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).
WHO ELSE IS OFFERING SUPPORT
Organisations offering psychological support and psychoterapy on the Slovenian coastal area:
- Zdravstveni zavod za klinično psihologijo Izola
- Petra Brne - Modus operandi
- Leonida Kobal – Leela psihoterapija
Organisations offering psychological support in Slovenia
- Centri za krepitev zdravja
- Centri za duševno zdravje odraslih
- Svetovalnice Posvet (svetovalnica deluje tudi v Izoli)
Internet as supportive medium in mental distress (primarily in Slovene)
- #tosemjaz – web portal for children and youth www.tosemjaz.net.
- NeBojSe – web portal of Society for supporting people with depression and anxiety disorders DAM www.nebojse.si.
- Webpage for understanding suicide and available support Živživ: www.zivziv.si .
HOTLINE SUPPORT FOR DISTRESSED:
For information on suitable forms of support or just for support and conversation, you can call hotlines for the distressed:
- Hotline for mental distress: 01 520 99 00 (every day between 7 pm and 7 am).
- Confidential hotlines Samarijan and Sopotnik 116 123 (24 hr/day, every day). Free call.
- TOM hotline for children and youth 116 111 (every day between 12 noon and 8 pm). Free call.
You can find more sources of support on the last pages of the publication »Kam in kako po pomoč v duševni stiski«.
INFORMATION ON CORONAVIRUS is available on the webpages below and via telephone number 080 1404:
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.
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)
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 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:
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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, 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, 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!
