Tuesday, 27 February 2024 Visiting professor and researcher about future cooperation with our faculty
Last week we spoke with Prof. Dr. Fabio Vlacci from the University of Trieste and Dr. Matteo Bisanti from the University of Florence, who visited us within the Erasmus+ exchange and research project, and shared their impressions and other possibilities for further cooperation.
Prof. Dr. Fabio Vlacci arrived as part of a short-term exchange on February 19th and, was hosted by Assoc. Prof. Jasna Prezelj from the Department of Mathematics until February 22nd.
Prof. Dr. Fabio Vlacci from the University of Trieste
As he briefly described, this is certainly not his first visit to our faculty; he previously participated in several seminars, and each visit constantly excites him. “ The university has represented a great opportunity for me to work with my collaborator Prof. Jasna Prezelj and to better appreciate the active university life at UP. In recent years, I have been several times to Koper, for seminars, lessons, conferences, meetings and, occasionally, also for some celebration. I have been always impressed by the efficiency and kindness of the administrative staff, together with the excellent quality of research and teaching activities carried out at UP Famnit. Thank you for accepting me as a privileged guest in this very dynamic, young but internationally recognized university: hvala lepa!!” he expressed his gratitude in Slovene.
In September, as part of a research visit at UP FAMNIT, we were visited by Dr. Matteo Bisanti from the University of Florence, hosted by Prof. Elena Bužan, for a period of 6 months.
Dr. Matteo Bisanti from the University of Florence
The researcher, who primarily focuses on the design and evaluation of educational and playful activities related to sustainability, is particularly interested in how public institutions utilize games for their purposes. Recently, Matteo has been working on gamification and sustainability in citizen science projects – games for social change and games for (OGS), the National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics about ships 'Laura Bassi' (OGS). He is also a part of the Scientific Committee of the Game Science Research Center - the interuniversity research center, which produces research about games, ranging from game-based learning to game studies.
He has admitted that the field of biodiversity excites him, but he has recently found new challenges. "While I have a love for evolutionary biology and genetics, my recent focus has shifted towards naturalistic aspects and citizen science projects, particularly using games as tools for engaging the public. Among other things, my latest publication involves a role-playing game used in an Economics class in Florence to simulate macroeconomic actions addressing climate change," he adds.
Currently, within the framework of the ERGA project, Dr. Bisanti assisting Dr. Elena Bužan from the Department of Biodiversity, in the game design of a videogame for the European project ERGA on the sequencing of European species. In addition, he is supervising the master's thesis of one of our students, focusing on gamifying the app for the European Step Change project. He also sees many other opportunities for future collaboration with the faculty. " I believe there will be numerous opportunities for collaboration with Buzan's group in the coming years, particularly in European projects involving elements of Citizen Science and strong citizen involvement, " explains Dr. Bisanti.
