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
PROGRAMME |
TIME |
REGISTRATION |
|---|---|---|
Monday 1 May 2021 |
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Biopsychology (SLO) |
5:00 PM |
Register |
Psychology (SLO) |
6:00 PM |
Register |
Tuesday 11 May 2021 |
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Mathematical Sciences (SLO) |
5:00 PM |
Register |
Mathematical Sciences (EN) |
6:00 PM |
Register |
Wednesday 12 May 2021 |
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Computer Science (SLO) |
5:00 PM |
Register |
Nature Conservation (SLO) |
6:00 PM |
Register |
Thursday 13 May 2021 |
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Data Science (SLO) |
5:00 PM |
Register |
Data Science (EN) |
6:00 PM |
Register |
Friday 14 May 2021 |
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Sustainable Built Environments (SLO) |
5:00 PM |
Register |
Sustainable Built Environments (EN) |
6:00 PM |
Register |
Click HERE and discover all postgraduate study programmes at UP FAMNIT! |
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:
- 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.
- Classify general bijective bi-preservers of left-star partial order on B(H).
- Classify additive maps which preserve the spectrum of unbounded linear operators on a complex Banach space.
- 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).
