Thursday, 23 December 2021 Winners of Mathematical Advent Calendar 2021

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

145 competitors have signed up for the quiz. Practical tasks from everyday life were handled by participants from December 1 to December 20, 2021, with only one day available for each task.

The recipients of the awards are:

Elementary school: Veronika Gortan, Tadej Zelenc, Lana Jelenič;
Secondary School, 1st and 2nd year: Peter Andolšek, Živa Cvitkovič, Alina Jelenič;
Secondary School, 3rd and 4th year: Katja Andolšek, Lenart Dolinar, Anže Hočevar.

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!

Wednesday, 22 December 2021 Happy holidays and a prosperous and healthy New Year!

Thursday, 16 December 2021 Presenting the GOOGLE DEVELOPER STUDENT CLUB AT UNIVERSITY OF PRIMORSKA

A good month has passed since the first meeting of the Google developer Student Club at University of Primorska (GDSC Primorska) and since then the dedicated group of Famnit students has held 3 more successful events, which are attended by a higher number of curious visitors each time.

   
                               GDSC Primorska Meet&Greet event (Source: Facebook @gdsc.primorska)

Google developer Student Clubs are groups of undergraduate or master's students at individual universities in the international environment working in the field of Google technology.

GDSC Primorska was established this year and successfully pursues the goal of forming a new research group of the University of Primorska. The club provides developers with a learning environment and in its circle invites students of all undergraduate and master's programs who strive to upgrade their knowledge and skills in the field of modern technology. Learning takes place in the form of interactive workshops and seminars, in which lecturers also participate, and members are equipped with their extensive knowledge and good practices.

   
   
               Organizers of GDSC Primorska (Source: https://gdsc.community.dev/university-of-primorska/)

Yesterday, 15 December 2021, an event led by assoc. prof. Matjaž Kljun and assist. prof. Klen Čopič Pucihar, Chair and Deputy Chair of HICUP Lab - Humans Interacting with Computers at University of Primorska Laboratory, was held at UP FAMNIT.

Club members are also happy to accept ideas and suggestions to better the community. You can contact them at gdsc.primorska@gmail.com.

We also invite you to visit GDSC Primorska Facebook and Instagram profiles.

Monday, 13 December 2021 University of Primorska is hosting the EMS Council Meeting

We are very happy to announce that the Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies (UP FAMNIT) is hosting the next EMS Council Meeting, to be held 25 – 26 June, 2022 in Bled, Slovenia.

The event is following the 8the European Congress of Mathematics, one of the largest events in mathematics in Europe, that was held this June in Portorož.

The EMS Council is the governing body of the European Mathematical Society (EMS), the primary European organization dedicated to the development of mathematics in Europe. The Council meets every second year, at the meeting delegates to the council will be elected for the period of four years by the following categories of members: Full members, Associate members, Institutional members, and Individual members. One of the four representatives for the Institutional members is Prof. Klavdija Kutnar, Rector of the University of Primorska.

The Council is also responsible for electing the President, Vice-Presidents, Secretary, Treasurer and other members of the Executive Committee who are elected for a period of four years.

The election of the next EMS president, among other delegates, is expected to take place in Bled, since Prof. Volker Mehrmann who is the current EMS president is concluding his term in 2022. Delegates are elected for a period of 4 years, while the president can hold only one term. A full list of delegates is available here. 

UP FAMNIT looks forward to hosting another outstanding event in mathematics once again!

(On the photo: Prof. Volker Mehrmann, EMS president, Prof. Klavdija Kutnar, Rector of the University of Primorska, Prof. Tomaž Pisanski, president of the 8ECM Organising Committee)

(Photo: Jošt Gantar, www.slovenia.info)
 

Friday, 10 December 2021 InnoRenew CoE as an example of excellence at the Nobel Week

The Nobel Week, which runs from 6 to 10 December, is the highlight of the scientific year in Sweden. The week culminates with the Nobel Award Ceremony in Stockholm Concert Hall and the Nobel banquet in the City Hall on December 10.

In yesterday's exclusive interview with Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, she highlighted the InnoRenew (Renewable materials and healthy environments research and Innovation Centre of Excellence), funded by Horizon 2020, as an example of a success story. “InnoRenew CoE conducts cutting-edge scientific research related to the use of renewable materials. It liaises with policymakers to further guide enterprises and research in the forestry sector”, she pointed out.

One of the objectives of Horizon Europe is to promote the excellence of all member states of the EU and to facilitate integration in the European research and innovation environment. The European Commissioner reports: “With Horizon Europe, we achieved a substantial increase of the budget for Widening activities to more than €3 billion to reach 3.3% of the total Horizon Europe budget as compared to about 1% in Horizon 2020.”

The EU’s commitment to research and innovation will be further strengthened in the future with an increased budget of € 100 billion for the period 2021-2027, which will additionally contribute to the success of European researchers and institutions. Among them are many Nobel Prize winners who have in the past secured the support of various European programs for their research work, such as Horizon 2020 and funding from the European Research Council (ERC) projects.

Mariya Gabriel, The European Commisioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth  
(Photo: ec.europa.eu)

The new InnoRenew building

Friday, 10 December 2021 More than 30 interviews with potential employers on Famnit's first Virtual Career Day

Yesterday, December 9, 2021, UP FAMNIT students had the opportunity to participate at Famnit’s first Virtual Career Day. More than 30 interviews with potential employers from various fields took place at the event.

The Career day took place via an online tool BRAZEN, and candidates were able to join the interviews, which lasted about 10 minutes, from a desktop or smartphone at any time during the event. The Career Day was designed for Famnit students of all fields: Mathematics, Mathematics in Economics and Finance, Computer Science, Bioinformatics, Data Science, Biopsychology, Psychology, Mediterranean Agriculture, Conservation Biology, Nature Conservation and Sustainable Built Environments.

We would like to thank all the companies that have shown interest in networking with our students: Abelium d.o.o., Abrantix AG, Actual IT d.d., CREAplus / CREApro, Dinit Card Services, Novartis in Slovenia (Lek d.d.), Petrol d.d., Regional Development Centre Koper and Trapview. We would also like to thank the Career Center of the University of Primorska for their availability in the field of personal and business counseling at the event.

We are looking forward to the positive outcomes of the Virtual Career Day and all the upcoming events where students will be able to build their career path.

Friday, 10 December 2021 Dr. István Kovács and Dr. Vita Poštuvan awarded with the prestigious Zois Award and Certificate of Recognition

On Friday, 10 December 2021, 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 honoured to announce that two of UP professors and researchers are among this year recipients: Prof. István Kovács, PhD received the Zois Award for outstanding scientific achievements in the field of algebraic graph theory, while Assoc. Prof. Vita Poštuvan, PhD was awarded the Zois Certificate of Recognition in the field of suicidology and mental health.

This year's ceremony took place at Cankarjev dom in Ljubljana, with a broadcast on the second program of RTV SLO. You can watch it at rtvslo.si.

After receiving his doctorate in mathematics from the University of Széged in Hungary, Prof. István Kovács, PhD started researching at the University of Primorska, first as a postdoctoral researcher and then as a higher education teacher and researcher. His research work is focused on algebraic graph theory, which is essential for the normal functioning of high-tech society in the 21st century. Without it and all related cryptographic solutions to various communication efficiency and security issues, there would be no e-banking or e-commerce, no smartphones, no everyday use of the internet. In his researches, conducted with more than 40 scientists from around the world, he works on solving key issues of algebraic graph theory and connects them with other areas of mathematics, ie. theories of permutation groups, associative schemes, characters, and finite geometries.

Assoc. Prof. Vita Poštuvan, PhD is an internationally recognized researcher in the field of psychology, suicidology and mental health. In particular, she studies suicidal behaviour and identifies particularly vulnerable groups (such as adolescents) for suicide, as well as problems with coping with the consequences of suicide among relatives and professionals who deal with suicide in their work. Her findings have made an important contribution to understanding the risks of suicidal behaviour and to developing methods for researching them, thereby reducing suicide. The results of her research significantly contribute to the development of science and profession in Slovenia and abroad.

Among this year's recipients of the Zois Awards and Recognitions, we would like to mention also Prof. Stanislav Gobec, PhD, recipient of the Zois Award for Outstanding Achievement in Basic and Applied Research in Pharmacy, who is leading a basic project co-funded by the Slovenian Research Agency, in which UP FAMNIT researchers are currently participating.

The full list of this year’s recipients is available here.

We congratulate all recipients of the highest national awards for scientific achievements!

Zois Awards and recognitions were awarded to the following researchers of the University of Primorska:

• Lara Lusa – Zois Certificate of Recognition for scientific achievements, namely for scientific achievements in the development of the methodology of medical statistics (2020),
• Enes Pasalic – Zois Award for outstanding scientific achievements in the field of cryptography (2019),
• Andreja Kutnar – Zois Certificate of Recognition for important achievements in scientific research work in the field of wood science (2018),
• Martin Milanič – Zois Certificate of Recognition for important scientific achievements in the field of discrete mathematics (2017),
• Tomaž Pisanski – Zois Award for outstanding achievements in scientific research in the field of discrete mathematics and its applications (2015),
• Dušanka Janežič – Zois Award for outstanding achievements in mathematics and natural sciences (2013),
• Štefko Miklavič – Zois Certificate of Recognition for important scientific achievements in the field of mathematics (2012),
• Štefan Bojnec – Zois Certificate of Recognition for important scientific achievements in the field of economics (2008).
• Maja Čemžar – Zois Certificate of Recognition for important achievements in the field of experimental oncology,
• Dragan Marušič – Zois Award for outstanding scientific achievements in the field of graph theory and algebra (2002).

UP Famnit researchers have received Zois awards and Certificates of Recognition for the fifth year in a row, this year even two.

Thursday, 9 December 2021 On the occasion of its jubilee, Novartis in Slovenia donated funds to universities for new research projects

Novartis in Slovenia celebrates 75 years since the founding of Lek, the first modern pharmaceutical company in Slovenia, 25 years of Novartis and 15 years since the approval of the first biosimilar developed by experts at Sandoz, now a division of Novartis. In honor of the anniversaries, Novartis in Slovenia organized an event in which it commemorated years of knowledge, experience and pioneering work in numerous areas and looked to the future of finding breakthrough solutions for patients. In celebration of its  anniversaries, it supported new research projects of Slovenian universities  with funds in the amount of EUR 75,000 and allocated an additional EUR 25,000  for projects for the prevention of cancer and improving the health of oncology  patients.

The keynote speaker at the event, which took place at the Herman Potočnik Noordung Center of Space Technologies in Vitanje, was Borut Pahor, the President of the Republic of Slovenia. In his address, he emphasized: “What you have today was not created overnight. Your company is so old that it was once called a ‘medicinal products factory’. At the same time, it is so modern that new terms need to be invented for today’s designations. Since the very beginnings of Lek up until today, when you play at the global level, you have been taking care of the environment in which you were born and in which you work.”

At the event honoring the 75th anniversary of Lek, the company contributed EUR 75,000 to the University of Ljubljana, the University of Maribor and the University of Primorska for the development and implementation of new research projects by interdisciplinary teams of Novartis experts and scientists from the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maribor and Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies at the University of Primorska. Open innovation of mixed research groups is a common practice of Novartis in Slovenia, and breakthrough solutions arising from cooperation between the academic and economic spheres have been repeatedly awarded the highest recognitions at the national level.

“At Novartis in Slovenia, we are proud of our close ties with Slovenian scientific and academic institutions. Our achievements are the result of cooperation within the Slovenian scientific sphere. We realize that it is not possible to possess all the specialized knowledge within the company; the key to breakthrough innovations lies in collaborating with external experts. That is the only way to effectively fulfill our mission of co-creating medicine to improve and prolong the lives of people around the world. The funds dedicated to Slovenian public universities reflect our desire to successfully and productively cooperate with the Slovenian academic community in the future as well. The flow of knowledge and scientific discoveries between the academic sphere, scientific and research sphere and the economic sphere goes mainly through people, and I believe that history is written when the greatest scientific minds of a particular field work together towards a common goal,” said Robert Ljoljo, President of the Board of Management of Lek and Novartis Country President.

On the occasion of Novartis 25th anniversary, Novartis will donate EUR 25,000 for cancer prevention and to improve the health of oncology patients. Part of the funds will be donated to the Association of Slovenian Cancer Societies for the purchase of a state-of-the-art digital video-colposcope for the identification of pre-cancerous cervical lesions for the Slovenj Gradec General Hospital. This will contribute to improving women's health in Carinthia and the surrounding regions. A part of the funds is earmarked for improving the health of oncology patients from all over Slovenia who come to Ljubljana for treatment.

Source: www.lek.si.

Today, Lek d.d. is also participating in Famnit's Career Day, which enables Famnit students the opportunity to meet potential employers. Famnit's Virtual Career Day is taking place through the online tool BRAZEN, which enables presentation of companies, smart allocation of candidates for interviews, sharing documents (CVs), chat, video interviews on demand. You can read more about the event here.

Wednesday, 8 December 2021 Presentation of the topic of the doctoral dissertation – Sidra Aslam

We invite you to the presentation of the topic of the doctoral dissertation "Decentralized Data Privacy and Security for the Web of Things" of the student Sidra Aslam, enrolled in the doctoral study programme Computer Science.

The presentation will take place on Wednesday, 15 December 2021 at 14.00.

Zoom: https://upr-si.zoom.us/j/82455744181

Meeting ID: 824 5574 4181

Wednesday, 8 December 2021 The Ambassador of France H.E. Florence Ferrari visits the University of Primorska

On Wednesday, December 8, 2021, the Ambassador of the French Republic H. E. Florence Ferrari has visited the University of Primorska.

The official meeting, which was attended also by other employees of the embassy, ie. the director of the French Institute in Slovenia, Isabelle Desvignes, and the advisers Vincent Gremeret and Valentine Morel, was introduced by the rector of UP, prof. dr. Klavdija Kutnar, and the Vice-Rector for Internationalization, Assoc. prof. David DeVallance, PhD.

After a brief presentation of the university and the already existing cooperation between UP and partners from France, they talked mainly about study mobility. In recent years, France has become more and more interesting for UP students, and not only for those who are learning French, as graduates from Slovenia also decide to continue their studies at French universities. As the ambassador pointed out, the interest of French students in studying in Slovenia is also increasing, either due to favourable study conditions or due to the quality of the programmes that Slovenian universities offer also in English language.

The guests also met with French citizens who are currently employed at the University of Primorska or the InnoRenew CoE Research Institute. Clément Jean Dallard, PhD, postdoctoral student at UP FAMNIT, Laetitia Sarah Jennifer Marrot, PhD researcher at UP IAM and InnoRenew CoE, and Marie Curie Scholar, and Michael Nicolas Mrissa, PhD, professor at UP FAMNIT and researcher at InnoRenew CoE, presented their research activities.

They all agreed that working and living conditions could be with no doubt interesting also for other French researchers.

You can read more about the Ambassador's visit at the following link: https://www.upr.si/en/university/news-and-announcements/obisk-veleposlanice-francije-nj-eksc-florence-ferrari-

Friday, 3 December 2021 Virtual Career Day UP FAMNIT

Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies is organising a Virtual Career Day, which will take place on Thursday, December 9, 2021, from 1pm to 5pm.

The career day is designed for Famnit students of all fields: Mathematics, Mathematics in Economics and Finance, Computer Science, Bioinformatics, Data Science, Biopsychology, Psychology, Mediterranean Agriculture, Conservation Biology, Nature Conservation and Sustainable Built Environments.

Various companies that want to address potential future employees will be participating at the event, and participation is completely free for all attendees!

Secure your place to chat directly with companies and organizations and start building your career today!

Famnit's Virtual Career Day will take place via an online tool BRAZEN, which enables:

• presentation of companies,
• smart allocation of candidates for interviews,
• sharing documents (CVs),
• chat,
• video interviews on demand.

Each chat lasts about 10 minutes, and you can join in from your desktop or smartphone at any time during the event. Potential employers will be able to review your career profile before the start of the Virtual Career Day and invite you to a chat or a video meeting on the day of the event. So register now and create your career profile today!

See you at the Virtual Career Day UP FAMNIT!

Thursday, 2 December 2021 The state of the world's seas is alarming, an interview with dr. Andrej Sovinc

Dr. Andrej Sovinc, assistant professor at UP FAMNIT, active in the Department of Biodiversity, presented a study entitled »Analysis of Protected Marine (water) areas in EUSAIR and proposals for corrective action« to the agents of the EUSAIR strategy for the Adriatic-Ionian region, responsible for environment quality.

The presentation also offered an opportunity for an interview in which he drew attention to the alarming state of the world's seas. The seas within the Adriatic-Ionian region are no exception and even have the lowest share of protected areas among all regional seas in the Mediterranean region.

                               
                                                               (Foto: Zdravko Primožič/Fpa)

The UN Concention on Biological Diversity and EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 are just two of many international agreements that require the conservation and sustainable management of the marine environment. »The EU's Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 sets an ambitious goal of establishing a pan-European network of natural areas on land and at sea, including legal protection for at least 30% of land, including inland waters, and 30% of the sea in the European Union,« said. Dr. Sovinc and added that a third of this area or 10% of the land and 10% of the sea will be included in strictly protected areas.

In the interview, Dr. Sovinc also discussed the topic of distinction between strictly protected and partially protected areas, pointing out that the value of strictly protected areas in the marine environment is several times higher than the value of less strictly protected areas where fishing is allowed. »In some areas, fish populations in the sea are already so looted that there is no other effective solution than to establish strictly protected areas where fish are not caught so that cores can develop from which these animals can spread.«

The whole interview in Slovene is available here.

Source: www.mediaspeed.net

Wednesday, 1 December 2021 Recording of the second lecture in the cycle "Famnitovi Izleti v matematično vesolje" now available

The second lecture in this year's cycle of "Famnitovi Izleti v matematično vesolje" was implemented in a hybrid form after quite a long time.

Considering some classical problems with real-life applications, dr. Clément Dallard discussed the P versus NP question, its theoretical and practical implications, and the various approaches to solve problems for which we do not know efficient algorithms.

You are invited to watch the video of the second lecture. The slides are available here.

Friday, 26 November 2021 Slovenia has become a full member of the European biobank BBMRI-ERIC

At the BBMRI-ERIC Annual General Meeting in November this year, the Republic of Slovenia was unanimously accepted into the full membership of the European biobank BBMRI-ERIC. The Slovenian biobank consortium BBMRI.SI thus represents the first national hub of any European strategic research infrastructure (ESFRI) that is based in the East Slovenia cohesion region.

The leading consortium partner is the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at the University of Maribor, and the national coordinator is Prof. Urban Bren, PhD, Vice-Rector for Knowledge Transfer at the University of Maribor, and Professor at the Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technology (UP FAMNIT).

(Photo credit: Tadej Regent, Večer)

The participating faculties of the University of Maribor, in partnership with the University of Ljubljana, the University of Primorska (UP FAMNIT in UP FVZ) and the University Medical Centre Maribor, will establish a sustainable biobanking infrastructure in Slovenia that will meet all European ethical, legal, social, security, quality, laboratory and bioinformation standards and guidelines. This will provide access to innovative research findings that will be effective in both improved, and completely new treatments, which is all the more important during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Congratulations!

Source: http://www.tromba.si/

Friday, 26 November 2021 Mathematical Advent Calendar 2021

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 20th 2021.

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!

Friday, 26 November 2021 Thousandth graduate at UP FAMNIT!

In addition to all the successes that we have proudly reported on in recent years, we have reached another beautiful milestone - Famnit already has a thousandth graduate!

Hana Čuček defended her final work titled »Family relationships, social support and relationship satisfaction after the birth of a child«.
197 individuals participated in the research presented by the student in her final work, and the findings showed that both social support and the quality of co-parenting and the relationship between parents and children are positively associated with satisfaction in a partnership. Hana Čuček pointed out that knowledge and understanding of the research field and variables related to satisfaction in a relationship after the birth of a child is very important for maintaining the mutual connection between the partners.

The Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies was established in 2006 and offers study programmes of all three levels and conducts research in the fields of mathematics, computer science and informatics, and in the field of natural sciences. The Faculty closely cooperates with the Andrej Marušič Institute of the University of Primorska (UP IAM), where most of the higher education teachers and associates of UP FAMNIT currently perform research activities.

In the period since its establishment, we have organized high-profile international conferences and other scientific meetings, and we have always been actively involved in the international higher education and research area; we have established a wide network of research links with reputable foreign universities. It should be noted that the UP FAMNIT Research Group is one of the four leading research groups in the field of algebraic graph theory on a global scale - the other three groups are in China, Australia and South Korea. With this, UP FAMNIT placed the University of Primorska on the world map of established research institutions.

Every year at UP FAMNIT we hold workshops, lectures and other activities for the general public, and in the summer months we organize summer schools and camps, which are intended primarily for high school and primary school students.

We are proud to welcome the 15th generation of students this year and co-create these success stories with them!

Wednesday, 24 November 2021 Dr. Vladimir Batagelj receives the Statistical Society of Slovenia award

Dr. Vladimir Batagelj, a professor at the Department of Information Sciences and Technologies (UP FAMNIT) received the Statistical Society of Slovenia award (Blejčevo priznanje 2020).

The 2021 Statistical Day, which was conducted in hybrid form for the first time this year, was attended by about 380 people from Slovenia and abroad. 

At the beginning of the event, which was opened by Mr Tomaž Smrekar, Director-General of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia, and Dr Matevž Bren, President of the Statistical Society of Slovenia, Zala Jakša from the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia in her introductory presentation described the 30 years of independent Slovenia through data.

Besides the ceremony of presenting the Statistical Society of Slovenia awards, the first part of the event also included a discussion by the speakers at the round table, titled On the topic of data in an epidemic - new needs and new results. Janez Kušar (Institute of Macroeconomic Analysis and Development), Maja Založnik (COVID-19 Tracker Slovenia), Andraž Zorko (Valicon) and Apolonija Oblak Flander (Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia) debated about the preparation of timely and high-quality data during the epidemic and the challenges that await us in the future. 

In the second part of the event, which focused on the topic of challenges of data collection in the future, two renowned foreign experts, Arlen Hoebergen in Sillard Patrick, presented methodological solutions and challenges in the field of statistical surveys.

Congratulations to all awardees!

You are invited to see the viderecording of the event.

Tuesday, 16 November 2021 New paper reveals research gaps for next-generation conservation technologies to reduce biodiversity loss

 A new study provides a practical guide for decision-makers and practitioners on the emerging new tools for protecting biodiversity, and the remaining research gaps.

November 11, 2021 – More investment and support for research into emerging genomic tools for conservation is needed to prevent further biodiversity loss, according to a new paper published in Conversation Genetics.

A new publication explores the field of genomic technologies, and how and in which circumstances they could be used as additional tools to prevent the extinction of endangered species.

Dr Pamela Burger from Vetmeduni Vienna highlighted that genome analysis has already helped conservation managers “to understand the diversity and connectivity of endangered populations. But the new genome technologies can help select the best individuals for translocation or reintroduction programmes.”

Beyond that, “Genomic regions responsible for disease resistance or adaptive fitness can be identified, and in the long-term we might even be able to increase the resilience in a population,” added Prof. Elena Bužan from the University of Primorska.

For practitioners, there is still a gap in understanding about how this can be used for new challenges. Andrej Arih, head of department for nature conservation in Triglav National Park, said: “We are happy that genetic monitoring has improved our understanding of population structure and dynamics, and we hope that genomics will go a step further and help us predict how our ecosystems may adapt to future climatic changes.”

The paper is the result of a workshop on novel genomic tools for conservation that was organised in March 2020 as part of the G-BIKE (Genomic Biodiversity Knowledge for Resilient Ecosystems) project funding by the COST action programme of the European Union.

“It is fascinating to see that genomic tools are getting more and more advanced,” said Prof. Gernot Segelbacher from the University of Freiburg, and co-chair of the IUCN specialist group on conservation genetics. However, Prof. Segelbacher cautioned that there are still challenges for their use and “might be not readily applicable for many on the ground conservation problems”.

The G-BIKE workshop and paper aim to bring practitioners and researchers together to help bridge the gap between those studying genomic technologies and their potential, and those who are leading conservation programmes on the ground.

It comes after the Kunming Declaration was adopted during the high-level segment of the UN biodiversity conference 2020 that took place on October 12 and 13, 2021. It sets an objective “to develop, adopt and implement an ambitious and transformative post-2020 global biodiversity framework”.

Experts agree that new tools will be required to achieve the goals and targets of the new global biodiversity framework. Globally, the world is losing species and their habitats at an alarming rate, leaving many small and fragmented populations that are unable to recover on their own. Effective conservation is needed and genomic tools have the potential to revolutionize conservation management of small wild populations of endangered species and their captive counterparts, which serve as insurance populations for future reintroductions.

The new paper provides a practical guide about emerging technologies, how far advanced their development is and how they can be used. For Dr Mirte Bosse from Wageningen University, this was an “opportunity to connect to people outside [her] field of experience but with common goals” and she hopes that the paper can “inform, inspire and instruct conservation practitioners who want to use such tools for conservation”.

For Prof. Samantha Wisely from the University of Florida, the paper aims to “lessen the divide and increase communication between researchers using new genomic technologies and the conservation practitioners who must implement strategies to avert the current biodiversity crisis.”

"With a million species threatened with extinction, the world is currently discussing ambitious biodiversity targets for the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity,” said Dr Elizabeth Bennett from WCS.

“These aim to prevent extinctions, and bend the curve towards recovery of the world's biodiversity. If we are to succeed, we have to consider all possible tools to support species recoveries, from conventional conservation techniques to novel ones emerging from genomics. The paper by Segelbacher and colleagues lays out some of these potential genomic options clearly and very accessibly to species conservation managers, and their potential value especially for small population management and genetic rescue."

Dr Thomas Brooks, IUCN Chief Scientist, further highlighted the timeliness of this paper. “This new paper makes an important contribution to the ongoing discussion as to the potential benefits, limitations, opportunities and risks of genomic technologies for biodiversity conservation and is highly timely, given the new Resolution from the 2021 IUCN World Conservation Congress in Marseille for development of an IUCN policy on synthetic biology in relation to nature conservation”.

Authors of the paper highlight some of the research gaps, and areas where support is needed for practitioners to use some of the genomics tools that have been available for many years but that often remain underused due to lack of capacity building or inadequate resources.

You can read more here.

About GBIKE
G-BiKE is a network of researchers and practitioners to assist scientists and practitioners across the EU and particularly in COST Inclusiveness Target Countries to integrate genetic and evolutionary knowledge into conservation planning policies, and to promote cross-border management and long term monitoring programs of evolutionary potential in order to ensure persistence of populations and species, and ultimately the continued supply of nature-based ecosystem services.

Monday, 15 November 2021 Additional two postdoctoral positions in the field of mathematics are now available

A postdoctoral position at the University of Primorska - mentor Prof. Bojan Kuzma

The Departments of Mathematics of Andrej Marusic Institute (UP IAM) and Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies (UP FAMNIT) at the University of Primorska seek a top early-career researcher for a postdoctoral position.

The project will mainly focus on Preserver Problems and the applications of graph theory in solving them.

The successful candidate will be part of the Departments of Mathematics at UP IAM and UP FAMNIT, and will work under the guidance of Professor Bojan Kuzma.

Terms and conditions:

• The position is for two years.
• Applicants must possess a PhD in mathematics upon taking up the position (but not necessary at the time of the application).
• The position comes with a teaching load of 1-2 courses per semester on the Mathematics study programs offered by UP FAMNIT.
• The starting salary is about 1550 EUR / month after tax (2286 EUR gross).

Deadline & Application process:

• Applications will be considered on a rolling basis until January 15, 2022, or until the position is filled.
• Starting date: negotiable but preferably not later than October 1, 2022.

To apply, please send the following documents in electronic form to Bojan Kuzma (bojan.kuzma@upr.si) with the subject line "UP Postdoc 2022" in the Subject field:

• Curriculum Vitae,
• Publication List,
• Research Statement,
• Copies of three recent papers of preprints,
• Names and e-mail addresses of at least three persons who can be contacted for reference (and have agreed to be contacted).

Informal inquiries should be addressed to Bojan Kuzma (bojan.kuzma@upr.si).

A postdoctoral position at the University of Primorska – mentor Prof. Štefko Miklavič

The Departments of Mathematics of Andrej Marusic Institute (UP IAM) and Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies (UP FAMNIT) at the University of Primorska, are seeking a top early-career researcher for a postdoctoral position.

The project will mainly focus on Terwilliger algebra of a graph. In algebraic graph theory the following situation occurs often. Let G be a graph and let H be a certain algebraic object, associated with G. In this case, one of the main motivations in our research is the following question: what could we say about the combinatorial properties of G, if we know that H has certain algebraic properties? And vice-versa: what could we say about the algebraic properties of H, if we know that G has certain combinatorial properties? Perhaps the most well-known example of this interplay between combinatorics and algebra is obtained if H is the automorphism group of G. There are many more examples of this interplay available in the literature. In this project the algebraic object, associated with G, will not be its automorphism group, but rather a certain matrix algebra, called a Terwilliger algebra of a graph G. The main motivation, however, remains the same: what could we say about the combinatorial properties of G, if we know that its Terwilliger algebra has certain algebraic properties? And vice-versa: what could we say about the algebraic properties of Terwilliger algebra of G, if we know that G has certain combinatorial properties?

The successful candidate will be part of the Departments of Mathematics at UP IAM and UP FAMNIT, and will work under the guidance of Professor Štefko Miklavič.

Terms and conditions:

• The position is for two years.
• Applicants must possess a PhD in mathematics upon taking up the position (but not necessary at the time of the application).
• The position comes with a teaching load of 1-2 courses per semester on the Mathematics study programs offered by UP FAMNIT.
• The starting salary is about 1550 EUR / month after tax (2286 EUR gross).

Deadline & Application process:

Applications will be considered on a rolling basis until January 15, 2022, or until the position is filled.
Starting date: negotiable but preferably not later than October 1, 2022.

To apply, please send the following documents in electronic form to Štefko Miklavič (stefko.mikllavic@upr.si) with the subject line "UP Postdoc 2022" in the Subject field:

• Curriculum Vitae,
• Publication List,
• Research Statement,
• Copies of three recent papers of preprints,
• Names and e-mail addresses of at least three persons who can be contacted for reference (and have agreed to be contacted).

Informal inquiries should be addressed to Štefko Miklavič
(stefko.miklavic@upr.si).

Friday, 12 November 2021 The results of the elections to the UP FAMNIT 2021/22 Student Council are announced

The results of yesterday's elections to the UP FAMNIT Student Council are now available.

The elected candidates are:

1. Nevena Stojnić, 2nd year Mathematics
2. Ajla Šehović, 3rd year Mathematics
3. Tilen Gimpelj, 2nd year Bioinformatics
4. Mihail Filipovski, 2nd year Bioinformatics
5. Mojca Pungerčar, 2nd year Conservation Biology
6. Kristina Čuk, 3rd year Mediterranean Agriculture
7. Gjore Janevski, 1st year Computer Science
8. Elsa Morina, 1st year Computer Science
9. Pavle Mihailovski, 2nd year Computer Science
10. Milan Milivojčević, 3rd yearComputer Science
11. Gabriela Laznik Zalaznik, 1st year Biopsychology
12. Matija Zagoranski, 1st year Biopsychology (MSc)
13. Lucia Nikolić, 1st year Nature Conservation (MSc)
14. Karim Pribac, 2nd year Nature Conservation (MSc)
15. Amar Bapić, 3rd year Mathematical Sciences (PhD)

More information (number of votes, voting turnout, ...) is available in the Minutes of the Electoral Commission of ŠS UP FAMNIT.

Congratulations to all electees, we wish them a successful mandate!

Thursday, 11 November 2021 Our researchers are ranked on the Elsevier scale of the most frequently cited authors

We are very proud to announce that the names of researchers from UP Famnit and UP IAM are on the list of the most cited scientists and researchers in 2020, published by Elsevier in October this year.

Elsevier, a global information analytics business, has created a publicly accessible database of more than 100,000 top scientists. This year, our researchers also occupy high places on the scales for evaluating research performance and scientific publications, where only 2% of the best scientists are ranked.

There are 165 scientists coming from Slovenia on a sigle year impact scale for most frequently cited authors in 2020, among them also researchers from UP Famnit and UP IAM, prof. dr. Dragan Marušič, prof. dr. Štefan Bojnec, prof. dr. Marko Tkalčič, prof. dr. Andreja Kutnar and prof. dr. Tomislav Levanič.

In addition to the 2020 single year impact scale, prof. dr. Dragan Marušič also occupies a place on the career scale, which includes 147 scientists from Slovenia.

The use of measurements for the contextual impact of publications has become very widespread in recent years, but analysts often face various challenges in obtaining relevant data. Some questions relate to what citations and related metrics fundamentally mean and how they can be (mis)interpreted as a measure of impact or excellence. Many other problems are of a technical nature and reflect lack of standardization and accuracy on various fronts.

For reasones stated above, an extensive database of a sufficiently large number of most-cited scientists across science was created. Scopus data was used to compile a database of the 100,000 most-cited authors across all scientific fields based on their ranking of a composite indicator that considers six citation metrics (total citations; Hirsch h-index; coauthorship-adjusted Schreiber hm-index; number of citations to papers as single author; number of citations to papers as single or first author; and number of citations to papers as single, first, or last author).

Source data and metric description are available here.

Congratulations to all our researchers and we wish you great success on your further research journey!

Wednesday, 10 November 2021 TODAY: Elections to the UP FAMNIT Student Council

Today, on Wednesday, 11 November 2021, the election of members to the UP Famnit Student Council is taking place at UP Famnit.

All students can vote, so you are kindly invited to do your duty and vote for the selected candidates! In the current academic year, they will represent your voice, defend your rights and duties, and organize various events for you.

The voting station is located at the main entrance to the faculty and will be open from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.

You need an identity document and a certificate of enrollment (digital also applies) OR a student card. A reminder, election candidates have a voting right as well.

Candidates in the elections are:

Mathematics and Mathematics in Economics and Finance​

• Nevena Stojnić, 2. year Mathematics,
• Ajla Šehović, 3. year Mathematics,
• Tina Žežlin, 3. year Mathematics in Economics and Finance.

Conservation Biology, Bioinformatics and Mediterranean Agriculture

• Marko Budimir, 1. year Bioinformatics,
• Tilen Gimpelj, 2. year Bioinformatics,
• Mihail Filipovski, 2. year Bioinformatics,
• Mojca Pungerčar, 2. year Conservation Biology,
• Kristina Čuk, 3. year Mediterranean Agriculture.

Computer Science

• Gjore Janevski, 1. year Computer Science,
• Elsa Morina, 1. year Computer Science,
• Hristijan Chupetreski, 1. year Computer Science,
• Pavle Mihailovski, 2. year Computer Science,
• Milan Milivojčević, 3. year Computer Science.

Biopsychology

• Gabriela Laznik Zalaznik, 1. year Biopsychology,
• Teodora Kitanovska, 3. year Biopsychology.

Postgraduate (MSc or PhD) students

• Matija Zagoranski, 1. letnik Biopsychology (MSc),
• Lucia Nikolić, 1. year Nature Conservation (MSc),
• Karim Pribac, 2. year Nature Conservation (MSc),
• Amar Bapić, 3. year Mathematical Sciences (PhD).

Wednesday, 10 November 2021 Postdoctoral position at the University of Primorska - mentor, Assoc. Prof. Russ Woodroofe, PhD

The Departments of Mathematics of the Andrej Marusic Institute (IAM) and the Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies (FAMNIT) at the University of Primorska are seeking a postdoctoral researcher within the project "Groups, Posets, and Complexes". 

The project under which the position is funded will study problems at the intersection of topology, algebra, and combinatorics.  The main themes of the project involve posets and simplicial complexes arising in and from group theory.

The successful candidate will be part of the Departments of Mathematics at UP IAM and UP FAMNIT and will work under the guidance of Assoc. Prof. Russ Woodroofe, PhD.

Terms and conditions:

• The position is for two years, with the possibility of renewal for a third year (depending on performance and budget availability). 
• Applicants should possess a PhD in mathematics, with relevant experience in simplicial topology, combinatorics, and/or group theory. 
• The position will require teaching (in English or Slovene) of roughly two courses per year. 
• The compensation is set according to the academic title by Slovenian law governing higher education, and is expected to be about 1550 EUR / month after tax.
   

Deadline and Application process:

Applications will be assessed on a rolling basis beginning Jan 15th.
The starting date is flexible, but preferably not later than October 2022.   

To apply, please send the following documents in electronic form to Russ Woodroofe (russ.woodroofe@famnit.upr.si) with the subject line "UP Postdoc 2022" in the Subject field:
- Curriculum Vitae,
- Publication List,
- Research Statement,
- Names and e-mail addresses of at least three persons who can be contacted for reference (and who have agreed to be contacted).

Informal inquiries may be directed to Russ Woodroofe (russ.woodroofe@famnit.upr.si).

Tuesday, 9 November 2021 Another success for the HCI-IS conference

Human-computer interaction in information society is a conference organized by the Slovenian HCI community. The purpose of the conference is to gather researchers, practitioners and students in the field and offer the opportunity to exchange experiences  and research results, as well as to establish contacts for future cooperation.

This year's HCI-IS conference, which was the sixth in a row, can once again be attributed to great success.

After last year's implementation, which took place online due to measures for curbing the spread of the epidemics, this year we were very happy to host as many as 27 conference participants.

This year's event also hosted two invited lectures given by Prof. Gregor Geršak, PhD (UNI LJ, Faculty of Electrical Engineering) and Assoc. Prof. Peter Knees, PhD (TU Wien).

Peter Knees is Associate Professor at the Vienna University of Technology, Faculty of Informatics. He is an active member of the Music Information Retrieval research community, reaching out to the related fields of multimedia and text information retrieval, recommender systems, and the digital arts. His research activities center on music search engines and interfaces as well as music recommender systems, and more recently, on smart(er) tools for music creation. He co-authored the book “Music Similarity and Retrieval: An Introduction” and is a contributor of the Digital Humanism initiative.

Gregor Geršak received the Ph.D. degree from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Ljubljana. His research interests include the theory of measurements, precision measurement of magnetic flux density, and pressure and thermometry. His focus is on metrology of biomedical instrumentation with emphasis on devices for non-invasive blood pressure measurement and psychophysiological measurements.

We are looking forward to the next HCI-IS conference, which, given the extremely rapid changes in the world of digitalization, will certainly bring a lot of novelties once again.

Thursday, 4 November 2021 Presentation of the topic of the doctoral dissertation - Andrés David Santamaría-Galvis

We invite you to the presentation of the topic of the doctoral dissertation "On partitionability and shellability of relative simplicial complexes" of the student Andrés David Santamaría-Galvis, enrolled in the doctoral study programme Mathematical Sciences.

The presentation will take place on Wednesday, 10 November 2021 at 17.30.

Zoom:

https://upr-si.zoom.us/j/89203230566?pwd=MWQwemJHR2JGanZoZTBvcnhiTytwdz09

Meeting ID: 892 0323 0566
Passcode: 054177

Wednesday, 3 November 2021 COVID-19 AND FLU VACCINATION FOR STUDENTS AND STAFF

Students and staff are invited to get a Covid-19 or/and flu vaccine on Friday, 12 November 2021, from 2 PM to 6 PM in the premises of the former brewery Emonec in Koper (Vanganelska cesta 20).

The vaccination is organized by the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ).

Tuesday, 2 November 2021 Congratulations to the first graduate on the Master's study programme Psychology

This October, in addition to new beginnings and full corridors, was also marked by quite a few defenses of our students' final works. Among them was also Samanta Hervol, who on October 25, 2021 became the first graduate in the Master's study programme Psychology.

Under the guidance of her mentor Assoc. prof. Vita Poštuvan, PhD and co-mentor Assist. Tina Podlogar, PhD, the student presented her final work titled »Mental Health literacy, stigma and attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help among Slovenian adolescents«.

The main question of her research was how the variables from the thesis' title are correlated and which variables are statistically significant predictors of attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help. Results showed, that mental healt literacy is positively correlated to attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help and negatively corellated to public stigma and self-stigma.

On the next day, October 26, 2021, two more students, Tjaša Ogrizek in Urša Skvarča, sucessfully defended their thesis in the Master's study programme Psychology.

Congratulations and good luck on the future research journey!

Tuesday, 26 October 2021 Psychological support at UP

During the epidemic 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.

Within the psychological support of UP, qualified psychologists offer a relief conversation to students and employees in the form of 1-2meetings. If necessary, they suggest and direct you to further sources of assistance.

Write to us at the e-mail address psiholoska.podpora@upr.si and briefly describe what problems you are facing. Together we will arrange for an individual conversation live or via videoconference.

If you feel severe mental distress or have suicidal thoughts, contact your personal doctor or call 112 - Information Center (for immediate emergency assistance).

Friday, 22 October 2021 The winner's cup goes to FAMNIT!

On Wednesday, October 20, on the Rector's Day, the traditional fall edition sports and social event, ČISTA 10KA took place, organized by the University Sports Association of Primorska in cooperation with the Student Organization of the University of Primorska.

Around 200 students from University of Primorska and the Faculty of Maritime Studies and Transport (UL) attended the event. Students, competing in teams, were representing their faculties in volleyball, futsal, basketball, table tennis, ‘briškula’, fun skill's games, swimming, tennis, and darts. The faculty with the highest number of points scored overall, became the proud owner of the cup.

This year, the champions were once again students from the Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies (UP FAMNIT), and so defending the title from 2019 and celebrating the victory for six consecutive years. The second place went to the Faculty of Health Sciences (FVZ), third place to the Faculty of Tourism Studies - Turistica.

Here are the final results, as well as the photo gallery.

Congratulations to our students for participating and winning the championship title once again!

(Photo credit: ŠOUP)

Friday, 22 October 2021 “When the grass dies…”

Sandro Lanfranco

“When the grass dies, then the horse will die. The sheep will die too and the cow. Then the farmer will die, then his wife. Finally, his child will die, too.”

Old Eastern European saying.

This compelling saying captures, in a nutshell, the reason for conserving plant life. Those amongst us who may be disconnected from the natural world often find it easier to show support conservation efforts for endangered animals. After all, in some ways, these animals are just like us. It may be less easy to drum up enthusiasm for protecting plants, particularly those plants that do not match our aesthetic preferences.

However, from the ecological point of view, plants are immeasurably more important to us than animals have ever been. We depend on plants far more than we do on animals. They are sources of food and medicine; they form, replenish, and bind our soils; they play a part in atmospheric regulation and in the water cycle. The list goes on. Global environmental change, popularised as a major threat to animal life and to ourselves, is first and foremost, a threat to the plant life that sustains us. Never forget: “When the grass dies …”.

With this in mind, 80 participants from 25 countries descended on the medieval Italian city of Bologna, or participated online, to discuss current trends in the conservation of plant life. The meeting was held within the framework of the European Union’s COST (Cooperation in Science and Technology) programme and was organised by COST Action 18201 – “Conserve Plants”. The highlights of the two-day meeting were the keystone talks by John D Thompson and, jointly by Renate Sõukand and Yuliya Prakofjewa.

In a captivating talk, John Thompson spoke about the conservation of evolutionary potential in the Mediterranean Flora. He described how we should complement ideas on how to conserve plants by  paying attention to hybrid forms, peripheral populations (where budding speciation takes place), genetic diversity among populations and the interaction between land use and climate change.  These examples illustrate how to construct a dialogue that integrates ecological dynamics and evolutionary change into conservation strategies.

Renate Sõukand, an ethnobotanist, and Yuliya Prakofjewa took the approach that our life is composed of ‘narratives’ and that our relationship with plant life is one such narrative. The talk was titled “Talking in the void – the role of a human in plant conservation using the Polish-Lithuanian-Belarussian borderland as a case study”. At first sight an unusual topic for a talk in a science meeting, Renate and Yuliya’s skilful storytelling soon made it very clear that initiatives like their’s should be given a much more wider scientific audience, as they allow a reappraisal of our connection with the ‘big-picture’ of the natural world.

The two talks started from very different sources but ultimately converged upon the same broad conclusions: that we are all active ‘stakeholders’ in the context of plant life and global environmental change. The underlying message is that it is futile for the scientists to do their work without publicising their findings in a direct, intelligible format. If the scientist only speaks to other scientists them the social impact of the work might be lost. The importance of ‘simple messages’, backed up by scientific legitimacy, that communicate complex concepts was emphasised, and these simple messages can often be found in the vocabulary of folk wisdom about plants.

The talks provided a stimulating backdrop for the subsequent discussions about this COST action’s goals and the progress attained in reaching them.

As always, a single meeting, however productive it is, will not halt the global downward trend in plant diversity. The challenge that this meeting highlighted is clear: education is key, as it is only through this that the global public is continually made aware of the pivotal role of plant diversity in sustaining our everyday normality.

COST Action ConservePlants kicked-off in October 2019 and will end in October 2023. It is chaired by Živa Fišer from the University of Primorska and co-chaired by Giovanna Aronne from University Federico II in Naples. The Bologna meeting was hosted by Marta Galloni from Univerze Alma Mater Studiorum in Bologna. Over 150 scientists from 40 countries participate in this Action.

Tuesday, 19 October 2021 UPM 2021 Competition Finals

On Saturday, 16 October 2021, the University Programming Marathon 2021 (UPM 2021) came to an end with the final round.

Among the 43 teams and 125 competitors, 22 best teams made it to the finals going through the three preliminary rounds. Due to measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 infection, the first two were carried out online. The third round was held separately at all three participating universities, and the finals were held in Ljubljana with strict observance of preventive measures. After 5 hours of solving 9 competitive tasks the champions of the University Programming Marathon 2021 and of the individual universities were known.

Top three teams in total:

1st place: Segment Trio (Benjamin Bajd, Domen Hočevar and Job Petrovčič)
2nd place: Predzadnja rešitev (Urban Duh, Marko Hostnik and Žiga Željko)
3rd place: luftkanali (Daniel Sami Blažič, Jakob Schrader and Patrik Žnidaršič)

Champions of individual universities:

Unversity of Ljubljana: Predzadnja rešitev (Urban Duh, Marko Hostnik and Žiga Željko)
Unversity of Maribor: BSoD (Vid Keršič, Matic Rašl and Mitja Žalik)
Unversity of Primorska: COVID 19 (M. Besher Massri, Mirza Redžić and Nemanja Torbica)

Our best team COVID 19 finished in 6th place in the finals with five solved tasks, and in the overall standings it achieved an excellent 5th place.

In addition to the above-mentioned champions, UP FAMNIT was also represented by the Powerpuff girls (Ina Bašić, Jelena Glišić and Ajla Šehović) and 404 (Dušan Bjelica, Milan Milivojčević and Jana Ristovska).

More information can be found here.

Congratulations to all participants!

The University Programming Marathon (UPM) is a Slovenian competition for students in programming, where the emphasis is on knowledge of algorithms and data structures. It is a team competition and consists of three preliminary rounds and a final round. UPM takes place at all three Slovenian universities at the same time (UL, UM and UP) 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.

Friday, 15 October 2021 LOOSE CELLS – Is there any art in science or is there science in art?

Urban Kavka, a student of the Master's study programme Sustainable Built Environment, and one of the authors of the LOOSE CELLS project, reflects on what happens when science, art and technology come together.

This is what the project Loose cells - Innovating at the Crossfield of Art and Science, is all about. It is an art-science object designed by students, under the guidance of mentors, researchers, artists, producers and curators, in the laboratories of the InnoRenew CoE Institute and Department of Information Sciences and Technologies UP FAMNIT at their disposal.

“This art-science object was set to speak for the social starting points of art and science collaboration. Such starting points tend to be critical in social discussions, like climate change, sustainability, human-nature-technology relationships or rising sea-levels.”, writes Urban Kavka.

So far, the object has been exhibited at three locations, namely in Izola, Kamnik and Koper, and will be presented to the public in Nova Gorica.

The LOOSE CELLS project partners are InnoRenew CoE, University of Primorska, University of Nova Gorica’s School of Arts, and the association PiNA. The project was supported by Municipality of Izola and Center for culture, sports and events of Izola.

Friday, 15 October 2021 Covid-19 and flu vaccination for students and staff

Students and staff are invited to get a  Covid-19 or/and flu vaccine on Tuesday, 19 October 2021, from 9 AM to 6 PM in the premises of the former brewery Emonec in Koper (Vanganelska cesta 20).

The vaccination is organized by the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ).

Friday, 15 October 2021 Assoc. Prof. Tomaž Grušovnik, PhD about the role of ethics in research, 19 October at 18:00

In the light of the Global Ethics Day, a lecture entitled “The role of ethics in research” will be organized as part of the international project Resbios (UP FAMNIT). The lecture will be given by a renowned philosopher and lecturer at UP, Assoc. Prof. Tomaž Grušovnik, PhD.

The event will take place online on Tuesday, October 19, 2021, at 6 p.m.

To participate in the lecture, which will be implemented via ZOOM, it is necessary to register via the application form (the zoom link will be sent the day before the event to the address specified in the application form).

Deadline for registration is 18 October 2021, 12:00 CET

About the lecture:

The lecture will address the role of ethics in research, in particular the issue of ethical methodology and the reasonably expected results of ethical analysis. In addition, three general moral paradigms will be presented - utilitarianism, the ethics of government, and the ethics of virtue. The lecturer will also briefly present the main principles of environmental and animal ethics (environmental ethics and deep ecology). Moral motivation will be briefly mentioned with an emphasis on intentional ignorance. Moreover, special attention will be paid to different models of professional relations in the workplace (paternalistic, technical, collaborative and friendly), and a web of main stakeholders in ethical judgment (subjects, researchers, data, community) will be briefly presented.

About the lecturer:

Tomaž Grušovnik is an associate professor and senior research associate at the University of Primorska. His main areas of interest are ethics and education philosophy. He was a visiting Fulbright researcher at the University of New Mexico (USA) and a visiting lecturer at the University of Oslo (Norway). In the years 2018–2020 he was also the president of the Slovenian Philosophical Society. He has written several books on his interesting topics and co-edited the book Environmental and Animal Abuse Denial (Lexington, 2020).

About the project:

The ResBios project (RESponsible research and innovation grounding practices in BIOSciences) aims to strengthen responsible research in biosciences and is funded by Horizon2020. The project aims to promote the integration of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) into four new bioscience research organizations from 4 European countries. The project is based on a method of mutual learning, the main driving force of which is the interaction between partners who re-introduce the foundations of RDI through action plans ("RDI beginners") and other partners ("RDI mentors") whose experience comes from their participation in the project. STARBIOS2 (H2020). UP FAMNIT participates in the project as a mentoring institution in the fields of ethics and open access and as the leader of work package IV, led by prof. dr. Elena Bužan, PhD.

Friday, 1 October 2021 Students, welcome!

This year, the traditional official ceremony at the beginning of the new academic year was hosted by UP Faculty of Tourism Studies – Turistica, where on 1 October, the management of the university and its members, representatives of the municipalities of Slovenian Istria, representatives of the UP Student Council and the Student Organization of the University of Primorska gathered in a hall full of freshmen. You can read more about the event here.

At UP FAMNIT, we welcomed the 15th generation of students, this year again the most numerous so far.

On the first day of the academic year, the freshmen met with their study program coordinators, right after the video addresses from the rector of the University of Primorska, Prof. Klavdija Kutnar and the Dean of UP FAMNIT, Assoc. Prof. Ademir Hujdurović.

At 12.00, certificates were presented to tutors who were tutoring and helping students in the previous academic year. Half an hour later, UP FAMNIT freshmen went on to Tito Square for a group photo.

The happening for the new academic year is not over yet, as tomorrow from 10.00 until evening, activities will continue in Simonov zaliv in Izola, where all students of the University of Primorska will be participating in sports activities and interactive games, and will likewise enjoy a full day of fun and entertainment.

Some statistics

The final enrolment statistics for the academic year 2021/2022 will be definite by the end of this month, and we expect up to 6,200 students will be enrolled at the University of Primorska this year. There are about 1,900 freshmen, of whom just under 1,400 are in the undergraduate programs.

According to unofficial data, 890 students are enrolled at the Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies, of which as many as 395 come from abroad, which represents a high 44% percentile. Foreign students come from 34 countries, namely Argentina, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Czech Republic, Montenegro, the Philippines, Ghana, Greece, Croatia, India, Iran, Italy, Israel, Cameroon, Kazakhstan, China, Kosovo, Hungary, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Russian Federation, Northern Macedonia, the Syrian Arab Republic, Serbia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and the United States.

There are 320 freshmen enrolled, 255 of them are in undergraduate study programs, 53 in master's programs, and 12 in doctoral study programs.

We wish all students a successful, interesting, and a happy academic year, as well as much success!

Thursday, 30 September 2021 Repeated success for the (Bio)psychological summer school UP FAMNIT

We are pleased to announce that the wish made in 2019 by dr. Simona Gomboc, assistant at UP FAMNIT, was realized this year, since the (Bio)psychological summer school was, once again, a success.

Starting on Monday, September 27, participants have refreshed their knowledge of basic statistics and continued with briefly presented programs for statistical data processing.

The majority of the program was led by Urša Bernardič, a holder of the bachelor’s degree of the study programme Biopsychology at UP FAMNIT, a master's degree in Behavioral Neuroscience at the University of Amsterdam and a doctoral assistant at the University of Geneva. For several years now, the main focus of her research has been human decision-making and the influence of cognitive limitations to the subject in question. She strives to answer important questions of how our perception and decision-making work by linking economics, neuroscience, and psychology.

This year’s summer school thematic basis was focused on statistic programming, one of the fundamental skills for both students and employees in companies facing optimization issues and on an analytical approach to data processing.

The fundamental part of the program was dedicated to learning the basic programming in the free statistical program R. The target audience was non-statistical, and the application value was placed in the foreground, as participants learned and experienced all the steps of data processing in the R system: from data entry and cleaning to analysis and graphical display of real data.

We are concluding the summer school until next year with full confidence, that the participants have gained a lot of new knowledge for independent data processing and use of various sources that will help in case something 'squeaks' in the code.

Thursday, 30 September 2021 1st October – Start of the new academic year

Tomorrow we will welcome at UP FAMNIT the 15th generation of students!

Students will have the opportunity to pick up a university T-shirt in front of the Faculty main entrance from 9.30 am to 1.00 pm, and activities will take place throughout the morning.

At 10.00 there will be a meeting with the programme coordinators of undergraduate study programs (in Slovene language), as follows:

• Mathematics and Mathematics in Economics and Finance (lecture room Famnit-MP1)

• Computer Science (lecture room Famnit-Avla)

• Bioinformatics (lecture room Famnit-VP1)

• Conservation Biology (lecture room Famnit-VP2)

• Biopsychology (lecture room Famnit-VP3)

• Mediterranean Agriculture (lecture room Famnit-MP6)

At 12.00 you can attend the award ceremony for student tutors, which will take place in the Faculty main lobby (lecture room Famnit-Avla)

A group photograph of the first year’s students is planned for 12.30, we will assemble in front of the entrance to the Faculty.

At 13.00 there will be a meeting with the programme coordinators of Master's Study Programs (in Slovene language), as follows:

• Mathematical Sciences (lecture room Famnit-MP1)

• Computer Science (lecture room Famnit-VP1)

• Nature Conservation (lecture room Famnit-VP2)

• Biopsychology (lecture room Famnit-MP6)

• Psychology (lecture room Famnit-VP3)

• Data Science (lecture room Famnit-Avla)

We wish all students and professors a happy and successful start of the new academic year!

Wednesday, 29 September 2021 FAMNIT students successful on CERC 2020

On 25 and 26 September 2021, the CERC 2020 University Programming Competition (ACM ICPC Central European Regional Competition) took place. The competition was organized by the Czech Technical University in Prague (Czech Republic), although due to this year's COVID-19 it was held online.

The competition was attended by 88 teams from 25 universities from Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. The University of Primorska was represented by a team consisting of: Nemanja Torbica, Mirza Redžić and M. Besher Massri.

Competitors had 5 hours to solve 11 tasks, some of which were extremely challenging. The team of the University of Primorska took 34th place, which is a very nice success, as the Central European region is considered one of the most difficult in the world.

Congratulations to the competitors who represented the University of Primorska at CERC 2020!

More information can be found on the website.

Thursday, 23 September 2021 Friday, 1st October – Meetings of freshmen with coordinators

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: 10.00 – 11.30 in classroom Famnit-MP1 (Glagoljaška 8, 1st floor),
• Computer Science (Slovene): 10.00 – 11.30 in classroom Famnit-AvlaGlagoljaška (Glagoljaška 8, ground floor),
• Bioinformatics (Slovene): 10.00 – 11.30 in classroom Famnit-VP1 (Glagoljaška 8, 1st floor),
• Conservation Biology: 10.00 – 11.30 in classroom Famnit-VP2 (Glagoljaška 8, 1st floor),
• Biopsychology: 10.00 – 11.30 in classroom Famnit- VP3 (Glagoljaška 8, 2nd floor),
• Mediterranean Agriculture: 10.00 – 11.30 in classroom Famnit- MP6 (Glagoljaška 8, 2nd floor).

Meetings with study programme coordinators for students enrolled in English programmes (Computer Science, Bioinformatics, Mathematics) will take place during Orientation days at UP (for more info please check: https://welcome.upr.si/en/arrive/orientation).

We kindly ask you to come at least 5 minutes earlier, as the meetings will start at 10.00 with the official welcome from the rector UP.

All courses will start on Monday, 4^th October – please check the schedule here (https://www.famnit.upr.si//en/student-pages/timetables).

All notices from Student Services (changes of the course schedule,…) 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

Thursday, 23 September 2021 UNDERGRADUATE STUDY: Course schedules for Autumn Semester 2021/2022

We would like to inform you that the course schedules for all study programmes for the Autumn Semester 2021/2022 are published on our website (https://www.famnit.upr.si//en/student-pages/timetables). Lectures start on Friday, 1 October 2021 and last until Friday, 21 January 2022.

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 Thursday, 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. Students will receive the information about the group on their student university e-mail no later than Friday, 1 October or on their personal e-mail if they are enrolled in the 1^st year of study.

Changes after that (from Friday, 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 Friday, 1st October. All information is published on our website (https://www.famnit.upr.si/en/news/friday-1st-october). All student start lectures and tutorials on Monday, 4^th October.

Meetings with study programme coordinators for students enrolled in English programmes (Computer Science, Bioinformatics, Mathematics) will take place during Orientation days at UP (for more info please check: https://welcome.upr.si/en/arrive/orientation).

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:

• a 30-min break is required between lectures/tutorials in the same classroom,
• lectures / tutorials that are conducted remotely (on-line) are marked on the schedule so that the classroom is actually "On-line".
• 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 later in the updated Instructions of the University of Primorska regarding the implementation of the study process with regard to the conditions of COVID-19. We will inform you about the publication. Please read the instructions carefully and follow them strictly.

Student Services UP FAMNIT

Thursday, 23 September 2021 Third application term for undergraduate and postgraduate studies for EU citizens

Today, 23 September 2021 starts the third application term for EU citizens for the enrolment in the undergraduate and postgraduate study programmes at UP FAMNIT and it lasts until tomorrow, 24 September 2021, until 12.00. There are available places for the study programmes listed below.

Undergraduate Studies:
Computer Science, (there are places available only on the English implementation), Conservation Biology, Bioinformatics, Mathematics, Mathematics in Economics and Finance and Mediterranean Agriculture.

Master's Studies:
Mathematical Sciences, Computer Science, Nature Conservation, Biopsychology, Sustainable Built Environments and Data Science.

Doctoral studies:
Mathematical Sciences, Computer Science, Computer Science (international joint programme with University of St Andrews) and Sustainable Built Environments.

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).

Thursday, 23 September 2021 POSTGRADUATE STUDY: Course schedules for Autumn Semester 2021/2022

We would like to inform you that the course schedules for all study programmes for the Autumn Semester 2021/2022 are published on our website (https://www.famnit.upr.si//en/student-pages/timetables). The semester starts on Friday, 1 October 2021 and last until Friday, 21 January 2022.

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 every week, because weekly schedules can differ.
• The schedule might change until Thurdsay, 30 September. Please check the schedule again before the beginning of the academic year.

Changes after that (from Friday, 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.

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

• Mathematical Sciences – Slovene (PMA): Friday, 1 October at 13.00 in Famnit-MP1 (Glagoljaška 8, 1^st floor);
• Computer Science (PRIN): Friday, 1 October at 13.00 in Famnit-VP1 (Glagoljaška 8, 1^st floor);
• Nature Conservation (PBI):  Friday, 1 October at 13.00 in Famnit-VP2 (Glagoljaška 8, 1^st floor);
• Biopsychology (PBP): Friday, 1 October at 13.00 in Famnit-MP6 (Glagoljaška 8, 2^nd floor);
• Psychology (UPSI): Friday, 1 October at 13.00 in Famnit-VP3 (Glagoljaška 8, 2^nd floor);
• Data Science – Slovene (PZ): Friday, 1 October at 13.00 in Famnit-AvlaGlagoljaška (Glagoljaška 8, ground floor).

Meetings with study programme coordinators for students enrolled in English programmes (Mathematical Sciences, Data Science) will take place during Orientation days at UP (for more info please check: https://welcome.upr.si/en/arrive/orientation).

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

We inform the students of the Computer Science that the course Selected Topics in Theoretical Computer Science will be offered with consultations. The course leader will inform the students about the details of the course.

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

• a 30-min break is required between lectures/tutorials in the same classroom,
• lectures / tutorials that are conducted remotely (on-line) are marked on the schedule so that the classroom is actually "On-line".
• 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 later in the updated Instructions of the University of Primorska regarding the implementation of the study process with regard to the conditions of COVID-19. We will inform you about the publication. Please read the instructions carefully and follow them strictly.

Student Services UP FAMNIT

Thursday, 23 September 2021 Fourth application term for postgraduate studies for non-EU citizens and Slovene nationals without Slovene citizenship

Today, 23 September 2021 starts the fourth application term for non-EU citizens and Slovene nationals without Slovene citizenship for the enrolment in the undergraduate and postgraduate study programmes at UP FAMNIT and it lasts until tomorrow, 24 September 2021, until 12.00. There are available places for the study programmes listed below.

Undergraduate Studies:
Computer Science, (there are places available only on the English implementation), Conservation Biology, Bioinformatics (there are places available only on the Slovene implementation), Mathematics, Mathematics in Economics and Finance and Mediterranean Agriculture.

Master's Studies:
Mathematical Sciences, Computer Science, Nature Conservation, Biopsychology, Sustainable Built Environments and Data Science.

Doctoral studies:
Mathematical Sciences, Computer Science, Computer Science (international joint programme with University of St Andrews) and Sustainable Built Environments.

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).

Wednesday, 22 September 2021 Starting the new Academic Year with the StartUP weekend - applications are still open

This year, we are stretching the Orientation days, which will be organized for UP freshmen to get acquainted with some basic aspects of life and study at the Slovenian coast, into a relaxed weekend, full of fun activities, sports games and music.

StartUP weekend brings:

• 1.10. Faculty receptions,
• 2.10. StartUP event in San Simon, where you will have the opportunity to try out your skills in zorbing football and conclude the evening with the concert event on the beutiful location under the Belveder resort,
• 3.10. Group hike to the Ears of Istria - Veli Badin eagle's nest.

Everybody is invited to apply.

Monday, 13 September 2021 Congratulations to the first graduate on the undergraduate study programme Bioinformatics (English implementation)

On Thursday, 9 September 2021, Doroteja Vujinović concluded her undergraduate studies with the diploma thesis »Burrows-Wheeler Transfrom«, under the mentorship of Prof. Andrej Brodnik, PhD.

Doroteja Vujinović is the first graduate of the undergraduate study programme Bioinformatics in English, which has been implemented at UP FAMNIT from study year 2018/19. With the conclusion of her studies, she obtained the official title diplomirana bioinfomatičarka.

In her diploma thesis, she presented in detail how the BWT works and analyzed its computational complexity. Some of the most important applications of BWT in bioinformatics and computational biology were examined in her research as well.

Congratulations and good luck on the future research journey!

Thursday, 9 September 2021 Third application term for postgraduate studies for non-EU citizens and Slovene nationals without Slovene citizenship

Today, 9 September 2021 starts the third application term for non-EU citizens and Slovene nationals without Slovene citizenship for the enrolment in the postgraduate study programmes at UP FAMNIT and it lasts until 14 September 2021. There are available places for the study programmes listed below.

Master's Studies:
Mathematical Sciences, Computer Science, Nature Conservation, Biopsychology, Sustainable Built Environments and Data Science.

Doctoral studies:
Mathematical Sciences, Computer Science, Computer Science (international joint programme with University of St Andrews) and Sustainable Built Environments.

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).

Thursday, 9 September 2021 Second application term for postgraduate studies for EU citizens

Today, 9 September 2021 starts the second application term for EU citizens for the enrolment in the postgraduate study programmes at UP FAMNIT and it lasts until 14 September 2021. There are available places for the study programmes listed below.

Master's Studies:
Mathematical Sciences, Computer Science, Nature Conservation, Biopsychology, Psychology (there are no places available for parallel studies), Sustainable Built Environments and Data Science.

Doctoral studies:
Mathematical Sciences, Computer Science, Computer Science (international joint programme with University of St Andrews) and Sustainable Built Environments.

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).

Tuesday, 31 August 2021 3rd application deadline for enrollment of foreign students in undergraduate study programs is soon closing!

The 3rd application deadline for citizens of non-EU countries and Slovenes without Slovene citizenship in the undergraduate study programs of the University of Primorska closes on 3 September 2021.

At UP FAMNIT, there are still available places in the following study programs:

• Bioinformatics (UN), implemented in Slovene language
• Mathematics (UN), implemented in English language 
• Mathematics (UN), implemented in Slovene language
• Mathematics in Economics and Finance (UN), implemented in Slovene language 
• Mediterranean agriculture (VS), implemented in Slovene language

Students who are enrolling in study programs that are implemented in Slovene have the option to apply for a Year Plus. Year Plus enables foreign students to improve their academic performance by re-enrolling in the first year due to reason of insufficient knowledge of Slovenian. More information is available here: https://www.famnit.upr.si/en/education/enrolment--2122

The application for enrolment in 3rd application deadline is submitted electronically via the eVŠ web portal (https://portal.evs.gov.si/prijava/)  by 3 September 2021.

Candidates must enclose all required documentation with their application. Instructions for completing the application are available at https://portal.evs.gov.si/information-in-english.
For additional questions contact the  Admissions Office of University of Primorska at vpis@upr.si. 

Choose science, choose Famnit!

Wednesday, 25 August 2021 Become a TUTOR! – Application deadline is 13 September 2021

Students of all study levels are invited to apply for student tutors for the academic year 2021/2022!

What is tutoring?

Tutoring is organized help for students based on a personal approach.

What are the tasks of a student-tutor?

As tutors, you will guide your protégés (students), advise them on the choice of their fields of study, electives, further studies, find help so they can overcome challenges in their studies, and engage in extracurricular activities and student activities life in general.

Why become a tutor?

As student-tutors, you will have the opportunity for training at various workshops and meetings, organized by the University of Primorska. At the end of the academic year, you will receive a tutoring certificate and an entry in your diploma supplement.

But most of all, as tutors you will gain invaluable experience and knowledge.

Until when and where do I have to apply?

The deadline for applications is 13 September 2021. More information can be found on the subpage "Tutoring System" where the Open call for the year 2021/2022 and the application form are available.

Monday, 16 August 2021 UP FAMNIT students will be organizing an international conference SymBioSE 2023

Students were successful in their proposal to organize an international conference SymBioSE 2023.

In 1996, the German Student Association members founded the International SymBioSE or Symposium of Biology Students of Europe. The event's main purpose is to connect all European students of biology and other natural sciences, from undergraduate to doctoral level. SymBioSE takes place in the form of an annual event in the various participating countries. To host the event, campaign proposers must apply two years in advance and convince all participants of the current conference of their idea.

In recent years, the conference has been attended by several students of Conservation biology, but because it has not yet been organized in Slovenia, this year's team of participating students from UP Famnit came to the idea to try and bring the conference to Koper. Thus, they presented their candidacy to this year's SymBioSE participants and were successful!

The event will be organized in cooperation with the Society of Conservation Biologists – Biodiva.  SymBioSE 2023 will be held 24 - 30 July 2023.

Monday, 9 August 2021 Famnit student once again successful at the International Mathematics Competition for University Students – IMC 2021

This year, the 28th International Mathematics Competition for University Students took place between 2 and 7 August. This year's competition, where 590 students from all over the world took part as 113 teams, was held online.

Exceptional result was achieved by Besfort Shala, winning second prize with 23 points. Todor Antić (7 points) and Dorotea Redžepi (4 points) received an honorary mention.

The UP FAMNIT team were represented by Ajla Šehović (2nd year, Mathematics), Besfort Shala (graduate, Mathematics), Dorotea Redžepi (1st year, Mathematics), Lazar Marković (1st year Mathematics), Milan Milivojčević (2nd year, Computer Science), Todor Antić (2nd year, Mathematics) and team leader, Assist. Prof. Slobodan Filipovski.

We sincerely congratulate our students and invite you to view the opening and closing ceremony of the IMC. More information, problems and solutions of the competition, are available here.

Saturday, 17 July 2021 Acad. Prof. Jean-Pierre Bourguignon guest at UP

On Friday, 16 July 2021, the University of Primorska hosted the President of the European Research Council (ERC), Acad. Prof. Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, whose visit in Slovenia is part of a wider event dedicated to science and research in the frame of the Slovenian presidency of the EU Council. The panel discussions with Prof. Bourguignon about research in Europe in view of pandemic was attended by UP leadership, and by representatives of other Slovenian scientific research institutions, among them Prof. Zdravko Kačič, Rector of the University of Maribor, Prof. Mladen Franko, Vice-Rector for Education at the University of Nova Gorica, Prof. dr. Roman Jerala, from the National Institute of Chemistry, Dr. Tomaž Boh, Director General of the Directorate for Science at the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports (MIZŠ), Dr. Andreja Umek Venturini, ERC contact at MIZŠ, and representatives of UP members and InnoRenew CoE Research Institute.

The first part of the discussion, led by Prof. Tomaž Pisanski, was focused on excellence in science and on different criteria for evaluating the quality of scientific research, where individual scientific fields shall not be compared with each other. Prof. Jean-Pierre Bourguignon invited researchers to be ambitious and dare to take risks, to apply and realize new ideas. »Don’t be conservative,« he said.

Continue to read the article on UP website. 

During his visit, Prof. Bourguignon had a meeting also with UP FAMNIT students and researchers. 

Prof. Bourguignon with UP FAMNIT researchers and Prof. Daniel Kráľ, holder of two ERC grants, with his doctoral students, who are currently on a research visit at Famnit.

Wednesday, 14 July 2021 UP FAMNIT once again hosts top researchers in the field of Graph theory

Professor Daniel Kráľ again visited the University of Primorska, as part of research work in the field of graph theory, where he collaborates with Assist. Prof. Matjaž Krnc (UP FAMNIT).

Prof. Kráľ, a renowned expert in the field of graph theory, comes from the Faculty of Informatics at Masaryk University in Brno, where he has received a newly established Donald Ervin Knuth Professorship. He is the co-heading the Laboratory of Discrete Methods and Algorithms (DIMEA) and holds an honorary professorship at the University of Warwick, where he was affiliated with its research center (Center for Discrete Mathematics and its Applications - DIMAP).

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. Kráľ already visited UP FAMNIT last July, and he was once again accompanied by his doctoral and postdoctoral students. This time by Jake Cooper, Martin Kurečka, dr. Frederik Garbe and dr. Samuel Mohr. Together with Assist. Prof. Krnc they are continuing their well-established work in the field of graph theory, and their current scientific results were also highlighted in an Abel lecture by László Lovász, this year's Abel laureate who held a lecture at the recent 8th European Congress of Mathematics.

Guest were today welcomed by the Rector of the University of Primorska, Prof. Klavdija Kutnar, by the Dean of UP FAMNIT, Assoc. Prof. Ademir Hujdurović, and by Prof. Dragan Marušič. They discussed their work within the mathematics departments of both Universities, as well as the opportunities and challenges of the application process associated with ERC projects.

The Rector of the University of Primorska further expressed her enthusiasm for the excellent work of the research group so far and emphasized the importance of further strengthening of international cooperation.

Friday, 9 July 2021 The American Mathematical Monthly published a mathematical problem proposed by UP FAMNIT student Besfort Shala

American Mathematical Monthly (AMM) has published a mathematical problem in the field of Number Theory that was proposed by Besfort Shala (3rd year of Mathematics, BSc).

AMM is a very prestigious math journal and one of the sections of the journal is dedicated to Olympiad style problem solving. »I follow that section regularly,« said Besfort Shala, »and decided to submit some of my own problems, one of which was admitted and published. It’s not easy to get problems published as they must combine elements of elegance and difficulty well. Since it is a specific problem, it didn’t take me so much time to make it while the question popped up naturally when I was considering and trying to solve some other problems. I’m not sure if it means a lot about my future research/work but it’s certainly motivating to keep proposing and solving problems. As far as I am aware, it is the first publication of UP FAMNIT in this journal, meaning it might help the faculty reach higher recognition.«

The journal is available here.

We are very proud of Besfort's achievement and, since he is about to complete his studies at Famnit, we wish him all the best in his future research work in the mathematical world!

Wednesday, 7 July 2021 Two new projects for scientific research cooperation with Bosnia and Herzegovina

University of Primorska has obtained five new projects for the scientific research cooperation between Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina from July 2021 to June 2023. The Slovenian Research Agency will co-finance projects in the field of archaeology, economics and mathematics. 

The public tender co-finances mutual visits of researchers from Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, that are cooperating in joint scientific research projects with the aim of strengthening cooperation between the two countries, increasing the mobility of researchers and the submission of applications of EU and other international grants. 

The co-funded projects led by UP FAMNIT and UP IAM employees are:

Title: Analysis of bent Boolean functions in terms of new metrics
Institutions: UP Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies, and University of Tuzla, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics
UP project leader: dr. Samir Hodžić
Field: mathematics

The main goal of the project is to revise the notion of a metric used for defining the distance between Boolean functions, with the special focus on achieving the bentness property. Traditionally, the well-known Hamming metric is used to define the distance between two Boolean functions, which is defined as the cardinality of the set of inputs on which given two functions differ. Based on this metric, we say that a Boolean function is bent if it stands at maximal distance to the space of linear functions. Hence, the bentness property of Boolean functions is directly related to the definition of the underlying metric.

Title: Semi-simples algebras associated to directed graphs and its applications
Institutions: UP Institute Andrej Marušič and University in Zenica, Faculty of Philosophy
Project leader at UP: dr. Safet Penjić
Field: mathematics

Matrix multiplication (MM) is a basic operation of linear algebra, which has numerous applications to the theory and practice of computation. Importance of applications are due to the fact that MM is a substantial part of several successful algorithms for other computational problems of linear algebra and combinators, such as the solution of a system of linear equations, matrix inversion, the evaluation of the determinant of a matrix, Boolean MM and the transitive closure of a graph. In this project we will study vector space of matrices generated by adjacency matrix of a directed graph.

Monday, 5 July 2021 The traditional international summer school in mathematics at Rogla has come to an end

Last week an international summer school in mathematics took place at Rogla, which this time was one of the accompanying events of the recently successfully concluded 8th European Congress of Mathematics - 8ECM. The main goal of the scientific meeting entitled »Graphs and Groups, Geometries and GAP (G2G2) Summer School – External Satellite Conference of 8ECM«, which took place between 27 June and 2 July, was to bring together experts and students to exchange ideas and to enrich their mathematical horizons with focus on computational methods in mathematics and vertex operator algebras. Among more than 50 the participants were doctoral students, other young mathematicians as well as more experienced researchers.

The G2G2 organization, whose main organizers in previous years were UP FAMNIT and UP IAM, this year also involved recognised universities from Russia, the United Kingdom and Italy: Sobolev Institute of Mathematics, Novosibirsk State University, Krasovskii Institute of Mathematics and Mechanics, Ural Federal University, Imperial College London, Department of Mathematics and Physics – Catholic University of the Sacred Heart – Brescia in Department of Mathematics, Computer Science and Physics – University of Udine.

Unlike previous summer schools at Rogla, this year's expert committee consisted entirely of recognised experts from abroad: Clara Franchi (Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Italija), Alexander A. Ivanov (Imperial College London, ZK), Elena Konstantinova (Sobolev Institute of Mathematics, Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Science, Novosibirsk State University, Rusija) in Mario Mainardis (University of Udine, Italija).

The program was also live-streamed via the internet, and participants who were present at Rogla had the opportunity to discuss, socialize and solve open problems in the field of mathematics in person. In addition to two sets of minicourses, the program also included contributions from invited speakers and other participants.

Summer schools in mathematics for doctoral students at Rogla have more than a decade of tradition and strong international participation. This year, with the involvement of foreign universities in the organization of the event and program preparation, represents an important contribution to achieving the goal of internationalization of the University of Primorska.

Thursday, 1 July 2021 First graduate of MSc study programme Data Science

On 28 June 2021, Lisi Qarkaxhija succesfully completed the MSc study programme Data Science with the thesis Network based predictive modelling (supervisor: Assoc. Prof.  Miklós Kreśz, PhD and co-supervisor: Assist. Lászlo Hajdu). As part of his thesis, he looked into the problem of forecasting the number of citations a scientific work will receive - predicting the citation count of papers is a well-known and well-studied problem for which various approaches have been proposed.

Lisi Qarkaxhija is the first graduate of the Master's study program Data Science.

Congratulations and good luck on his further research journey!

Monday, 28 June 2021 The recipient of the Fields Medal, Prof. Andrei Okounkov, PhD, visited UP Famnit

During the 8th European Congress of Mathematics, the University of Primorska hosted the recipient of the Fields Medal, Prof. Andrei Okounkov, PhD, who gave a public lecture at the congress. Prof. Okounkov got acquainted with the activities and achievements of our university, and then visited UP FAMNIT, where he met the Dean of UP FAMNIT, Assoc. Prof. Ademir Hujdurović, PhD and the director of UP IAM, Prof. Vito Vitrih, PhD.

Throughout the congress, several groups of volunteers and employees worked on the premises of the faculty, providing technical support and smooth transmission of lectures for all participants.

Prof. Okounkov is also a member of the Organizing Committee of the International Congress of Mathematicians - ICM 2022, which will be held in St. Petersburg next year, so he listened carefully to the presentation of the organizational aspect of 8ECM.

A pleasant interview with Prof. Okounkov was published by STA Krog.

Sunday, 27 June 2021 A very successful 8ECM

The most important scientific event in Slovenia in 2021 – the 8th European Congress of Mathematics has come to its end. 8ECM was also the biggest European Mathematical Congress to date in terms of number of participants and organised events. The scientific meeting, which was held both virtually and live, was attended by 1,771 mathematicians from 77 countries; more than 100 of them decided to come to Portorož and attended the lectures in person. 8ECM hosted the biggest names in the field of modern mathematics, among others the Abel laureate Prof. László Lovász and the President of the European Research Council, Acad. Prof. Jean-Pierre Bourguignon. 1,058 talks, lectures and mini-symposia, a wide range of accompanying cultural events and eight exhibitions were organised, while in May Slovenian Post issued also a special stamp.

At the closing ceremony, which took place on Friday, June 25, 2021 at the Grand Hotel Bernardin in Portorož, participants were addressed by Prof. Andrei Okounkov, member of the Organizing Committee of the International Congress of Mathematicians – ICM 2022, Prof. Juan González-Meneses López, President of the Organizing Committee of the 9th European Congress of Mathematics – 9ECM Sevilla 2024, Prof. Klavdija Kutnar, Rector of the University of Primorska and Vice-President of the 8ECM Organizing Committee, Prof. Tomaž Pisanski, President of the Organizing Committee of 8ECM and Prof. Volker Mehrmann (TU Berlin), President of the European Mathematical Association.

Prof. Andrei Okounkov thanked the organizers of the congress and presented the next ICM, which will be held in July 2022 in St. Petersburg. “The Slovenian experience will be an inspiration for the next congress," stressed Prof. Okounkov. Also Prof. Juan González-Meneses López congratulated the organizers for the good job they did and presented the 9ECM, which will take place from 15 to 19 July 2024 in Seville.

Prof. Klavdija Kutnar thanked all 8ECM participants, especially those who came to Portorož, and all lecturers as well as UP employees and volunteers that contributed to the successful implementation of this exceptional scientific event. Prof. Tomaž Pisanski recalled the mathematical scientific meeting 30 years ago in Bled, which took place on the day of Slovenia's independence. “No one dared to even think that in 30 years there would be such an important mathematical event in Slovenia," he pointed out and thanked the organizers, especially Prof. Kutnar and the former UP rector Prof. Dragan Marušič, as without his strong support this congress would not have taken place.

Dr. Volker Mehrmann expressed his gratitude and praise to the organizers who did an outstanding job in quite difficult circumstances. He emphasized that European congresses must present all areas of European mathematics, both professionally and regionally, as well as generationally. He assessed as positive the fact that 8ECM included the younger generation of mathematicians. “The mathematical community must address the problems of the future together. Among other things, we must point out how alarming are decisions to reduce the basic sciences in education, "said Dr. Mehrmann.

According to the participants, despite the difficult situation 8ECM ran in a way that enabled smooth work and exchange of scientific knowledge, professional experience and as such will be an important milestone in the future organization of scientific events.

Wednesday, 23 June 2021 Marko Tkalčič, PhD published the paper in the prestigious journal Elsevier Information Processing and Management

Assoc. prof. Marko Tkalčič, PhD has recently published the paper "Investigating the impact of recommender systems on user-based and item-based popularity bias" in the prestigious journal Elsevier Information Processing and Management (impact factor = 4.787, A") in co-authorship with partners from the University of Bergen, Norway and the University of Oulu, Finland.

The paper investigates how recommendation algorithms influence the popularity bias on the Twitter platform. The results indicate that in certain cases the bias is reinforced by the recommendation algorithm and in other cases it is decreased. There are important implications in designing artificial intelligence algorithms that are fair, i.e. they do not induce bias, which is one of the main concerns in modern AI research

You can access the paper is at this link.

Congratulations!

Tuesday, 22 June 2021 Open calls & tenders for researchers at University of Primorska

You can follow all calls for young researchers and postdoctoral positions here. Velow we highlight the current open calls.

PUBLIC TENDER FOR YOUNG RESEARCHER CANDIDATES FOR THE YEAR 2021

The purpose of this Public Tender is the selection of the candidates for young researchers to be trained at the University of Primorska Andrej Marušič Institute (UP IAM), Faculty of Mathematics, natural Sciences and Information Technologies (UP FAMNIT) and Faculty of management (UP FM), for obtaining a doctorate of science.

Mentors and research fields

Candidates may apply for available position of a young researcher with selected mentors in the selected fields of science and research according to the decision on the selection of mentors for the year 2021 on the basis of the Public call for the selection of mentors positions within research programmes in the year 2021 N° of notification 6318-18/2020-2 dated 18 January 2021 and confirmed by Slovenian Research Agency N° of notification 6316-18/2020-132, dated 31 May 2021:

• Marko Orel, Mathematics - Algebra, discrete mathematics, probability and game theory
• Vito Vitrih, Mathematics - Mathematical modelling and encryption: from theoretical concepts to real-life applications
• Vita Poštuvan, Psychiatry- Alive? Alive! Research and prevention of suicide
• Suzana Laporšek, Economics - Management of education and employability in knowledge society

Only one candidate per mentor can be selected. In case more candidates compete, they will be ranked according to an overall grade achieved in all the selection criteria. The candidate selected will be the highest rated candidate. If the selected candidate resigns or fails to submit the required documents by the deadline specified in the Public Tender, the next candidate shall be admitted according to the overall grade achieved.

You can find more here.

***

POSTDOCTORAL POSITIONS

Postdoctoral position in mathematics – mentor: Prof. Dragan Marušič, PhD​

Applicants must possess a PhD in mathematics. Expertise in algebraic graph theory is required. The project will investigate several key problems within algebraic graph theory, with a focus on:

• hamiltonicity problem of vertex-transitive graphs;
• existence of semiregular automorphisms in vertex-transitive graph;
• symmetries in graphs via rigid cells and even/odd dichotomy.

You can find more here.

Postdoctoral position in mathematics – mentor: Prof. Bojan Kuzma, PhD​

• Applicants must possess a PhD in mathematics.
• The project will mainly focus on Preserver Problems and the applications of graph theory in solving them. It often turns out that some universal properties within a given algebraic category are rigid in the sense that the bijections which preserve these properties are induced by isomorphisms between objects of the underlying category.
• One of the goals will be to study the rigidity of natural relations, such as commutativity or various relations of orthogonality on normed spaces, determine the basic invariants of the corresponding graphs and classify their homomorphisms.

You can find more here.

Postdoctoral position in mathematics - mentor: Prof. István Kovács, PhD

Applicants must possess a PhD in mathematics. Expertise in algebraic graph theory is required. The project will investigate several key problems within algebraic graph theory, with a focus on:

• Cayley isomorphism problem;
• characterization/classification of arc-transitive Cayley graphs;
• symmetries of maps.

You can find more here.

Thursday, 17 June 2021 Woodrise 2022 under the honorary patronage of the President of the Republic of Slovenia

It is with great honour that we announce that the President of the Republic of Slovenia Borut Pahor will be honorary patron of Woodrise 2022, a conference organised by InnoRenew CoE and the University of Primorska.

Woodrise is one of the most influential world conferences in the field of contemporary sustainable construction and a regular scientific meeting of researchers from all around the globe. This year the conference is taking place in Kyoto (Japan), while the 2022 edition will be from 6 to 9 September in Porotorž (Slovenia).

President of the Republic of Slovenia Borut Pahor: “By dealing with wood, we look at the future through the glasses of sustainable development.”

Wednesday, 16 June 2021 Prof. Andreja Kutnar, PhD member of SRIP PSiDL's Expert Council

Dr Andreja Kutnar, full professor at the University of Primorska and InnoRenew CoE director, became a member of Smart Buildings and Home including Wood Chain's (SRIP PSiDL) Expert Council for the period of 10 June 2021 to 09 June 2024.

As they wrote on their webpage SRIP PSiDL »represents one of the nine key long-term development partnerships in support of the Smart Specialization Strategy of Slovenia (S4), whose ambition is for Slovenia to move from a follower to a co-creator of global trends in niche areas.«

InnoRenew CoE is also a member of SRIP PSiDL and is contributing to the development of smart specialization in Slovenia.

Congratulations!

Wednesday, 16 June 2021 Dr Črtomir Tavzes member of SRIP – Circular economy's Technological Council

Dr Črtomir Tavzes, InnoRenew CoE researcher, became a member of Strategic Research and Development Partnership – Networks for the transition into a circular economy (SRIP – Circular economy) Technological Council for the period of June 2021 – September 2023.

The Strategic Research and Innovation Partnership – Networks for the transition into circular economy (SRIP – Circular economy) is a connection of Slovenian business subjects, educational and research institutions (RRI), non-governmental organisations and other interested parties, in collaboration with the state, into new value chains according to the economic principles of closed material flows. It's vision is to sustainably increase the efficiency and competitiveness of the domestic economy in the transition into circular economy.

Congratulations Dr Tavzes!

Monday, 14 June 2021 UP Scholarship Fund 2021/2022 - Public call for obtaining scholarship

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 2021/2022, 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.

The e-application deadline is September 30th, 2021.

You can find more information at Career center of the University of Primorska, Center for Lifelong Learning and Career Orientation website.

Friday, 11 June 2021 Through collaboration towards future innovations

The Slovenian National Building and Civil Engineering Institute (ZAG) is one of project partners and cofounders of InnoRenew CoE. Yesterday, they successfully presented the ERA Chair Horizon2020 FRISSBE Fire-safe Sustainable Built Environment project which will be active for six years.

It is an interdisciplinary project aiming to increasing scientific excellence of ZAG in the field of fire-safe and sustainably built environment. In addition, the project will influence the regional development of research, education and engineering and strengthen cooperation with the industry.

InnoRenew CoE and University of Primorska are included in the project as part of the interactive ecosystem and are together cocreating a good basis for further collaboration and development in the field of innovation and research. 

In recent years, University of Primorska and Civil Engineering Institute have been cooperating intensively on many activities - the two intitutions have also signed a cooperation agreement, furthermore ZAG is also a member of the UP Board of Trustees. "ZAG is the only Slovenian research institution involved in projects from two different EU Widening mechanisms: Teaming and ERA-Chair. In both, we have an excellent cooperation with InnoRenew CoE and the University of Primorska, which shows the extraordinary compatibility and mutual trust of all participants," can be read on ZAG website. 

Tuesday, 8 June 2021 Postdoctoral position at the University of Primorska (Koper, Slovenia): mentor Prof. István Kovács, PhD

The Department of Mathematics of Andrej Marusic Institute (UP IAM) and Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies (UP FAMNIT) at the University of Primorska are seeking a top early-career researcher for a postdoctoral position.

Applicants must possess a PhD in mathematics. Expertise in algebraic graph theory is required. The project will investigate several key problems within algebraic graph theory, with a focus on:

• Cayley isomorphism problem;
• characterization/classification of arc-transitive Cayley graphs;
• symmetries of maps.

The successful candidate will be part of the Departments of Mathematics at UP IAM and UP FAMNIT and will work under the guidance of Prof. István Kovács, PhD.

Terms and conditions:

• the position is for two years,
• the starting date is negotiable but preferably not later than October 1, 2021,
• the position comes with a teaching load of 1-2 courses per semester on the Mathematics study programmes offered by UP FAMNIT,
• the starting gross salary is 2,286 EUR per month (net approximately 1,500 EUR per month). 

Deadline and Application process

Applications will be considered on a rolling basis until July 15, 2021, or until the position is filled.
Starting date: negotiable but preferably not later than October 1, 2021n.

To apply, please send the following documents in the electronic form to Prof. István Kovács (istvan.kovacs@upr.si) with the subject line "UP Postdoc 2021" in the Subject field:

• Curriculum Vitae,
• Publication List,
• Research Statement,
• Copies of three recent papers of preprints,
• Names and e-mail addresses of at least three persons who can be contacted for reference (and have agreed to be contacted).

Informal inquiries should be addressed to István Kovács (istvan.kovacs@upr.si).

Tuesday, 8 June 2021 Postdoctoral position at the University of Primorska (Koper, Slovenia) – mentor Prof. Bojan Kuzma, PhD

The Departments of Mathematics of Andrej Marusic Institute (UP IAM) and Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies (UP FAMNIT) at the University of Primorska are seeking a top early-career researcher for a postdoctoral position.

Applicants must possess a PhD in mathematics. The project will mainly focus on Preserver Problems and the applications of graph theory in solving them. It often turns out that some universal properties within a given algebraic category are rigid in the sense that the bijections which preserve these properties are induced by isomorphisms between objects of the underlying category. One of the goals will be to study the rigidity of natural relations, such as commutativity or various relations of orthogonality on normed spaces, determine the basic invariants of the corresponding graphs and classify their homomorphisms.

The successful candidate will be part of the Departments of Mathematics at UP IAM and UP FAMNIT and will work under the guidance of Prof. Bojan Kuzma, PhD.

Terms and conditions:

• the position is for two years,
• the starting date is negotiable but preferably not later than October 1, 2021,
• the position comes with a teaching load of 1-2 courses per semester on the Mathematics study programs offered by UP FAMNIT,
• the starting gross salary is 2,286 EUR per month (net approximately 1,500 EUR per month). 

Deadline and Application process

Applications will be considered on a rolling basis until July 15, 2021, or until the position is filled.
Starting date: negotiable but preferably not later than October 1, 2021.

To apply, please send the following documents in the electronic form to Prof. Bojan Kuzma (bojan.kuzma@upr.si) with the subject line "UP Postdoc 2021" in the Subject field:

• Curriculum Vitae,
• Publication List,
• Research Statement,
• Copies of three recent papers of preprints,
• Names and e-mail addresses of at least three persons who can be contacted for reference (and have agreed to be contacted).

Informal inquiries should be addressed to Bojan Kuzma (bojan.kuzma@upr.si).

Tuesday, 8 June 2021 Postdoctoral position at the University of Primorska (Koper, Slovenia) – mentor Prof. Dragan Marušič, PhD

The Departments of Mathematics of Andrej Marusic Institute (UP IAM) and Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies (UP FAMNIT) at the University of Primorska are seeking a top early-career researcher for a postdoctoral position.

Applicants must possess a PhD in mathematics. Expertise in algebraic graph theory is required. The project will investigate several key problems within algebraic graph theory, with a focus on:

• hamiltonicity problem of vertex-transitive graphs;
• existence of semiregular automorphisms in vertex-transitive graph;
• symmetries in graphs via rigid cells and even/odd dichotomy.

The successful candidate will be part of the Departments of Mathematics at UP IAM and UP FAMNIT and will work under the guidance of Prof. Dragan Marušič, PhD.

Terms and conditions:

• the position is for two years,
• the starting date is negotiable but preferably not later than October 1, 2021,
• the position comes with a teaching load of 1-2 courses per semester on the Mathematics study programs offered by UP FAMNIT,
• the starting gross salary is 2,286 EUR per month (net approximately 1,500 EUR per month). 

Deadline and Application process

Applications will be considered on a rolling basis until July 15, 2021, or until the position is filled.
Starting date: negotiable but preferably not later than October 1, 2021.

To apply, please send the following documents in the electronic form to Prof. Dragan Marušič (dragan.marusic@upr.si) with the subject line "UP Postdoc 2021" in the Subject field:

• Curriculum Vitae,
• Publication List,
• Research Statement,
• Copies of three recent papers of preprints,
• Names and e-mail addresses of at least three persons who can be contacted for reference (and have agreed to be contacted).

Informal inquiries should be addressed to Dragan Marušič (dragan.marusic@upr.si).

Monday, 31 May 2021 11th generation of UP FAMNIT graduates

On Friday, May 28, UP FAMNIT celebrated a new generation of graduates. Although the current measures to prevent COVID-19 did not allow us to organize the ceremony in the way we are used to, we managed to organise the event in a safe but also solemn way too. In fact, the ceremony took place partly online and partly in presence at the faculty. The official part of the graduation ceremony, which was led by the UP FAMNIT Student Council, was followed by an official outdoor photo session.

The 11th generation of graduates was addressed by the rector of the University of Primorska, Prof. Klavdija Kutnar, PhD, as well as the UP FAMNIT Dean, Assoc. Prof. Ademir Hujdurović, PhD. Two students shared their memories and thoughts at the end of their study experiences at the faculty: Nejc Prinčič, graduate of the undergraduate study programme in Biodiversity, and Hana Remešová, first graduate of the master's study programme in Sustainable Built Environments.

The eleventh generation of UP FAMNIT graduates - there have been exactly 100 of them in the last year - will enrich the broader national and international community with their skills and knowledge as: graduate bioinformatics, conservation biologists, biopsychologists, mathematicians, financial mathematicians, computer science and agricultural engineers, and masters of mathematics, nature conservation, computer science, sustainable built environments and psychology. Video-congratulations on the completion of their studies were also sent by Nikola Šavle, from Kmetijska zadruga Agraria Koper z.o.o., and Andrej Erzetič from BOOD d.o.o. company.

The ceremony ended with a very warm congratulation message sent by the study programmes coordinators (video at this link).

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

Watch the full graduation ceremony at this link.

Faculty rewards

Following the tradition, this year too, a few students received rewards of the Faculty for their outstanding study and research achievements and the development of extracurricular activities. Below we publish the recipients of rewards for the last two years.

Recipients of the Faculty rewards for last year are (justifications in Slovene):

• Petra Slavinec, master's study programme Nature Conservation, reward for study/research work,
• Cuauhtli Campos Mijangos, doctoral study programme Computer Science, reward for study/research work,
• Nuwan Tharanga Attygalle, doctoral study programme Computer Science, reward for study/research work,
• Anuradhi Maheshya Weerasinghe Arachchillage, doctoral study programme Computer Science, reward for study/research work,
• Besfort Shala, undergraduate study programme Mathematics, reward for study/research work,
• Mateo Antonac, undergraduate study programme Mathematics in Economics and Finance, reward for study/research work,
• Sara Brglez, undergraduate study programme Biopsychology, reward for study/research work.

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 programme Mathematical Sciences,
• Hana Truta, undergraduate study programme Mediterranean Agriculture.

Recipients of the Faculty rewards for this year are (justifications in Slovene):

• Luka Duniš, master's study programme Nature Conservation, reward for study/research work,
• Ana Kuder, master's study programme Applied Psychology, reward for study/research work,
• Dina Mitrović, undergraduate study programme Bioinformatics, reward for study/research work,
• Laura Ogrin, undergraduate study programme Mathematics, reward for study/research work,
• Hana Remešová, undergraduate study programme Sustainable Built Environments, reward for study/research work,
• Sara Strah, master's study programme Nature Conservation, reward for study/research work,
• Kenny Štorgel, doctoral study programme Mathematical Sciences, reward for study/research work,
• Aleksandar Tošić, doctoral study programme Computer Science, reward for study/research work,
• Domen Vake, master's study programme Computer Science, reward for study/research work,
• Matija Zagoranski, undergraduate study programme Biopsychology, reward for study/research work.

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:

• Robert Logar, undergraduate study programme Biodiversity,
• Mojca Pungerčar, undergraduate study programme Conservation Biology.

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

Friday, 14 May 2021 Women of Mathematics throughout Europe - A Gallery of portraits

Extended Exhibition as part of the 8ECM opening on Saturday, 15 May 2021

The University of Primorska is hosting an extended exhibition »Women of Mathematics throughout Europe - A Gallery of portaits”, edited by Sylvie Paycha and Noel Tovia Matoff, as part of the 8th European Congress of Mathematics.

The organizer of the exhibition is the Committee for Women at the Society of Mathematicians, Physicists and Astronomers of Slovenia (DMFA). The Committee is devoted to promoting the studies of mathematics, physics and astronomy among girls and women, and is advocating achievements of women in science.

The exhibition opens on Saturday, May 15th at 11 am in Armerija Palace, Koper (Lobby of the University of Primorska), and it will be open during the 8ECM, until 30 June 2021.

The opening speakers are:

• Klavdija Kutnar, Rector of the University of Primorska and 8ECM Organizing committee Deputy Chair,
• Tomaž Pisanski, 8ECM Organizing Committee Chair
• Neža Mramor Kosta, one of the portrayed mathematicians presenting the Committee for Women at DMFA.

Women of Mathematics throughout Europe is a touring exhibition whose starting point was the 7th ECM held in July 2016 in Berlin. It was, however, extended for the 8ECM, introducing mathematicians from the Euro-Mediterranean region. A new catalogue presenting all speakers is also available for order at: https://womeninmath.net/catalogue/

The exhibition is a part of the May12 movement, which is celebrating Women in Mathematics and promoting 120 events worldwide. The movement was initiated on 31st July 2018 at the World Meeting for Women in Mathematics, (WM)^2 in Rio de Janeiro in memory of Maryam Mirzakhani’s birthday.

We look forward to welcoming you in Portorož and Koper for the 8ECM and the exhibition!

Wednesday, 12 May 2021 Prof. Diego De Leo, DSc is the new President-Elect of the association "L'Associazione Italiana di Psicogeriatria"

On Thursday, May 6, 2021, prof. Diego De Leo, DSc was elected for the new president of the association "L'Associazione Italiana di Psicogeriatria" for the period 2023-2025.

The association "L'Associazione Italiana di Psicogeriatria" deals with the psychological problems of the elderly such as depression, anxiety, adaptation difficulties, cognitive disorders. One of the objectives of the association is to offer the elderly the opportunity to grow old while keeping their physical and mental abilities active.

prof. Diego De Leo, DSc

Prof. Diego De Leo, DSc: "I am very grateful to my many Italian colleagues in the field of Psychiatry, Neurology, Geriatrics and Psychology for being so confident and choosing someone who has been far from Italy for so many years. This will be an additional, powerful stimulus to better serve the association and improve health and quality of life of older adult community members."

Sincere congratulations!

Thursday, 29 April 2021 Online Info Week for Master study programmes

If you are interested in studying at UP FAMNIT or you are still undecided about your postgraduate studies, join our
Online Info Week for Master study programmes from 10th to 14th May 2021!

UP FAMNIT Master study programmes are interdisciplinary and diverse, and offer to students everything they need: knowledge, project work, case study, research activities and well equipped laboratories.

You are invited to join the presentations of our study programmes, which will be held from 10 to 14 of May on ZOOM.

Study programmes coordinators and students will answer to all your questions and present our 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 2021/22 is available HERE.

See you!

Tuesday, 27 April 2021 László Lovász, the 2021 Abel Prize Laureate, to deliver a lecture at the 8ECM

We are pleased to announce that Professor László Lovász will deliver an Abel lecture at the 8th European Congress of Mathematics.

The Abel Prize, awarded annually by the Norwegian government, is regarded as one of the highest honours in mathematics. László Lovász has received the 2021 Abel prize along with Avi Wigderson, "for their foundational contributions to theoretical computer science and discrete mathematics, and their leading role in shaping them into central fields of modern mathematics."

László Lovász is a Hungarian-American mathematician, a research professor at the Alfred Rényi Institute of Mathematics and professor emeritus at Eötvös Loránd University, best known for his work in combinatorics and graph theory. One of the major impacts of Lovász’s work has been to establish ways in which discrete mathematics can address fundamental theoretical questions in computer science.

During his long career, Lovász has received numerous prizes and honours, including the 1999 Wolf Prize “for his outstanding contributions to combinatorics, theoretical computer science, and combinatorial optimization”, the 1999 Knuth Prize, the 2001 Gödel Prize and the 2010 Kyoto Prize for his impact on “the advancement of both the academic and technological possibilities of the mathematical sciences”. He was elected a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2006, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 2007, and an honorary member of the London Mathematical Society in 2009.  In 2012, Lovász was elected as a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society. In addition, he has served terms as President of the International Mathematical Union (2007 – 2010) and President of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) from 2014-2020.

For more info see the congress webpage.

Monday, 26 April 2021 Live interview with Jean-Pierre Bourguignon at 8ECM

A highlight of the 8ECM will be an open live interview with Professor Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, one of the most influential European contemporary mathematicians who, among other things, served as the second President of the European Mathematical Society and the President of the European Research Counci, and left a huge impact on the prestigious IHES - Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques, as its director for 19 years.

The interview will be conducted by Professor Günter Ziegler, a prominent mathematician, who currently serves as the President of the Freie Universität Berlin, one of the best European Institutions of higher education.

The event will be chaired by Professor Maria J. Esteban, the Chair of the 8ECM Scientific Committee, and will be broadcasted live with open access. The interview is scheduled on the last day of the Congress, on Friday, 25 June 2021 at 4 pm, followed by the Closing Ceremony.

For more info see the congress webpage.

Friday, 23 April 2021 4th University of Primorska International Mathematics Competition 2021 in Kosovo

On Saturday, 10 April 2021, the University of Primorska organized the 4. International Mathematical Competition in Kosovo. In compliance with all currently valid measures, 11 high school students attended the competition, the goal of which was to solve 5 different mathematical problems.

The problems were prepared at a relevant level of difficulty, as the contestants competed for a full scholarship for study of Mathematics at UP FAMNIT. The purpose of such competitions is to discover, encourage and challenge mathematically gifted students, to promote the study of mathematics and to establish and foster friendly relations between mathematicians at the international level.

The announcement of the results and the award of virtual diplomas, which the participants will be able to receive at the headquarters of the Kosovar Mathematical Society, took place on Wednesday, 21 April 2021. The participants of the competition and the organizers were first addressed by the Rector of the UP Prof. Klavdija Kutnar, PhD and the Dean of UP FAMNIT Assoc. Prof. Ademir Hujdurović, PhD. They both congratulated on successfully carried out competition and encouraged all participants to enroll in studies at the University of Primorska and the Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies.

The most successful in solving mathematical problems was Dren Neziri who received a 1st place award and the scholarship for the undergraduate study programme Mathematics at UP FAMNIT.

Professors and students from the UP FAMNIT Department of Mathematics, who take the initiative to organize such a competition every year, actively participated in the organization of the competition. UP FAMNIT would like to thank the students as well as everyone who contributed in making the competition happen. Special thanks go to Kosovar Mathematical Society who helped in informing students about the competition and student of UP FAMNIT, Besfort Shala, who coordinated the actual implementation of the competition.

Wednesday, 21 April 2021 UP FAMNIT successful with three new research projects

UP FAMNIT researchers were successful with their application for new research projects co-funded by the Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS) in the frame of the ERC Complementary Scheme. Its goal is to provide incentives for those applicants from Slovenian research organizations who were positively assessed by the European Research Council (ERC)' peer review process, but nonetheless not approved for co-financing. The agency shall co-finance those adjusted research projects corresponding with main objectives of the original proposal which had reached the specific threshold in the ERC review process. The objective of this scheme is to obtain favorable conditions for refining both researcher’s scientific excellence and the original idea of the project with a view to apply for and obtain an ERC grant.

UP FAMNIT has obtained three out of ten co-financed projects to be implemented in the period 1 June 2021–31 May 2024. Each project has a budget of 150.000 Eur.

Principal investigators of the approved basic projects are: Prof. István Kovács, PhD, Prof. Dušanka Janežič, PhD and Prof. Bojan Kuzma, PhD.

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

Title: Automorphisms and Isomorphisms of Finite Graphs
Principal investigator: Prof. István Kovács, PhD

Combinatorial structures with a high level of symmetry are often explored in applications to both natural and social sciences. In some of these applications there is a demand to compare two objects effectively. A mathematical model capturing this situation is a finite graph with non-trivial symmetries, and the underlying mathematical discipline is algebraic graph theory (AGT).

The symmetry of a graph is measured by its automorphism group and the alikeness of objects is expressed by the concept of a graph isomorphism.

In the core of ATIFG lies the Cayley isomorphism problem, a well-known and long-standing open problem in AGT. In the proposal we outline several (sub)-problems, which will serve as mile-stones in the final solution.

Title: Tools for innovative drug design
Principal investigator: Prof. Dušanka Janežič, PhD

This project is at the forefront of current research trends in the field of molecular modeling. We will develop new molecular modeling methods based on chemical graph theory, a branch of mathematical chemistry dealing with discrete structures in chemistry.

A special focus will be on the development of new algorithms for the prediction of protein binding sites (ProBiS) and new web tools for modeling of pharmaceutically interesting molecules - ProBiS Tools (algorithm, database, web server).

The ProBiS Tools will be the first to allow the identification of interactions between protein structures, the prediction of ligand selectivity and binding, and the monitoring of the effects of conserved waters and sequence variants on ligand binding, to surpass human involvement in drug design.

We aim to develop a free web-based protein interaction atlas to predict genetic variations involved in drug interactions and disease development - ProBiS-ATLAS of all available protein binding sites in the PDB with mapped ligands and sequence variants. The atlas will also include information on the effects of sequence variants on binding for each specific ligand in the PDB. This newly developed approach will be particularly useful in the context of precision medicine.

Our ProBiS Tools will make it possible to combine several otherwise unrelated fields of research, i.e. graph theoretical approaches, genome sequence studies, protein structures and molecular dynamics simulation.
Despite the great potential for the concrete application of our results in specific technological and industrial sectors, the main focus of our research is still on the development of general, new mathematical methods and algorithms in the field of molecular modeling, and thus represents a contribution to the overall scientific knowledge.

The project involves a number of researchers with excellent publishing records, currently working in Slovenia guaranteeing research at the highest possible level.

Title: Graph Theory in Preserver Problems
Principal investigator: Prof. Bojan Kuzma, PhD

The proposed project is roughly divided into 4 parts and belongs to the theory of graphs induced by relations and general preservers on:

• normed spaces,
• Hilbert C*-modules,
• matrix algebras,
• sets of (possibly unbounded) operators, and
• manifolds related to special relativity.

In particular we aim to:

1. Study the properties of graph induced by Birkhoff-James and Roberts orthogonality and also induced by strong Birkhoff-James orthogonality and study their (linear) preservers.
2. Classify general bijective bi-preservers of left-star partial order on B(H).
3. Classify additive maps which preserve the spectrum of unbounded linear operators on a complex Banach space.
4. Classify maps on the de Sitter space, which maps light-like geodesics into light-like geodesics. Injectivity of the maps will be assumed only on each light-like geodesic separately.

Tuesday, 20 April 2021 Student Competition Best of 8ECM

Form teams and find the best solutions in the fields of Financial Mathematics and Actuarial Science.

The competition is announced as part of the 8th European Congress of Mathematics - 8ECM, taking place online from 20 to 26 June 2021. The 8ECM is one of the largest events in mathematics in 2021 and one of the most important scientific events in Slovenia, hosting over 1000 mathematicians from around the world. The main sponsor of the 8ECM is the Slovenian Insurance Association, which will award cash prizes in the total amount of € 5,000 as part of this competition.

There are 4 challenges available. Students at all levels of studies are invited to apply for the competition within the 8th European Congress of Mathematics and win a cash prize of € 1,250!

Want to see if your team has what it takes? Join in the fun and apply today!

Visit the 8ECM website to find out more about the competition!

Tuesday, 20 April 2021 Triple i: Intuition, Imagination and Innovation in Suicidology Virtual Conference

We are pleased to invite you to the Triple i: Intuition, Imagination and Innovation in Suicidology Virtual Conference, the collaborative event brought to you this year by UP IAM Slovene Centre for Suicide, De Leo Fund Onlus and the International Association for Suicide Prevention.

Due to the epidemiological situation related to the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, we will be holding a virtual TRIPLE i conference again this year. Even in this difficult situation we wanted to offer opportunities for interaction and fruitful discussions between distinguished suicidologists and perspective young participants. For this reason, researchers from different institutions have connected to prepare a TRIPLE i Virtual Conference.

The three-day conference will take place in the online environment Zoom and will include various topics from the field of research and prevention of suicidal behaviour, presented by world-renowned experts in the field of suicidology. At the moment confirmed speakers are Prof. Rory O'Connor, Prof. Jo Robinson, Prof. Murad Khan, Prof. Thomas Niederkrotenthaler, Prof. Maurizio Pompili, Prof. Vita Poštuvan et al.

Additional information about the conference and the program can be found HERE. You can register for the conference HERE.

Please forward the invitation to your colleagues from the field of mental health or to your members.

Warm welcome!

Prof. Diego De Leo
Prof. Vita Poštuvan
Organizers of the TRIPLE i Virtual Conference

Thursday, 15 April 2021 Dr. Andrej Brodnik took over the presidency of ACM Slovenia for the next 2 years

On Friday, March 5, 2021, Prof. Dr. Andrej Brodnik took over the presidency of the Society for Computer Science and Informatics - ACM Slovenia.

ACM, the world's largest educational and scientific computing society, delivers resources that advance computing as a science and a profession. ACM Slovenia is a Slovenian chapter of the world association. ACM Slovenia leads the organization of national computer competitions, namely the international competition in computer literacy Bober, the ACM competition in computer science for high school students RTK and the University Programming Marathon. The Association also participates in the international magazine Informatica and the multi-conference Information Society.

At their annual meeting, the members of ACM Slovenia elected to a 2-year mandate:

• Prof. Dr. Andrej Brodnik (UP FAMNIT) - President,
• Assist. Prof. Dr. Branko Kavšek (UP FAMNIT) - Secretary,
• Prof. Dr. Ljupčo Todorovski (UL FMF) - Vice President.

Friday, 9 April 2021 Successfully organized first 3-day online training in the framework of the ERASMUS+ project ELBA

In the framework of the ERASMUS+ project ELBA (Establishment of training and research centers and courses development on intelligent big data analysis in Central Asia - 610170-EPP-1-2019-1-ES-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP) the first 3-day online training (from 24th to 26th March) for the Central Asia partners was successfully organized. The aim of this 3-day, 4 hours per day training was to provide the Central Asia (CA) participants with some preliminary training on relevant Big Data Analytics foundations.

In the 1st day of the training, prof. David E. Losada and Marcos Fernández-Pichel from University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain (USC) introduced the participants to Python and the use of packages relevant to big data analytics.

On the 2nd day of the training, prof. Roberto Fontana and Sara Scaramuccia from Politecnico di Torino, Italy (POLITO) presented the participants with basic statistical methods in data science and some computational linear algebra for large scale problems.

In the 3rd and last day, prof. Branko Kavšek from UP FAMNIT, Slovenia wrapped-up the training by giving the participants an overview of the complete data mining process pipeline and showing some of the most used data mining repositories and platforms.

Friday, 9 April 2021 UP FAMNIT students organize a student conference

We are happy to announce that this year the students of UP FAMNIT (Društvo varstvenih biologov - Biodiva and Društvo študentov biopsihologije) joined forces, began to cooperate and announced the first Biological-Psychological Student Conference.

The conference will take place in Koper (at the UP Famnit premises), on October 9th and 10th 2021. It will be divided into biological and psychological module, and the presentations will be divided into undergraduate and postgraduate work (according to the level of study programme during which the work was prepared).

By attending the conference, students will be given the opportunity to expand their competencies by presenting their work in the form of a presentation or poster. All abstracts will be published in the conference proceedings, which will give participants one of the first references in COBISS. Due to the desire to spread knowledge, presentations in English will also be possible.

See this website for more information.

Thursday, 8 April 2021 COST Action Conserve Plants - This Spring Europe is Looking for Cowslips

This spring a group of scientists and nature observers around Europe invite everybody to take part in the biggest cowslip observation campaign Looking for Cowslips.

The idea of a pan-European cowslip flower observation stems from a popular science campaign, which started in 2019 in Estonia, where citizen scientists took a close look at the flowers of more than 200,000 cowslips. The campaign yielded novel insight both for applied and fundamental research.   

Foto: Kaarel Kaisel

The idea is easy: people go into nature, find a specific yellow spring flower – the cowslip (Primula veris) – look inside the flower and send the findings and some photos via webpage www.cowslip.science to researchers. After the blooming period is over, the scientists analyse the data and give feedback about the findings to all participants.  

»Taking part in this scientific research is easy and fun, a combination not so often heard,« commented Dr Tsipe Aavik, the lead researcher of the cowslip project. Everybody can participate because it does not need a special education and the organisers have designed web-platforms to make the process easier for the people. »In Estonia, a lot of families and children take part in this campaign we started here in 2019. During the pandemic, it is one recreational action people still can do in most parts of Europe – go into the wild. Why not add some extra fun activities like looking inside flowers and citizen science into the mix,« added Tsipe Aavik.

In Estonia during the spring of 2019 and 2020, the team of scientists and experts held a public campaign to collect an unprecedented amount of data about cowslip flowers. The results were surprising and demonstrate effectively how all people can contribute to fundamental science. The results are now published in the Journal of Ecology.  

A study coordinated by the ecologists of the University of Tartu and the Estonian Fund for Nature aimed to examine whether drastic landscape change, such as the loss of traditionally managed grasslands, has led to deviations in the morph balance of cowslip flowers. About half of cowslips have short-styled flowers (i.e. S-morphs), while the other half of individuals produce long-styled flowers (L-morphs). Recent evidence indicates that the loss of grasslands may shake the balance of different flowers with consequences for cowslip viability. Firstly, the data gathered in Estonia revealed a systematic dominance of short-styled morphs over long-styled morphs. Secondly, morph frequencies were more likely to deviate in smaller populations. Deviations increased in landscapes with higher human population density.

The findings still need to be examined further and the idea of a pan-European campaign blossomed. In order to collect data across Europe, the ecologists decided to implement the same citizen science approach. A specifically designed web platform www.cowslip.science facilitates an easy upload of data. “In addition, the task and importance of the cowslip observation campaign were explained in detailed guidelines, numerous videos, social media, and other communication platforms,” commented Tsipe Aavik, the lead researcher of the cowslip project.

This year the campaign spreads across Europe with the help of local partners. »We are very delighted that we have managed to get many schools, universities, research groups, NGOs, and other organisations interested in helping with collecting cowslip data on such an unprecedented scale,« commented Tsipe Aavik. »Even though the first discoveries on cowslip flower morphs were made already by the evolutionary biologist Charles Darwin more than 150 years ago, data obtained in the citizen science campaign helps us add novel aspects to this fascinating topic with a long history of research.«

The campaign still looks for partners who want to participate. At this point the cowslip observations campaign is underway in Estonia, Germany, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Slovenia, Slovakia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Sweden, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Poland, Russia, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Ukraine, Macedonia, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Czechia.  

The campaign is supported also by the COST Action ConservePlants, which brings together botanists from more than 40 European and other nearby countries and is funded by the European Union. The Action chair Živa Fišer from the University of Primorska, explains: »The goal of the project ConservePlants is to connect European and other researchers, as well as all others who strive to save endangered plant species with different approaches. The approach of citizen science is becoming increasingly important in the research of serious scientific issues, which has also been demonstrated in the aforementioned campaign in Estonia. This is why we are happy to join the initiative of our Estonian colleagues.«

In Slovenia, the campaign is coordinated by the Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies of the University of Primorska and the Botanical Garden of the University of Ljubljana. The campaign is also accompanied by other activities, such as the preparation of educational materials, short videos and promotion through social networks and other media.

• Dr. Živa Fišer, local coordinator for Slovenia, University of Primorska; 
• Dr. Blanka Ravnjak, local coordinator for Slovenia, Botanical Garden of the University of Ljubljana; blanka.ravnjak@gmail.com
• Dr. Tsipe Aavik, leader of the campaign Looking for Cowslips, head researcher, Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu; tsipe.aavik@ut.ee
• Kertu Hool, communication specialist, Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu; kertu.hool@ut.ee

Read more on this web page.

Friday, 2 April 2021 Research position for a doctoral student at Fraunhofer WKI (Germany) in cooperation with InnoRenew and UP

The Fraunhofer Institute for Wood Research, Wilhelm-Klauditz-Institut in Braunschweig, Germany is seeking a Graduate Research Assistant (PhD student) in the area of wood engineering and mechanics focused on textile-reinforced timber.

This position is funded by an EU Center of Excellence, InnoRenew in Koper, Slovenia and the research will be conducted in cooperation with the University of Primorska. Fraunhofer WKI is a leading institution in wood research and has excellent facilities with state-of-the-art equipment and high-quality staff. A new research facility focused on light structural systems is scheduled to open in June 2021. It will include a shake-table, high-frequency shaker, dynamic test frame, environmental AFM, large-force DMTA and other equipment for material- and fire-related experiments.

The successful candidate will have a master's degree in Material Science, Textile Engineering, Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering or a related field, will have excellent analytical and mathematical skills, and the ability to work independently on challenging research tasks. While knowledge of the German language is not required, the candidate is expected to attain working knowledge of German within one year of appointment.

The focus will be fundamental interface behavior of composite-reinforced wood structural elements and connections and their fundamental behavior under mechanical and environmental stress. The research will be both, experimental and analytical.
This is a 12-month position, renewable for up to three years based on performance. This is a half-time position with full benefits following the German public service salary scale. The possibility to increase the appointment level after the first year exists and will depend on the candidate´s ability to formulate and communicate his or her own research ideas.

Appointment, remuneration and social security benefits based on the public-sector collective wage agreement (TVöD).

More information is available on this link.

Thursday, 1 April 2021 Wednesday, 8 April 2021 first application term for Master's and Doctoral study starts

On 8 April 2021 the University of Primorska opens the 1st application period for Slovenian citizens and citizens of EU member states and for foreigners from non-EU countries and Slovenes without Slovene citizenship for the enrolment into Master's and Doctoral study programmes in the academic year 2021/2022.

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

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

Tuesday, 30 March 2021 New open access publication on African Swine fever

Assist. Prof. Laura Iacolina, PhD, from the Department of Biodiversity at UP FAMNIT is a co-editor of the scientific monograph: “Understanding and combatting African Swine Fever: A European perspective”, published by Wageningen Academic Publishers.

The book presents practical guidelines on surveillance for detection of African swine fever (ASF) virus, how to prevent outbreaks in the domestic pig sector through biosecurity and cleaning and disinfection routines, including in backyard holdings, and how to control and eradicate this disease in the wild boar. It provides currently available knowledge in a single place, and identifies knowledge gaps, prompting policymakers and funding bodies to support the scientific community in investigating the gaps.

The publication is available at this link https://www.wageningenacademic.com/doi/abs/10.3920/978-90-8686-910-7 

Friday, 12 March 2021 Application deadline for E+ Open Call for Academic Year 2021/2022 extended

We would like to inform you that the application deadline for Erasmus+ Open Call for students was extended. The Open call enables applications for exchanges for studies or traineeship in the period from 1 June 2021 to 30 September 2022.

The application deadline is extended to 15 March 2021.

The Open Call and all documentation are available on this link.

Tuesday, 2 March 2021 New doctoral study programme Suicidology and Mental Health

The University of Primorska has successfully obtained the accreditation of a new doctoral study programme Suicidology and Mental Health, which will be implemented at UP FAMNIT in cooperation with the UP IAM Slovene Centre for Suicide Research.

This specialized study programme will train students for independent international competitive scientific research in the fields of suicidology and mental health. This is the first doctoral study programme in the field of suicidology in Slovenia, which is an important achievement given the issue of suicidal behaviour and the need to develop high-quality research in this field.

Programme coordinator Assoc. Prof. Vita Poštuvan, PhD, said about the programme: »The advantage of the programme is a wide range of internal elective courses that are directly or indirectly connected to the fields of suicidology and mental health. These courses cover specialized research areas that students can choose according to the research areas in which they are professionally engaged. In this way, doctoral students will acquire competencies for the transfer of theoretical knowledge from specialized fields into practice and for connecting the knowledge with other scientific disciplines.«

The study programme will be implemented in the next academic year at UP FAMNIT. More information will soon be available on the faculty's website. Deadlines and selection criteria will be published in the Call for Enrolment in Postgraduate Study Programmes. 

Monday, 22 February 2021 8ECM Moved Online

Official Statement from the organizers

After months of planning, discussing options and finally, after careful consideration, the Executive Committee of the European Mathematical Society and the organizers of the 8^th European Congress of Mathematics have reached a decision that all lectures, including Public, Plenary, Invited and Prize lectures, as well as Minisymposia and Special Sessions, planned to take place in Portorož, Slovenia, 20 – 26 June 2021, are moved online.

This is not a decision we are taking lightly, especially after two years of actively planning the event, but the uncertainty of the worldwide public health issue, travel bans and nationwide restrictions do not allow for many alternative options.

First and foremost, we would still like to encourage participants to travel to Portorož, Slovenia, if they can and wish to do so. For those who travel to Slovenia during the week of the 8ECM, an informal event will be organized at the initial congress venue, and they will be able to attend the online 8ECM from their hotel rooms. We will also provide smaller lecture rooms for closed groups hosting discussions and smaller meetings, if the situation allows. Likewise, we hope that at least one satellite event will take place live!

Exhibitors will be able to present their products and services online; the 8ECM organizers will provide technical support and the communication platform. Art exhibitions and other cultural events will be dispersed across various locations, expanding throughout 2021 and 2022.

We understand that an online format of the congress cannot transcend the experience of a live event, nevertheless, we hope that a large part of the mathematical community will continue to offer their support and that you will join us for the 8^th European Congress of Mathematics this summer!

Visit our website to register and participate at the 8ECM an follow #8ecm on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Thursday, 18 February 2021 Erasmus+ Open Call for Academic Year 2021/2022 published

Erasmus+ Open Call for students is published. Applications are now open for exchanges for studies or traineeship in the period from 1 June 2021 to 30 September 2021.

The application deadline is 9 March 2021.

The Open Call and all documentation are available on this link.

You are invited to apply!

Tuesday, 16 February 2021 First application term for enrollment into undergraduate study programmes in 2021/22 is OPEN!

In 2020/21 Academic Year, UP FAMNIT 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.

EU CITIZENS

In first application term candidates can apply from 16 February to 19 March 2021.

NON-EU CITIZENS AND SLOVENE NATIONALS WITHOUT SLOVENE CITIZENSHIP

In first application term candidates can apply from 15 February to 21 May 2021.

All information about the application procedure are available here.

​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, e-mail: referat@famnit.upr.si). 

Join us also at our info events in February and March 2021.

Tuesday, 16 February 2021 A successful turnout at Virtual Info Days 2021

This past Friday and Saturday, 12 and 13 February, Info Days for high school students took place at Famnit - this year they were held online for the first time.

As is tradition, we welcomed the students in two sessions, at 10 am and at 3 pm on Friday, when 178 visitors joined the presentations. On Saturday at 10 am we had slightly fewer visitors, 79 in total. Saturday afternoon was reserved for the presentation of three undergraduate study programs that are also available in English (Mathematics, Bioinformatics, Computer Science), 19 visitors from abroad joined the presentations.

In the introductory part of the presentations, we were broadcasting from the Famnit loby, where we demonstrated faculty classrooms and other faculty building with the help of of a Virtual Walk . The Dean, Assoc. prof. Ademir Hujdurović, PhD, greeted the participants from the Large classroom 1 on the 1^st floor.  Later, visitors were able to join the presentations of undergraduate study programmes, prepared and presented by the coordinators of study programs, namely:

• Mathematics / Mathematics in Economics and Finance
• Computer Science
• Bioinformatics
• Conservation Biology
• Biopsychology
• Mediterranean Agriculture

Famnit's students were also available for chat between 1 pm and 3 pm, where they shared their experience of being a student, about extracurricular activities and student life in Slovenian Istria.

In addition to the concluded Virtual Info Days, we preparing a few more information events about studying at Famnit this and next month, all of which will take place online in the following terms:

Tuesday, 9 February 2021 Call for enrollment into UNDERGRADUATE study programmes in 2021/22

In 2020/21 Academic Year, UP FAMNIT 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 16 February to 19 March 2021,
• second application term: from 20 to 27 August 2021,
• third application term: from 23 to 24 September 2020 unitl 12:00.

NON-EU CITIZENS AND SLOVENE NATIONALS WITHOUT SLOVENE CITIZENSHIP

Candidates can apply in four terms:

• first application term: from 15 February to 21 May 2021,
• second application term: from 28 May to 21 July 2021,
• third application term: from 9 August to 3 September 2021,
• fourth application term: from 23 to 24 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). 

Tuesday, 9 February 2021 Virtual Info Days 2021

Virtual Info Days 2021

Are you thinking about studying at UP FAMNIT?

Join our Virtual Info Days on Friday and Saturday, 12 - 13 February 2021!

We have prepared many different online activities that will provide you with all necessary information about living in Koper and studying at the University of Primorska. Future freshmen will have the chance to (virtually) enter the Faculty, learn about working in modern laboratories, and meet with assistants and professors. All the while, students will be available for chatting and answering questions about study obligations, extracurricular activities, accommodation, and everything that is related to the study experience at UP FAMNIT.

Only programmes* that are available in English language, will be presented in English at the Virutal Info Days 2021.

*Mathematics, Computer Science, Bioinformatics

The open call and information for candidates regarding the application and deadlines are published at this link.

Thursday, 7 January 2021 Daring creativity: about the new project LOOSE CELLS – Innovating at the Crossfield of Art and Science and how to become part of it

Department of Information Sciences and Technologies at UP FAMNIT

is inviting you to the Monday Seminar on Computer Science

entitled

» Daring creativity: about the new project LOOSE CELLS – Innovating at the Crossfield of Art and Science and how to become part of it«

The seminar is to be held online on

Monday, 11 January 2021, at 16.00,

 and is hosting:

Peter PURG (introductory presentation) and

Črtomir TAVZES (short presentation of InnoRenew CoE laboratories).

ABSTRACT

The project LOOSE CELLS – Innovating at the Crossfield of Art and Science is dedicated to creation and innovation based on the blending of science, art and technology. In this way, it joins those intersectoral collaborations, which have already aroused a lot of international interest, as they can inspire the development of social and economic innovations. Innovation is also the goal of the project. The main activity will be the co-creation of an “art-science object”, which will be designed and created by students of diverse levels and backgrounds. It will be realised under the mentorship of Assoc. Prof. Peter Purg, PhD from School of Arts at University of Nova Gorica, with the advices of InnoRenew CoE experts and with the support of Assoc. Prof. Tilen Žbona, PhD from the Faculty of Education as well as the artists, producers and technicians within the PiNA association or the RUK network. In the seminar, you will learn more about the programme of the project and how to become part of. You will be also invited to discuss any questions with the representatives of the project.

LECTURERS

Peter Purg currently leads the New Media module in the Digital//Media Arts and Practices graduate//postgraduate programme at the School of Arts, University of Nova Gorica, where he acts as Associate Professor, projects coordinator as well as expert across realms of digital culture and media. Having obtained a PhD in media art, communication science and literature from the University of Erfurt (Germany), his scientific inquiries now include media arts pedagogy, interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation, media art and media ecology. His artistic interests range from (lecture) performances and intermedia installations to public-space interventions as well as participatory creative processes. He is active in the field of cultural and higher education policymaking, assessment and quality assurance. Peter Purg currently leads the interdisciplinary MAST – Module in Art, Science and Technology project (DG Connect) – as well as School of Arts' teams in projects such as KONS - Platform for Investigative Arts (EU Cohesion), DIVA - Art:Biz Innovation Ecosystem (Interreg SI-IT), EmindS (Erasmus+) and TV Free Europe (Creative Europe). He curated the 20th international media/contemporary art festival Pixxelpoint 2019. Full CV at http://au.ung.si/peterpurg.

Dr. Črtomir Tavzes is a researcher at the InnoRenew CoE, an assistant research scientist at the University of Primorska, and conservation restoration adviser at the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia. He earned his PhD in biotechnology in 2003 from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. In the following two years, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where he continued working until 2008. Upon the return to Slovenia, he also served as the director of the Institute of Wood Science and Technology, and Sustainable Development (until 2014). His research experience spans from enzymatic wood degradation and wood liquefaction through wood pest control to the immunological detection of material substance of cultural heritage objects.

The lecture will be held in English via Zoom through the following link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/297328207

Monday, 4 January 2021 Assoc. Prof. Marko Tkalčič, PhD, ACM UMAP 2021 Programme co-chair

This year, the roles of the highest scientific officers as the Program Chairs at the ACM UMAP 2021(29th Conference on User Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization) are going to be shared by Nava Tintarev from the University of Maastricht and Marko Tkalčič from the Department of Information Sciences and Technologies at UP FAMNIT.

ACM UMAP is the premier international conference for researchers and practitioners working on systems that adapt to individual users or to groups of users, and that collect, represent, and model user information. The conference will take place in Utrecht, the Netherlands, in a hybrid format in June 2021.

ACM UMAP covers a wide variety of research areas where personalization and adaptation may be applied. This includes a number of domains in which researchers are engendering significant innovations based on advances in user modelling and adaptation, recommender systems, adaptive educational systems, intelligent user interfaces, e-commerce, advertising, digital humanities, social networks, personalized health, entertainment, and many more.

Assoc. Prof. Marko Tkalčič, PhD, has been a leading member of the UMAP research community for several years now and is an editorial board member of the Springer UMUAI journal (A").

This is an important publicity outreach for the University of Primorska, as it will be positioned as one of the leading research centres in user modelling and personalization.

We sincerely congradulate Professor Tkalčič on his appointment!