to students, this was the highlight and the best possible conclusion of the Orientation Days 2020!

We are happy to host yet another generation of International students at University of Primorska, so that we can not only expand knowledge, but also broaden our horizons and bring together people, cultures and ideas.

Friday, 2 October 2020 UP FAMNIT welcomes the 14th generation of students, largest to date

On the first day of academic year 2020/2021, we welcomed the largest generation of students to date with 849 students enrolled to UP FAMNIT, which is 182 more than last year.

Due to COVID -19 safety measures, the University of Primorska did not host a traditional reception for students on Tito Square this year, however, the first day of the new academic year was no less festive. On the eve of 1 October, students were greeted in a video address by the Rector of UP, Prof. Klavdija Kutnar, PhD, who the next day also met with the Deans of UP faculties, mayors and deputy mayors from all four municipalities of Slovenian Istria.

Firs year students at UP FAMNIT were also welcomed by the Dean of UP FAMNIT, Assoc. Prof. Ademir Hujdurović, and the Vice-Dean for Education, Assoc. Prof. Dunja Bandelj, PhD by video address. Study programme coordinators received all new students on 1 October, as well as two days earlier, when they greeted foreign students in English as part of the Orientation Days.

Orientation Days are planned especially for new students from abroad. This year’s edition was 5^th in a row and as every year they took place in the last days of September. Over 160 first year students attended the Orientation Days, where they got acquainted with their faculties, the University, met new colleagues and discovered some more things about their new environment where they will spend their future student years.

This year, the share of students from abroad represents as much as 42% of all enrolled students at UP FAMNIT, this is why it is especially important that they get acquainted with the life and study course in their new environment. This year’s students are coming from Argentina, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, the Philippines, Ghana, Greece, Croatia, Iran, Italy, Israel, Kazakhstan, China, Colombia, Kosovo, Hungary, Maldives, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Poland, the Russian Federation, Northern Macedonia, the Syrian Arab Republic, Slovenia, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and the United States.

An increase in enrolled students is recorded at all levels, 614 students are enrolled in undergraduate studies, which is 21% more than last year, 203 students in master's studies, this is 19% more, and there are 30 doctorate students, a considerable 37 % more than last year.

We wish all students a successful, interesting, but also fun academic year, and off course much academic successes!

Wednesday, 30 September 2020 Rector's Welcoming Speech: »The knowledge gained will benefit you for a lifetime.«

Dear freshmen, dear students of the University of Primorska: warmest greetings and welcome to our University!

I am sincerely glad that the lecture halls of our faculties as well as the streets of our seaside towns will be replenished with young, creative energy. Above all, I am proud that our university can provide a safe and adequate environment for the study process we have all been waiting for to take place.

Every beginning of the academic year is accompanied by expectation, joy, curiosity, as well as some worries, which are especially present in this year. This year we will enter the lecture halls with extra care. In the coming months, our safety and health - both of those who will study at our faculties, as well as professors and all other employees of the University - will be our highest priority.
I am nonetheless convinced that the eagerness to study and learn new things, to cooperate and engage, will be felt no less than in previous years.

Thus, my message to you all is: dare to do more than is expected of you. Let your student days be guided by the openness to the broad study contents offered to you. The knowledge gained will benefit you for a lifetime, so take advantage of all the opportunities available to you and get to know the world through the people you will meet on this exciting journey.

I wish everyone a healthy, successful and enriching academic year!

Prof. Klavdija Kutnar, PhD
Rector of the University of Primorska

Thursday, 24 September 2020 University e-mail addresses of UP students

We would like to inform you that all students of the University of Primorska in SIS will be assigned a university student e-mail address.

All students will have the address enrollment@student.upr.si (enrollment = enrollment number). Students are obliged to use it for all communication with the faculty (with the Student Services, Assistants and Professors and other faculty employees).

It is the duty of students to regularly check the university student e-mail address, as they will receive all messages related to study and extracurricular activities to this address.

Under each e-mail, students are required to sign with their first and last name.


In the event that a student loses his / her status, he / she can no longer access the student's e-mail address and the initial e-mail address provided by the student upon enrollment is used for communication.

We offer e-mail to students using the free Office 365 package, which includes Outlook for managing e-mail. It is also possible to access the e-invoice via the UP FAMNIT website.

In case of additional questions or problems, you can contact our IT service: podpora@famnit.upr.si

All information about student information services can be found at the link below:
https://www.famnit.upr.si/en/education/it-services

Kind regards,
Student Services UP FAMNIT

Wednesday, 23 September 2020 The last application term for undergraduate and postgraduate studies - until 25 September 2020 (until 12.00 o'clock)

Tomorrow will start the last application term for undergraduate and postgraduate studies at UP FAMNIT 2020/2021 and IT WILL last until FRIDAY, 25th September 2020 until 12.00 o'clock.

The application is possible for following undergraduate study programmes:

• Computer Science (English Language): only for Slovene citizens and citizens of EU countries,
• Mathematics (Slovenian Language): for all candidates,
• Mathematics (English Language): for all candidates,
• Mediterranean Agriculture: only for Slovene citizens and citizens of EU countries,
• Mathematics  in Economics and Finance: for all candidates.

The application is possible for all postgraduate study programmes that are included in the call for enrolment, except postgraduate study programme Biopsychology for parallel degree studies.

The application for enrolment must be submitted via eVŠ. Candidates must submit all the documentation, including all requested enclosures to the student services no later than Friday, 25 September 2020 by 6 P.M.

All information about the application procedure are available here.

For more information please contact the Student Services (e-mail: referat@famnit.upr.si, tel. + 386 5 611 75 75).

Monday, 21 September 2020 Meetings of freshmen with coordinators - Thursday, 1st October

Dear freshmen!

Your first Academic year is about to start and we are warmly inviting you to take part of the activities of the first day!

Meetings with study programmes coordinators:

• Mathematics (Slovene) and Mathematics in Economics and Finance: 9.00 – 10.30 in classroom Famnit-VP2 (Glagoljaška 8, 1st floor),
• Mathematics (English): 14.00 – 15.30 in classroom Famnit-VP1 (Glagoljaška 8, 1st floor),
• Computer Science (Slovene): 12.00 – 13.30 in classroom FHŠ-Tramontana (UP FHŠ, Titov trg 5, ground floor),
• Computer Science (English): 14.00 – 15.30 in classroom FHŠ-Tramontana (UP FHŠ, Titov trg 5, ground floor),
• Conservation Biology: 12.00 – 13.30 in classroom Famnit-VP1 (Glagoljaška 8, 1st floor),
• Bioinformatics (Slovene): 16.00 – 17.30 in classroom Famnit-VP1 (Glagoljaška 8, 1st floor),
• Bioinformatics (English): 13.00 – 14.30 in classroom Famnit-VP2 (Glagoljaška 8, 1st floor),
• Biopsychology: 15.00 – 16.30 in classroom Famnit-AvlaGlagoljaška (Glagoljaška 8, ground floor);
• Mediterranean Agriculture: 15.00 - 16.30 in classroom Famnit-VP2 (Glagoljaška 8, 1st floor).

All courses will start on Friday, 2^nd October – please check the schedule HERE.

Time and classroom changes will be regularly published on the website (https://www.famnit.upr.si/sl/obvestila), but we advise you to register for the news and notices for your programme, as you will be immediately notified of any change.

See you soon!

UP FAMNIT professors and staff

Monday, 21 September 2020 UNDERGRADUATE STUDY: Course schedules for Autumn Semester 2020/2021

We would like to inform you that the course schedules for all study programmes for the Autumn Semester 2020/2021 are published on our website (https://www.famnit.upr.si//en/student-pages/timetables). Lectures start on Thursday, 1 October 2020 and last until Friday, 15 January 2021.

On this website you can also find a short clip that will show you how to check the course schedule.

Important information about the course schedule:

• Please check the schedule regularly, because weekly schedules can differ.
• The schedule might change until Wednesday, 30 September. Please check the schedule again before the beginning of the academic year.
• In some undergraduate courses, students are divided into groups for laboratory work. The list of students divided by groups will be published on Wednesday, 30 September.

Changes after that (from Tuesday, 1 October) will be published in the notices of Student Services. You will be able to find them here: https://www.famnit.upr.si/sl/obvestila (for each study programme separately). We advice all students to register for the news, as they will be immediately notified by email about any change.

Freshman will have meeting with the study programme coordinators on Thursday, 1st October. All information are published on our website (https://www.famnit.upr.si/en/news/meetings-of-freshmen). 1st year students start lectures on Friday, 2 October.

In the beginning of October, study programme coordinators will meet all 2nd and 3rd year students. Exact terms will be published in the notices of Student Services.

Regarding the schedule and COVID-19, we would like to remind you of the following:

• lectures / tutorials that are conducted remotely (on-line) are marked on the schedule so that the classroom is actually "On-line". If the lecturer informed us that he / she still needs a classroom for conducting online lectures / tutorials, a small classroom is reserved for this purpose, and the name of the course is marked “ON-LINE” and this is visible on the schedule; please check on the course schedule;
• classrooms, with the exception of the Vajalnica classroom (laboratory on Muzejski square) and computer classrooms, will be equipped for the implementation of the pedagogical process at a distance, so even if the schedule intends for lectures / tutorials to be "live", in the classroom at the faculty, online monitoring will be possible for the lectures / tutorials, if there are no  substantive objections related to the content of the course;
• the number of seats per individual classroom was reduced, which is also specially marked on the schedule next to the name of the classroom;
• More detailed instructions regarding the implementation of the pedagogical process in the conditions of COVID-19 and the obligations of employees and students will be published in the updated Instructions of the University of Primorska regarding the implementation of the study process with regard to the conditions of COVID-19. They will be published on the entrance page of the faculty's website (https://www.famnit.upr.si/en - Adjustments to the implementation of the teaching process) expected tomorrow, Tuesday, 22 September 2020. Please read the instructions carefully and follow them strictly.

Student Services UP FAMNIT

Monday, 21 September 2020 POSTGRADUATE STUDY: Course schedules for Autumn Semester 2020/2021

We would like to inform you that the course schedules for all study programmes for the Autumn Semester 2020/2021 are published on our website (https://www.famnit.upr.si//en/student-pages/timetables). Lectures start on Thursday, 1 October 2020 and last until Friday, 15 January 2021.

Important information about the course schedule:

• Please check the schedule every week, because weekly schedules can differ.
• The schedule might change until Wednesday, 30 September. Please check the schedule again before the beginning of the academic year.
• Notice for the 2nd year students of the Nature Conservation programme: laboratory work for the course Laboratory Practicum (1^st year) and seminar, laboratory work and tutorials for the course Marine Conservation Biology (2^nd year) will be added later to the course schedule.

Changes after that (from Thursday, 1 October) will be published in the notices of Student Services. You will be able to find them here: https://www.famnit.upr.si/sl/obvestila (for each study programme separately). We advice all students to register for the news, as they will be immediately notified by email about any change.

Regarding the schedule and COVID-19, we would like to remind you of the following:

• lectures / tutorials that are conducted remotely (on-line) are marked on the schedule so that the classroom is actually "On-line". If the lecturer informed us that he / she still needs a classroom for conducting online lectures / tutorials, a small classroom is reserved for this purpose, and the name of the course is marked “ON-LINE” and this is visible on the schedule; please check on the course schedule;
• classrooms, with the exception of the Vajalnica classroom (laboratory on Muzejski square) and computer classrooms, will be equipped for the implementation of the pedagogical process at a distance, so even if the schedule intends for lectures / tutorials to be "live", in the classroom at the faculty, online monitoring will be possible for the lectures / tutorials, if there are no  substantive objections related to the content of the course;
• the number of seats per individual classroom was reduced, which is also specially marked on the schedule next to the name of the classroom;
• More detailed instructions regarding the implementation of the pedagogical process in the conditions of COVID-19 and the obligations of employees and students will be published in the updated Instructions of the University of Primorska regarding the implementation of the study process with regard to the conditions of COVID-19. They will be published on the entrance page of the faculty's website (https://www.famnit.upr.si/en - Adjustments to the implementation of the teaching process) expected tomorrow, Tuesday, 22 September 2020. Please read the instructions carefully and follow them strictly.

Terms for the meetings with the study programme coordinators with the 1^st year students:

• Mathematical Sciences – Slovene (PMA) and Mathematical Sciences – English (PMA-EN): on Thursday, 1 October at 14.00 on Zoom;
• Computer Science (PRIN): on Thursday, 1 October at 14.30 in Famnit-Muzejski4 (during lectures for the course Computer Vision);
• Nature Conservation (PBI):  on Thursday, 1 October at 11.00 in Famnit-VP2;
• Biopsychology (PBP): on Thursday, 1 October at 13.00 in Famnit-Muzejski1;
• Applied Psychology (UPSI): on Thursday, 1 October at 12.00 on Zoom (link will be published later),
• Data Science – Slovene (PZ) and Data Science – English (PZ-EN): on Thursday, 1 October at 15.00 in Famnit-MP1.

In the beginning of October study programme coordinators will meet 2nd year students. Exact terms will be published in the notices of Student Services.

Student Services UP FAMNIT

Saturday, 12 September 2020 First graduate of MSc study program Sustainable Built Environments

On 10 September 2020, Hana Remešová succesfully completed the MSc study programme Sustainable Built Environment with the thesis Differences of consumers' preferences of unweathered and weathered wood (supervisor: Assist. Prof. Michael Burnard, co-supervisor: Assist. Prof. Anna Małgorzata Sandak, PhD). As part of her thesis, she conducted a survey to determine the differences in consumer preferences between unweathered and weathered modified wood.

Hana Remešová is the first graduate of the Master's study program Sustainable Built Environment.
Congratulations and good luck on her further research journey!

(Dr. Anna Małgorzata Sandak, Hana Remešová and Dr. Michael Burnard)

Friday, 11 September 2020 Applications to postgraduate programmes are one from 11 to 16 September 2020

Wednesday, 11 September 2020 starts the new application term for Master’s and doctoral study programmes at UP FAMNIT, which last until 16 September for all candidates (Slovene citizens and EU citizens, Slovene nationals without Slovene citizenship and non-EU citizens).

All information about the application procedure are available on this link.

Why choose UP FAMNIT?

First and foremost because we offer a unique educational opportunity for some of the most sought-after professional profiles in Europe and the world, such as mathematics, computer science, the natural sciences and psychology. Furthermore, we offer:

• attractive future-oriented study courses with an emphasis on interdisciplinarity,
• modern teaching methods supported by informational technology,
• award-winning and internationally renowned lecturers with a personal approach to students,
• the opportunity for research work during your studies in cooperation with the Andrej Marušič Institute of the University of Primorska,
• cooperation with industry in the framework of practical trainings and projects,
• a pleasant Mediterranean environment at the Slovenian seaside,
• a rich offer of extracurricular activities in cooperation with the Student Council and other student associations.

Find more about the advantages of studying at our MSc and PhD programmes in our brochure – simply click the picture below.

CALL FOR ENROLMENT for postgraduate study programmes 2020/21 (includes admission requirements for study programmes, criteria for selection, number of places available,...):

Sunday, 6 September 2020 Orientation days 2020

Dear international students!

Are you wondering where you are moving to, how will the things look like and if there is anyone to support you? Come to Orientation days and get all the informations you need or want to know!

• WHEN: 28 September - 30 September 2020
• WHO FOR: New international students (both degree-seeking and mobile)
• ORGANISERS: University of Primorska, all faculties, Students Organisation of the University of Primorska
• ANYTHING SPECIAL? Yes, bring local snacks, food and/or drinks for the country fair!

Have questions? Contact us at INTERNATIONAL OFFICE: erasmus@upr.si

IMPORTANT! In order to limit the potential spread of the COVID-19 disease, certain measures will be applied during the event. 

For more info and application form visit https://bit.ly/2QZmdiD

Friday, 4 September 2020 IRIC 2020 - International conference InnoRenew CoE

Integrating sustainability and health in buildings through renewable materials

The InnoRenew CoE research institute, in cooperation with the University of Primorska, organized an international conference on renewable materials and sustainable construction. The conference, which took place live in Izola and online, was attended by 32 experts who presented the role of renewable materials in sustainable construction, considering environmental, safety, economic, digital and social impacts. At the same time, the conference was an opportunity for a comprehensive exchange of knowledge and discussion on emerging science on renewable materials, designed to develop a built environment that has a positive impact on human health and the environment, as well as on innovations in this field.

(Image: Amy Simmons)

The keynote speaker of the conference was the Carlo Battisti, renowned international expert and consultant for sustainable innovation, and president of organization Living Future Europe - which seeks to accelerate change in Europe and provide the necessary direction towards the transition to regenerative planning. In his speech, Battisti highlighted the growing demand for transparency in the extraction and processing of materials, including path from building manufacturers to final consumers. They want to have all the information, including whether the product contains harmful ingredients or not, which he believes is crucial. He also stressed the great importance of renewables.

“When consuming and using resources, we need to think about giving back more to the environment than we took from it. A good example is wood, as certain types of trees from which we obtain it are quickly renewable. In addition, wood stores carbon dioxide in the direct production process and after it, in durable products. As our ultimate goal is to reduce CO2 emissions globally, we need to think very carefully about which materials we choose and use,” said Carlo Battisti.

According to dr. Michael Burnard, InnoRenew CoE deputy director, IRIC 2020 lived up to expectations. In particular, the importance of sustainability is highlighted by the challenges posed by climate change. “I am pleased to learn that there is a very clear need and urgency to think seriously about climate change; We need to use our creativity, work hard and change our thinking about construction and materials if we want to reduce climate change and maintain a healthy living environment.”

(Image: Amy Simmons)

The next international conference organized by InnoRenew CoE, IRIC 2021 will be held June 10 – 11 2021, and will address the topic of healthy and sustainable renovation with renewable materials.

IRIC2020 was supported by the company VG5 d.o.o.

Thursday, 3 September 2020 Prof. dr. Diego De Leo most quoted Italian scientist in the area of psychiatry

Head of the Department of Psychology at UP FAMNIT and head of the Slovenian Center for Suicide Research (UP IAM), Prof. Dr. Diego De Leo became the most cited Italian psychiatrist.

In the field, which includes neuroscience, neurology, neurosurgery and psychology, he ranks 16th in the world and third in the number of citations (more than 75,000). To be included in this ranking, an h-index of at least 30 is required. In Italy more than 250 scientists are classified in the field of neuroscience and psychology. Those with the highest rankings are invited by regional and national authorities to participate in various committees, write recommendations, etc.

Prof. Dr. Diego De Leo is a Professor Emeritus of Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, where he is also a past director of World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Research and Training in Suicide Prevention. He is also a past president of the International Association for Suicide Prevention and co-founder and past president of the International Academy for Suicide Research. He started the WHO /START (World Health Organisation/Suicide Trends in At-Risk Territories) study, which was announced in Manila on 18 August 2005 and officially opened in Brisbane on 3 March 2006. Currently 22 countries are participating.

Dr. De Leo is the leader of many research programs in Slovenia. He has received numerous prestigious international awards and recognitions for his research, including the International Suicide Prevention Association Award (1991). In 2013, he was awarded the title of Officer of the Order of Australia Queen Elizabeth II, "in recognition of his 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 the same year, he was awarded the Gold Plaque of University of Primorska for his extraordinary contribution to the development of scientific and educational work and strengthening the reputation and visibility of the university.

Tuesday, 1 September 2020 UP IAM and UP FAMNIT successful with new ARRS research projects

Researchers from UP IAM and UP FAMNIT were successful with their application for new research projects in the "Public call for the (co)financing of research projects in 2020" published by the Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS).

Three basic projects and one post-doctoral project cover research in the fields of mathematics, psychiatry, computational methods and applications, and psychology.

Principal investigators of the approved basic projects are: Prof. Dragan Marusič, Prof. Diego De Leo, Assist. Prof. Nino Bašić and Nuša Zadravec Šedivy, PhD.

Other Slovenian research institutions will participate in the research activities in these projects, while UP FAMNIT will simultaneously participate in three basic projects in the role of a partner:

• Autonomic edge computing for air quality monitoring (leading institution: InnoRenew CoE, Principal investigator: Prof. Michaël Mrissa);
• Development of antibacterial compounds targeting validated enzymes in peptidoglycan biosynthesis (leading institution: Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ljubljana, Principal investigator: Prof. Stanislav Gobec);
• Chemical Carcinogenesis: Mechanistic Insights (leading institution: Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, University of Maribor, Principal investigator: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Urban Bren).

One postdoctoral research project was also gained by the UP Faculty of Management, while other UP faculties will participate as partners in various other projects.

ARRS Basic research projects involve experimental or theoretical work with which we hope to gain new insights into the foundations of phenomena and perceptual facts. Given that the criteria for evaluating projects include scientific excellence of researchers as well as scientific, technological and innovative excellence of the project itself, the new success is a further confirmation of the quality work of researchers at the University of Primorska.

We congratulate our researchers and wish them successful work in the future!

Title: Symmetries in graphs via rigid cells (Basic project)
Area: Mathematics
Lead research organisation: UP IAM
Principal investigator: Prof. Dragan Marušič
Partners: UL PEF, UP FAMNIT

The following main lines of research will be pursued within this project proposal:

• Studying the structure of rigid cells in vertex-transitive graphs.
• Studying the structure of automorphisms giving rise to rigid cells. In particular, addressing the following question: under what conditions automorphisms of the same order belong to the same conjugacy class in the automorphism group?
• Finding combinatorial (graph-theoretic) reflections of the concept of real (strongly real) group elements (in particular with regards to consistent cycles in graphs), where an element of a group is real if it belongs to the same conjugacy class as its inverse, and is strongly real if it is conjugate to its inverse via an involution.

Finally, in line with certain opinions in mathematical community that a more conservative use of the Classification of finite simple groups (CFSG) in various problems in algebraic graph theory and the theory of permutation groups should be adopted, attempts will be made to find direct proofs of certain theorems in whose completion the CFSG had played an essential role.

Title: Psychopathology and suicidal behaviour among youth - the role of new technologies in the occurrence of distress and offering help (Basic project)
Area: Psychiatry
Lead research organisation: UP IAM
Principal investigator: Prof. Diego De Leo

In the proposed project we plan a thorough and in-depth study of the relationship between the characteristics of new media (e.g., ways of use, content), aspects of mental health, and psychopathology. We will focus on adolescents who represent a vulnerable group for the incidence of problems in this area and the adverse impacts of the media and modern technologies.

Title: Mathematical and computational methods for polyhedral self-assembly (Basic project)
Area: Computational methods and applications
Lead research organisation: UP FAMNIT
Principal investigator: Assist. Prof. Nino Bašić
Partners: Chemical institute, ABELIUM d.o.o.

The main goal of this project is to further develop existing mathematical models for selfassembly of nanostructures and also create new ones. In particular, we will make heavy use of flag graphs and results from topological graph theory to produce those models. A stronger link between topological graph theory and synthetic biology will be established. All this will be implemented in the form of a user-friendly well-documented library for Python and/or SageMath, which will enable researchers to do various "in silico" experiments. New data structures and algorithms will be developed and incorporated in this software library. This software library will be used to solve several practical self-assembly problems in synthetic biology to demonstrate its usability. Parallelisable algorithms will be developed to enable (computationally intensive) enumerations of strong traces of large polyhedra on multiprocessor systems and computer clusters, which was not possible so far. We will also consider self-assembly of planar nanostructures from the viewpoint of mathematical theory of tilings. The mathematics and software that will be developed will have direct applications in the area of synthetic biology.

Title: Elderly at risk for suicide: approaches to reduce feelings of loneliness and strenghten mental health (Post-doctoral project)
Area: Psychology
Lead research organisation: UP FAMNIT
Principal investigator: Nuša Zadravec Šedivy, PhD

The main purpose of the research is to explore different approaches for reducing social isolation and loneliness and to identify the most effective ways with which preventive action could be taken to reduce mental health problems, mental illness, and suicidal behaviour through the reduction of loneliness. The proposed project will advance the existing knowledge regarding suicide prevention in vulnerable group of elderly. The results will provide further indepth knowledge, which will be directly transferred into practice by implementing interventions for the vulnerable group. Our approach will be based on the newly gained knowledge regarding how to tailor the interventions to the needs of the selected vulnerable group or its subgroups.

Thursday, 13 August 2020 Ad futura scholarships available for postgraduates from the Western Balkans

The Public Scholarship, Development, Disability and Maintenance Fund of the Republic of Slovenia has published Ad futura scholarships for postgraduate students who are citizens of one of the Western Balkans countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, the Republic of Kosovo, the Republic of Northern Macedonia and the Republic of Serbia). This scholarship is available for master's or doctoral studies in Slovenia in the fields of natural sciences, technology and medicine.

The prerequisite for application is the completion of an undergraduate degree at one of the higher education institutions in the above-mentioned countries. In addition, it is required that candidates obtain a temporary residence in Slovenia prior to the application deadline (or alternatively, grant power of attorney to a Slovenian resident to represent their interests in administrative proceedings).

The scholarship can be granted for living expenses during the studies and/or for tuition fees.

The application deadline is 31 August 2020.

Further information, conditions and the application form can be found on the website https://www.srips-rs.si/vsi-razpisi/razpis/stipendije-za-podiplomski-studij-drzavljanov-drzav-zahodnega-balkana-v-sloveniji- for-summer-2019-2-1

Tuesday, 11 August 2020 The second deadline for applications for undergraduate studies for Slovenian and EU citizens is 20-28 August 2020

Slovenian and EU citizens can apply for all undergraduate study programmes at UP FAMNIT during the second application period, which is open from Thursday, August 20 to Friday, August 28, 2020.

These are the vacancies in the second deadline for applications in study programmes:

- Computer Science (programme in Slovene): 20 places available;

- Computer Science (programme in English): 17 places available;

- Mathematics (programme in Slovene): 19 places available;

- Mathematics (programme in English): 24 places available;

- Conservation Biology (programme in Slovene): 24 places available;

- Mediterranean Agriculture (programme in Slovene): 14 places available;;

- Mathematics in Economy and Finance (programme in Slovene): 20 places available;

- Bioinformatics (programme in Slovene): 15 places available;

- Bioinformatics (programme in English): 15 places available.

All information on the application procedures can be found here: https://www.famnit.upr.si/en/education/enrolment1920#heading0

For further information, please contact the Student Services (e-mail: referat@famnit.upr.si, tel. + 386 5 611 75 75)

Thursday, 6 August 2020 IMC 2020 - UP FAMNIT students successful at the International Mathematics Competition for University Students 2020

The 27th IMC - International Mathematical Student Competition) took place this year from 25 to 30 July. The IMC is one of the most renowned competitions of its kind worldwide.

As the IMC was held online due to pandemic COVID -19, the participation was extremely high, with more than 560 students from all over the world taking part. The University of Primorska is the only institution in Slovenia that organised the preparations for its students well in advance and registered them for the competition.

The UP FAMNIT team was represented by Arbër Avdullahu (1st year, Mathematical Sciences), Besfort Shala (2nd year, Mathematics), Ajla Šehović (1st year, Mathematics), Milan Milivojčević (1st year, Computer Science), Jana Ristovska (1st year, Computer Science) and team leader Assoc. Prof. Marko Orel.

The opening ceremony took place on Sunday 25 July, followed by two days of competitions, during which the students had four hours a day to solve four problems. After the second day, the team leaders evaluated the students' tasks 24 hours a day, as the competition took place simultaneously all over the world. The results were announced on the last day at the closing ceremony. Among the UP FAMNIT students, Arbër Avdullahu and Besfort Shala were the best participants, both received an Honourable Mention certificate.

To learn more about the competition, visit the IMC website, the IMC 2020 math problems are available here.

We congratulate our FAMNIT students and their team leader, Assoc. Prof. Marko Orel!

(UP FAMNIT students just before the start of the 2nd day of competition)

Wednesday, 5 August 2020 UP FAMNIT MSc & PhD programmes at glance

Why choose UP FAMNIT?

First and foremost because we offer a unique educational opportunity for some of the most sought-after professional profiles in Europe and the world, such as mathematics, computer science, the natural sciences and psychology. Furthermore, we offer:

• attractive future-oriented study courses with an emphasis on interdisciplinarity,
• modern teaching methods supported by informational technology,
• award-winning and internationally renowned lecturers with a personal approach to students,
• the opportunity for research work during your studies in cooperation with the Andrej Marušič Institute of the University of Primorska,
• cooperation with industry in the framework of practical trainings and projects,
• a pleasant Mediterranean environment at the Slovenian seaside,
• a rich offer of extracurricular activities in cooperation with the Student Council and other student associations.

Find more about the advantages of studying at our MSc and PhD programmes in our brochure – simply click the picture below.

Application terms for EU citizens:

• first application term: from 8 April to 27 August 2020,
• second application term: from 11 to 16 September 2020,
• third application term: from 24 to 25 September 2020 until 12:00.

Application terms for non-EU citizens and Slovene nationals without Slovene citizenship:

• first application term: from 8 April to 1 July 2020 (COMPLETED),
• second application term: from 20 July to 27 August 2020 (there are free enrollment places for all the study programs),
• third application term: from 11 to 16 September 2020,
• fourth application term: from 24 to 25 September 2020 until 12:00.

Tuesday, 4 August 2020 Prof. Tomaž Pisanski becomes a member of the EMS Press Advisory Board

The renowned Berlin-based mathematics publisher EMS Press has announced the new Scientific Advisory Board (SAB), a member of which is Prof. Tomaž Pisanski.

EMS Press is an imprint of EMS Publishing House GmbH (formerly based in Switzerland), and a subsidiary of the European Mathematical Society. Their program includes 20 journals, 15 new books per year and a backlist of 200 titles. EMS Press is the mathematics community publisher and its mission has remained the same since its founding in 2001 - "to serve the mathematics community by publishing high-quality, accessible, and open research". EMS Press has recently moved to Berlin and has gained a new Managing Director in Dr. André Gaul.

The Scientific Advisory Board is consulted in order to maintain the high scientific standards of the publisher's portfolio - and improve them where possible. The Scientific Advisory Board consists of 8 members, who hold a two-year term of office from 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2022. In line with the publisher's mission, the board will focus on the quality of all publications. They will be consulted on new journals, book series and proceedings series that are planned to be created or acquired from other publishers.

Prof. Pisanki was already a member of Scientific Advisory Board EMS Publishing House, Switzerland before holding the position with the EMS Press.

We sincerely congratulate Prof. Pisanski and wish him every success in his mandate!

Prof. Tomaž Pisanski is an internationally known researcher working in the field of discrete and computational mathematics, with applications in natural sciences, engineering and social sciences. He is one of the pioneers of topological graph theory in the world and the founder of the world-renowned Slovenian school of graph theory. His most important contribution to the global scientific community is based on the use of discrete mathematics methods in natural sciences and technology. His contribution to the development of the representations of graphs, which is used in mathematics as well as in chemistry, biology and other sciences, is also remarkable. Thanks to him, Slovenian science in these fields is recognized and appreciated globally, and his intensive cooperation with researchers and research institutions from all over the world, as well as his membership in numerous scientific organizations and associations abroad, has had a strong influence on the development of Slovenian science for decades.

He is one of the two founding members and editor-in-chief of the international mathematical journal Ars Mathematica Contemporanea – AMC, President of the Slovenian Society for Discrete and Applied Mathematics, the Chair of the Organizing Committee of the 8th European Congress of Mathematics - 8ECM, and Chair of Department of Information Sciences and Technologies at UP Famnit. In 2015 he received the prestigious Zois Award for outstanding achievements in scientific research work in the field of discrete mathematics and its applications, and in 2020 he was awarded with the recognition of »Prometeus of science for excellence in communication« for life achievements.

Monday, 3 August 2020 New E+ project about growth mindset

This week, the University of Primorska successfully obtained a new international projects in the field of education with the title Growthminds. The project, whose lead partner is UP FAMNIT, will include various activities with which pedagogical staff at the university level will be able to develop new competencies for the use of the so called concept of growth mindset in their work. The project aims to increase the quality of the learning process through the use of new learning techniques and is co-financed by the European Union under the Erasmus+ KA203 programme.

The two-year project will be led by the Head of the Center for Positive Psychology, Assist. Prof. Kristijan Musek Lešnik, PhD and it will start ob 1 November. The developed materials will be disseminated for free in five languages, while the activities will directly include university educators and university students as main target groups. With a co-financed part of 171,459 EUR, the project will bring together the following partners: STEP Inštitut, zavod za psihologijo dela in podjetništvo (Slovenia), Balıkesir University (Turkey), University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Târgu Mureş (Romania) in University of Klagenfurt (Austria).

(Assist. Prof. Kristijan Musek Lešnik, PhD)

More about growth mindset

In 1988 Dr. Dweck sparked interest in researching mindsets by showing that those who believe their abilities are malleable (i.e. have a “growth mindset”) are more likely to embrace challenges and persist despite failure than those who view their abilities as non-changeable (i.e. “fixed mindset”). Growth mindset (GM) students seek out better feedback, persist for longer, cope better with transitions and develop better self-regulation. GM reduces stress in students, promotes wellbeing and emotional functioning, improves self-esteem, learning orientation, reduces helplessness and is linked with grit and pro-social behaviours. Research supports the idea that educator mindsets may influence the way they respond to students, which in turn has an impact on the students’ outcomes.

Friday, 31 July 2020 THE EXECUTION OF THE STUDY PROCESS IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2020/21

Dear Students,

We would like to inform you that for the first semester of the 2020/21 academic year, the pedagogical process in scheduled to take place partly in the faculty premises and partly online (mainly through ZOOM and the e-classroom).

Courses, which will take place at the faculty, will also be reachable online (ZOOM, e-classroom, etc.). Exceptions are courses where the student's presence is necessary for the successful execution of the course (laboratory work, field work …).

Due to spatial constraints related to preventive measures against the spread of COVID-19 (safety distance, ventilation of premises…), lectures and exercises are expected to be held on the premises of the faculty for smaller groups of students only, whereas larger groups will be moved online entirely. All students are advised to find accommodation on the coast, since the pedagogical process will be partially carried out on the premises of the faculty for students of all study programs (and years).

This also applies to foreign students, who are advised to move to Slovenia at latest by 14 September (and quarantine from 14.9. to 27.9.), if a mandatory quarantine has been set for their country of departure/origin. The Orientation days for foreign students will be held in the dates from 28.9. to 30.9.2020. 

As we are currently unable to predict the situation in connection to the spread of COVID-19 at the beginning of the academic year, we shall adjust the planned execution of the study process if necessary and inform you about it accordingly. Students are advised to follow announcements on the faculty website on a regular basis.

We greet you warmly and wish you a pleasant summer, as well as to good health!

Friday, 31 July 2020 UP has acquired two new ARRS projects in the field of mathematics

We are pleased to announce that two research groups were successful with their application for the open call for proposals of the Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS). Both secured their funding on the basis of the Grade B of the ERC Advanced Grant application.

The project principal investigator of the Customized Project N1-0159 - Designing certain discrete mathematical objects in spectral domain is prof. Enes Pasalic.

The main objective of this project is to investigate the existence, design and classification of certain discrete combinatorial objects that correspond to a special class of polynomials over finite fields which play an important role in cryptography. Namely, the main interest is the analysis of the so-called APN (almost perfect nonlinear) and AB (almost bent) functions. Their main intention is to provide an efficient classification and design of these two classes of functions since the known classes of these functions are obtained in non-generic and non-systematic manner.

(Prof. Enes Pasalic)

The second program group, P1-0285, whose principal investigator is Prof. Dragan Marušič, was successful in obtaining funds for the Customized project N1-0160 - Topological and Algebraic Combinatorics. The TAC project (Topological and Algebraic Combinatorics), which was successfully obtained by Assoc. Prof. Russ Woodroofe, will study problems at the intersection of topology, algebra, and combinatorics.

(Assoc. Prof. Russ Woodroofe)

There are two main themes, both motivated by posets and simplicial complexes arising in group theory. The first theme concerns the topology and combinatorics of the lattice of cosets of a finite group. These questions are intimately related to questions about generation and invariable generation of groups, and connect with a large number of seemingly unconnected fields. The second theme is loosely around shellable and sequentially Cohen-Macaulay simplicial complexes, particularly those arising from algebraic objects. One main goal is a unified and minimally classification-dependent proof that the subgroup lattices of nonabelian finite simple groups are not sequentially Cohen-Macaulay. Progress on these problems is likely to yield better techniques for demarcating between complexes that are sequentially Cohen-Macaulay and those that are not, as will be useful elsewhere in algebra and combinatorics.  

The Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS) co-finances Customized research projects that have been successful in the international evaluation process in order to provide applicants with the conditions to further their own scientific excellence and the original idea of the research project.

The above-mentioned ERC Advanced Grant supports excellent, already established researchers at career level who have made recognizable scientific achievements over the last ten years. In addition to the other two scholarships awarded by the European Research Council (ERC Starting Grant and ERC Consolidator Grant), these are highly prestigious scholarships. The high B grades awarded to the two projects are also important because the University of Primorska is aiming to receive at least one of the ERC grants (A grade) in the coming years.

We extend our sincere congratulations to both researchers!

Thursday, 30 July 2020 STEP CHANGE: A New Horizon 2020 Project in the Spirit of Civic Science

The University of Primorska has successfully acquired the leadership of a new Horizon 2020 project called STEP CHANGE (Science Transformation and EuroPe through Citizens involvement in HeAlth, coNservation and enerGy rEsearch), which combines different scientific areas covered by the Citizen Science Initiative. The project will officially start on 1 January 2021. The project consortium consists of eleven partners from seven countries of the European Union and Uganda, who will collaborate through research in various scientific fields ranging from energy to health and the environment.

The STEP CHANGE project aims to develop data collection software, increase the number of data collectors (including nature lovers, photographers, etc.), establish protocols and improve data quality control in various scientific fields.

The UP FAMNIT Department of Biodiversity will also contribute to the research work on the conservation of wildlife in Slovenia, thus contributing to the further development and increase of the practical value of the Hunting Information System, as well as to a deepened cooperation between our researchers, leading wildlife researchers in Slovenia and the Hunters Association of Slovenia (LZS). Slovenia already prides itself with an extensive database on wildlife in Slovenia, which was established by the LZS. In order to achieve the goals of sustainable wildlife management, education and training of hunters and environmental protection, the LZS has developed a comprehensive information system, unique in the European Union, which stores all important information on wildlife populations.

The project leader, Prof. Elena Bužan, is proud to take on such an important international project: "With the participation of the broadest possible public, the project addresses highly pressing contemporary issues such as the reduction of energy consumption, cardiovascular diseases and obesity, the spread of zoonoses and other infectious diseases (including Covid-19) and, of course, the monitoring and protection of wildlife. In relation to the latter, it is extremely important that this part of the project takes place in Slovenia, which boasts one of the best wildlife management models in the world. I am therefore pleased that we will be working with the Hunters Association of Slovenia. This will significantly increase the practical value of our research, the link between researchers and hunters as end users of research results and - perhaps most importantly increasing trust between various stakeholders".

(Prof. Elena Bužan)

The implementation of the STEP CHANGE project in Slovenia is supported by the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food, the Slovenia Forest Service, the Environmental Protection College and the Hunters Association of Slovenia.

It is also worth mentioning that the STARBIOS 2 project will end on 30 July 2020. From the beginning of this year until the end of 2022, UP FAMNIT researchers will participate in the RESBIOS project, which combines research and innovation in the field of biosciences. All the above-mentioned projects are implemented and financially supported within the Horizon 2020 Programme.

We extend our sincere congratulations to our researchers!

Monday, 27 July 2020 Prof. Andreja Kutnar, featured in the prestigious campaign #EUwomen4future

Prof. Kutnar is featured in the prestigious campaign #EUwomen4future in the company of ten other exceptional women in the field of science, research and innovation. The new campaign which was announced by Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, is of high importance, as it includes outstanding women which are active in research, innovation, education, culture and sport. It focuses on some of the cutting-edge achievements that will shape Europe in the future, with a realisation at its core that without its talented and dedicated professionals, Europe cannot grow. These exceptional women are in a unique position as an inspiration and encouragement to other young women and girls that seek out opportunities to fulfil their ambitions.

In the campaign #EUwomen4future campaign, Prof. Andreja Kutnar is in the company of ten other exceptional women from the field of science, research and innovation. Among them Marie Skłodowska Curie, a pioneer in the research of radioactivity, who, along with Henri Becquerel and her husband Pierre Curie, was the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Physics and eight years later the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Another Slovenian, Ladeja Godina Košir, founder of the Circular Change platform and president of the Coordination Goup of the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform (ECESP), is on the campaign list.

(Prof. Andreja Kutnar, PhD)

Andreja Kutnar is a full professor, head of the field of Wood Science at the Department of Applied Natural Sciences of the University of Primorska and director of the InnoRenew CoE research institute. She is a board member of the international organization InnovaWood and director of the board of the Society of Wood Science and Technology (SWST). Her areas of expertise include wood composites, thermo hydro mechanical treatment of wood, and adhesive bonding. Her work focuses on research projects in the fields of natural science, technology, sustainable development of the wood industry, environmental impact assessment of new materials, products, and technologies from origin, manufacturing, use/alteration to reuse or recycle. She also engages in calculating life cycle estimates of products and services for the needs of the wood industry, especially for the furniture and wood construction industries, and advises on reducing environmental impacts along the entire value chain of wood. She is also the co-author of several international scientific papers and publications.

In 2016, she was recognized with the “Prometheus of Science for Excellence in Communication” award for successful multi-level communication in wood science and supporting sustainable development. In 2018 she received the distinguished Zois Certificate of Recognition for important scientific achievements in the field of wood science. Her life principle is: "Make your mornings wonderful by following your passion and heart."

More information at: https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/euwomen4future

Thursday, 23 July 2020 The University of Primorska hosts mathematician, Prof. Daniel Kráľ, a rising star of European mathematics

Checz mathematician Prof. Daniel Kráľ, a holder of two ERC grants and a rising star in European mathematics, is visiting the University of Primorska this week.

Mathematics at the University of Primorska was presented at the welcome meeting with the Rector, Prof. Klavdija Kutnar, Assoc. Prof. Ademir Hujdurović, Dean of UP FAMNIT, Assoc. Prof. Vito Vitrih, Director of the UP IAM, and Prof. Tomaž Pisanski, President of the Slovenian Society for Discrete and Applied Mathematics, and President of the Organizing Committee of the 8th European Congress of mathematics - 8ECM, which will take place next year in Portorož.

Prof. Kráľ comes from the Faculty of Informatics, Masaryk University in Brno and is a recognized expert in the field of graph theory. In 2010 he received the ERC Starting Grant for the CCOSA project (Classes of Combinatorial Objects - from Structure to Algorithms), and in 2015 the ERC Consolidator grant for the LADIST project (Large Discrete Structures). He is currently also the editor of two prestigious journals - Advances in Combinatorics and SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics (SIDMA).

(Prof. Daniel Kráľ)

During the visit Dr. Kráľ, together with two other PhD students, continues his well-established research in the field of graph theory with Assist. Prof. Matjaž Krnc (UP FAMNIT).

The ERC grants are awarded by the European Research Council and are prestigious recognitions for research, since an outstanding track record is an important factor of success to obtain the grant. Its aim is to identify the best ideas and talents within each program group. The ERC program offers several types of grants, available at different stages of a researcher's career (Starting Grant, Consolidator Grant and Advanced Grant).

The visit of the Czech mathematician is important for the University of Primorska not only in order to strengthen research cooperation, but also because the University is aiming to obtain one of the above-mentioned European Research Council grants in the coming years.

(Prof. Tomaž Pisanski, Assoc. Prof. Ademir Hujdurović, Assoc. Prof. Vito Vitrih, Assist. Prof. Matjaž Krnc, Prof. Daniel Kráľ,  Martin Kurečka, Dr.. Robert Hancock, Assist. Prof. Nino Bašić)

Monday, 13 July 2020 Three more positions of Young Researcher in the field of Mathematics and Biology

The University of Primorska has published a public tender for three more Young Researcher candidates in 2020, who will be trained at the Andrej Marušič Institute (UP IAM) and the Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies (UP FAMNIT).

Below you will find the supervisors and research areas / programmes:

Ademir Hujdurović – field: Mathematics, Research Programme P1-0404 Mathematical modelling and encryption: from theoretical concepts to real-life applications; UP Andrej Marušič Institute,

Elena Bužan – field: Biology; Research Programme P1-0386 Conservation biology, from molecules to ecosystem; UP Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies,

Candidates must submit their applications by 12 August 2020 by 2 p.m.

Dragan Marušič– field: Mathematics; Research Programme P1-0285 Algebra, discrete mathematics, probability and game theory; UP Andrej Marušič Institute,
Candidates must submit their applications by 21 July 2020 by 2 p.m.

More information about the call and the selection procedure is available on this link.

Wednesday, 1 July 2020 Scientific journal ADAM included in Scopus

We are happy to announce that the journal The Art of Discrete and Applied Mathematics – ADAM, which is published by UP FAMNIT and Slovenian Discrete and Applied Mathematics Society – SDAMS is included in Scopus.

The journal is platinum open access, a purely electronic journal that publishes high-quality articles in contemporary mathematics that arise from the discrete and concrete mathematics paradigm. The journal is published since 2018, once a year in English, with abstracts in Slovene.

It favours themes from discrete and applied mathematics and welcomes original, interesting and important results in the form of articles and notes, as well as longer survey papers.

ADAM is expected to be included in SCOPUS in the coming months when the indexing process is completed.

Scopus is Elsevier’s abstract and citation database and is the largest database dedicated to searching and reviewing scientific literature from all fields. It covers bibliographic data with abstracts and citations from over 23,700 titles of scientific journals (4,000 open access), it includes over 5,000 publishers and contains more than 71 million bibliographic records.

With ADAM included in SCOPUS, the articles published in this journal have gained an impact factor, furthermore, the Public Research Agency of the Republic of Slovenia (ARRS) will classify them as articles published in high-quality international scientific journals.

We sincerely congratulate the editorial team on this achievement and wish them continued success in the future!

Tuesday, 9 June 2020 Four new positions of Young Researcher at UP IAM and UP FAMNIT

The University of Primorska has published a public tender for five Young Researcher candidates in 2020, wo will be trained at the Andrej Marušič Institute (UP IAM), the Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies (UP FAMNIT) and the Faculty of Health Sciences (UP FVZ), for obtaining a doctorate of science. The research fields are: Mathematics, Biology and Oncology.

Below you will find the supervisors and research areas / programmes at UP FAMNIT and UP IAM:

• Dragan Marušič – field: Mathematics; Research Programme P1-0285 Algebra, discrete mathematics, probability and game theory; UP Andrej Marušič Institute,
• Enes Pasalic – field: Mathematics; Research Programme P1-0404 Mathematical modelling and encryption: from theoretical concepts to real-life applications; UP Andrej Marušič Institute,
• Ademir Hujdurović – field: Mathematics; Research Programme P1-0404 Mathematical modelling and encryption: from theoretical concepts to real-life applications; UP Andrej Marušič Institute,
• Elena Bužan – field: Biology; Research Programme P1-0386 Conservation biology, from molecules to ecosystem; UP Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies.

Candidates must submit their applications till 8 July 2020 by 2 p.m.

More information about the call and the selection procedure is available on this link.

Friday, 5 June 2020 New victory for UP FAMNIT students at the Open International Internet Olympiad 2020!

UP FAMNIT students record another phenomenal performance at the Open International Internet-Olympiad (OIIO) 2020.

First round of the competition took place at UP FAMNIT on February 24, 2020. The following students participated: Laura Ogrin and Todor Antić (Mathematics, 1st year), Besfort Shala (Mathematics, 2nd year), Đorđe Mitrović and Aleksandar Avdalović (Mathematics, 3rd year), Daniil Baldouski (Mathematical Sciences, 1st year), Roman Solodukhin (Mathematical Sciences, pre-graduate), and Milan Milivojčević (Computer Science, 1st year).

Second round of competition was held online via Zoom video-conferencing service on March 28, 2020, with theese competitors from UP FAMNIT: Laura Ogrin, Besfort Shala, Đorđe MItrović, Aleksandar Avdalović, Milan Milivojević, Roman Solodukhin, and Daniil Baldouski.

Due to the worldwide pandemic, the third round of competition was cancelled. Based on the results from the first two rounds, the organizers ruled that Roman Solodukhin is a 3rd place prize winner in Mathematics and receives a winner certificate.

Moreover, all of the students who competed in the second round of the Open International Internet-Olympiad 2020, received an honorary certificate of participation.

Traditionally, UP FAMNIT students have been participating in the OIIO for many years, and each time they are included in the group of the best competitors. Thanks to them, in 2016 the University of Primorska received the title of “University winner”.

We extend congratulations to our students for their fantastic achievements!

Friday, 22 May 2020 10th generation of UP FAMNIT graduates

On Friday, May 22, UP FAMNIT celebrates a new generation of graduates. Unfortunately, the graduation ceremony was canceled due to measures preventing the spread of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19). Based on instructions of the University of Primorska, we prepared a short but no less sincere video, featuring our warmest congratulations to graduates who completed their studies in the period from May 2019 to April 2020.

On this link you will find the list of our graduates with the titles of their final papers/master's thesis.

In this video, you will find the address of UP FAMNIT Dean, Assoc. Prof. Ademir Hujdurović, PhD, as well as the address of the rector of the University of Primorska, Prof. Klavdija Kutnar, PhD. Two students further shared their thoughts about their study experiences at the faculty: Tina Belej, graduate of the undergraduate study program in Biodiversity, and Mateja Erce, graduate of the master's study program in Applied Psychology. Furthermore, graduates shared fragments of their memories at our faculty in form of valuable photographs and the UP FAMNIT Student Council prepared a special congratulation at the end of the video.

Following the tradition, this year too, nine students received rewards of the Faculty for their outstanding study and research achievements. The reward ceremony will take place at the beginning of the next academic year.

Recipients of the Faculty rewards are:

• Petra Slavinec, Master's study program Nature Conservation, reward for research work,
• Cuauhtli Campos Mijangos, doctoral study program Computer Science, reward for the implementation of 3D printing of protective face masks,
• Nuwan Tharanga Attygalle, doctoral study program Computer Science, reward for the implementation of 3D printing of protective face masks,
• Anuradhi Maheshya Weerasinghe Arachchillage, doctoral study program Computer Science, reward for research work,
• Besfort Shala, undergraduate study program Mathematics, reward for outstanding academic achievements and successes in international competitions,
• Mateo Antonac, undergraduate study program Mathematics in Economics and Finance, reward for academic achievements,
• Sara Brglez, undergraduate study program Biopsychology, reward for important contribution to the development of extracurricular activities of the department.

Recipients of rewards for their active involvement in the development of extracurricular activities for students, based on the proposal of the UP FAMNIT Student Council:

• Amar Bapić, doctoral study program Mathematical Sciences,
• Hana Truta, undergraduate study program Mediterranean Agriculture.

We sincerely congratulate all graduates and recipients of awards and wish them success in their further study, research and careers.

Saturday, 16 May 2020 Change of measures at the University of Primorska from 18 May 2020

On 18 May 2020, the current measures of the University of Primorska for the prevention of the spread of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) are changing. Activities defined in the DECISION of the Rector of the University of Primorska are permitted in the university premises, which need to  carried out in the manner defined in the GUIDELINES for working in the university premises during the COVID-19 epidemic.

• DECISION about the measures for the prevention of the spread of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), 14 May 2020
• GUIDELINES for working in the university premises during COVID-19 epidemic, May 2020

The guidelines in English language will be available soon. Before entering the faculty premises, please read carefully both documents (decision, instructions) and take into account all defined measures that remain in force until further notice. 

More information about all measures is available HERE.

Friday, 15 May 2020 Info Week for Master's study programmes

If you are interested in studying at UP FAMNIT or you are still undecided about your postgraduate studies, join our Info Week for Master's studies, which will take during the first week of June 2020!
You can follow the presentations of our programmes on Zoom and live on Facebook.

Study programmes coordinators and students will answer to all your questions and present our interdisciplinary study and research activities. 
Programmes that are held in English language will be presented in English.

PROGRAMME OF THE WEEK

For more information: promo@famnit.upr.si

The CALL FOR ENROLMENT into UP FAMNIT postgraduate study programmes in 2020/21 is available HERE.

See you!

Friday, 8 May 2020 8ECM RESCHEDULED TO 2021

After careful consideration of all available options and in view of the safety and well-being of all participants, a final decision was made to move the date of the 8th European Congress of Mathematics - 8ECM, due to the coronavirus pandemic (COVID - 19).

The 8ECM organizers and the European Mathematical Society – EMS are announcing a new date for the Congress, which is 20 – 26 June, 2021 in Portorož, Slovenia.

One of the innovations at the 8ECM next year is an online streaming format, with the possibility for full and active E-participation, besides the regular format of the conference. Reduced registration fees for different options of E-participation are available, where delegates will have the benefit of participating from home or even from the comfort of their hotel room, thus avoiding the crowds at the Congress centre, but still taking advantage of the early summer in Portorož.

Please see https://8ecm.eu/news/68 for more relevant information about participating at the congress.

Last but certainly not least, the prize winners for 2020 were announced today.

Every four years, during the European Congress of Mathematics, the European Mathematical Society awards 10 EMS Prizes, the Felix Klein Prize and the Otto Neugebauer Prize. All prize winners are usually announced at the Opening Ceremony at the beginning of the congress. Unfortunately, this year the tradition called for an alternative.

Visit  https://8ecm.eu/news/69  to find out who are the winners for 2020!

The 8ECM organizers are confident that the 8ECM will be as magnificent as ever, and are very much looking forward to welcoming you in Portorož, Slovenia in 2021!

Tuesday, 14 April 2020 COVID19: Hotline for all who have found themselves in distress

In recent weeks we have found ourselves in an unpredictable situation. We are largely cut off from normal life and we can feel scared, sad, confused, angry, unmotivated, stressed, lonely or to feel a loss of control. These kinds of reactions are understandable in present circumstances.

The University of Primorska (UP) has established a hotline for all students and staff at UP who have found themselves in distress and would like to talk to our psychologists.

You can talk to them daily, Monday to Sunday, from 10am to noon and from 5pm to 7pm.
PHONE NUMBER: 05/ 611 76 55

More information, including the schedule of psychologists, additional support numbers and announced lectures are available at: https://www.upr.si/en/university/covid-19--up/psiholoska-podpora

Wednesday, 1 April 2020 Prototypes of 3D printed face masks delivered to the General Hospital Izola for testing

The University of Primorska joined the initiative Zaščitimo Slovenijo and in collaboration with the General Hospital Izola and Technological park Ljubljana printed first protective face masks. The first prototypes of the masks have been already delivered to the hospital, where they are currently being tested in real environment. 

Masks are made by the researchers from the UP FAMNIT Human-Computer Interaction Lab, who are currently printing masks day and night. The purchase of 3D printers was recently enabled by the InnoRenew CoE project. 

These masks are compatible with microbiological filters used in hospitals. The model of the filter, that served as a basis for the mask, is certified to be 99.99% effective in guaranteeing protection. They are intended for multiple use, they are made out of PLA material and they are made in two sizes (male and female).

The university is also supporting other projects to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak. Some are already being implemented and you can read about them here, others are in a testing phase, while some are still being developed. The combining factor of all of them is the wish of the university to proactively support the epidemic management. 

Wednesday, 1 April 2020 Survey on University of Primorska student's satisfaction during isolation

Dear students!

At the University of Primorska we would like to find out more about your well-being and any challenges you might face in current situation. For this reason, we have prepared a short voluntary and anonymous survey. 

The management of the University is pleased to note that the work processes in all areas of the university work are more or less running smoothly thanks to the quick and efficient adjustment of employees and students.

We invite all of you to participate in the survey and suggest additional improvements for the work processes and personal collaborations.

You will find the survey on this link. The survey will be actieve until Monday 6 April 2020.

We thank you in advance for all your contributions and wish you a lot of health!

Tuesday, 31 March 2020 Wednesday, 8 April 2020 first application term for postgraduate study starts

Wednesday, 8 April 2020 starts the first application term for Master’s and doctoral study programmes at UP FAMNIT, which:

• lasts until 27 August 2020 for Slovene citizens and EU citizens,
• lasts until 1 July 2020 for Slovene nationals without Slovene citizenship and non-EU citizens.

All information about the application procedure are available on this link.

Candidates are invited to check our programme’s presentation and visit us on 8 May 2020 at 16.00 during the Open day! The exact Open day’s programme will be published later in the section Education/ Enrolment.

For more information please contact the Student Services (e-mail: referat@famnit.upr.si).

Tuesday, 24 March 2020 Triple i conferene cancelled

We regret to inform you that due to the current epidemiological situation regarding the spread of the virus/disease SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), we have decided to cancel this year's Triple i in Suicidology conference.

Although there is still some time to go before the planned conference date, and we believe that by then the situation will change for the better, the circumstances are currently too uncertain to plan the event.

In case you have any questions, please send us an email to triple-i@upr.si.
Thank you for your understanding and we hope you will join us next year!

With warmest regards,
UP IAM Slovene Centre for Suicide Research

Monday, 23 March 2020 New PhD Programme Renewable Materials for Healthy Built Environment

It is our pleasure to announce that the University of Primorska has been granted accreditation for the PhD Programme Renewable Materials for Healthy Built Environments which be implemented at UP FAMNIT.

The core area of the study program is wood science, with the emphasis on sustainable building design through interdisciplinary integration with other scientific fields (eg the role of IT in ensuring health to users of wooden, sustainable and zero-energy buildings).

The study programme offers a complete set of skills and knowledge in the fields of engineering, wood, and architectural science with aspects of health and information technology. These skills not only have the advantage of being highly applicative in the natural environment, but offer an interdisciplinary approach that is necessary to keep up with the development of contemporary construction science, or successfully work in the academic sector, public administration, or the economy.

The basic objective of the study programme is to educate top experts in the field of renewable materials for healthy built environments with a deep understanding of theoretical concepts, broad technical knowledge and the ability to independently develop new knowledge. Graduates will be able to develop and improve renewable materials for healthy built environments in Slovenia and beyond, as well as for further development of the profession at academic level.

The study programme will be implemented in Slovenian and English in the next academic year at UP FAMNIT, more information will be available on the Faculty website shortly. 

Thursday, 19 March 2020 Call for scholarships from the UP Scholarship fund for the academic year 2020/2021

The Career Center of University of Primorska published the Public call to obtain scholarships from the Scolarship fund of University of Primorska for the academic year 2020/2021. 

The Scholarship Fund of the University of Primorska (hereinafter the Fund) is based on a partnership between the University of Primorska (hereinafter UP), municipalities, and the private sector. Its aim is to reward and encourage the best students of UP, offer their knowledge to potential employers during the course of their study process, and provide opportunities for employment to these students as soon as they finish their studies. The objective of the Fund is at the same time to support all UP students in achieving the best possible results in their studies.

With this Public Call, the University of Primorska invites all:

• candidates for enrolment in the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd cycle study programmes of UP and
• students who, in the academic year of 2020/2021, will be enrolled in the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd cycle study programmes of UP,

to apply for this public call, and thus express their interest in joining the Fund.

Candidates for scholarship express interest in the public call by submitting their application. With inclusion in the Fund the selected candidates are placed in a special register of the best students at UP and gain the opportunity to conclude a one-year scholarship contract. Scholarship contracts will be concluded between UP, Fund partners (employers), and students with whom there is a mutual interest in the conclusion of the contract. By signing the scholarship contract the student agrees that in the case that employment is offered to him by a partner of the Fund (employer) he will, after completing his education, accept the offer and complete employment for at least as long as he was receiving the scholarship.

The amount of the scholarship for the academic year of 2020/2021 is from 200,00 EU per month, respectively 2.000,00 EU per academic year, to 1.000,00 EU per month (10.000,00 EU per academic year), depending by the enrolled cycle of study and the obtained score. 

Application deadlines: May 15th, June 15th, July 15th, August 15th, and September 30th, 2020. The application is submitted in due time if it is submitted between March 13th, 2020 to September 30th, 2020.

More information: https://kariernicenter.upr.si/en/aktualno/news/javni-poziv-stipendijski-sklad-up-20202021

Contacts: 

Career Center of University of Primorska, Center for Lifelong Learning and Career Orientation
Adress: Titov trg 4, 6000 Koper, Slovenija
Phone: +386 5 611 76 33 or+386 5 611 76 36
E-mail: kariernicenter@upr.si

Wednesday, 18 March 2020 Prof. Tamás Szőnyi recipient of the Széchenyi Prize

It is our great pleasure to inform you that Prof. Tamás Szőnyi, doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, professor of Computer Science at the Eötvös Loránd University and at UP FAMNIT, is one of the recipients of the Széchenyi Prize in recognition of his extensive professional role in public life. 

The Széchenyi Prize is a prize given in Hungary by the state in recognition of those who have made an outstanding contribution to academic life in Hungary.

Dr. Tamás Szőnyi is a internationally recognized Hungarian mathematician, doing research in discrete mathematics, particularly finite geometry, block designs, coding theory, combinatorics. In 2001, he received the Doctor of Science title from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and is the creator of a successful school in finite geometry. At UP FAMNIT, Prof. Szőnyi is currently delivering lectures on Coding Theory.

We congratulate Prof. Tamás Szőnyi, PhD for this excellent achievement and important award!

(Prof. Szőnyi at the 2016 PhD Summer School in Discrete Mathematics, Rogla - Slovenia)

Tuesday, 17 March 2020 Undergraduate study: first application term for EU citizens postponed

Due to the epidemy of the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) disease in the territory of the Republic of Slovenia, the first application term for undergraduate study programmes for EU citizens has been postponed. 

Candidates shall now apply no later than 9 APRIL 2020. 

All information about the application procedure is available here.

Friday, 13 March 2020 Library TeMeNa CLOSED until 28 March 2020

We would like to inform you that the TeMeNa library will be closed until 28 March 2020.

You can extend the borrowing time via email or the virtual library Cobiss.

If you have any questions you can contact us at temena@upr.si.

Thank you for your understanding!

Friday, 13 March 2020 NEW: ADAPTED STUDY PROCESS PROLONGED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

The Minister of Health issued an order to announce epidemy of the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) disease in the territory of the Republic of Slovenia and to ban the gathering of people in schools and universities.

The University of Primorska accepted relevant measures before the orders were announced. All our measures are in line with the orders and will be valid until further notice. In this time:

1) the study process will remain adapted and will be, where possible, implemented on-line. There are no study activities happening at the premises of the university (students receive specific guidelines from individual faculties),
2) there is no student and employee recreation,
3) all events, extracurricular activities, lifelong learning and other activities are postponed,
4) alternative forms of work are possible for all employees, including research and administrative staff,
5) all business trips abroad are limited,
6) we still urge everyone to pay special attention to hand and cough hygiene,
7) we urge everyone to follow verified and official information, especially the WHO,
8) we appeal to everyone to refrain from discrimination and to remain respectful to each other.

We wish all of you to remain healthy!

Sunday, 8 March 2020 Important notice - Cancellation of pedagogical processes at UP (March 9 - March 20)

In view of the current situation regarding the coronavirus COVID-19, we would like to inform you that for the next 14 days (from Monday, March 9, 2020 to Friday, March 20, 2020), the pedagogical processes (lectures, tutorials, ...) at the University of Primorska are canceled. We will keep you informed regarding a replacement the failed pedagogical process.

The instructions from Ministry of Education, Science and Sport, National Institute for Public Health, and the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Slovenia state that it is necessary to act preventively and to adjust the measures taken by a particular institution to the situation. After examining the information from all the above institutions, and that of Italy's "Istituto Superiore di Sanita dell 'Italia" (NIJZ equivalent in the Republic of Slovenia) considering the fact that Italy is the largest focal point of COVID-19 in Europe, the above measures have been taken for preventive reasons. Our university interacts daily with neighboring Italy.

In the coming days, you will also receive further instructions for continuing classes at a distance (for example, using e-classrooms, distance lectures, ...).

We will keep you informed of any further changes or measures.

Monday, 2 March 2020 Prof. Dr. Vladimir Batagelj, co-author and co-editor of a new book published by Wiley

It is our pleasure to inform that Prof. Dr. Vladimir Batagelj, researcher at the University of Primorska and at the University of Ljubljana, is one of the authors as well as one of the editors of the book Advances in Network Clustering and Blockmodeling that has been just published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The book offers an integrated treatment of network clustering and blockmodeling, covering all of the newest approaches and methods that have been developed over the last decade. Presented in a comprehensive manner, it offers the foundations for understanding network structures and processes, and features a wide variety of new techniques addressing issues that occur during the partitioning of networks across multiple disciplines such as community detection, blockmodeling of valued networks, role assignment, and stochastic blockmodeling.

John Wiley & Sons, Inc., commonly known as Wiley, is an American multinational publishing company founded in 1807 that focuses on academic publishing and instructional materials. The company produces books, journals, and encyclopaedias, in print and electronically, and educational materials for undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education students. Wiley Open Access publishes authoritative peer reviewed open access journals across many research disciplines.

Wednesday, 26 February 2020 Coronavirus: University of Primorska response

At the University of Primorska we are regularly following the development of the coronavirus situation.

All pedagogic, research and professional activities of the university will continue to operate fully, as well as travels to and from abroad. We will also continue to cooperate with our partners as usual. We recommend all our students and colleagues abroad to continue with their planned activities.

The exception are activities which cannot be implemented due to the limitations imposed by partner institutions (e.g. closure of the university, postponing the semester, limiting visits, etc.). If the partner institutions impose such actions due to the coronavirus, that can be understood as force majeure and we can still claim the costs incurred with the majority of co-financers.

We are regularly following the development of the disease and we will follow the guidelines and instructions of state institutions. The university leadership also met today with the representative of the National Institute for public health and is preparing potential measures, if needed.

So far, we advise all students and staff to:

• act preventively (employing the same actions as to prevent the spread of the seasonal flu, especially be mindful of the regular and thorough hand washing, hygienic coughing and distance);
• read and follow the guidelines of the World Health Organisation;
• follow official information about the disease’s development and preventive measures;
• also follow guidelines and instructions of local authorities and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Additionally, we ask all students and staff, who notice symptoms of weaker health (cough, fever) to stay at home until they regain their health.

Simultaneously, we guarantee that we respect personal views and we are bound to honor potential stricter personal measures taken by individuals (taking annual leave or using past overtime, work from home where and when possible, wearing personal protective gear and similar).

If in doubt, students and employees can also speak to Aleš Oven at 051 232 948.

Friday, 21 February 2020 Prof. dr. Tomaž Pisanski became a member of International Expert Council of the Mathematical Center in Akademgorodok

We are glad to announce that prof. dr. Tomaž Pisanski became a member of International Expert Council of the Mathematical Center in Akademgorodok.

The Center was established in 2019 as a consortium of Sobolev Institute of Mathematics and Novosibirsk State University. The International Expert Council members are leading scientists who discuss the Center’s research agenda and form its staff.

We are very proud that Center recognised prof. dr. Pisanski outstanding academic achievements and experience in international liaison as one of the key factors in creating an infrastructure of international scientific, technical and innovative technological cooperation and providing an advanced level of fundamental and applied research in mathematics and related fields.

Congratulations!

Monday, 10 February 2020 New cooperations with Germany, Austria, Croatia and Japan

UP IAM and UP FAMNIT researchers continue having succes on bilateral projects funded by the Slovenian Research Agency, that support research cooperation between slovenian and foreign institutions. In recent calls, they have been successful in acquiring new projects that will connect them with scientists from Germany, Austria, Croatia and Japan.

Such bilateral collaborations are very important and, in fact, a necessary practice for the scientific community, as they strengthen already established or facilitate new collaborations between researchers working in similar institutions around the world on similar topics. Strengthening cooperation also enables the scientific and technological progress of the participating countries.

For the next two years, our researchers in the field of mathematics and computer science will work on the following projects:

• Title: Mixed Reality for Reading Support
  Institutions: UP IAM and Coburg University of Applied Sciences and Arts (Germany)
  Leader: dr. Matjaž Kljun
• Title: Fair division under conflict constraints
  Institutions: UP IAM and University of Graz (Austria)
  Leader: dr. Martin Milanič
• Title: Structural and symmetry properties of graph products
  Institutions: UP IAM and Montanuniversitat Leoben (Austria)
  Leader: dr. Edward Tauscher Dobson
• Title: Augmented Reality for Remote Expert Assistance
  Institutions: UP IAM and Nara Institute of Science and Technology (Japan)
  Leader: dr. Matjaž Kljun
• Title: Codes, their preservers, and corresponding incidence structures
  Institutions: UP IAM and University of Rijeka (Croatia)
  Leader: dr. Marko Orel

Congratulations on the new projects!

Friday, 31 January 2020 Call for enrollment into UNDERGRADUATE study programmes in 2020/21

Starting from 12 February, all candidates can apply for undergraduate study programmes at UP FAMNIT. In 2020/21 Academic Year, we will offer the following study programmes: Conservation Biology, Bioinformatics (available also in English), Biopsychology, Computer Science (available also in English), Mathematics (available also in English), Mathematics in Economics and Finance, Mediterranean Agriculture.

All information about the application procedure are available here.

EU CITIZENS

Candidates can apply in three terms:

• first application term: from 12 February to 18 March 2020,
• second application term: from 20 to 28 August 2020,
• third application term: from 24 to 25 September 2020 unitl 12:00.

NON-EU CITIZENS AND SLOVENE NATIONALS WITHOUT SLOVENE CITIZENSHIP

Candidates can apply in four terms:

• first application term: from 12 February to 22 May 2020,
• second application term: from 27 May to 17 July 2020,
• third application term: from 10 August to 11 September 2020, 
• fourth application term: from 24 to 25 September 2020 until 12:00.

​Questions regarding the application procedure shall be adressed to the University of Primorska - ADMISSIONS OFFICE (tel.: +386 5 611 76 30, e-mail: vpis@upr.si). 

For questions regarding study programmes, teaching staff, and other study matters, contact UP FAMNIT Student Services (tel.: +386 5 611 75 75). 

Thursday, 30 January 2020 Prof. Tomaž Pisanski, PhD awarded with the recognition of »Prometeus of science for excellence in communication« for life achievements

On Tuesday, 28 January, the Slovenian Science Foundation has delivered the yearly awards and recognitions to individuals and organisations that are active in the field of promoting science and science communication in Slovenia. Our researcher and UP FAMNIT Head of Department of Information Sciences and Technologies, Prof. Tomaž Pisanski, PhD was awarded with the recognition of »Prometeus of science for excellence in communication« for life achievements.

Prof. Tomaž Pisanski is an internationally known researcher working in the field of discrete and computational mathematics, with applications in natural sciences, engineering and social sciences. He is one of the pioneers of topological graph theory in the world and the founder of the world-renowned Slovenian school of graph theory. His most important contribution to the global scientific community is based on the use of discrete mathematics methods in natural sciences and technology. His contribution to the development of the representations of graphs, which is used in mathematics as well as in chemistry, biology and other sciences, is also remarkable. Thanks to him, Slovenian science in these fields is recognized and appreciated globally, and his intensive cooperation with researchers and research institutions from all over the world, as well as his membership in numerous scientific organizations and associations abroad, has had a strong influence on the development of Slovenian science for decades.

Under the guidance of Prof. Pisanski the University of Primorska, in cooperation with other institutions in the field of mathematics in Slovenia, successfully applied for the organization of the 8th European Congress of Mathematics. The Congress will be held in Portorož in 2020 and it will be the most important scientific event in Slovenia. His contribution to the communication of science includes also the work as editor in many scientific journals. He is one of the two founding members and editor-in-chief of the international mathematical journal Ars Mathematica Contemporanea - AMC.

Prof. Tomaž Pisanski demonstrates excellence in communication in science, both within the international scientific and professional public and beyond, as he has also participated in many programs on popularization of science for a wider and target audience. Through lectures and workshops, as well as mentoring to many young scientists, he passed on his knowledge, experience and views on the work and role of the scientist in modern society, as well as his passion for scientific research, thus inspiring many younger researchers to work in science.

(Photo: Prof. Tomaž Pisanski, PhD, Edvard Kobal, PhD, president of the board of the Slovenian Science Foundation and Samo Kranjc, president of the Award Committee. Photo credits: Slovenian Science Fundation)

Among the other receivers of the recognition, there are seven more employees of the University of Primorska: Prof. Irena Lazar, PhD, Prof. Jurka Lepičnik Vodopivec, PhD, Assoc. Prof. Nives Kovač, PhD, Assist. Prof. Janja Plazar, PhD and authors of the on-line university news portal UP budi - Mirella Baruca, Anja Curk Repič and Damjan Muhič.

We congratulate all our reserchers and employees for their important work on the fiel of popularisation of science!

Friday, 10 January 2020 Winners of Mathematical Advent Calendar 2019

In December, the fourth implementation of the Mathematical Advent Calendar took place, in which both elementary and high school students participated in solving mathematical tasks. For the third year, young mathematical enthusiasts have also been offered tutorials in English.

174 competitors have signed up for the quiz. Most of them were from Slovenia, but also competitors from Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Italy, Macedonia and Slovakia participated.

Practical tasks from everyday life were handled by participants from December 2 to December 20, 2019, with only one day available for each task.

The recipients of the awards are:

- competitors from Slovenia:
Elementary school: Kristina Gortan, Veronika Klemenčič, Alina Jelenič;
Secondary School, 1st and 2nd year: Jakob Burja, Miha Abram, Klara Podlipnik;
Secondary School, 3rd and 4th year: Maša Toplak, Max Sablatnik, Nika Šardi;

- competitors from abroad or competitors who have completed the tasks in English:
Filip Milisov, Matteo Dunis, Etian Križman.

We sincerely congratulate all the participants on their hard work and knowledge.

We hope that there will be many of them who choose to study mathematics!