Press review – May 11, 2023

The Koreans from a prestigious research institute in Seoul want to establish a partnership with the Western University of Timișoara in the field of developing soft architectures and AI for robotics.

The Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science of the Western University of Timișoara launched a platform based on artificial intelligence networks and algorithms two years ago, and through this, so far, several ideas have been developed and operationalized in oriented artificial intelligence systems to man and his needs. In fact, at the IT Department of UVT, a third of the teachers are specialized in artificial intelligence.

The management of Western University now intends to develop a partnership with artificial intelligence specialists in Korea. In Seoul, says rector Marilen Pirtea, there is a university consortium supported by the Korean Ministry of Education and the research foundation there, through which the authorities want to reduce the educational gap between local universities. The "Institute for SHAred AI-Robotics Education" produces robotics to the order of partners from medical institutions, but also from those in the high-tech industry of humanoid robots.

"During the visit I had the opportunity to carry out and the discussions with the staff of the Korean institute, I analyzed the opportunities to establish a partnership with the West University of Timișoara in the field of developing soft architectures and AI for robotics, considering that the experience of the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science is advanced in these specializations and research areas, and the Korean institute is a direct manufacturer of hardware equipment in robotics.", said Marilen Pirtea, who is in Korea at the invitation of the Korea Foundation, together with several representatives of universities from all over the world.

The Politehnica University of Timișoara joined the pRO-nZEB cluster, together with the Timișoara City Hall and the PORTIC Association, for the organization of the nZEB Week (nearly Zero-Energy Building – A house with almost zero energy consumption, a concept that has become mandatory in construction) in the city on the Bega, energy efficiency promotion event, which takes place between May 10 and 13, 2023, in Iancu Huniade Square (Modex Parking).

The event brings together, for four days, experts in the fields of construction and energy efficiency, providers of solutions and technologies for building buildings with a high energy performance, the academic environment, local public authorities, real estate developers, students, young people, children and the general public, in -a marathon of activities aimed at facilitating a better understanding of the energy performance requirements of buildings and preparing both the main actors in the construction sector and future generations for the development of a sustainable built environment.

At the opening of the event, the rector of the Politehnica University of Timișoara, Prof. Dr. Eng. Florin Drăgan, declared that "in a city with technical, innovative features, such as Timișoara, such projects must be identified, developed, communicated and, subsequently, transferred to the community."

Moreover, the Politehnica University of Timișoara has been running projects in the field of energy efficiency for a long time, having high-quality specialists and expertise in the field. The Faculty of Construction within the UPT has a series of master's degrees in the field of energy efficiency of buildings, the Institute of Renewable Energy Research conducts a series of research in the fields of intelligent control of energy conversion and storage, interdisciplinary collectives work on obtaining hydrogen-based energy, a series of research/development/innovation projects in the field of energy efficiency are carried out in collaboration with partner companies of UPT, and Politehnica Timisoara is the first university in Romania to be certified as an energy service provider, whose main purpose is the assessment of energy consumption from a locality and identifying measures to increase energy efficiency.

High school students from all over the country participate between May 12 and 14 in the finals of the 9th edition of the CanSat National Competition, held at the Banat Caransebeș Airport, during which they are invited to create minisatellites to compete in flight conditions.

The event is organized by the Romanian Space Agency ROSA, in partnership with the West University of Timișoara, through the Faculty of Physics.

The teams selected for the final stage of the competition are the following: "Airforce" - "Ion C. Brătianu" National College from Pitesti, "BioCoderDojo Timișoara SpaceBugs" - "Nikolaus Lenau" Theoretical High School, Bănățean National College, "Ana Aslan" National College, High School Theoretical "Grigore Moisil", Theoretical High School "Jean Louis Calderon" from Timișoara; "Carmen Sylva 4: Sentinel" — "Carmen Sylva" Theoretical High School, Eforie-Sud; "MBM Space" — International Theoretical High School of Informatics, "IL Caragiale" National College, "Spiru Haret" National College, Bucharest; "Nexus" — "Petru Rareș" National College - Suceava; "Ouranos" — Covasna County Center of Excellence - Sfântu-Gheorghe; "Robots Rover" — National College "Dragoș Vodă" - Campulung Moldovenesc;
"Tomis 9" — "Mircea Cel Batrân" National College - Constanta.

UVT will host the participants - the accompanying students and teachers - as well as a number of tests of the competition, and the launch of the minisatellites - the practical test - will take place on Saturday, May 13, at the Banat Caransebeș Airport.

"The CanSat competition is a simulation of a satellite integrated into the volume and shape of a standard soft drink can. The challenge for the students is to fit all the major subsystems of a satellite—such as sensors, power supply, and communications—into a 330-milliliter canister. The CanSat will be launched from an altitude of about one kilometer, it will have to complete a mission and land safely. The projects selected for this year's edition will be launched by helicopter. The launch campaign will take place at Banat Caransebeș Airport. Before the launch, the CanSat prepared by each team will go through a technical inspection that will determine if it meets the conditions imposed for size, weight, radio communications and parachute," UVT representatives announced.

The winning team of the national competition will qualify for the finals of the European CanSat 2023 competition, organized by the European Space Agency in Granada, Spain, in June.

The Regional Business Center of CCIA Timiș was the host of dozens of farmers present at the PRIA Agriculture&Food Conference in Timișoara, edition organized as part of Belgian Week 2023.

The work of successful businessmen in the field of agriculture and the food industry was rewarded this year as well, with diplomas and prizes for the farmers of Banat, during a festive edition organized by PRIAevents, in collaboration with the "King Mihai I" University of Life Sciences from Timișoara and, of course, with the support of the Timiș Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture.

From the desire to find partners for economic exchanges and even joint investment opportunities in the two economies, Romanian and Belgian, "Belgian Week" was born, an event focused on agriculture and food and whose initiator was CCIAT. This important initiative was obviously joined by PRIAevents, which every year awards the best, together with the Chamber of Commerce Belgium, Luxembourg, Romania, Moldova.

The Gala participants addressed the most interesting topics for the Banat farming community and the food industry, this year's top topics being the growth of agriculture and retail businesses, but also how to make sustainability one of the main concerns.

The third edition of "Alumni Days" will take place in Cluj-Napoca, between May 11-13, 2023, and aims to strengthen the relationship between the university and its graduates.

University Cluj-Napoca wants to offer graduates an opportunity to say goodbye, reconnect and share experiences from their student years.

The event will start on Thursday, May 11, at 17 p.m., in the Aula Magna a Babeș-Bolyai University.

Friday, May 12, 2023, is the day of activities carried out at the faculty level. Programs are open to the general public, with some taking place both physically and online.

Between 14-16 p.m. Dr. Cosmin C. Rusu, lecturer at the Faculty of History and Philosophy, will lead those interested in a guided walking tour in the center of Cluj. Interested parties are requested to register by filling out the form: https://forms.gle/696Xx2m6C7tXJPvS8.

The programs for Saturday, April 13, 2023, will take place in Iuliu Hațieganu Park, where participants can choose from various sports activities. In the time interval 9-12 there will be sports competitions between the faculties, and from 13, the teachers, students and graduates of FSEGA, together with their families, will take the start in a light cross-country run of 1 km.

The organized events do not stop, however, this weekend. Faculties will continue their activities in the coming days and weeks. The detailed program is permanently updated on the event web page: https://alumni.ubbcluj.ro/alumni-days/.

The event is organized and coordinated by the Career, Professional Orientation and Alumni Center of Babeș-Bolyai University.

On Wednesday, a referendum is held at the University of Bucharest to establish the method of electing the rector.

The referendum will take place in three voting sections, the vote being direct and secret. All teaching and research staff within the university will vote, as well as the student representatives in the UB Senate and in the Faculty Councils.

"On the day of the vote, on May 10, between 8,00:20,00 a.m. and XNUMX:XNUMX p.m., colleagues with the right to vote are expected by faculty representatives, who will give them their ballots and direct them to the polling booths. Legitimation is done by means of any valid identity document, according to the regulations in force", informed the UB recently.

The ballot intended for the referendum for choosing the method of appointing the rector indicates two possibilities of appointment, according to the legislation in force: on the basis of a public competition or on the basis of general elections, by universal, direct and secret vote.

The Polytechnic University of Bucharest and Nuclearelectrica will launch, on Friday, in an event that will take place in the Aula Magna of the higher education institution, the first Energy Exploration Center (E2 Center) in Europe, which houses the modular reactor control room simulator small (SMR) NuScale.

"The E2 Center, developed as part of the Foundational Infrastructure for Responsible Use of Small Modular Reactor Technology (FIRST) program, an initiative of the Government of the United States of America, will contribute to the achievement of Romania's objectives to become a leader in terms of the safe implementation of small modular reactors in Romania and Europe, as well as an education and training hub for SMR specialists in the region", informs UPB.

In May 2022, Nuclearelectrica, NuScale and E-Infra, the owner of the site, signed a memorandum of understanding for the development of the first small modular reactor (SMR) in Romania on the site of the former thermal power plant in Doicesti, Dâmboviţa county.

On June 27, 2022, on the occasion of the launch of the Partnership for Infrastructure and Global Investments, presented at the G7 Leaders' Summit, the President of the United States, Joe Biden, announced the allocation of a grant of 14 million dollars for the development stage of small modular reactors in Romania by NuScale - Preliminary engineering and front-end design study for the SMR project in Romania.

The American company NuScale Power and the Romanian company RoPower Nuclear signed the contract for phase 1 of the engineering and design works for the first plant with small modular nuclear reactors in Romania.

The most important changes:

• Rectors in office at the entry into force of the new law I can stay another decade at the head of the universities, after a PSD amendment voted by all deputies, except for those from USR, removed the form proposed by the Ministry of Education from the draft law.
• At the same time, the proposals that the rectors and the university senate have mandates of only 4 years and the incompatibility between university leaders and politicians were rejected in the Education Commission during the debates on the education law.
• Limiting the number of mandates for persons in the management of universities, other than rectors, was eliminated by an amendment to the draft law on higher education.
• They were voted exceptions to the norms of university ethics, to the PSD proposal: "the differences of theoretical, experimental or practical conception, the material errors of citation, the differences of data interpretation, as well as the differences of opinion".
• Fines have been introduced for people who buy or sell scientific papers, reports, papers for evaluation exams along the way, as well as for the completion of bachelor's, master's and/or doctorate university studies. For those who buy, the fine is from 5.000 lei to 50.000 lei, and for those who sell from 100.000 lei to 200.000 lei, according to Art. 258
• And the person elected to a position of public dignity can benefit from a reduction of the didactic norm of no more than 50%, with the approval of the university senate. This category was not in the version of the project from the Ministry of Education. In addition, the teaching staff who benefit from a reduction in the norm cannot support teaching hours at the basic position under the cumulative or hourly payment regime and cannot support teaching activities as an associate teaching staff in other universities, according to Art. 210, paragraph 24.

Almost 10.000 trade unionists from education took to the streets on Wednesday, the demands being of a salary nature, but also regarding the education infrastructure. The trade unionists met in front of the Government and marched on Calea Victoriei towards the Parliament.

On their way from the government to the parliament, the demonstrators stopped at the University Library, where they waited to avoid meeting the AUR protesters at the Parliament Palace.

"We don't want to mix with those protesting there. (...) We have nothing to do with those protesting there, it's their business, we have a different agenda and we don't interfere with other people", said the leader of the Federation of Education Unions "Spiru Haret", Marius Nistor.

He said that the intention to trigger a general strike in education, starting on May 22, remains in force.

The Federation of Free Trade Unions in Education, the Federation of Trade Unions in Education "Spiru Haret" and the National Trade Union Federation "Alma Mater" announced that the action aims to draw attention to the problems faced by the Romanian education system, in particular, the employees - teaching staff, non-didactic and auxiliary didactic.

According to them, a referendum on the triggering of the general strike in education, starting on May 22, is also underway.