Press magazine – 8th May 2023

The Western University of Timișoara invites you to participate on Tuesday, May 9, 2023, starting at 18 p.m., at the inauguration event of the space dedicated to the intersection of art, science and technology - UVT Art Center - located near the Faculty of Arts and Design (str. Oituz, no. 4). The event is occasioned by the opening of the "Memory [OFF] Space" installation in this space, in an exhibition form that can be visited for approximately three weeks. The exhibition will be opened in the presence of the authors, doctoral students and visual artists Cezara Pădurean, Bogdan Matei, Sânziana Gheorghe and Mihai Toth, from the Faculty of Arts and Design of UVT.

This exhibition discusses the conceptual theme of memory in relation to physical space and explores, from an aesthetic and morphological point of view, the coordinates that can be drawn between three-dimensional spaces and two-dimensional images.

The event will be attended by both the artists who make up the team of creators of the "Memory [OFF] Space" installation, as well as representatives of the UVT management, the Faculty of Arts and Design, prof. Dr. Camil Mihăiescu, dean of the faculty, lect. university Dr. Maria Orosan-Telea, curator and art critic, students, researchers and visual artists, as well as their guests.

Thousands of students from the Timișoara university center, as well as other young people eager for fun and good cheer, are expected, between May 9 and 11, 2023, to participate in the Timișoara Student Days.

In the year of the European Capital of Culture, the Student Complex in Timisoara will be animated, for three days, by cultural activities, concerts, games, sports activities. There will also be outdoor film screenings, as well as the traditional water fight. Among the headliners we mention the Carla's Dreams, Șatra BENZ, DOC, Mario Fresh concerts.

The event is organized by the Youth Festivals Association in collaboration with the Politehnica University of Timișoara, with the support of the Timiș County Council.

A place of worship in Timisoara also becomes a place of culture. The Cetate Synagogue is an exhibition space for the works of the artist Camil Mihaiescu. Tradition and artificial intelligence meet in the same way, in futuristic paintings that have a spiral in the center, the leitmotif of the exhibition.

"Revolving around something that is myself and not" is a personal exhibition and reflects the results of artistic research on the relationships between visual art and new artificial intelligence tools, by the author, Camil MIHĂESCU.

The exhibition is curated and organized by the West University together with the Jewish Community of Timișoara.

Romania's fourth-largest city and capital of the historic Banat province shines its light in 2023 – literally – as it takes over as European Capital of Culture. The first city in continental Europe to introduce electric street lighting in 1884 celebrates with a multitude of concerts, exhibitions and festivals under the slogan "Light up your city!" A vertical, illuminated garden, made by MAIO architects from Barcelona, ​​will adorn the Victoriei Square, where, in 1989, the sparks of the Revolution were ignited against the Ceaușescu regime.

The fifth edition of the Art Encounters Biennale from May to July will present two great artists at the Timisoara National Art Museum. The largest Constantin Brâncusi exhibition in 50 years will feature iconic works by the legendary Romanian sculptor from museums around the world, while the Victor Brauner retrospective will salute the Romanian-born surrealist painter, including artworks from the Pompidou Center. The greatness of the performing arts amazes at Timișoara 2023. A mix of jazz, multi-arts festivals, literature gatherings with Nobel laureates and ecological celebrations with tree planting sessions are just a few of the highlights. New media art events around historic sites, such as the XNUMXth-century Maria Theresa Bastion or the XNUMXth-century Huniade Castle, add to the attraction," says Time Magazine's article.

The interim list of the 29 eligible projects for the development of regional dual education consortia was published by Ministry of Education. It should be noted that 18 town halls and 11 universities were accepted. The projects declared eligible entered the second stage of qualitative evaluation.

In total, 33 projects were submitted. Schools also appear in the list, but other appeals are mentioned in their right, the educational units being rejected. Any appeals can be submitted electronically, between May 05 and May 10, 2023 (23:59 p.m.).

• "Ion Ionescu de la Brad" University of Life Sciences from Iasi;
• "Vasile Alecsandri" University from Bacău;
• University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine from Bucharest;
• Polytechnic University of Bucharest;
• "Ștefan cel Mare" University from Suceava;
• "Ovidius" University of Constanța;
• "Lucian Blaga" University from Sibiu;
• "George Emil Palade" University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Sciences and Technology from Târgu Mureș;
• University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Cluj-Napoca;
• Polytechnic University of Timisoara;
• "Aurel Vlaicu" University of Arad;

The chancellors who are in office when the new Education Law comes into force can stay at the helm of universities for another decade. At least that's what the deputies from the Education Committee decided, who finished debating the higher education law. Also, they decided to introduce some fines for people who buy or sell scientific works, but also to introduce some exceptions to the norms of university ethics.

The draft law on university education also specifies that "In the event that it is proven that the degree certificate was obtained through fraudulent means or in violation of the provisions of the Code of Ethics and University Deontology, the rector has the obligation to request the administrative litigation court to cancel it, according to the legal provisions". This was harshly criticized by students because, according to law 544/2004, the higher education institution has the possibility of prescribing plagiarism in doctoral theses within a year, states the Alliance of Student Organizations (ANOSR), which criticizes this provision and considers it unacceptable and shameful. For his part, education expert Mihai Maci says that this is an absolute banality and that it puts obstacles in the identification of plagiarized works. "It matters a lot who the plagiarist is and whether or not he has an important position. It is very difficult to check all PhD papers to see who is plagiarizing and who is not. If a person has plagiarized and after five years reaches an important position, this plagiarism prescription condition is useless", it shows.

PNL senators and deputies have submitted, to the Senate, a draft law that provides for the establishment of the Virtual School Library and the "Learning in Romania" School e-learning Platform.

"School libraries and documentation and information centers are organized and operate based on a regulation developed by the Ministry of Education. The Virtual School Library is established and The School e-learning platform 'Learning in Romania', which includes school programs, guides methodological, examples of evaluation samples. Digital resources are protected by Law 8/1996 regarding copyright and related rights, with subsequent amendments and additions, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitization obtaining the right to publish from authors, so that these resources are permanently accessible and free of charge to any student or teacher, from the country and from abroad", it is shown in this bill.

According to him, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Research provide teachers and students with the necessary infrastructure, consisting of devices and internet access, to access the virtual school library, the school e-learning platform and other approved educational platforms.

Within 180 days from the operationalization of the virtual library and the school e-learning platform, the Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitization will develop technical capabilities so that they are also accessible to students and teachers outside the borders of the country, it is also stated in the legislative initiative

Continental's 2022 investments in Romania amounted to 180 million euros, and in 2023 you have a similar amount planned. What projects did last year's money go to and where will this year's money go?

– We invest every year in research and development centers and production lines. In addition to these, in 2022 there were also two more special elements - the inauguration of the R&D center in Timișoara and the expansion of the Continental Automotive factory, also in Timișoara. In 2023, the investments will still go towards research - development and production lines, but there will also be a more visible investment at the plant in Sibiu where we will expand the capacity.

– Are these investments also supported by the Romanian state?

- Those in 2022 were made from our own sources, but in 2023 we will have state aid for the expansion from Sibiu.

– With 19.000 employees, you are one of the largest employers in Romania and you continue to recruit. But with the switch to electric cars, a reduction in the number of employees in the automotive industry is estimated. How do you see this evolution through the lens of Continental Romania?

– In our case, categorically, there will not be a reduction in the number of employees with the electrification of cars. Continental already no longer develops and produces many elements for internal combustion cars. At ContiTech we still do some things like belts or hoses, but there we will be able to do a restructuring that will not affect the number of jobs. But everything we research, develop and produce is designed so that it can be used either for both thermal and electric cars, or strictly for electric cars. So in terms of employees we will not be affected by the electrification of cars.

Geoffrey Hinton, one of the fathers of AI, recently resigned from the Alphabet group, the owner of Google, and estimated that Artificial Intelligence could represent a stronger threat to humanity than climate change.

Geoffrey Hinton, known as one of the godfathers of artificial intelligence, recently announced that he was leaving Alphabet after a decade at the company, saying he wanted to talk about the risks of the technology without it affecting his former employer.

Hinton's work is considered essential to the development of contemporary AI systems.

In 1986, he co-authored the fundamental paper "Learning representations by back-propagating errors", a milestone in the development of neural networks that are the basis of AI technology.

In 2018, Geoffrey Hinton received the Turing Award, in recognition of his research discoveries. But now he is among a growing number of tech leaders publicly expressing concern about the potential threat posed by AI, should machines become more intelligent than humans and take over the planet.

"I would not like to devalue climate change. I would hate to say, "You shouldn't worry about climate change. And this is a huge risk. But I think this could end up being more urgent," Hinton said.

"With climate change, it's very easy to recommend what you should do: stop burning carbon. If you do that, eventually things will be okay. For that, it is not at all clear what you should do," he added, News.ro reports, citing Reuters.