Marin Vlada's Blog-Terra, România, Bucharest

Top 10 principii de bază

2012-01-27T07:36:00.000-08:00

Întreaga activitate a unei comunităţi academice trebuie să se desfăşoare sub imperativul a 10 principii de bază.

PRINCIPII DE BAZĂ
1. luarea deciziilor realizate după consultarea comunităţii academice (cadre didactice şi cercetători, studenţi), precum şi a specialiştilor din domeniile corespunzătoare
2. transparenţă, responsabilitate şi cultivarea toleranţei şi acceptării diferenţei şi diversităţii
3. promovarea valorilor unei comunităţi colegiale şi colaborative
4. afirmarea iniţiativelor personale ale cadrelor didactice, cercetătorilor şi studenţilor
5. dezvoltarea respectului reciproc, corectitudinii şi demnităţii în activităţile didactice şi de cercetare
6. încrederea în structurile de conducere şi în acţiunile persoanelor de conducere
7. evidenţierea şi promovarea originalităţii şi creativităţii în activitatea didactică şi activitatea de cercetare
8. receptivitate şi transparenţă faţă de propunerile studenţilor şi încurajarea participării acestora la dezvoltarea şi prestigiului facultăţii
9. receptivitate şi transparenţă faţă de propunerile cadrelor didactice şi cercetătorilor şi încurajarea acestora pentru un învăţământ de calitate centrat pe student şi pentru prestigiul cercetării ştiinţifice
10. îmbunătăţirea continuă a comunicării dintre structurile de conducere şi comunitatea academică.

Sursa imagine: http://onestionline.xhost.ro/
Ref.: http://www.unibuc.ro/prof/vlada_m/

Incompatibilitate in Universitate

2012-01-21T11:34:00.000-08:00

Rudenie şi afinitate

Art. 295 alin. (4) din Legea educaţiei naţionale nr. 1/2011 interzice ocuparea concomitentă de către soți, afini și rude până la gradul al III-lea inclusiv a funcțiilor prin care unul sau una se află față de celălalt sau cealaltă într-o poziție de conducere, control, autoritate sau evaluare instituțională directă la orice nivel în aceeași universitate.

Definirea gradelor de rudenie şi de afinitate până la gradul III inclusiv sunt prezentate în Anexa 4 (vezi imaginea)

Sursa: METODOLOGIA DE ORGANIZARE ŞI DESFĂŞURARE A ALEGERILOR DIN UNIVERSITATEA TRANSILVANIA DIN BRASOV, www.unitbv.ro, 2011

Mihai Eminescu

2012-01-15T03:15:00.000-08:00

So far it is athwart the blue
To where yon star appears,
That for its light to reach our view
Has needed thousand years.

Maybe that ages gone it shed
Its glow, then languished in the skies,
Yet only now its rays have sped
Their journey to our eyes.

by Mihai Eminescu (January 15, 1850 - June 15,1889), To The Star

Ref.: http://www.gabrielditu.com/eminescu/index.asp
- http://mvlada.blogspot.com/2010/01/gabriel-ditu-romanul-din-australia.html

Virtual Chemistry Experiments

2012-01-14T03:30:00.000-08:00

Virtual Chemistry Experiments by David N. Blauch, Davidson College

"Virtual Chemistry Experiments are a collection of interative web-based chemistry tutorials. The tutorials employ Physlets and Chemistry Applets to simulate experiments or depict molecular and atomic structure. The guiding concept is to involve the read in making observations and acquiring data, and then using this information to draw conclusions and infer chemical principles".
Source: www.chm.davidson.edu/vce/

Gabriel Dragomir

2012-01-08T01:29:00.000-08:00

Gabriel Dragomir - A Software Developer (Drupal expert) and managing partner at Webikon, a Romanian Drupal Development company. Is one of the founding members of Drupal Romania Association:

promotes open source in general and Drupal on the first place and develop using many great OS software, such as Drupal, Apache Solr, Fedora Commons or DSpace - Drupal consultation, development, and programming services;
provides architecture and development expertise for several european strategic project in the area of virtual learning and digital archives.

"WE ADVICE! Consulting and Mentoring for projects and teams".

Ref.: Webikon - http://webikon.com/, http://www.digitalsociety.ro/

MITx - online interactive learning platform

2011-12-28T11:53:00.001-08:00

MIT launches online learning initiative.

"MIT expects that this learning platform will enhance the educational experience of its on-campus students, offering them online tools that supplement and enrich their classroom and laboratory experiences. MIT also expects that MITx will eventually host a virtual community of millions of learners around the world."

Ref.: http://web.mit.edu/press/2011/ , MIT OpenCourseWare, Open Access Articles, Education and Research

Teaching with technology: Class Management Tools, Digital Documents, Image Services, Software, Video, Web Services

Mathematics in Movies

2011-11-24T10:24:00.000-08:00

Mathematics in Movies: Prof. Oliver Knill, Department of Mathematics Harvard University.
-Ref.: www.math.harvard.edu/~knill/mathmovies/

"During the years, I developed also a passion for mathematical problems in computer science especially for various inverse problems, whether it is in analysis, geometry or cryptology. Inverse problems in computer vision are currently at the top my list. Here is some work done in the Summer of 2007 with Jose Ramirez which continued with a award winning master thesis of Jose at the extension school. Elizabeth Slavkovsky currently writes a thesis on 3D printing in education." Oliver Knill
- Ref.: www.math.harvard.edu/~knill/math/

PageRank and Google

2011-11-22T02:30:00.000-08:00

The name "PageRank" is a trademark of Google, and the PageRank process has been patented (U.S. Patent 6,285,999). However, the patent is assigned to Stanford University and not to Google. Google has exclusive license rights on the patent from Stanford University. The university received 1.8 million shares of Google in exchange for use of the patent; the shares were sold in 2005 for $336 million. (Google history)

PageRank was developed at Stanford University by Larry Page (hence the name Page-Rank) and Sergey Brin as part of a research project about a new kind of search engine.

Relevance: As Larry said long ago, we want to give you back “exactly what you want.” When Google was founded, one key innovation was PageRank, a technology that determined the “importance” of a webpage by looking at what other pages link to it, as well as other data. Today we use more than 200 signals, including PageRank, to order websites, and we update these algorithms on a weekly basis. For example, we offer personalized search results based on your web history and location. (www.google.com)

Note: Massimo Marchiori - He was the creator of HyperSearch, a search engine where the results were based not only on single pages ranks, but also on the relationship between the single pages and the rest of the web. Afterwards, Google co-founders Page and Brin cited HyperSearch when they introduced PageRank. He is one of the co-authors of the world standard for privacy on the Web, P3P. He started the XML Query effort at W3C, and is one of the authors of the XQuery family of world standard for querying information on the Web.
Ref.: Page, Lawrence and Brin, Sergey and Motwani, Rajeev and Winograd, Terry (January 29, 1998). "The PageRank Citation Ranking: Bringing Order to the Web." (Stanford University, Retrieved May 12, 2011)
- http://ilpubs.stanford.edu:8090/422/1/1999-66.pdf

"Since it is very difficult even for experts to evaluate search engines, search engine bias is particularly insidious. A good example was OpenText, which was reported to be selling companies the right to be listed at the top of the search results for particular queries [Marchiori 97]. This type of bias is much more insidious than advertising, because it is not clear who "deserves" to be there, and who is willing to pay money to be listed."

"Moore’s Law was defined in 1965 as a doubling every 18 months in processor power. It has held remarkably true, not just for processors, but for other important system parameters such as disk as well. If we assume that Moore’s law holds for the future, we need only 10 more doublings, or 15 years to reach our goal of indexing everything everyone in the US has written for a year for a price that a small company could afford. Of course, hardware experts are somewhat concerned Moore’s Law may not continue to hold for the next 15 years, but there are certainly a lot of interesting centralized applications even if we only get part of the way to our hypothetical example."
Ref.: The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine by Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page, Computer Networks and ISDN Systems 30: 107–117, 1998.
- http://infolab.stanford.edu/pub/papers/google.pdf (pdf)

Google philosophy (Ten things we know to be true)
5. You don’t need to be at your desk to need an answer.
"The world is increasingly mobile: people want access to information wherever they are, whenever they need it. We’re pioneering new technologies and offering new solutions for mobile services that help people all over the globe to do any number of tasks on their phone, from checking email and calendar events to watching videos, not to mention the several different ways to access Google search on a phone. In addition, we’re hoping to fuel greater innovation for mobile users everywhere with Android, a free, open source mobile platform. Android brings the openness that shaped the Internet to the mobile world. Not only does Android benefit consumers, who have more choice and innovative new mobile experiences, but it opens up revenue opportunities for carriers, manufacturers and developers."

InTech - Books and Journals

2011-11-20T08:00:00.000-08:00

InTech is a multidisciplinary Open Access publisher of books and journals covering the fields of Science, Technology and Medicine: www.intechopen.com

InTech is a world leader in the provision of STM Open Access content, including books and journals. We break down the traditional barriers to becoming published and provide authors with new choices and an equal opportunity to share their ideas and the results of their research with the global scientific community.

Ref.: http://www.intechweb.org/

Invention of the microprocessor

2011-11-16T01:18:00.000-08:00

1959 - invention of the integrated circuit: co-inventor Robert Noyce of Intel (UpDate: la 12 oct. 2011 Google a sarbatorit 84 de ani de la nasterea lui Robert Noyce)
1971 - invention of the microprocessor (4004): Ted Hoff, Federico Faggin, Stanley Mazor of Intel and Masatoshi Shima of Busicom.

Ref.: http://www.agora.ro

Thomas Suarez and Transforming Learning

2011-11-15T23:46:00.000-08:00

Thomas Suarez is a 6th grade student at a middle school in the South Bay of Los Angeles. Thomas Suarez - iPhone Application Developer: http://youtu.be/ehDAP1OQ9Zw

Ref.: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

Premiile CNIV 2011

2011-11-14T23:50:00.001-08:00

În cadrul Conferinţei Naţionale de Învăţământ Virtual (CNIV 2011), au fost acordate premii pentru cele mai bune proiecte prezentate. Marele premiu de excelenţă a fost obţinut de lector univ. dr. Silvia Făt de la Facultatea de Psihologie şi Ştiinţele Educaţiei a Universităţii din Bucureşti.

Premiile Conferinţei Naţionale de Învăţământ Virtual (CNIV – www.cniv.ro) au fost stabilite pe baza celor 7 criterii de evaluare stabilite de Comitetul Ştiinţific al Conferinţei: Concepte şi idei moderne abordate; Tehnologii folosite şi implementate; Originalitatea conţinutului; Gradul de utilizare în prezent şi în viitor; Gradul de testare şi verificare; Metodologii şi standarde respectate; Complexitatea de elaborare. Pentru fiecare criteriu s-au acordat maxim 5 puncte.

După prezentarea lucrărilor în sesiunile de lucru ale CNIV, cei 350 de evaluatori au trimis prin e-mail punctajele pentru lucrările votate. O lucrare a putut fi votată numai dacă este eligibilă pentru Concursul „Software Educaţional”, adică dacă este publicată în volumul de lucrări la Editura Universităţii din Bucureşti.

Premiile CNIV 2011 au fost acordate pentru un număr de 8 lucrări din cele 54 prezentate în cadrul conferinţei şi publicate la Editura Universităţii din Bucureşti. Premiile au fost sponsorizate de compania Siveco România.

1. Premiul de excelenţă “Centrul Virtual de Excelenţă SIVECO“: Proiectul Multi-Touch. Dezvoltarea de lecţii transdisciplinare în sistemul educaţional din România (Lector univ. dr. Silvia Făt, Universitatea din Bucureşti, Facultatea de Psihologie şi Ştiinţele Educaţiei).

2. Premiul de creativitate “SIVECO“: myGreenTown (Elev Licker Nandor, dr. profesor Corina Toma, Liceul de Informatică „Tiberiu Popoviciu”, Cluj-Napoca).

3. Premiul de popularitate “SIVECO“: Principiile lui Newton (Elevi: Radu-George Rusu, Cristina Adam, Maria Mateescu, Cristinel Miron, Prof. Emanuela Cerchez, Colegiul Naţional “Emil Racoviţă” Iaşi).

4. Premiul de popularitate “SIVECO“: Camil Petrescu – Ultima noapte de dragoste, întâia noapte de război (Elevi: Bogdan Gabriel Mihai, Cristian Cojocaru, Vlad Tarcan, Ionuţ Ungureanu, Prof. Daniela Zaharia, Prof. Mirela Ţibu, Prof. Mariana Grădinariu, Liceul de Informatică „Grigore Moisil”, Iaşi).

5. Premiul de popularitate “SIVECO“: Grecia antică – Între legendă şi adevăr, soft educaţional (Elev Alin Lupu, prof. Cornelia Ivaşc, Prof. Tatiana Solcan, Liceul de Informatică “Grigore Moisil”, Iaşi).

6. Premiul de popularitate “SIVECO“: În pas domol prin lumea acceleratoarelor de particule elementare (Elevi: Cristian Zaharia, Cipriana Anghel, Ioana Bica, Camelia Popescu, Matei Militaru, Prof. Ioana Stoica, Colegiul Naţional de Informatică “Tudor Vianu” Bucureşti).

7. Premiul de popularitate “SIVECO“: AILab – Scripting Language for Artificial Intelligence (Elev Ionuţ Budişteanu, Prof. Mirela Mlisan, Colegiul Naţional “Mircea cel Bătrân” Râmnicu-Vâlcea).

8. Premiul de popularitate “SIVECO“: Învăţarea prin joc – „Aladin şi formulele magice”, Prof. Daly Marciuc, Colegiul Naţional “Mihai Eminescu”, Satu Mare).

Mai multe detalii despre CNIV şi ICVL pot fi accesate aici şi pe paginile oficiale ale conferinţelor (http://c3.icvl.eu, http://c3.cniv.ro). Turneul conferinţelor poate fi vizualizat aici.

Education and problem-solving

2011-11-08T03:44:00.000-08:00

Education and problem-solving vs. Reduced biological stress

"Education may also promote problem-solving skills leading to reduced biological stress responsivity, with favorable consequences for biological aging. Lower educational attainment is associated with shorter leukocyte telomere length in healthy older men and women, and may reflect more rapid cellular aging in lower socioeconomic status individuals." Andrew Steptoe (University College London), “Educational attainment but not measures of current socioeconomic circumstances are associated with leukocyte telomere length in healthy older men and women.” (Original Research Article), by Andrew Steptoe, Mark Hamer, Lee Butcher, Jue Lin, Lena Brydon, Mika Kivimki, Michael Marmot, Elizabeth Blackburn, Jorge D. Erusalimsky, In Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, Elsevier Inc., 25, 1292-1298, April 2011. doi:10.1016/j.bbi.2011.04.010.

Ref.: www.unibuc.ro/prof/vlada_m/

"Each decision you make, each path you take, each risk you take helps to define who you are and who you will become. Investing the time to think through, investigate, weigh options, and then choosing your decisions carefully creates a better life."
Ref.: Chuck Clayton - www.problem-solving-techniques.com/

Ladislau Szilagyi

2011-11-05T11:40:00.000-07:00

Ladislau Szilagyi (studied Computer Science at the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science; graduate in 1978-Informatics), expert of the Software Testing at European Quality Software Trainings (EuroQST)

Ladislau Szilagyi, owner of the EuroQST software training company, has over 30 years experience in IT as a programmer, business analyst, project manager, tester and consultant. He published articles in several software magazines (Testing Experience, Quality Matters, Core), and is a frequent speaker at software testing conferences as SEETEST, Testwarez, CzechTest. He is also an experienced software testing trainer in Romania, helping over 500 testers from Romania to pass the ISTQB foundation or advanced certification. He is the first East-European to obtain the Certified Agile Testing certification as both tester and test trainer. His current focus is on agile testing and he actively collaborates with the Romanian testing community to raise the awareness about the new challenges facing the testers in agile projects.

Ref.: http://www.agile-tester.org/
- http://www.agiletestingdays.com
- Ambassadors of the Agile Testing Days: www.agiletestingdays.com/ambassadors.php (14 - 17 November 2011: Agile Testing Days - Potsdam, Germany)

NOTE: EuroQST offers the following training courses and exams in Europe:
- Certified Agile Tester (CAT / ISQI): www.agile-tester.org/
- Certified Professional for Requirements Engineering (CPRE / IREB): www.certified-re.org/

Mesaje-Opinii la CNIV 2011

2011-10-31T13:53:00.000-07:00

CNIV 2011 în turneu la Universitatea "Babeş-Bolyai" Cluj-Napoca

VIRTUAL vs. REAL | ÎNVĂŢARE vs. CUNOAŞTERE | OM vs. COMPUTER

Mesaje-Opinii la deschiderea CNIV 2011- UBB Cluj-Napoca (I)
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw8LXBJxHWg

Mesaje-Opinii la deschiderea CNIV 2011- UBB Cluj-Napoca (II)

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP1cXl7YNR8
- de la stânga la dreapta: Mircea Popovici (Univ. Ovidius Constanta), Ştefan Morcov (Siveco), Marin Vlada (Univ. din Bucuresti), Andrei Mărcuş (UBB Cluj-Napoca), Grigor Moldovan (UBB Cluj-Napoca), Fl. Mircea Boian(UBB Cluj-Napoca)

Changes: It's good or bad?

2011-10-25T07:08:00.000-07:00

SCHIMBĂRI: e bine sau e rău?

Se schimbă lumea, se schimbă mintea noastră, mintea copiilor noştri se schimbă şi ea, se schimbă ştiinţele, teoriile, metodele şi tehnicile de investigare, educaţia noastră se schimbă mereu, profesiile şi locurile de muncă ale oamenilor sunt într-o continuă schimbare, se schimbă mentalităţi, religii şi filosofii, se schimbă mijloacele de transport şi de comunicaţii, se schimbă infrastructura şi relieful, se schimbă OMUL. E bine sau e rău?

Solution: Principles of Learning (The Principles of Learning are condensed theoretical statements summarizing decades of learning research. They are designed to help educators analyze the quality of instruction and opportunities for learning that they offer to students) by Institute for Learning, University of Pittsburgh

Ref.: http://ifl.lrdc.pitt.edu/ifl/

Alexandru Ţugui: Calm Technologies

2011-10-23T11:51:00.000-07:00

Alexandru Tugui is a professor of Economics and Business Administration at Alexandru Ioan Cuza University in Iaşi, Romania.

"Over the last 50 years, technological development has been significantly influenced by computers and associated technologies. The massive investments made in information technology and communication development have benefitted all the world’s economies, and especially the interconnected ones. All business areas have therefore adopted computers as an indispensable tool, and all economic and social processes have come to rely on computers for support and intermediation.
The education field has been, and will continue to be, receptive to the evolutions of information- and communications-related technologies. Educators will use them on a wide scale in projects such as e-books, e-learning, university networks, and digital libraries. Technological miniaturization and steady improvements in performance have resulted in the abandonment of classical technologies (white chalk, blackboard, paper, pencil, etc.) and their extensive replacement by PC tablet, video projectors, intelligent boards, e-pen, and other new applications."

It is most important to emphasize that in coming years the technological context of human society’s evolution will be framed by the following trends:
1. Mobility.
2. Wireless networks.
3. Interoperability.
4. Digitization.
5. Multimedia.
6. Information integration.
7. Standardization.
8. Real-time work.
9. Artificial intelligence.
10. Communication 3G+, 4G.

Virtual Worlds
Virtual worlds are online environments where multiple users can interact with one another or with the environment. Some are “immersive 3–D environments” and give users a great deal of freedom in terms of where they go and who they can interact with. Users participate in the world by controlling an avatar, or online persona. An avatar allows a user to choose how much of their real self they wish to portray in the virtual world, potentially allowing them to take onan entirely new identity.
Conclusions
We are convinced that everyday life in cyberspace will involve technology that becomes constantly invisible and increasingly omnipresent. Our insights in the previous paragraphs lead us to conclude that human society will continue to evolve with the support of information and communication technologies. We also anticipate that education using calm technologies can provide solutions to the problems posed by super-technologization and the risk of deculturation. Such technology will remove barriers of language, time, and space between teachers and learners, and help to reduce today’s huge costs for technical education, as well as facilitate the handling of large amounts of knowledge with efficient storage devices and the rapid access to visual and audio resources that offer well-documented, practical experience to students.

Ref.:
Alexandru Tugui, Calm Technologies: A New Trend for Educational Technologies, World Future Review Spring 2011, 64-72,
- http://www.wfs.org/,

Ioan Pânzaru: Educaţie vs. Cercetare

2011-10-17T02:57:00.000-07:00

Prof. univ. dr. Ioan Pânzaru, Rector Universitatea din Bucureşti

“A fi profesor în momentul de faţă este paradoxal, pentru că meseria noastră este concepută de obicei ca fiind o transmitere a cunostinţelor si valorilor către generaţia următoare. Astăzi ni se cere însă mai degrabă să producem cunostinţe noi, cu alte cuvinte suntem evaluaţi drept cercetători si nu drept oameni de catedră. A avut loc o mutaţie în constiinţa publică. Este o epocă în care toată lumea cere serviciului public mai multă responsabilitate si calitate (idee pe care o aplaudăm), dar nu mai este de acord să i se acorde resurse fără un control din ce în ce mai amănunţit. Aceste cerinţe sunt conflictuale, fiindcă educaţia se bazează pe încredere si pe ideea că există un «răspuns corect» pe care îl stie profesorul. Dar profesorii de azi nu mai stiu răspunsul corect, si cel mult pot să vă expună teoria lor proprie despre cum stau de fapt lucrurile. În epoca noastră nu mai există răspunsuri corecte: ceea ce le cerem studenţilor este să aibă capacitatea de a investiga ei singuri. În aceste condiţii, si încrederea devine problematică.” Ioan Pânzaru, Jurnalul Naţional, 17 octombrie, 2011
Ref.: http://www.jurnalul.ro/

Cultură și dezvoltare
"În universităţi se predau idei care, însuşite de tineri şi aplicate în viaţa lor practică şi în profesiune, au efecte la nivelul întregii societăţi. Dacă vom considera că scopul dezirabil al dezvoltării umane este recîştigarea armoniei cu natura, întoarcerea peştilor în rîuri, a păsărilor în păduri, o atmosferă lipsită de emisii industriale, un ocean fără reziduuri şi detritusuri, atunci universitatea se află într-o dilemă. ..." Prof. univ. dr. Ioan Pânzaru, Cuvînt adresat şefilor de promoţie şi cercetătorilor Universităţii din Bucureşti

Interactiunea digitala si mintea copiilor

2011-09-16T12:40:00.000-07:00

SCHIMBĂRI: Se schimbă lumea, se schimbă mintea noastră, mintea copiilor noştri se schimbă şi ea, se schimbă ştiinţele, teoriile, metodele şi tehnicile de investigare, educaţia noastră se schimbă mereu, profesiile şi locurile de muncă ale oamenilor sunt într-o continuă schimbare, se schimbă mentalităţi, religii şi filosofii, se schimbă mijloacele de transport şi de comunicaţii, se schimbă infrastructura şi relieful, se schimbă OMUL. E bine sau e rău?
Ref.: www.unibuc.ro/prof/vlada_m/eduvision2020.php

Digital interaction and mind of children.

To promote new ocupations: instructional designer, e-Learning developer.

• Mintea copiilor nostri s-a schimbat; avem de-a face cu o noua generatie, care a crescut interactionand permanent cu mijloacele digitale. O astfel de interactiune digitala schimba mintea, prin urmare in scoli avem o minte diferita de mintea copilului de dinainte
• Trebuie sa tinem seama de aceste caracteristici, trebuie ca oferta scolii sa se potriveasca cu mintea acestui copil
• Prima asteptare a noilor minti este urmatoarea: sa aiba acces rapid la o cantitate foarte mare de informatie media. Comparam acum asteptarile lor cu manualele scolare: sunt ele multimedia, sunt ele bogate in informatie, sunt ele usor accesibile? Avem deja o prima discrepanta.
• A doua asteptare a noii generatii de copii: Daca va uitati pe retelele de socializare pe care sunt tinerii, o sa vedeti ca ei contribuie la productie, cu e-continut. Este scoala un loc in care pot contribui cu e-content? Nu, ei pot doar asculta, pot doar invata, dar nu si contribui. Este o setare care incepe sa se produca si de care trebuie sa tinem seama.
• A treia asteptare: tinerii vor sa isi personalizeze produsele sau serviciile. Telefonul vor sa sune intr-un fel, sa arate intr-un fel, calculatorul la fel, conturile de pe retelele sociale sunt si ele personalizate. Isi pot personaliza modul in care invata in scoala?
• Avem aceste asteptari si, pe de alta parte, un mediu care nu le permite sa isi personalizeze modul de invatare.
Deci avem o discrepanta majora intre mintea generatiei digitale si modul in care a fost construita invatarea. Este o disonanta in modul in care a fost construita scoala si aceasta minte. Mintea s-a format din interactiunea zilnica cu aceste mijloace digitale. Cu aceasta minte ei vor judeca profesorii, manualele, scoala. Scoala trebuie sa se recalibreze. Solutiile sunt calea de a sincroniza scoala cu mintea aceasta.

"Our children's minds have changed, we are dealing with a new generation, who grew up interacting permanent with the digital means. Such digital interaction change mind, therefore in schools have a different mind before the child's mind."
Mircea Miclea (Palace of the Parliament, Sept. 16th-17th 2011, eduVision2020, www.eduvision.ro - Shaping the vision of education)

Classification of Romanian Universities

2011-09-06T09:58:00.000-07:00

Clasificarea europeană a universităţilor din România (in romanian).

European Quality Assurance Register-EQAR (EUA) supports implementation of Romanian higher education reforms: Government announces classification of universities (September 06, 2011).
"Around 100 universities (public and private) have now been grouped into three major categories of institutions: research intensive; teaching and research oriented; and mainly teaching institutions, in a move designed to diversify the country’s HE system". Ref.: http://www.eua.be/News/11-09-06
Classification (4.): mvlada.blogspot.com | www.edu.ro

eduVision 2020-Bucharest, Romania

2011-09-06T00:45:00.000-07:00

Shaping the vision of education
Participation at this conference is free of charge.

Palace of the Parliament, Sept. 16th-17th 2011

eduVision 2020 is an international conference aimed to present the newest trends in education and eLearning, best practices on using IT&C in education and a vision for the future of education.

Ref.: http://www.eduvision.ro/, http://www.agora.ro/

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Radu Jugureanu, eduVision 2011: "eLearning - Glimpses into the future"

About Computer Science and Informatics

2011-08-29T08:38:00.000-07:00

Computer Science ≠ Informatics

What is Computer Science?
What is Informatics?

Computer Science and Informatics were considered identical terms. Today, the terms are different. The general public sometimes confuses Computer Science with Informatics or Information Technology (IT). Computing (information and knowledge processing) has changed the world and continues to influence nearly every aspect of our lives, including medicine and health care, business and finance, education and training, science and technology, politics and government, and entertainment.

"Computer Science (CS) is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_science

"Informatics studies the application of information technology to practically any field, while considering its impact on individuals, organizations, and society. It uses computation as a universal tool to solve problems in other fields, to communicate, and to express ideas." Dennis P. Groth, Jeffrey K. MacKie-Mason, Why an Informatics Degree?, Communications of the ACM, feb. 2010

1. THE UNIVERSITY IOWA

Source: http://www.uiowa.edu/
http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/Informatics/index.html

Computer science and Informatics
Computer science is a popular major for first-year students at Iowa. It develops competence in programming principles and methodologies, problem-solving techniques, mathematics, computer systems, data manipulation, and computer applications.
The informatics major combines competence in computational methods with expertise in a particular domain, such as geography or public health, which supports informed decision making.
Informatics students combine courses that provide a strong foundation in computing with work in one of several cognates, creating multidimensional programs that suit the educational and economic needs of the 21st century.

2. ILLINOIS INFORMATICS INSTITUTE, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

Source: https://www.informatics.illinois.edu/
https://www.informatics.illinois.edu/

"Informatics studies the application of information technology to practically any field, while considering its impact on individuals, organizations, and society. It uses computation as a universal tool to solve problems in other fields, to communicate, and to express ideas.
Formally, informatics is the study of the structure and behavior of natural and artificial systems that generate, process, store, and communicate information. Informatics also includes (1) the study of the cognitive, social, legal, and economic impact of information systems; (2) research and development of technologies needed to implement artificial information systems that enhance our cognitive abilities; and (3) the development and use of advanced information systems in science, engineering, arts, humanities, education, and business. Because so much information can be stored digitally, we can manipulate it by computer. And because there is so much information, computing is often the only way to make information beneficial to humanity.
The ability to handle vast amounts of information cheaply has changed the way we live. Advances in computing power, the World Wide Web, search engines, and large-scale collaborative initiatives like Wikipedia have revolutionized the way knowledge is created and shared. We have new forms of social interaction — from email, IM, and blogs to eBay, Facebook, and YouTube — and collaborative art and entertainment - from Limewire and podcasts to Guitar Hero and Second Life. Information technology (IT) has become a ubiquitous, indispensable component of our everyday lives, helping — or hindering — us as we manage information, create knowledge, and make decisions.
Within the humanities, digital content is changing the way we visualize, present, understand, and experience history and literature. Within the fine arts, artists are using high-tech tools to construct virtual worlds, produce animations, and make music. Within the social, biological, and physical sciences, pattern analysis, data mining, visualization of massive data sets, and large-scale simulation of biological and physical processes, are enabling new discoveries and insights.
To leverage these advances to solve problems across all disciplines requires knowledge of how to represent problems and domain-specific data, how to structure processes, how to handle work-flow, how to manage complexity, and how to interpret results. To fully participate as an informed member of society, we must appreciate the historical, ethical, and social ramifications of these accelerating changes.
Informatics addresses all of these issues and provides tools for handling them."

3. Department of Informatics, University of California, Irvine

Source: www.informatics.uci.edu/
"Computing and information technology play an increasingly pervasive role in our daily lives. Informatics is based on recognizing that the design of this technology is not solely a technical matter, but must focus on the relationship between the technology and its use in real-world settings. That is, informatics designs solutions in context, and takes into account the social, cultural and organizational settings in which computing and information technology will be used."
These aspects of computer science form the core of informatics: software engineering, information retrieval and management, programming languages, human-computer interaction, computer-supported collaborative work, ubiquitous computing, privacy and security, and the effects of technology on society.
At its periphery, informatics touches upon many different disciplines, including management, digital arts, visualization, economics, social science, cognitive science, organizational computing, medical informatics, game technology, and many others."

"What was a key topic for study and classroom discussion in the 1970s or 1980s is not necessarily - nor very likely - to be so key in the 21st century. New topics emerge continuously that require prominent positions in curricula, yet we cannot forget the foundations and knowledge that have stood the test of time."
André van der Hoek, Professor and Chair, Department of Informatics

Complexity of learning process

2011-08-13T03:52:00.000-07:00

Learning is a process.

1. What is "complexity"?
2. Predictability, Complexity, and Learning
3. Learning environments are increasingly complex ?
4. Adaptive governance, networks and learning
5. Principles of Learning

Image: Animation of Learning Process, SWWRocBot, A Unique Learning Environment
By Nick Clark, http://swwrocbot.blogspot.com/

Read more: www.unibuc.ro/prof/vlada_m/

Learning from projects and practice

Complexitatea procesului de invatare (in Romanian)

De-a lungul vremii, in toate domeniile stiintifice se schimba teoriile, metodele si tehnicile de investigare, de aceea dinamica cunoasterii umane influenteaza dezvoltarea generala a societatii umane. Pentru a obtine evolutie si eficienta in viata sa, omul trebuie sa se adapteze continuu la aceste schimbari ale cunoasterii. In domeniul educatiei, si in special al invatarii si perfectionarii, aparitia de noi tehnologii ale informatiei si comunicarii (TIC), imbunatatirea teoriilor pedagogice si psihologice, obliga pe elevi/studenti, profesori, parinti si pe specialisti, sa se adapteze la aceste schimbari.

Ce fac elevii si studentii? Ce fac profesorii si parintii? Ce fac specialistii? Ce fac guvernele tarilor?

Models and Solutions: SWWRocBot
An Example
SWWRocBot, A Unique Learning Environment by Nick Clark (Information Science & Learning Technologies, Robotics Coach, School Without Walls); SWWRocBot is a site laying out the Challenges, Solutions and Results that are the foundations of a unique learning environment.
This learning environment is based on the work of Nick Clark, author of "The Geometry of Learning and the Architecture of Knowledge". It will be a multi-disciplinary, interactive and immersive experience (See animation above) with positive outcomes for the following stake holders:
-Students
-Parents
-Teachers
-Administrators
-Mentors
-The School (School Without Walls)
-The City School System
-Community Business Partners
-Community Organization Partners
-Individuals whose talents are required for the success of the program
Source: http://swwrocbot.blogspot.com/

The Need for Clear Definitions
"In any scientific discipline there are many reasons to use terms that have precise definitions. Understanding the terminology of a discipline is essential to learning a subject and precise terminology enables us to communicate ideas clearly with other people. In computer science the problem is even more acute: we need to construct software and hardware components that must smoothly interoperate across interfaces with clients and other components in distributed systems. The definitions of these interfaces need to be precisely specified for interoperability and good systems performance. Computer science already has a number of useful clearly defined models of computation whose behaviors and capabilities are well understood. We should use such models as part of any definition of the term computation. However, for new domains of investigation where there are no appropriate models it may be necessary to invent new formalisms to represent the systems under study."
Alfred V. Aho (Lawrence Gussman Professor in the Computer Science Department at Columbia University).

Ref.: http://ubiquity.acm.org/article.cfm?id=1922682

1. What is "complexity"?

Melanie Mitchell (Professor of Computer Science at Portland State University): I would call this a "deceptively simple" question—in fact, it is one of the most difficult questions of all! The field of complexity arose out of the strong feeling of some scientists that there are deep similarities among certain highly "complex" systems in nature, society, and technology. Examples of such systems include the brain, the immune system, cells, insect societies, economies, the World Wide Web, and so on. By "similarities," I don't mean that there are necessarily a single set of principles that governs these disparate systems, but rather that all these systems exhibit behavior that has been described as "adaptive," "life-like," "intelligent," and "emergent." None of these terms have precise meanings, yet, which makes a formal definition of "complex system" impossible at this time. A system with large numbers of interacting components, in which the components are relatively simple compared with the system as a whole, in which there is no central control or global communication among the components, and in which the interactions among the components gives rise to complex behavior. Here, "complex behavior" refers to the informal terms (e.g., adaptive, emergent) that I listed above.

Ref.: Ubiquity, Volume 2011, Number April (2011), Pages 1-6, http://ubiquity.acm.org/article.cfm?id=1967047

2. Predictability, Complexity, and Learning

"One of the most important examples of prediction is the phenomenon of generalization in learning. Learning is formalized as finding a model that explains or describes a set of observations, but again this is useful only because we expect this model will continue to be valid. In the language of learning theory (see, for example, Vapnik, 1998), an animal can gain selective advantage not from its performance on the training data but only from its performance at generalization. Generalizing—and not “overfitting” the training data—is precisely the problemof isolating those features of the data that have predictive value (see also Bialek and Tishby). Furthermore, we know that the success of generalization hinges on controlling the complexity of the models that we are willing to consider as possibilities.”

Predictability, Complexity, and Learning, Neural Computation 13, 2409–2463 (2001) (Articles Communicated by Jean-Pierre Nadal) by William Bialek (NEC Research Institute, Princeton, U.S.A.), Ilya Nemenman (NEC Research Institute, Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.A., and Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, U.S.A.), Naftali Tishby (NEC Research Institute, Princeton, U.S.A., and School of Computer Science and Engineering and Center for Neural Computation, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel)
Ref.: http://www.princeton.edu/~wbialek/our_papers/bnt_01a.pdf

3. Learning environments are increasingly complex?

Book - Handling complexity in learning environments: theory and research
By Jan Elen, Richard Edward Clark, Joost Lowyck, European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction, 2006, Elsevier Ltd.
What do we mean when we say that "learning environments are increasingly complex"? What do we know about the cognitive processing that occurs during complex learning? How can we provide effective instructional support for students who must learn and apply complex knowledge? These questions, and related issues, have fascinated educators and educational researchers for many years and are they are the focus of this book.

Ref.: http://books.google.com/

4. Adaptive governace, networks and learning
“Learning is therefore essential for stakeholders to develop their ability to deal effectively with new situations and to prepare for change and surprise.” Örjan Bodin ( Adaptive governance, networks and learning)

Ref.: http://www.stockholmresilience.org/2218.html
Halldén, O., Lundholm C. (2009). 25-30 August. Conceptual Change and the Complexity of Learning. Threshold Questions, Meaning making and Contextuality. Paper presented at the 13th conference European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction, Amsterdam, Holland.

5.Principles of Learning
- Organizing for Effort
- Clear Expectations
- Fair and Credible Evaluations
- Recognition of Accomplishment
- Academic Rigor in a Thinking Curriculum
- Accountable Talk®
- Socializing Intelligence
- Self-management of Learning

Ref.: http://ifl.lrdc.pitt.edu/

"Research in education demonstrates that, by working hard, virtually all students are capable of high achievement. These findings have caused educators to recognize the primacy of effort, rather than following ingrained assumptions about innate aptitude. Effort-based education research has started to demonstrate that properly focused student efforts not only yield high achievement for all students, but can actually create ability. People can become smart by working hard at the right kinds of learning tasks." Institute for Learning (IFL), University of Pittsburgh.
- http://www.instituteforlearning.org/

Professor Peter J. Denning

2011-08-11T10:16:00.000-07:00

Peter J. Denning is best known for pioneering work in virtual memory. He was a pioneer in the development of principles for operating systems and contributed the memory management methods used in all operating systems. Known for Virtual Memory, Working Set, Principle of locality.
• He made substantial contributions to performance evaluation when that industry was getting launched. Denning has been a major influence in computing education.
• In 1999, he expanded the search for fundamental principles to cover all of computing. The discovery of natural information processes in biology, physics, economics, materials, and other fields convinced him that the basic definitions of computation had to be modified to encompass natural information processes as well as artificial.
• In 2007 ACM gave him a special award for 40 years of continuous volunteer service and the NSF gave him one of two national Distinguished Education Fellow awards.

Learning from failures?
"The key idea is not failure, but learning. The process of embracing uncertainty and adventuring in the mysteries of the world is a learning process. We cannot learn if we do not try. When something we try fails, we seek to understand what made it fail and modify our future behavior when we try again. I don't see learning from failures to be a prediction method, but a practice for blending with the unfolding world.", Peter_J._Denning, An Interview with Peter Denning the end of the future by Brian Branagan, Ubiquity ACM, may 2011

Note: Ubiquity is publication of ACM, Peter J. Denning - Editor-in-Chief; Ubiquity is ACM's peer-reviewed Web-based magazine devoted to the future of computing and the people who are creating it.

Ref.:
- http://innovators-way.com/authors/
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_J._Denning
- http://ubiquity.acm.org/article.cfm?id=1979464
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5a_pO3NYJl0

Carta universitara si alegeri 2011

2011-08-09T02:42:00.000-07:00

Update (11 dec.): Confirmarea Rectorului UB:Profesorul Mircea Dumitru (in sedinta de Senat, in prezenra Ministrului de resort)
Update (15 dec.): Alegerea Rectorului UB: Prof. dr. Mircea Dumitru.
Update (24 nov.): Carta UB avizata de MECTS (sept.2011)
Art. 40.
Cadrele didactice şi cercetătorii din Universitate au următoarele responsabilităţi:
...
b) să-si îmbunătăţească activitatea didactică, având mereu în vedere evaluarea rezultatelor învăţării, autonomia studentului, capacitatea lui de gândire critică, de rezolvare a problemelor, de lucru în echipă, de integrare într-o organizaţie după absolvire;

1. Consideratii generale
2. Carta UB
2. Carta ASE Bucuresti
3. Carta UMF Cluj-Napoca
4. Clasificare universitati (6 sept.)

Anexa: Top 10 universităţi - Top Shanghai (2010)

1. Consideratii generale
In prezent, universitatile din Romania (de stat si private) desfasoara activitati diverse privind adaptarea organizarii, functionarii si managementului la cerintele prevederilor din noua Legea a invatamantului nr. 1/2011. Cibernetic vorbind, orice sistem este eficient si modern daca are organizare, functionare si management corespunzator misiunii lui.
• Starea actuala a universitatilor este rezultatul contextului general din societate, dar si al starii organizarii, functionarii si managementului de la nivelul fiecarei universitati. Resursa umana este primordiala ca in orice tip de activitate din societate. Aceasta depinde de educatie, sanatate, cultura si de nivelul de dezvoltare a societatii. De aceea, guvernele majoritatii tarilor din lume investesc in EDUCATIE, SANATATE, CULTURA.
• Societatea cunoasterii catre care tinde omenirea, se bazeaza pe o noua abordare a cunoasterii si o noua atitudine a omului fata de dezvoltare si fata de perfectionarea lui profesionala. Mentalitatile invechite, obiceiurile marunte, egoismul uman, interesele ascunse si meschine, lacomia si parvenirea, vor fi marginalizate prin actiuni ferme, reguli si legi clare si precise.
• Unde sunt reguli si legi neclare si incomplete, acolo e mediu propice pentru obstacole si ingradiri ale libertatii si drepturilor cetatenilor, pentru nedreptati aduse cetatenilor sau pentru instaurarea puterii celor mediocrii si, astfel o rasturnare a valorilor in societate.

Concluzii: rezultatele Referendumului universitar (iunie 2011) pentru alegerea modalității de desemnare a rectorului au aratat ca toate universitatile (cred ca nu exista exceptii!) au optat ca rectorul instituţiei să fie ales "pe bază de alegeri generale, prin vot universal, direct, secret şi egal".
Ref.: www.unibuc.ro/n/despre/Rezultate

Alegeri 2011: Noutatea consta in faptul ca la nivelul Departamentelor, Facultatilor si Senatului, precum si la alegerea Rectorului, vor fi "alegeri generale, prin vot universal, direct, secret şi egal". Prin urmare, fiecare scrutin de alegeri necesita metodologii si regulamente. Daca la ASE Bucuresti si la UMF Cluj-Napoca s-au elaborat regulamentele electorale (la UMF Cluj deja s-a stabilit calendarul electoral: a se vedea la sfarsit), la UB acest subiect este abordat mai simplu (se pare ca organizarea alegerilor este transferata facultatilor! e vorba de art. 126): vom vedea cum se va implementa in practica.

2. Carta UB
ref.: http://www.unibuc.ro/ (.pdf)
Observatii de redactare:
- art. 70 si 71 sunt identice
- La cap. V nu exista sectiunea I (incepe cu sectiunea II; probabil inainte de art. 55 trebuie denumita sectiunea I ORGANELE DE CONDUCERE); Carta trebuie avizata de minister, poate se vor depista acestea.

Misiunea unei Universităţii in viziunea UB
Art. 10.
(1) Misiunea Universităţii are trei componente: formare, cercetare şi contribuţie la dezvoltarea societăţii româneşti.
(2) În domeniul formării, Universitatea urmăreşte formarea unor specialişti capabili şi responsabili, înzestraţi cu gândire critică, cu abilităţi de leadership şi de înţelegere a problematicii legate de progresul economic şi social, pentru o societate bazată pe cunoaştere.
(3) Universitatea promovează cercetarea fundamentală şi cea aplicată, în domeniile ştiinţelor exacte, ştiinţelor inginereşti, experimentale, sociale şi umane, cu scopul de a contribui la progresul cunoaşterii, la difuzarea cunoştinţelor ştiinţifice şi a creaţiei artistice, în vederea consolidării unei culturi naţionale integrate în spaţiul european şi deschise la fenomenele de globalizare.
(4) Universitatea contribuie la modernizarea României, prin propunerea de politici publice, de conţinut legislativ, prin inovarea în domeniul practicilor instituţionale, prin inovarea tehnologică şi prin comunicarea publică naţională şi internaţională.

De remarcat alin (4) ce reclama modalitati de implementare. In rest, important este CUM se realizeaza aceasta MISIUNE! Carta universitara trebuie sa indice si sa prevada clar, explicit si fara echivoc modalitatile. Valabil pentru toate universitatile. Pana acum , CUM a fost?

Despre transparenţa decizională
Mi se datoreaza (am trimis propuneri la comisia de redactare) litera n) de la art. 39:
n) dreptul de a fi informat cu privire la deciziile curente ale Senatului, Consiliului Facultăţii şi Consiliului Departamentului.
Trebuie avut in vedere neaparat:
Art. 53.
(1) Pentru validitatea întrunirilor organelor colective de conducere ale Universităţii este necesar un cvorum de prezenţă de cel puţin 2/3 din numărul membrilor respectivelor organe.
(2) Cvorumul de prezenţă se menţionează în minuta şedinţei organului de conducere al Universităţii. Minuta se publică după validarea acesteia în următoarea şedinţă

Despre alegeri
La o sumara investigare, daca nu gresesc, cred ca s-a omis sa se elaboreze un regulament electoral (a se vedea art. 8), asa cum celelalte universitati au realizat.

Noutate: înfiinţarea de societăţi comerciale (art. 19)
Important: Art. 57.
(1) Departamentul este unitatea academică funcţională care asigură producerea, transmiterea şi valorificarea cunoaşterii în unul sau mai multe domenii de specialitate.
(2) Un departament poate avea în compunere, de regulă, între 20 şi 50 de membri titulari; excepţii pot reprezenta departamentele nou înfiinţate în domenii noi sau interdisciplinare. În cazul în care, timp de 3 ani succesivi, numărul membrilor unui departament nu respectă limitele de mai sus, se va proceda la reorganizarea respectivului departament.

Practica studentilor si colaborarea cu mediul de afaceri si piata muncii
- in afara de referirea la practica pedagogica, nu se abordeaza aceasta problema majora a invatamantului superior, de ce oare?
- practica de specialitate este un aspect cu o influenta mare privind formarea de specialisti care sa faca fata exigentelor din piata muncii
- colaborarea cu mediul de afaceri conduce la inserţie mare pe piaţa muncii a absolvenţilor
Nota: exista Legea 258/2007 privind practica elevilor şi studenţilor. Poate este abrogata! Trebuie studiat acest aspect.
Art. 1. - Practica este activitatea desfăşurată de elevi şi studenţi, în conformitate cu planul de învăţământ, care are drept scop verificarea aplicabilităţii cunoştinţelor teoretice însuşite de aceştia în cadrul programului de instruire.

2. Carta ASE Bucuresti

Ref.: http://www.ase.ro/ (.pdf)

Art. 37.
(8) adoptă o metodologie de alegeri pentru reglementarea proceselor elective privind structurile universitare de conducere, în termen de maximum 60 de zile de la data validării raportului comisiei care organizează procesul de votare a modalităţii de desemnare a rectorului;
Art. 45. (1) Procedurile elective sau concursurile publice pentru ocuparea funcţiilor de conducere sunt reglementate prin metodologia elaborată de consiliul de administraţie şi aprobată de către senatul universitar în termen de maximum 60 de zile de la data validării de către senatul universitar a raportului biroului electoral care organizează procesul de votare amodalităţii de desemnare a rectorului.

3. Carta UMF Cluj-Napoca

Ref.: http://www.umfcluj.ro/ (.pdf)

REGULAMENT ELECTORAL, UNIVERSITATEA DE MEDICINĂ ŞI FARMACIE “IULIU HAŢIEGANU” CLUJ-NAPOCA
-adoptat de Senatul UMF “Iuliu Haţieganu” în data de 28 iunie 2011 –
Art. 22
(1) Candidaturile pentru Consiliul Facultăţii se înscriu pe buletinul de vot grupate pe departamente, cu ordonare alfabetică după numele de familie al candidaţilor din fiecare departament în parte.
(2) Din lista de candidaţi, fiecare elector votează pentru cel mult atâtea persoane câte locuri are Consiliul Facultăţii.
Art. 28
(1) Candidaţii pentru Senat ai unei Facultăţi sunt ordonaţi alfabetic pe buletinele de vot, în ordinea crescătoare a numelui de familie, fără a se ţine cont de departamentul de provenienţă.
(2) Din lista de candidaţi, fiecare elector va vota pentru cel mult atâtea persoane câte locuri are atribuită Facultatea în Senat.

Anexa 1
Calendar de alegeri:
• 15 septembrie 2011 - 1 octombrie 2011 – Desemnare şefi de disciplină; şedinţa de investire sau alegeri la fiecare disciplină.
• 15 septembrie 2011 - 15 octombrie 2011 – Depunere candidaturi pentru Director de departament (CV şi plan managerial) şi depunere CV pentru candidatii in Consiliului Departamentului.
• 15 octombrie 2011 - 7 noiembrie 2011 – Alegeri la nivel de departamente: Consiliul Departamentului; Directorul departamentului; Desemnare candidaţi pentru Consiliul Facultăţii; Desemnare candidaţi pentru Senatul Universităţii
• 8-13 noiembrie 2011 – Desemnarea CEF şi CEU
• 7-21 noiembrie 2011 – Depunere şi afisare pe site-ul Universităţii a CV-urilor candidaţilor pentru Consiliul Facultăţii şi pentru Senatul Universităţii
• 1 octombrie 2011 - 21 noiembrie 2011 – Depunere candidaturi pentru funcţia de Rector
În ziua de 8 decembrie 2011 se organizează o şedinţa de prezentare publică a platformelor electorale ale tuturor candidaţilor la funcţia de rector, cu invitarea întregii comunităţi academice. Procedurile de desfăşurare a acestei şedinţe sunt cele aprobate de Senatul universităţii.
• 1 noiembrie 2011-10 decembrie 2011 – Depunere candidaturi pentru funcţia de Decan
• 15 decembrie 2011 – Alegeri: Consiliile Facultăţilor; Senatul Universităţii; Rector

4. Clasificare universitati (6 sept. 2011)

Clasificarea europeana a universitatilor din Romania
Clasificare realizata de Asociatia Universitatilor Europene (European Quality Assurance Register-EQAR), la solicitarea ministrului român al educaţie.

EUA supports implementation of Romanian higher education reforms: Government announces classification of universities
- Ref.: http://www.eua.be/News/11-09-06

Categoria I (Licenta, Master, Doctorat): Universitati de Cercetare Avansata si Educatie
1. Universitatea din Bucuresti
2. Universitatea “Babes – Bolyai” din Cluj-Napoca
3. Universitatea "Al.I. Cuza" din Iasi
4. Academia de Studii Economice din Bucuresti (ASE)
5. Universitatea de Stiinte Agricole si Medicina Veterinara din Cluj-Napoca
6. Universitatea de Medicina si Farmacie “Carol Davila” din Bucuresti
7. Universitatea de Medicina si Farmacie din Iasi
8. Universitatea de Medicina si Farmacie “Iuliu Hateganu” din Cluj-Napoca
9. Universitatea Politehnica Bucuresti
10. Universitatea Tehnica “Gheorghe Asachi” din Iasi
11. Universitatea Tehnica din Cluj-Napoca
12. Universitatea Politehnica din Timisoara

Categoria a II-a (Licenta, Master): Universitati de Educatie si Cercetare Stiintifica
1. Universitatea de Vest din Timisoara
2. Universitatea din Craiova
3. Universitatea Transilvania din Brasov
4. Universitatea “Ovidius” din Constanta
5. Universitatea “Dunarea de Jos” din Galati
6. Universitatea “Lucian Blaga” din Sibiu
7. Universitatea din Oradea
8. SNSPA Bucuresti
9. Univ. de Stiinte Agricole si Medicina Veterinara”Ion Ionescu de la Brad” din Iasi
10. Universitatea de Stiinte Agronomice si Medicina Veterinara din Bucuresti
11. Univ. de Stiinte Agricole si Medicina Veterinara a Banatului din Timisoara
12. Universitatea de Medicina si Farmacie “Victor Babes” din Timisoara
13. Universitatea de Medicina si Farmacie din Craiova
14. Universitatea Tehnica de Constructii Bucuresti
15. Universitatea de Medicina si Farmacie din Targu Mures
+ Universitatile militare si Universitatile de creatie artistica (circa 12 universitati de arte si militare)

Categoria a III-a (Licenta): Universitati de Educatie
- restul

Anexa: Top Shanghai (2010)
Primele 10 universităţi - Top Shanghai
1. Universitatea Harvard, SUA
2. Universitatea Stanford, SUA
3. Institutul de Tehnologie Massachusetts, SUA
4. Universitatea California, Berkley, SUA
5. Universitatea Cambridge, Marea Britanie
6. Institutul de Tehnologie California, SUA
7. Universitatea Princeton, SUA
8. Universitatea Columbia, SUA
9. Universitatea Chicago, SUA
10. Universitatea Oxford, Marea Britanie

2016: Juno Rockets Toward Jupiter

2011-08-09T01:43:00.000-07:00

When the robotic Juno spacecraft reaches Jupiter in 2016, it will spend just over a year circling the Solar System's largest planet, using its unique cadre of instruments to probe the planet, sending back clues of its structure and origin.

Ref.: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110809.html
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fVAMaV7syE&feature=related

21st Century Fluencies for the Digital Age

2011-08-05T01:30:00.000-07:00

21st Century Fluencies for the Digital Age Project

Ref.: http://www.fluency21.com

Literacy is NOT Enough: 21st Century Fluencies for the Digital Age

Powerful technologies and information systems have caused facts to become obsolete faster, and knowledge built on these facts to become less durable.

Literacy is NOT Enough: The New Learning Process

The New Learning Process covers a fundamental shift in the basic paradigm of teaching that is required to prepare digital students for 21st century life.

What do we do with all this information?

Our society has been irreversibly affected by a new phenomenon in InfoWhelm - an unparalleled access to a wealth of online information, never before seen or heard of. Learning has truly become a lifelong pursuit, and it can happen anytime and anywhere in our Information age. But how do we determine good from the bad, interpret right from wrong, and distinguish complete, accurate, and usable data from a sea of irrelevance and digital inundation? The skills to help us best understand and make use of the wealth of knowledge at our fingertips is essential to life and success both in the classrooms and workforces of the 21st century

Ref.: http://www.fluency21.com

http://www.committedsardine.com/presentations_LNE.cfm

http://www.youtube.com/v/7ECAVxbfsfc?f=videos&app=youtube_gdata

Multi -Touch Technology & Transdisciplinarity

2011-07-29T09:54:00.000-07:00

Content
1. Multi-Touch Technology
2. Transdisciplinarity
3. Romanian Project

1. Multi-Touch Technology

Multi-touch technologies have a long history (Ref: Bill Buxton). What is Multi-touch? Ref.: http://solutions.3m.com (Touch Terminology)
Example. 2011: Surface 2.0 (Microsoft & Samsung) - www.microsoft.com/surface/

Ideas main. About Microsoft Surface:

2001: Microsoft researchers Steve Bathiche and Andy Wilson developed idea of interactive table that could understand the manipulation of physical pieces.
2007: Final structure finalised,interactive tabletop device was built that seamlessly brings both the physical and virtual worlds into one.
Direct interaction: Users can actually “grab” digital information with their hands and interact with content by touch and gesture, without the use of a mouse or keyboard.
Multi-touch contact: Surface computing recognizes many points of contact simultaneously, not just from one finger, as with a typical touch screen, but up to dozens and dozens of items at once.

2. Transdisciplinarity

"A NEW VISION OF THE WORLD - TRANSDISCIPLINARITY" by Basarab Nicolescu (Basarab Nicolescu is a major advocate of the transdisciplinary reconciliation between science and the humanities. He has published many articles on the role of science in contemporary culture in journals in France, Romania, Italy, United Kingdom, Brazil, Argentina, Japan and in the USA)

Who is Basarab Nicolescu ? Ref.:
The International Center for Transdisciplinary Research (CIRET)
- http://basarab.nicolescu.perso.sfr.fr/ciret/ro/visionro.htm
- http://basarab.nicolescu.perso.sfr.fr/ciret/indexen.html
- http://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basarab_Nicolescu
- http://basarab.nicolescu.perso.sfr.fr/Basarab/index.html
- http://basarab.nicolescu.perso.sfr.fr/Basarab/News.html

"Disciplinarity, multidisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity are like four arrows shot from but a single bow: knowledge . The three pillars of transdisciplinarity - levels of Reality, the logic of the included middle, and complexity -- determine the methodology of transdisciplinary research." Basarab Nicolescu

"In our time, a Pico della Mirandola is inconceivable. Perhaps a Pico della Mirandola in our time could be conceivable if he took the form of a supercomputer into which one could load all the known data which has been generated by all existing disciplines. This supercomputer would be capable of knowing everything while understanding nothing. Its user would be no better off than the supercomputer itself. The user would have immediate access to any results from any discipline, but would be incapable of understanding their meanings, still less of making connections between the results of different disciplines." Basarab Nicolescu
Note 1: 1959: Gold medal at the First International Mathematics Olympiad, Brasov, Romania.
Note 2 : 2010: The ATLAS Ramamoorthy§Yeh Transdisciplinary Distinguished Award, offered by the Academy of Transdisciplinary Learning and Advanced Studies, Southwestern University, Georgetown, Texas, USA. Designated as Co-Editor-in-Chief of "Transdisciplinary Journal of Engineering&Science", USA.
Invited Talks (a selection):
- talk The Relationship Between Complex Thinking and Transdisciplinarity at the Symposium on Complex Systems Modeling and Complexity Thinking, Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Maison Suger, Paris.
- talk Methodology of Transdisciplinarity - Levels of Reality, Logic of the Included middle and Complexity at the international congress "Transdisciplinary Sustainable Development", Southwestern University, Georgetown, Texas, USA.

3. Romanian Project

Multi - Touch project: "Educational process optimized in vision of knowledge society skills" Project 2009-2012. Integrated curriculum, inter-and transdisciplinary "Learning in the Knowledge Society"
Ref.: http://transdisciplinar.pmu.ro

"Societatea cunoaşterii presupune nu numai o extindere şi aprofundare a cunoaşterii umane, dar mai ales managementul cunoaşterii şi o diseminare fără precedent a cunoaşterii, către toţi cetăţenii, prin mijloace noi." Mihai Drăgănescu (1929-2010)

(in romanian)
Strategia de postaderare UE 2007-2013.
Proiect Multi - Touch „Proces educaţional optimizat în viziunea competenţelor societăţii cunoaşterii” (Curriculumului integrat, inter- şi transdisciplinar "Învăţare în societatea cunoaşterii"), cofinanţat din Fondul Social European (FSE) si implementat de Unitatea de management al proiectelor cu finanţare externă, din cadrul MECTS, în parteneriat cu SIVECO România şi Universitatea Naţională de Apărare "CAROL I" (Departamentul ADL).
Activitati principale:
- DEZVOLTAREA DE CURRICULUM TRANSDISCIPLINAR (dezvoltarea curriculumului transdisciplinar pentru domeniile stiintific si umanist, aferent nivelului liceal)
- DEZVOLTAREA DE MATERIALE DIDACTICE AFERENTE CURRICULUMULUI TRANSDISCIPLINAR (dezvoltare de aplicatii practice aferente continutului teoretic transdisciplinar, constand in proiecte didactice transdisciplinare
- IMPLEMENTAREA DE CURRICULUM SI MATERIALE DIDACTICE TRANSDISCIPLINARE-FORMARE (organizarea unui concurs de proiecte didactice transdisciplinare -dupa finalizarea implementarii, pentru toate liceele din tara grupate pe regiuni de dezvoltare; pentru fiecare regiune de dezvoltare va fi desemnat un liceu castigator, acesta urmand sa fie dotat cu laborator multi-touch: Achizitia publica de laboratoare multi-touch pentru 8 unitati de învatamânt - Fiecare laborator va contine 4 mese multi-touch, 1 tabla interactiva si videoproiector, 1 server, 1 calculator portabil, toate aceste echipamente fiind integrate într-o retea locala si conectate la Internet.)
- DEZVOLTAREA DE PROIECTE TRANSDISCIPLINARE PE BAZA TEHNOLOGIEI MULTI-TOUCH (continut curricular transdisciplinar adaptat pentru utilizare in cadrul laboratoarelor multi-touch -metodologie de scriere a scenariilor didactice, inclusiv formatul pe baza caruia vor fi elaborate scenariile, dezvoltate)
Concluzii
Utilizarea tehnologiei multi-touch implementează:
• învăţarea activă prin explorare, valorificând rolul pozitiv al erorilor ca parte integrantă a procesului de învăţare; elevii pot crea experienţe greu accesibile din diverse motive (periculozitate, imposibilitate istorică, distanţa în spaţiu, costuri etc.); elevii pot testa evenimentele ce pot interveni într-un sistem dat, modificând variabilele acestora;
• învăţarea prin acţiune, prin transferul de cunoştinţe şi deprinderi în contexte noi;
• învăţarea colaborativă, participativă, bazată pe negociere şi partajare socială a rolurilor în cadrul grupului, dezvoltarea capacităţilor de lucru în echipă şi de raportare la ceilalţi;
• învăţarea bazată pe proiect;
• învăţarea în context.
Ref.: http://transdisciplinar.pmu.ro/resurse

The "Smart education" Project: 2015

2011-07-27T01:19:00.000-07:00

TextBook vs. Tablet PC

S. Korea to digitise school books | Coreea de Sud schimbă manualele cu Tablete PC

The South Korean government has said it plans to digitise all textbooks for elementary, middle and high school students by 2015. This plan for "smart education" is aimed at helping students create their own study pattern, and lighten their backpacks.
Source: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/

"Ministerul Educaţiei, Ştiinţei şi Tehnologiei din Corea de Sud a anunţat un plan pentru migrarea de la manualele şcolare clasice, pe suport de hârtie, la manuale în format electronic. Ministerul a alocat proiectului suma de aproximativ două miliarde de dolari, iar tranziţia urmează să se finalizeze în 2015, când se estimează că toţi elevii din învăţământul primar vor beneficia de noile manuale, precum şi de dispozitive hardware corespunzătoare, tablet PC-uri sau telefoane smart. În următorii ani autorităţile trebuie să se asigure că toate materialele didactice vor fi digitalizate. Toţi elevii sud coreeni vor primi gratuit tabletele digitale, iar manualele vor fi disponibile pentru descărcare de pe serverele ministerului, prin intermediul reţelelor WiFi locale." Sursa: http://portal.edu.ro/index.php/articles/11512

Tablet PC – calculator portabil al cărui ecran (de regulă cu o diagonală de 12 inchi) îndeplineşte o funcţie dublă: cea de afişare a informaţiei şi interfaţă de manipulare a calculatorului (de obicei prin intermediul unui stylus -unealtă de scris sub forma unei mini-baghete din material plastic sau metal având la vârf o bobiţă din plastic, folosită pentru interacţiunea cu ecranele tactile rezistive, sau folosind degetele - touch). Primul tablet a fost lansat în 2001 de către Microsoft şi folosea Windows XP Tablet PC Edition.

Tipuri de Tablet PC: a) tip broşură ; b) tip placă; c) tip decapotabil; d) tip hibrid.

Sursa: http://www.it4fans.ro/

Microsoft Azure Platform - Cloud computing

2011-07-24T22:48:00.000-07:00

The Windows Azure Platform is a Microsoft cloud platform used to build, host and scale web applications through Microsoft datacenters. Windows Azure Platform is thus classified as platform as a service and forms part of Microsoft's cloud computing strategy, along with their software as a service offering, Microsoft Online Services.

Note (in romanian): Premieră în 2011 pentru România
Modulul de publicare a informaţiilor pe Internet (Sistemul informatic pentru examenele naţionale - realizat de Siveco Romania) a folosit platforma de Cloud computing Microsoft Azure, ceea ce asigură disponibilitate permanentă, capacitate de calcul practic infinită, redundanţă şi securitate a informaţiilor. Acest modul a fost conceput special pentru a face faţă atât unui număr foarte mare de accesări simultane, cât şi posibilelor atacuri menite să întrerupă disponibilitatea serviciilor furnizate. Conform www.trafic.ro, pe 12 iulie 2011 s-a înregistrat un nou record de vizitatori unici pentru http://portal.edu.ro, cu 828.935 într-o singură zi şi peste 24 de milioane de afişări. Cele mai accesate site-uri ale portalului au fost http://admitere.edu.ro, http://bacalaureat.edu.ro şi http://titularizare.edu.ro.

Sursa: http://portal.edu.ro/index.php/articles/news/11492

About Windows Azure Platform

The Windows Azure Platform provides an API built on REST, HTTP and XML that allows a developer to interact with the services provided by Windows Azure. Microsoft also provides a client-side managed class library which encapsulates the functions of interacting with the services. It also integrates with Microsoft Visual Studio so that it can be used as the IDE to develop and publish Azure-hosted applications. Windows Azure became commercially available on 1 Feb 2010.
"Running applications on machines in an Internet-accessible data center can bring plenty of advantages. Yet wherever they run, applications are built on some kind of platform. For on-premises applications, this platform usually includes an operating system, some way to store data, and perhaps more. Applications running in the cloud need a similar foundation. The goal of Microsoft's Windows Azure is to provide this."

Sharding with SQL Azure

Database sharding is a technique of horizontal partitioning data across multiple physical servers to provide application scale-out. SQL Azure is a cloud database service from Microsoft that provides database functionality as a utility service, offering many benefits including rapid provisioning, cost-effective scalability, high availability and reduced management overhead. SQL Azure combined with database sharding techniques provides for virtually unlimited scalability of data for an application.

Source: www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/whitepapers/

Case Studies: www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/evidence/
Example
New NASA Web Site Engages Citizens to Help Explore Mars - http://beamartian.jpl.nasa.gov/
"Researchers at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA/JPL) wanted to solve two different challenges—providing public access to vast amounts of Mars-related exploration images, and engaging the public in activities related to NASA’s Mars Exploration Program in order to encourage learning in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Using a variety of technologies, NASA/JPL created its new BeAMartian Web site . The site provides entertaining and engaging ways to view and interact with information delivered by Mars-based rovers and orbiters. The goal is to let the public participate in exploration, making contributions to data processing and analysis. It also provides a platform that lets developers collaborate with NASA on solutions that can help scientists analyze vast amounts of information that can be used to understand the universe and support future space exploration."

What is Cloud Computing?
Ref.: http://mvlada.blogspot.com/

The New Journal: IJCSRA

2011-07-21T04:33:00.000-07:00

The International Journal of Computer Science Research and Application
The journal is not intended for profit, but for mere dissemination and promotion of latest research.

IJCSRA - www.ijcsra.org
(ISSN 2012-9564, and ISSN 2012-9572 online), Journal Publisher by INREWI (Integrating Research Wisdom).

International Journal of Computer Science Research and Application is a peer-reviewed, academic and research publishing journal focused to publish high quality, original research articles in Computer Science and related aspects.
IJCSRA promotes and publish research articles that facilitate knowledge sharing among fellow researchers, academics and industry. IJCSRA welcomes appropriate contributions from experts in the categories such as completed research, work in progress, Literature review, technical notes, position papers and survey reports related to Computer Science and all related subjects on theoretical findings or applied research.

Topics - http://www.ijcsra.org/call-for
The topics of high interest for submission include, but are not confined to the following areas. Authors are highly encouraged to ask the editors in case of any doubt on the journal focus.

ICVL and IJCSRA are partners:
- http://c3.icvl.eu/2011/proceedings
- http://c3.icvl.eu/2011/partners
- http://www.ijcsra.org/indexing

Professor Sorin Istrail

2011-07-17T08:35:00.000-07:00

Sorin Istrail is the Julie Nguyen Brown Professor of Computational and Mathematical Sciences, Professor of Computer Science, and Director of the Center for Computational Molecular Biology at Brown University.
He was previously senior director and then head of the Informatics Research Group of Celera Genomics. Prior to Celera, he founded the Computational Biology Project at Sandia National Laboratories (1992-2000). In 1998, his work on Protein Misfolding simulations was included by Scientific American in its "Best of 1998" list.In 2001, his work at Sandia on the computational intractability of the three-dimensional Ising model was ranked as the top 7th achievement in Advanced Scientific Computing in the Top 100 U.S. Department of Energy Most Important Discoveries in DOE's first 25 years.

- 1979 Ph.D. in Computer Science, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania
Thesis: Context Sensitive Languages with Applications to Semantics of Programs and Number Theory;
Advisors: Professors Solomon Marcus and Sergiu Rudeanu - http://cs.brown.edu/~sorin/advisor_gene.html

(in image: Gheorghe Ştefănescu, Virgil Căzănescu, Dragoş Vaida, Solomon Marcus, Sorin Istrail, Sergiu Rudeanu – University of Bucharest, Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science)

Research Topics or Projects
ISTRAIL LABORATORY - www.brown.edu/Research/Istrail_Lab/
Genomic Regulatory Networks and the Regulatory Genome
Computational Models of SNPs and Haplotypes
Medical Bioinformatics and Beyond
Algorithmic Theory of Protein Folding
Programming Language for Genomics
Von Neumann Research Program in Biological Complex Systems
Statistical Mechanics and Computational Complexity

Publications: http://www.cs.brown.edu/people/sorin/publication.htm
- http://cs.brown.edu/~sorin/pdfs/venter2.pdf
The Sequence of the Human Genome, Science, vol 291, pp.1145-1434, 2001
Note: "The human genome project began in 1990 and is supposed to be finished in 2005."

Software: www.brown.edu/Research/Istrail_Lab/pages/software.html

John von Neumann Page
- www.brown.edu/Research/Istrail_Lab/pages/von_neumann.html

Brown University - Summer 2008 Guest Lectures:
Solomon Marcus, Professor Emeritus, University of Bucharest
- www.brown.edu/Research/Istrail_Lab/pages/lectures.html

Nota (in romanian): "Prof. dr Sorin Istrail se numără între şefii grupelor de cercetători care au lucrat la întocmirea hărţii genomului uman."
CRISTINEL C. POPA, Românul care a contribuit la descoperirea mileniului, http://www1.jurnalul.ro/

Dobrogea and Black Sea

2011-07-16T06:41:00.000-07:00

About Dobrogea

Dobrogea is a territory of intereferences between: Occidend and Orient, Latins and Slaves, Muslims and Christians, and old Empires (Roman, Bizantin,Otoman, Russian). As Nicolae Ioarga, a famous Romanian writer once said:
"Dobrogea is a very curious country geologically, which geographically doesn't belong to any of the Carpathians and Balkans, and whose history has been as diverse as its ground's shapes and nature". Source: www.webydesigns.ro/dobrogea/index.html

Dobrogea's history
(in romanian: Dobrogea. O scurtă istorie (I) by Ion Bulei)

Greeks from Miletus founded the town of Istros (Histria) in 657 BC, and later the towns of Tomis (Constanta) and Callatis (Mangalia). The lands south of Dobrogea were part of the Thracian kingdom of Odrisa. In 480 BC the Thracians extended their rule over Dobrogea and in 339 BC Alexander brought Dobrogea under Macedonian rule, however after his death Macedonian control weakened. Source: www.webydesigns.ro/dobrogea/history.html

Ref.:
- www.webydesigns.ro/dobrogea/index.html
- www.webydesigns.ro/dobrogea/history.html
- www.geographic.org/

About Black Sea

The Black Sea forms in an east-west trending elliptical depression which lies between Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. Important cities along the coast include Batumi, Burgas, Constanţa, Giresun, Hopa, Istanbul, Kerch, Kherson, Mangalia, Năvodari, Novorossiysk, Odessa, Ordu, Poti, Rize, Samsun, Sevastopol, Sochi, Sukhumi, Trabzon, Varna, Yalta and Zonguldak. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sea

Did you know?
The Black Sea is almost completely cut off from the world's other seas and ocean. The deepest waters of the Black Sea extend to depths of well over two kilometres.
Source: www.icpdr.org/icpdr-pages/black_sea.htm

With an international airport, a busy seaport, express trains linking it to Bucharest (2 1/2 hours) and a 2,500 year history (the Roman poet Ovid lived in exile here), Constanta is the very kind of cosmopolitan place a seaside vacation needs.

Source: www.turism.ro/english/black_sea.php

Ref.:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sea
- http://www.nationalgeographic.com/blacksea/
- http://www.icpdr.org/icpdr-pages/black_sea.htm

Imagination - Collatz conjecture: 3x+1

2011-07-13T03:27:00.000-07:00

"Imagination is more important than knowledge." Albert Einstein
"Development of Western science is based on two great achievements: the invention of the formal logical system (in Euclidean geometry) by the Greek philosophers, and the discovery of the possibility to find out causal relationships by systematic experiment (during Renaissance)." Albert Einstein (1953)

The 3x + 1 problem (Collatz problem)

Ref.:

- http://mathworld.wolfram.com/CollatzProblem.html

- http://www.ericr.nl/wondrous/index.html

- Edited by Jeffrey C. Lagarias, The ultimate challenge: The 3x + 1 problem, AMS (American Mathematical Society), 2010, 348 pp.

- Tomás Oliveira e Silva, Empirical Verification of the 3x+1 and Related Conjectures. In The Ultimate Challenge: The 3x+1 Problem (Book edited by Jeffrey C. Lagarias), pp. 189-207, American Mathematical Society, 2010

- Chaos & Graphics, The 3x+1 fractal , Computers & Graphics, Volume 28, Issue 3, June 2004, Pages 431-435,

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0097849304000366,

- http://numeratus.net/collatz/cfractal.pdf

- http://www.ieeta.pt/~tos/3x+1.html

- http://delab.csd.auth.gr/bci1/Panhellenic/700tzanis.pdf

- Image: http://www.csun.edu/~vcmth02i/Collatz.pdf

Exploring Computational Thinking - Research Blog

2011-07-10T02:23:00.000-07:00

Exploring Computational Thinking - Research Blog

Computational Thinking is the skill of the 21st century

What is Computational Thinking?

1. Logical Thinking
2. Algorithmic Thinking
3. Efficient Solutions
4. Scientific Thinking
5. Innovative Thinking

“So what is Computational Thinking? Well it is a collection of diverse skills to do with problem solving that result from studying the nature of computation. It includes some obviously important skills that most subjects help develop, like creativity, ability to explain and team work. It also consists of some very specific problem solving skills such as the ability to think logically, algorithmically and recursively. Computer Science is unique in the way it brings all these diverse skills together.”
Source: http://www.cs4fn.org/computationalthinking/
Image: http://www.impactworld.org.uk/index.php

Computer science for Fun (cs4fn) / Exploring Computational Thinking (Google)

Note: cs4fn was created and is written and edited by Paul Curzon, Peter McOwan and Jonathan Black of the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science of Queen Mary, University of London with the aim of sharing our passion about all things to do with Computer Science.

One of the exciting things about learning Computer science is that you learn a new and fundamental way of thinking and problem solving; a way of thinking that is critical in the 21st Century. It is called "Computational Thinking" and the idea that this is one of the big advantages of studying computer science, whatever your ultimate career, is causing a big stir. Some are even claiming it should be added to reading, writing and arithmetic as a core ability that every person should learn. http://www.cs4fn.org/computationalthinking/

Ref:
http://www.cs4fn.org/computationalthinking/
http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2010/10/exploring-computational-thinking.html
http://www.google.com/edu/computational-thinking/resources.html#ct

Impactworld.org.uk: http://www.impactworld.org.uk/index.php

CASE STUDIES: http://www.impactworld.org.uk/casestudies.php

Lessons and Examples: http://www.google.com/edu/computational-thinking/lessons.html

Digital competence: http://www.unibuc.ro/prof/vlada_m/Digital_competence.php

Academic social networks

2011-07-06T02:11:00.000-07:00

Worldwidescience.org - http://worldwidescience.org/
Citeseerx.ist.psu.edu - http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/
Academia.edu - http://www.academia.edu
LinkedIn - http://www.linkedin.com/
ResearchGate - http://www.researchgate.net/
iAMscientist - http://www.iamscientist.com/
Epernicus - http://www.epernicus.com
Nature Network - http://network.nature.com/
Scholarz.net - http://www.scholarz.net/
Mendeley.com - http://www.mendeley.com/
Connotea.org - http://www.connotea.org/
Citeulike.org - http://www.citeulike.org/
Wok.mimas.ac.uk - http://wok.mimas.ac.uk/

Prof. Radu Jugureanu

2011-06-27T07:20:00.000-07:00

Prof. Radu Jugureanu
AeL eContent Department Manager, Siveco Romania SA, Bucuresti

Prof. Radu Jugureanu studied Mathematics at the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science. After graduating he was a Math and Computer Science teacher at Cantemir High School Bucharest. He continued his education gaining the following diplomas: Management in youth organizations, Senior Teacher in non-formal education and CISCO Certified teacher for CNAP.

From 2003 he is a Project Manager in SIVECO Romania SA, leading the Educational Software Department, where are developed the educational multimedia courses for more high schools and gymnasiums, within the IT-Based Educational System project, which implement the IT&C in Romanian schools.

In 2005, at World Summit for Information Society, the educational multimedia content developed by the SIVECO team, led by Radu Jugureanu, won "The World’s Best eContent" in the category of e-Learning, from 168 countries.

(eduVision 2020, 1st edition, 2011 | http://www.eduvision.ro/speakers.html)

- Articol Money Express - 22.09.2011: eduVision 2020- primul pas

(Online Educa Berlin 2006 | http://www.online-educa.com/)

Ref.:

- http://advancedelearning.com
- http://c3.cniv.ro/, http://c3.icvl.eu/
- http://adlunap.ro/else2011/
- Publicatii (2003-2010):
http://iteach.ro/ (pdf)

Note (About Siveco): eLearning Awards 2010 for IT basesd Education System; SEI - The IT-Based Educational System (Romania)- SIVECO Romania receives Gold Winner title at eLearning Awards 2010 competition for The Romanian IT-based Education System (SEI), in the category "Best e-learning project securing Widespread Adoption"

Întrebări globale (Radu Jugureanu)

Care este rolul meu, al profesorului?
1. Să imi pregătesc elevii/studenţii să lucreze în locuri de munca ce astăzi nu există
2. Să imi pregătesc elevii/studenţii să lucreze cu tehnologii neinventate încă
3. Să îmi pregătesc elevii/studenţii să rezolve probleme despre care încă nu ştim că ar fi probleme
Cu ce instrumente trebuie să ”reuşesc” să fac toate acestea?

e-Learning = Learning

"Educaţia asistată de computer permite abordarea sistemică a instruirii, o nouă viziune pe care psiho-pedagogia o teoretizează în ultimii ani, dar care devine operativă în momentul în care strategia didactică se împleteşte cu tehnologiile multimedia. Astfel, dacă în instruirea gândită ca sistem se pot determina: scopul sistemului (obiectivele instruirii), procesele prin care este atins scopul (tipul de activităţi, situaţii de învăţare, la care trebuie să participe elevii pentru a atinge obiectivele fixate) şi rezultatele la care se doreşte să se ajungă (traduse în categorii de achiziţii efective ale elevilor), proiectarea softului educaţional permite chiar acoperirea principalelor elemente constitutive ale sistemului, contribuind la optimizarea procesului de învăţare." Radu Jugureanu şi Delia Oprea

"Experienţa pe care am dobândit-o în ultimii zece ani în domeniul eLearning, ca arhitect, realizator şi implementator al soluţiilor naţionale pentru utilizarea tehnologiilor IT în instruire şi formare, atât în România- prin programul naţional Sistem Educaţional Informatizat, dar şi în ţări precum Azerbaidjan, Cipru, Maroc, Emiratele Arabe Unite, ca şi influenţa pe care instituţii internaţionale importante (Cambridge University Press, eLSE, CNIV/ICVL, OnLine Educa Berlin) au avut-o asupra pregătirii mele continue, îmi oferă suportul necesar pentru a iniţia o cercetare în identificarea acelor mijloace noi de formare şi instruire într-un domeniu atât de important cum este educaţia, în particular militară." Radu Jugureanu

Lecţii interactive AeL

Motto:
“89% dintre elevi transformă obligaţia în motivaţie prin utilizarea lecţiilor AeL ca mijloc complementar de educaţie” E. Noveanu, D. Potolea, colectiv, Evaluarea SEI, 2008, Universitatea din Bucureşti, ISE, Centrul pentru Inovare în Educaţie (TEHNE Romania)

"Lecţiile interactive reprezintă un instrument puternic şi flexibil cu ajutorul căruia profesorul poate completa procesul tradiţional de predare prin motivarea elevilor şi prin îmbinarea diferitelor sisteme de predare. Astfel, elevii sunt stimulaţi să experimenteze ceea ce învăţa, să aplice în practică cunoştinţele dobândite, procesul de instruire devenind mult mai eficient." Radu Jugureanu

"AeL eContent foloseste metode didactice active, care stimuleaza implicarea cursantilor prin explorare, observare, studii de caz, simulari, execitii, jocuri educationale si portofolii. Aceste metode mobilizeaza cu succes energia cursantilor captandu-le atentia, sporindu-le interesul si stimulandu-le curiozitatea naturala, capacitatea de memorare si de intelegere. AeL eContent poate fi tradus in orice limba si poate fi localizat pentru orice tara, respectand specificul cultural, social si educational al regiunii" Radu Jugureanu

Project Based eLearning

Lucrare la CNIV 2009, Iasi: Perspective ale instruirii bazate pe proiect. Utilizarea aplicatiilor multimedia si multisenzoriale,
Jugureanu Radu, Profesor, AeL eContent Department Manager
Roceanu Ion, Prof. univ. dr., ADL Department Manager, Universitatea Naţională de Apărare Carol I

Ref.: http://cnmesm.wikispaces.com/ (video: Un moment de respect, Ce ştim să facem?, Există tehnologie)

International recognition

Commissioner Jan Figel was impressed by the results of the eLearning Romanian Program and stressed the modernization of the Romanian education system as one of the most advanced and coherent in Europe, a guarantee for Romania's transition to the Information Society and Knowledge Based Economy and a best practice for the region.

"The skills and capacity to effectively transform knowledge and information into innovative products and services will define successful Knowledge Economies in a society that has reconsidered its strategic priorities. Knowledge and information have become the most important ingredients for productivity and competitiveness and increased wealth and prosperity. A relevant education is more important today then ever, because today's world demands a workforce that understands how to use technology as a tool to increase productivity and creativity". Jan Figel

Professor Ioan Tomescu

2011-06-26T02:05:00.000-07:00

Professor Ioan Tomescu, corresponding member of the Romanian Academy, has been educated at the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science.

Professor Tomescu's areas of research are combinatorics and graph theory and applications.

He has obtained his PhD in Mathematics in 1971 with the Thesis "Combinatorial Methods in the Theory of Finite Automata" under the supervision of Academician Gr. C. Moisil. In his thesis, he proposed a matrix method for determining all pairs of compatible states of a sequential Mealy machine and showed that the minimisation of such a machine can be reduced, in some case, to the problem of finding a minimum chromatic partition of the vertex set of a graph.

Note: Professor Tomescu was the leader of the Romanian team for the International Olympiad in Mathematics (1983-1986 and 1990-1994) and the leader of the Romanian team for the “Balkan Olympiad in Mathematics" (1990-1994).
Note: Romania is initiator of the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) (1959, Brasov) - www.imo-official.org (Ref.: www.unibuc.ro/prof/vlada_m/)

"During a prolific research career which continues unabated to this day, Professor Tomescu has made important contributions in the theory of combinational circuits, extremal graph theory (especially in problems related to vertex colourings and chromatic polynomials), hypergraphs and their connection to Bonferroni-type inequalities, Hamiltonian problems for some classes of graphs, combinatorial chemistry, combinatorics on words, metric graph theory."

Ref.:
- Cristian S. Calude, Gheorghe Stefanescu, Marius Zimand,
Combinatorics and Related Areas A Collection of Papers in Honour of the 65th Birthday of Ioan Tomescu, (JUCS Special Issue),
- http://funinf.cs.unibuc.ro/~gheorghe/org/ (pdf)
- http://funinf.cs.unibuc.ro/~gheorghe/
- http://www.genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/
- http://fmi.unibuc.ro/ro/departamente/informatica/tomescu_ioan/

Ce este facebook ?

2011-06-23T00:37:00.000-07:00

Este foc, apă, pământ şi cer.

- Este FOC: să facă lumină din întuneric, să fie foc de artificii, să piară de apă, să încălzească şi să fiarbă apa, să pună în mişcare automobile, nave şi avioane, să pregătească hrana pentru oameni şi animale, să aprindă o şiră de paie, să pârjolească pământul, să ardă o casă, sa ardă un om, să aprindă o lumânare, să se urce la cer …

- Este APĂ: să stingă focul, să fie fântănă arteziană, să piară de foc, să fie râuri şi pârâuri, să fie mări şi oceane, să fie cascadă, să stingă setea omului, să adape animalele, să ajute natura şi omul, să curgă fără sfârşit, să radă totul din calea ei, să inunde peşteri şi câmpii, să dispară aşa cum a apărut, să ajungă la cer şi apoi să se întoarcă pe pământ …

- Este PĂMÂNT: să se rotească în jurul Soarelui, să lase Luna să-l însoţească, să nu se mai sature de apă, să ţină în palme mări, oceane şi munţi, să ţină în spate case, oameni şi animale, să protejeze seminţele ca să rodească, să crape de sete, să fie pământ pentru flori, să găzduiască osemintele oamenilor şi animalelor, să privească mereu la cer, să se unească cu cerul …

- Este CER: să viseze oamenii la Lună şi la stele, să cuprindă tot universul, să lase Soarele să apară mereu dimineaţa, sa facă spectacol de stele în întuneric, să primească sufletele oamenilor, să lase avioanele să zboare în linişte, să lase ploaia să coboare pe pământ, să aducă mereu apă şi foc, să fie tot timpul deasupra pământului …

… altceva, nu este.

De ce?

2011-06-22T01:15:00.000-07:00

Solomom Marcus,
„Răni deschise”, Editura Spandugino, 2011 (1.300 pag.)

“Cuprinse într-un interval de aproape 40 de ani (1973-2011), scrierile de faţã exprimã reacţiile mele la evenimente cu care am fost contemporan sau la istorie şi la lecturi deosebite.” (Solomon Marcus)
www.edituraspandugino.ro/?pag=carte&carte=rani-deschise&limba=ro

EVOLUŢIE: evenimente şi reacţii

"Perioada copilăriei, în anii treizeci ai secolului trecut; anii celui de al doilea război mondial, anii de studenţie, din perioada imediat următoare, decalajul dintre istoria relatată si cea trăită, semnificaţia lui 23 august 1944; luminile si umbrele din diferite perioade ale dictaturii comuniste; un nou mod de lectură a istoriei culturii românesti, prin aducerea în aceeasi albie a stiinţei si socio-umanului; rolul unificator al Junimii maioresciene ; cele două alfabetizări de neocolit: de la citit, scris si socotit la folosirea calculatorului electronic; de la Haret la Moisil. Cum au apărut primele manuale în limba română: de la Gheorghe Lazăr la Traian Lalescu. Decalajul dintre creaţie si comunicare în istoria culturii românesti; valoarea culturală a matematicii; contrastul dintre stiinţa de azi si cea de ieri; aspecte antieducaţionale în mass media; cum modifică internetul procesele de învăţare si predare; pericolul diabolizării internetului. România europeană, între pleonasm si oximoron; cultura stiinţifică, între oximoron si limba de lemn; relaţia controversată dintre integrarea europeană si identitatea naţională." (Solomon Marcus)

DE CE?

"De ce unii profesori nu se împrietenesc cu elevii lor si de ce unii părinţi nu devin prietenii copiilor lor; de ce oscilează mulţi elevi între plictiseală si distracţie; cum să înlocuim în scoală modalitatea predominant imperativă cu una predominant interogativă; latura artistică a stiinţei; câtă geografie si istorie pot învăţa copiii, discutând cu părinţii si cu bunicii lor; cât de relevant e bacalaureatul; dar doctoratul? De ce pătrunde greu stiinţa secolului 20 în programele de învăţământ; de ce pierd copiii pofta de a pune întrebări, de îndată ce trec pragul scolii; de ce nu reusesc disciplinele scolare să comunice între ele; relaţia dintre infinit si Divinitate; limba română, mai subtilă decât mulţi dintre vorbitorii ei; cum arată serbările scolare; de la prezumţia de nevinovăţie la cea de suspiciune; un posibil deficit de imaginaţie al literaturii si teatrului (semnalat de Eugen Ionesco); paradoxul lui Diderot; cât de euclidiană este fiinţa umană; a face din joc o componentă inevitabilă a învăţării; rostul îndoielnic al inspectoratelor scolare; o sperietoare: inspectorul; gradele acordate cadrelor didactice, sub semnul întrebării; succes si valoare; interdisciplinaritatea, o promisiune neonorată; transdiscipinaritatea; o eroare: obligaţia de a restitui manualul scolar la sfârsit de an; poate educaţia să recupereze povestea? Umorul, un ingredient obligatoriu al unei educaţii de succes. Toate aceste chestiuni fierbinţi si multe altele pe care le discutăm în această carte sunt tot atâtea răni deschise, pe care nu avem dreptul de a le ignora." (Solomon Marcus)

Detalii: O viaţă dedicată matematicii: acad. prof. dr. Solomon Marcus,
http://mvlada.blogspot.com/2010/02/o-viata-dedicata-matematicii-acad-prof.html

Examples of papers

2011-06-15T08:09:00.000-07:00

Examples of papers (Bachelor of Science): Informatics
Exemple de lucrari de Licenta: Informatica

Facultatea de Matematica si Informatica (FMI), Universitatea din Bucuresti

1. Laura Arhire, Parser pentru gramatici de inserare cu dependinte sortate, FMI, 2008
- http://funinf.cs.unibuc.ro/~flmanea/arhire.pdf
2. Alexandru Popa, Sisteme interactive cu registri si voci si limbajul Agapia, FMI, 2008
- http://funinf.cs.unibuc.ro/~flmanea/popa.pdf
3. Alexandru Szoke, Aspecte ale implementarii retelelor de procesoare biologice, FMI, 2008
- http://funinf.cs.unibuc.ro/~flmanea/szoke.zip
4. Alexandru Tomescu, Retele de sortare implementate cu P sisteme, FMI, 2008
- http://funinf.cs.unibuc.ro/~flmanea/tomescu.pdf

Sursa: Florin Manea's Website
- http://flmanea.blogspot.com/2008/06/licenta-la-facultatea-de-matematica-si.html

Total Lunar Eclipse 15 Jun 2011

Philosophy of life, music, and dance

2011-06-05T06:52:00.000-07:00

Learning Meaning of Life from Nature

"Most theories and concepts will not help right now to understand life and its meaning, we have to conceive this our self directly from the nature, our surrounding, present and past, once we have developed our own convincing view we can extend this knowledge, refine it further with additional material, other sources." www.philosophyinlife.info/

What Is The Meaning of The Life
www.philosophyinlife.info/293/what-is-meaning-of-life.htm
Ref.: http://www.lumosity.com/landing_pages/42

‘Meaning’ is a creation of the mind. What I’m writing here has ‘meaning’ and it is a creation of my mind. And I enjoy the process. But my real happiness does not come from writing these words. Rather, it comes to me when my busy mind takes a break and I sink into a deep relaxation while remaining in a fully aware state. It is this internal reality which, for the most part, enables me to remain good-natured and happy in this hectic and unstable world. So, I love to play in the realm of ‘meaning’, but it is not ‘meaning’ which is foundation of my life.
by Duart Maclean http://anthonyduartmaclean.blogspot.com

"Life forces us into communities, but basically communities are war zones camoufl aged over with platitudes about caring, sharing and cooperation. If this were not so, there would not be such high rates of depression, burnout, substance abuse, divorce and suicide. There would not be so much costly litigation. The transformed leader who has attained a high degree of Self-awareness is able to see through the veil of separation and recognize his own self in the other. This is known as empathy, but there cannot be empathy where there is fear. So long as we perceive ourselves as isolated we will be dominated by fear and unable to experience true empathy for others. The deeper our sense of isolation, the more remote and inaccessible we become. When we are able to feel empathy, as distinct from attachment or sentimentality, others are attracted to us and this is the real basis for creating participation in our life and projects." by Duart Maclean, Creating Participation: http://anthonyduartmaclean.blogspot.com/2011/04/creating-participation.html

Learn from all ...

Learn from flower ...
Learn from lamb ...
Learn from birds ...
Learn from all ...

in romanian ...
INVATA de la toate ... (muzica: Adriana Ausch) ...

Învaţă de la floare să fii gingaş ca ea.
Învaţă de la miel să ai blândeţea sa.
Învaţă de la păsări să fii mereu în zbor.
Învaţă de la toate că totu-i trecător.

- www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7p4RdBL2Y4&feature=related

NOTA: Unii spun ca ceste versuri ii apartin lui Rabindranath Tagore (indian), altii spun ca versurile apartin scriitorului Traian Dorz.

in romanian
- "Oare vitregia vietii nu constituie tocmai piatra de incercare a adevaratelor caractere ?" Lucian Blaga
- "Filosofice sunt acele gandiri care intemeiaza oameni." Lucian Blaga
- "Se pare ca lumea este astfel intocmita ca sa nu poti gasi fericirea in ea, iar natura omului s-o caute vesnic. Acesta-i fondul tragic al existentei."
Lucian Blaga

“Eu nu strivesc corola de minuni a lumii
şi nu ucid
cu mintea tainele, ce le-ntâlnesc
în calea mea
în flori, în ochi, pe buze ori morminte.”
Source: www.romanianvoice.com/poezii/poeti/blaga.php

“Alunga patimile mele,
Pe veci strigarea lor o frânge,
Si de durerea altor inimi
Învata-ma pe mine-a plânge.
Nu rostul meu, de-a pururi prada
Ursitei mastere si rele,
Ci jalea unei lumi, parinte,
Sa plânga-n lacrimile mele.”

Octavian Goga – Rugăciune (1905)
Source: www.romanianvoice.com/poezii/poezii/rugaciune_og.php

DESIRE FOR FREEDOM NOT LOSE!
NU PIERDEŢI DORINŢA DE LIBERTATE!
Concepţie şi realizare:
Doina Ciobanu; Muzica: Los Incas, El condor pasa.
- www.pacidoki.hu/pps/dorinta.pps (pps)

Ref.: http://www.pacidoki.hu(eng.)

Lucian Tamaris

2011-05-24T11:03:00.000-07:00

"Omenirea se conduce cu simboluri: multe, lunare; putine, solare. Chiar numerele folosite sunt simboluri care sufera de-o periodicitate elementara. Prin comparatie, omul vrea o substituire permanenta, dar o obtine cu ajutorul simbolurilor strict genetice. Lipseste Simbolul cel Mare, ocolul superior facut omenirii, numarul impar care detine puterea reala, nu aparenta puterii. Cand don Quijote vede douasprezece icoane, ca toate lunile anului, are intuitia lipsei celei de-a treisprezece icoane. Omenirea o ascunde, dupa ce-a dat-o jos de pe cruce, a inchis-o in grota, a pazit-o, apoi a dezmintit doua milenii invierea ei. Pentru a vedea aceasta icoana face atatea ocoluri casei sale, dar gravitatia ii agraveaza mersul calare si mersul pe jos, ii ingreauneaza trupul si-i energizeaza mintea care nu-l poate apara mul timp. …"

Lucian Tamaris (Don Quijote - Al doilea sacrilegiu, Ed. SPIRIT, 2010)

"Fericit esti cand faci si nu tremuri; cand inveti si nu razi; cand privesti si nu plangi. Nefericitul imbratiseaza o mare neintelegere, dar o simte la sfarsitul lumii. Se tareste la munca, la razboi, la pieptul mamei; rumega linistit sfasierea si departarea. Peste goliciunea trupului cere o iluminare; isi indoaie spinarea si merge pe cararea pierduta de toti. Frica ii balanseaza inima, dar sporii ies din ea si capata forme de templu.
…
Creatorul a lasat peste pamant primul rasarit de soare, iar maimutele au inteles ca era dimineata; au coborat din arbori ca sa spuna ceva, sa supuna si sa nu ceara iertare niciodata. Nu s-a facut un troc, nu era sarbatoare, dar ele au coborat sa stapaneasca Discernamantul lasat de Creator celor umiliti si drepti.
…
Cine are credinta n-are nevoie de incredere in om, in plante, in animale, in mainile care se opun inimii, dar fermenteaza cu mintea care, din cuibul ei, da ordin sa se amestece veghea de noapte cu veghea de zi. Copil, nu stiam ca primul plans e inceputul credintei. Am vazut apoi primul ras si n-am inteles daca eu eram un joc al rasului cu plansul.
…
Apa nu mananca, nu bea, nu imbatraneste, nu moare. Apa hraneste lumea si lumea n-o cunoaste; se ineaca in ea, cautand adevarul. Focul mananca pana se intalneste cu apa: doua oginzi in care se priveste Creatorul indurerat. La vederea Domnului, care oglinda se sparge in atatea cioburi, cate fiinte au fost create? Apa primeste durerea, o inalta in toate corpurile, dar plantele nu simt durerea in locul atins, ci mult mai departe. Durerea accelereaza sangele si seva; dar in varful coroanei, durerea are alt amestec si putere, alta folosinta, dacat durerea din radacini."

Lucian Tamaris (Acesta este sangele meu, Ed. SPIRIT, 2010)

Ref.: www.librariaeminescu.ro/autor/7178/Lucian-Tamaris

Top Universities: classification

2011-05-16T12:36:00.000-07:00

Update: Romania ( LIST, Total = 87 | 2011: Metodologie-Concurs)

QS World University Ranking classification system: www.topuniversities.com

New classification system in 2009
"QS World University Rankings exist to give students, academics, funders, politicians and policymakers, a broad view of the top institutions in world higher education." By Martin Ince
Source: www.topuniversities.com

Broad measures:
1. Capture teaching;
2. Research;
3. Employability;
4. International appeal.
Main characteristics of a university:
1. Size (small, medium and large universities, depending on how many students they have, with a threshold of 5,000 for a medium-sized institution and 12,000 for a large one);
2. Scope (least two of the five principal areas of academic life);
3. Research intensiveness (the past five years ).

Note: Each university also has to work in at least two of the five principal areas of academic life: science, biomedicine, technology, social sciences and the arts and humanities.

World University Rankings 2010
- www.topuniversities.com/2010/
Ranking University
Rank School Name Country Size Research Focus Score
1 University of Cambridge UK L VH FC 100.00
2 Harvard University US L VH FC 99.18
3 Yale University US M VH FC 98.68
4 UCL (University College London) UK L VH FC 98.54
5 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) US M VH CO 98.19

...
Rank School Name Country Size Research Focus Score

501-550 University of Bucharest Romania XL HI CO 19.39

Ref.: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBgOthwJm6Q

Note: "Among the UB alumni we count Cristina Sebu from Oxford Brookes, Dan-Virgil Voiculescu from Berkeley, Paula Diaconescu from UCLA, Catalina Achim from Carnegie Mellon, Vlad Perju from Boston College Law School, and Ileana Orlich from Arizona State University."

Note: University of Bucharest - Since its foundation (1864) by Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza, ruler of the United Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia (1859-66), as the successor to higher education structures dating back to the Princely Academy founded in 1694

Romania (Sursa: www.edu.ro)
- proiect privind aprobarea nomenclatorului domeniilor și programelor de studii din învățământul superior
- clasificarea universităților și ierarhizarea programelor de studii (Anexa nr. 1 la OMECTS 4072/2011)

CRITERII pentru clasificarea universităţilor

1. (PI) Predare și învăţare
2. (C) Cercetare
3. (SS) Relaţiile universităţii cu mediul extern
4. (CI) Capacitate instituţională

Nivele de studii: licență, master, doctorat, post-doctorat
Forme de organizare a studiilor: învățământ cu frecvență, învățământ cu frecvență redusă, învățământ la distanță.

Personalităţi născute în România ce au obţinut Premiul Nobel:

1. 2009 - Premiului Nobel pentru Literatură, Herta Muller, scriitoare de origine română
- http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2009/bio-bi...

2. 1986 - Premiul Nobel pentru Pace, Elie (Eliezer) Wiesel
- http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1986/index.html

3. 1985 - Premiul Nobel pentru Pace, Ioan Moraru, alături de colegii săi Mihail Kuzin (URSS) şi Bernard Lown (SUA), din Organizaţia "Medicii lumii pentru prevenirea războiului nuclear" (Numele sau nu apare având în vedere că în anul 1985 era încă regimul Nicolae Ceauşescu)
- http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1985/index.html

4. 1974 - Premiul Nobel pentru Fiziologie şi Medicină, profesorul George Emil Palade, împreună cu Albert Claude şi Christian de Duve
- http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1974/palade-a...

Read more:
1. Famous Inventors: Invenţii româneşti - Top 10
- http://mvlada.blogspot.com/

2. Din activitatea si realizarile matematicienilor romani din afara Romaniei, Constantin Corduneanu, Arlington, Texas - www.itim-cj.ro/~jalobean/Opinii/Corduneanu.txt

3. Romani de pretutindeni
MATEMATICĂ

George LUSZTIG, SUA [Prize-Award], Radu Theodorescu, Canada
Dan VOICULESCU, Ciprian FOIAS, Silviu GUIASU, Dan BURGHELEA, SUA
Preda MIHAILESCU, Germania
Florian Horia VASILESCU, Alexandru DIMCA, Franta, Mircea MARTIN, Ciprian BORCEA, SUA
Sorin POPA, Mihai PIMSNER, Florin RADULESCU, Daniel TATARU, SUA, Cornel PASNICU, Puerto Rico
Stefan RALESCU, SUA, Alexandru BUIM, New Mexico
Victor NISTOR, Victor VIANU, Adrian OCNEANU, Marius DADARLAT, SUA
Dan Burghelea - INTERVIU ( ziarul Gandul, 14 oct. 2008)

INFORMATICĂ

Dan SIMOVICI, SUA, Cristian CALUDE, Radu NICOLESCU, New Zealand
Ileana STREINU, Mihaela MALITA Victor VIANU, SA
Marian GHEORGHE, Anglia, Ion MANDOIU, SUA

Learning Sciences

2011-05-16T01:25:00.000-07:00

The International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS): http://www.isls.org/

ISLS is a professional society dedicated to the interdisciplinary empirical investigation of learning as it exists in real-world settings and how learning may be facilitated both with and without technology:
1. Research: http://www.isls.org/research.html
2. Journals: http://www.isls.org/journals.html

IJCSCL: http://ijcscl.org/

IJCSCL, The International Journal of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning; Published by Springer, ijCSCL publishes papers reflecting the interests of the international CSCL community (ijCSCL has earned an ISI Impact Factor of 2.692 for 2009)

LearnLab: http://www.learnlab.org

LearnLab - The Pittsburgh Science of Learning Centers research facility, LearnLab, makes use of advanced technologies to facilitate the design of experiments that combine the realism of classroom field studies and the rigor of controlled laboratory studies.
Knowledge-Learning-Instruction (KLI)
- Human-Computer Interaction Institute, School of Computer Science,Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh
The Knowledge-Learning-Instruction (KLI) Framework: Toward Bridging the Science-Practice Chasm to Enhance Robust Student Learning by Kenneth R. Koedinger Albert T. Corbett Charles Perfetti, June 7, 2010 (pdf, Download)
- www.learnlab.org/documents/KLI-Framework-Tech-Report.pdf

Virtual Math Teams (VMT)Project: www.gerrystahl.net/vmt/

Virtual Math Teams (VMT) is a research project that I have directed since its inception in 2003 at the i-School and the Math Forum at Drexel University in Philadelphia. A group of PhD students, Math Forum staff, interdisciplinary faculty and visiting researchers collaborate on the project. We are developing an online service for math students to meet in small groups online to discuss challenging mathematical topics.

- Johann W. Sarmiento-Klapper, "Sustaining Collaborative Knowledge Building: Continuity in Virtual Math Teams", A Thesis of Ph.D. , Drexel University, 2009
-http://gerrystahl.net/pub/sarmiento_dissertation.pdf (pdf, Download)

Note: source of image (Fig. 2 by Johann W. Sarmiento-Klapper): The Multidisciplinary Field of Computer-supported Collaborative Learning.

- Murat Perit Çakır, "How Online Small Groups Co-construct Mathematical Artifacts to do Collaborative Problem Solving", A Thesis of Ph.D. , Drexel University, 2009
- http://gerrystahl.net/pub/cakir_dissertation.pdf (pdf, Download)

UBB at Microsoft Imagine Cup 2011

2011-05-11T02:14:00.000-07:00

SIMPLEX Team - UBB Cluj, Romania at Microsoft Imagine Cup 2011, July 8-13, New York - www.imaginecup.com

"Babes-Bolyai" University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania - www.ubbcluj.ro/
Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science - www.cs.ubbcluj.ro/

SIMPLEX Team: Alina Călin, Andrei Cantea, Andrei Dascălu, Cosmin Mihaiu
Supervisor: PhD Dan Mircea Suciu - http://lci.cs.ubbcluj.ro/~tzutzu/
Medical solution: MIRA (Medical Interactive Recovery Assistant)

"MIRA (Medical Interactive Recovery Assistant)2 is an application that assists people who suffer from temporary handicap recover interactively at a faster pace. It also enables doctors or specialized medical personnel to facilitate the recovery process for the respective people.", http://valygreavu.wordpress.com

Source: www.microsoft.com/romania/

Testing Einstein's Universe

2011-05-10T10:22:00.000-07:00

GRAVITY PROBE B
Confirms the Existence of Gravitomagnetism

Source: Univ. Stanford & NASA

"After 34 years of research and development, 10 years of flight preparation, a 1.5 year flight mission and 5 years of data analysis, our GP-B team has arrrived at the final experimental results for this landmark test of Einstein’s 1916 general theory of relativity." April 26, 2011, Source: http://einstein.stanford.edu/highlights/status1.html

"Last week, after accounting for persistent background signals, the results were announced -- the gyroscopes precessed at a rate consistent with the gravitational predictions of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. The results, which bolster existing findings, may have untold long term benefits as well as shorter term benefits such as better clocks and global positioning trackers."
- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110510.html
- http://einstein.stanford.edu/
- http://einstein.stanford.edu/SPACETIME/spacetime3.html

The Geodetic and Frame-Dragging Effects

"An alternative way to visualize the geodetic warping of spacetime is the so-called “missing inch” shown in the diagram and video clip below. If you were to draw a circle with the same diameter (D) as the Earth (~7,900 miles) in empty space, the circumference of this circle, calculated using standard Euclidian geometry, would be π x D (~24,000 miles). Furthermore, a gyroscope following this circular path in empty space would always point in the same direction, as illustrated in the left side of the diagram." Source:
http://einstein.stanford.edu/MISSION/mission1.html

Source of image:
http://einstein.stanford.edu/MISSION/mission1.html

Video: Copyright © 2003 by Norbert Bartel (Flash Video, Duration: 26 Minutes) - Norbert Bartel, Ph.D., Professor of Astrophysics & Space Sciences, York University, Canada, September 2003

- http://einstein.stanford.edu/Media/Testing_Einsteins_Universe-Flash.html

NOTES: (God Vs Science)
- Einstein, Albert (1940),"On Science and Religion", Nature 146: 605, DOI 10.1038/146605a0
- ENG: http://solideogloriablog.wordpress.com/
- ENG & RO : http://www.opinii.md/, http://alec29.wordpress.com/

eLSE 2011 & Military Circle-RO

2011-05-03T11:03:00.000-07:00

"Anywhere, Anytime - Education on Demand"
eLearning and Software for Education

eLSE 2011 is the 7th eLearning and Software for Education Conference organized by the Advanced Distributed Learning Department, "Carol I" National Defense University

"eLSE is an international refereed conference created with the aim to promote eLearning related activities by providing learning and professional development, by blending ideas from researchers, developers and practitioners from education, business and government, to both learn, teach and share from one's own experience." Ref.: http://adlunap.ro/else2011/

Images: https://picasaweb.google.com/

Constantin Brâncoveanu and sons

2011-04-26T07:44:00.000-07:00

A terrible page of Roumanian history
Brâncoveanu Martyrdom, sacrifice for faith and nation
Martiriul Brâncovenilor, jertfă pentru credinţă şi neam

Constantin Brâncoveanu (1654 – August 15, 1714) was Prince of Wallachia between 1688 and 1714.

Saints Martyrs Prince Constantin Brâncoveanu with his four sons Constantin, Stefan, Radu, Matei-royal advisor and Enache Văcărescu were killed in Constantinople in the day of 15 August 1714, for countries that have remained in their Christian faith.

Brâncoveanu was deposed from his throne by Sultan Ahmed III, and brought under arrest to Istanbul, where he was imprisoned in 1714 at the fortress of Yedikule (the Seven Towers). There he was tortured by the Ottomans, who hoped to locate the immense fortune he had supposedly amassed. He and his four sons (Constantin, Ştefan, Radu, Matei) were beheaded on the same day in August, together with Prince Constantin's faithful friend, grand treasurer Enache Văcărescu.

"Your Highness. My wealth, as much as it was, you have taken it from me, but my Christian faith is something I will not relinquish. I have been born in it and I have lived in it, it is in my faith that I shall die. I have filled the land of my country with Christian churches and now, you would have me worship in your Turkish djamies? No, Your Highness. I have defended my land, I have watched over my faith. It is always in my faith that I wish to close my eyes, me and my sons.” Then he encouraged his sons thus: “My sons, be brave. We have lost everything we had in this earthly world. All we have left is our souls. Let us not lose them, too, but bring them pure before our Saviour Jesus Christ. Let’s wash our sins with our blood." Constantin Brâncoveanu, August 15, 1714, Istanbul

Through his death, Constantin Brâncoveanu became the hero of a series Romanian folk ballads, as well as being depicted on some of Romania's official coinage. According to the Romanian Orthodox Church, the reason for his and his sons' execution was their refusal to give up their Christian faith and convert to Islam. In 1992 the Church declared him, his sons, and Enache saints and martyrs (Sfinţii Martiri Binecredinciosul Voievod Constantin Brâncoveanu, împreună cu fiii săi Constantin, Ştefan, Radu, Matei şi sfetnicul Ianache - "The Martyr Saints the Right-Believing Voivode Constantin Brâncoveanu, together with his sons Constantin, Ştefan, Radu, Matei, and the counselor [Enache]"). Their feast day is August 16.

Biserica Sfântul Gheorghe Nou: Kilometrul zero al României

Biserica Sfântul Gheorghe Nou a fost construită de Constantin Brâncoveanu (1654 – August 15, 1714), domnitor al Ţării Româneşti intre 1688 si 1714.

Mănăstirea Sfântul Sava şi Academia Domnească

In 1694 Constantin Brâncoveanu înfiinţează pe lângă Mânăstirea Sfântul Sava o Academie, după modelul celei din Constantinopol care corespundea unei facultăţi de litere – filozofice (Facultas – Artrium) din cadrul universităţilor europene. Limba folosită era cea grecească, deoarece voievodul era interesat să aibă o şcoală grecească cu rol de instrument pentru apărarea Ortodoxiei.
Universitatea din Bucuresti îşi are originea în vechea Academie Domnească de la Mănăstirea Sfântul Sava, întemeiată de către domnitorul Constantin Brâncoveanu.

Din septembrie 2010 se fac sapaturi pentru parcarea subterana pe locul statuilor de la Universitate. Statuile au fost mutate temporar in Parcul Izvor. Pozele de mai jos au fost realizate in 27 aprilie 2011. Se vad zidurile din caramida ale manastirii. Ce va face Primaria cu aceste locuri?
In poza nr. 3 (Foto: Arhiva prof. Ionel Zănescu) din referinta de la Detalii (Jurnalul national) se vede si cum arata manastirea langa palatul Universitatii. Se poate observa (cine stie corpurile de azi ale universitatii) ca in poza la acea data nu era construit corpul ce apartine Facultatii de Geografie, unde azi este poarta de intrare in curtea universitatii, pe la facultatea de chimie. Initial, cladirea avea 2 etaje, ulterior au fost adaugate etajele 3 si 4 (in partea centrala, unde azi este facultatea de istorie, avea doar un etaj).

Detalii: Luminita Ciobanu, Academia „Sfântul Sava”, înalta Şcoală Domnească, Jurnalul National, 24 aprilie 2011, http://www.jurnalul.ro

Dedicaţie lui Constantin Brâncoveanu

"Închin această carte lui CONSTANTIN BRÂNCOVEANU şi copiilor săi martirizaţi Constantin, Ştefan, Radu şi Mateiaş"

Ioan Alexandru, "Imnele Ţării Româneşti" Editura Cartea Românească, 1981.

Ioan Alexandru (December 25, 1941 in Topa Mică, Cluj County/Romania - September 16, 2000 in Bonn/Germany) was a Romanian poet, essayist and politician. He received a fellowship from the Humboldt Foundation in Germany, recommended by German philosopher Martin Heidegger and studied Philosophy, Theology, Classical Philology ( The old Hebrew Language and the old Greek Language ) and Art History in Freiburg, Basel, Aachen and München.

Source:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantin_Br%C3%A2ncoveanu
- http://valahia.wordpress.com/2010/08/16/martyr-voivode-brancoveanu/
- http://brancoveni.ro
- http://ro.shvoong.com/books/classic-literature/1978331-holy-martyrs-br%C3%A2ncoveni-constantin-voda/
- http://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mircea_Eliade
"Martiriul Brâncovenilor, jertfă pentru credinţă şi neam", www.ziarullumina.ro
- http://www.ziarullumina.ro/lumina/autor.php?wid=0&actual=1&editia=1143&autor=dr.+George+ENACHE
- http://cluj-am.ro/martiriul-brancovenilor-jertfa-pentru-credinta-si-neam

Bucureşti 2011: Repere

2011-04-18T01:38:00.000-07:00

Bucureşti 2011: Labirint Cultural
Fotografii realizate in aprilie 2011 cu ocazia organizarii expozitiei "Bucuresti: Labirint Cultural" in pasajul din Piata Universitatii. Statuia M. Eminescu se afla in holul principal al Facultatii de Litere, Universitatea din Bucuresti.

Read more: http://www.unibuc.ro/prof/vlada_m/

Spitalul Coltea (renovat) - peste 300 de ani vechime
"Spitalul Colţea, primul din Ţara Românească, a fost construit de stolnicul Mihail Cantacuzino, în 1704. Pe acest loc, care aparţinea clucerului Colţea Doicescu, se afla o biserică de lemn înainte. Clădirea a trecut prin multe incendii şi cutremure. În 1888, nu mai corespundea cerinţelor asistenţei sanitare şi a fost construit un nou spital, care funcţionează şi astăzi." www.adevarul.ro

Biserica Sfântul Gheorghe Nou: Kilometrul zero al României

Biserica Sfântul Gheorghe Nou a fost construită de Constantin Brâncoveanu (1654 – August 15, 1714), domnitor al Ţării Româneşti intre 1688 si 1714. In 1694 Constantin Brâncoveanu înfiinţează pe lângă Mânăstirea Sfântul Sava o Academie, după modelul celei din Constantinopol care corespundea unei facultăţi de litere – filozofice (Facultas – Artrium) din cadrul universităţilor europene. Limba folosită era cea grecească, deoarece voievodul era interesat să aibă o şcoală grecească cu rol de instrument pentru apărarea Ortodoxiei.
Universitatea din Bucuresti îşi are originea în vechea Academie Domnească de la Mănăstirea Sfântul Sava, întemeiată de către domnitorul Constantin Brâncoveanu.

Note: Brancoveanu Martyrdom, sacrifice for faith and nation
Saints Martyrs Prince Constantin Brancoveanu with his four sons Constantin, Stefan, Radu, Matei-royal advisor and Enache Văcărescu were killed in Constantinople in the day of 15 August 1714, for countries that have remained in their Christian faith.

Cladiri noi in Bucuresti si ... caii de altadata
Bucuresti 1935: Ultimele trasuri in centrul orasului
- Ref.: Cai si trasuri - http://www.caisitrasuri.ro

Explorer 1 vs. Sputnik 1 & Gagarin

2011-04-12T02:28:00.000-07:00

Yuri Gagarin: 50th Anniversary of First Human Spaceflight - 12th April 2011 - "First Orbit" Trailer

Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin (9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968)
was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut. He was the first human to journey into outer space when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on April 12, 1961)

Source: GOOGLE

***** 2011 April 12: Astronomy Picture of the Day "On April 12th, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alexseyevich Gagarin became the first human in space." ... First Orbit - the movie ...

1. First Soviet's Sputnik (1957) - On Oct. 4, 1957, Sputnik 1 successfully launched and entered Earth's orbit.

2. Explorer 1 - First U.S. Satellite (1958) - On Jan. 31, 1958, the JPL-designed and -built Explorer 1 soared into space. The spacecraft, a quick response to the Soviet's Sputnik, l ofted the United States into the Space Age.

3. On 12 April 1961, aboard the Vostok 3KA-3 (Vostok 1), Gagarin became both the first human to travel into space, and the first to orbit the earth. His call sign was Kedr

4. At 9:34 a.m. Eastern Time on May 5, 1961. The flight of Freedom 7 - the first space flight by an American - followed less than a month after the first human venture into space by Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.
- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110505.html

Read more : http://mvlada.blogspot.com

The story of Sissa and Moore

2011-03-22T00:17:00.000-07:00

NP-complete problems
(Chapter 8 by S. Dasgupta, C.H. Papadimitriou, and U.V. Vazirani )

Source: Algorithms (2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education) by
Sanjoy Dasgupta, University of California - San Diego
Christos Papadimitriou, University of California at Berkeley
Umesh Vazirani, University of California at Berkeley

Note: This book evolved over the past ten years from a set of lecture notes developed while teaching the undergraduate Algorithms course at Berkeley and U.C. San Diego.

- http://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~dasgupta/book/index.html
- http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0073523402/

The story of Sissa and Moore

Ref.: www.cs.berkeley.edu/~vazirani/algorithms/chap8.pdf

"According to the legend, the game of chess was invented by the Brahmin Sissa to amuse and teach his king. Asked by the grateful monarch what he wanted in return, the wise man requested that the king place one grain of rice in the rst square of the chessboard, two in the second, four in the third, and so on, doubling the amount of rice up to the 64th square. The king agreed on the spot, and as a result he was the rst person to learn the valuable-albeit humbling-lesson of exponential growth. Sissa's request amounted to
2⁶⁴-1 = 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 grains of rice, enough rice to pave all of India several times over!
All over nature, from colonies of bacteria to cells in a fetus, we see systems that grow exponentiall-for a while. In 1798, the British philosopher T. Robert Malthus published an essay in which he predicted that the exponential growth (he called it "geometric growth") of the human population would soon deplete linearly growing resources, an argument that in uenced Charles Darwin deeply. Malthus knew the fundamental fact that an exponential sooner or later takes over any polynomial.

In 1965, computer chip pioneer Gordon E. Moore noticed that transistor density in chips had doubled every year in the early 1960s, and he predicted that this trend would continue. This prediction, moderated to a doubling every 18 months and extended to computer speed, is known as Moore's law. It has held remarkably well for 40 years. And these are the two root causes of the explosion of information technology in the past decades: Moore's law and efficient algorithms.

It would appear that Moore's law provides a disincentive for developing polynomial algorithms. After all, if an algorithm is exponential, why not wait it out until Moore's law makes it feasible? But in reality the exact opposite happens: Moore's law is a huge incentive for developing ef cient algorithms, because such algorithms are needed in order to take advantage of the exponential increase in computer speed.

Here is why. If, for example, an O(2ⁿ) algorithm for Boolean satis ability (SAT) were given an hour to run, it would have solved instances with 25 variables back in 1975, 31 variables on the faster computers available in 1985, 38 variables in 1995, and about 45 variables with today's machines. Quite a bit of progress-except that each extra variable requires a year and a half's wait, while the appetite of applications (many of which are, ironically, related to computer design) grows much faster. In contrast, the size of the instances solved by an O(n) or O(n log n) algorithm would be multiplied by a factor of about 100 each decade. In the case of an O(n²) algorithm, the instance size solvable in a fxed time would be multiplied by about 10 each decade. Even an O(n⁶) algorithm, polynomial yet unappetizing, would more than double the size of the instances solved each decade. When it comes to the growth of the size of problems we can attack with an algorithm, we have a reversal: exponential algorithms make polynomially slow progress, while polynomial algorithms advance exponentially fast! For Moore's law to be refected in the world we need efficient algorithms.

As Sissa and Malthus knew very well, exponential expansion cannot be sustained indefinitely in our nite world. Bacterial colonies run out of food; chips hit the atomic scale. Moore's law will stop doubling the speed of our computers within a decade or two. And then progress will depend on algorithmic ingenuity-or otherwise perhaps on novel ideas such as quantum computation, explored in Chapter 10."

New: S. Dasgupta, Two faces of active learning, Theoretical Computer Science, 412(19): 1767-1781, 2011
- http://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~dasgupta/papers/twoface.pdf

Algorithmic Thinking
"Algorithms are the engines of a great majority of systems, natural and artificial alike. This course introduces algorithmic thinking as a discipline for reasoning about systems, taming their complexities, and elucidating their properties. Algorithmic techniques, along with their correctness and efficiency, will be taught through reasoning about systems of interactions, such as markets, that are ubiquitous in our highly connected world."
(Luay Nakhleh, Course: Algorithmic Thinking, COMP 182, www.clear.rice.edu/comp182/)

Laboratory activities are essential to learning activities. Teachers are required to combine computer more effectively as teaching classes with laboratory classes which actually ends a cycle to solve computer problems: the problem --> the mathematical model --> the algorithm --> the program --> computer --> solutions -->check the resulting. There are equivalent Algorithm-Program-Computer System and operations carried out by the algorithm in cyberspace (virtual), that made the Computer System operations by executing the corresponding algorithm program. Algorithm to simulate all operations will be triggered by launching the appropriate program execution algorithm (Vlada, 2004): Abordarea modernă a conceptului de algoritm, CNIV-2004, Noi tehnologii de E-Learning, Conferinţa Naţională de Învăţământ Virtual, Software Educaţional, Ediţia a II-a, [online], Facultatea de Matematică şi Informatică, Universitatea din Bucureşti , Editura Universităţii din Bucureşti,
http://fmi.unibuc.ro/ro/cniv_2004/
Ref.: http://fmi.unibuc.ro/ro/pdf/2004/cniv/gandirealgoritmica.pdf

Professor Emeritus Donald E. Knuth

2011-03-21T03:40:00.000-07:00

Ph.D. Donald E. Knuth, Professor Emeritus of The Art of Computer Programming at Stanford University

The Art of Computer Programming
"At the end of 1999, these books were named among the best twelve physical-science monographs of the century by American Scientist, along with: Dirac on quantum mechanics, Einstein on relativity, Mandelbrot on fractals, Pauling on the chemical bond, Russell and Whitehead on foundations of mathematics, von Neumann and Morgenstern on game theory, Wiener on cybernetics, Woodward and Hoffmann on orbital symmetry, Feynman on quantum electrodynamics, Smith on the search for structure, and Einstein's collected papers."
- Ref.: 100 or so Books that shaped a Century of Science by Phylis Morrison, www.americanscientist.org/

-Information and Communication Technologies 2010, The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award: Donald E. Knuth

- Books in Print by Donald E. Knuth: www-cs-staff.stanford.edu/~knuth/books.html
1. Volume 1: Fundamental Algorithms, Third Edition (Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley, 1997)
2. Volume 2: Seminumerical Algorithms, Third Edition (Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley, 1997)
3. Volume 3: Sorting and Searching, Second Edition (Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley, 1998)
4. Volume 4A: Combinatorial Algorithms, Part 1 (Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Addison-Wesley, 2011)
5. Volume 5: Syntactic Algorithms, in preparation.
* 9. Lexical scanning (includes also string search and data compression)
* 10. Parsing techniques
Estimated to be ready in 2020.

Note 1: Translations of previous editions:
Romanian translation by Adrian Davidoviciu, Adrian Petrescu, Smaranda Dimitriu, and Paul Zamfirescu, Tratat de programarea calculatoarelor, V. 1: Algoritmi fundamentali (Bucharest: Editura tehnica, 1974), 676pp.

- www-cs-staff.stanford.edu/~knuth/
- www-cs-staff.stanford.edu/~knuth/taocp.html
- MMIXware: A RISC Computer for the Third Millennium, by Donald E. Knuth (Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, 1999)
- The TeXbook, by Donald E. Knuth (Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley, 1984
- Computers & Typesetting (A-F), (Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley, 1984)
- Obs.: TeX is a trademark of the American Mathematical Society.
METAFONT is a trademark of Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc.

.... The Art of Computer Programming (TAOCP) ...

Professor John McCarthy

2011-03-21T02:42:00.000-07:00

Ph.D. John McCarthy (1927-2001), Professor Emeritus of Computer Science at Stanford University.

John McCarthyis an American computer scientist and cognitive scientist who received the Turing Award in 1971 for his major contributions to the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI). He was responsible for the coining of the term "Artificial Intelligence" in his 1955 proposal for the 1956 Dartmouth Conference and is the inventor of the Lisp programming language.

- http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/
"It is reasonable to hope that the relationship between computation and mathematical logic will be as fruitful in the next century as that between analysis and physics in the last. The development of this relationship demands a concern for both applications and mathematical elegance." (John McCarthy, 1963).

- Patrick J. Hayes and Leora Morgenstern, On John McCarthy’s 80th Birthday, in Honor of His Contributions, AI Magazine Volume 28 Number 4 (2007); http://www.aaai.org
- Actions and Other Events in Situation Calculus, by John McCarthy, 2002. Published in the Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KR-02). San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers. This paper extends the original McCarthy-Hayes situation calculus in several significant ways, in order to handle natural events, concurrency, and combined linear and branching time.
- History - AI and CS, www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/history/

Professor Zohar Manna

2011-03-21T01:17:00.000-07:00

Ph.D. Zohar Manna
Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University

- www.cs.stanford.edu/~zm/
The STeP (Stanford Temporal Prover) system supports the computer-aided formal verification of reactive, real-time and hybrid systems based on their temporal specification.

- Aaron R. Bradley and Zohar Manna. The Calculus of Computation: Decision Procedures with Applications to Verification. Springer, 2007.

- Zohar Manna, On-line papers (in reverse chronological order):
http://theory.stanford.edu/~zm/papers.html

- Manna and Calogero G. Zarba, Combining Decision Procedures Zohar, Stanford University, [online], www.infsec.ethz.ch/education/ws0506/decproc/combining.pdf

- Zohar Manna's Doctoral Descendents and Ancestors: www.cs.tau.ac.il/~nachumd/Ztree.html

- Zohar Manna's Doctoral Descendents: http://theory.stanford.edu/~srirams/Zohar/Ztree.html

Acknowledgements
Thank the professor that in 1977 sent me a package post. The package containing the book published in 1974 and several scientific articles.We used the book to the development paper license. Thank you very much sir!

Trebuie sa-i multumesc si astazi domnului profesor Manna pentru ca in anul 1977 mi-a trimis prin colet postal cartea sa "Mathematical theory of computation. McGraw Hill, 1974" publicata in anul 1974. Eram student si am folosit tot ce mi-a trimis la elaborarea lucrarii mele de licenta. Trebuie sa recunosc ca am fost foarte mirat de amabilitatea sa, tinand seama ca Romania este despartita de U.S.A printr-un ocean foarte mare.

Walter Zorn's Famous Web Scripts

2011-03-05T10:29:00.000-08:00

Walter Zorn, Munich, Germany

Walter Zorn has developed a JavaScript Vector Graphics Library (wz_jsgraphics.js), Javascript DHTML API, Walter Zorn's ToolTip Library (Tooltips 1.4.11), WZGrapher Function Grapher (wzgrapher_e.zip, 2006). [Copyright (c) 2002-2009 Walter Zorn]

Contents
1. About Walter Zorn
2. JavaScript vector-draw library
3. Advanced DHTML, JavaScript (gualtierozorni.altervista.org)
4. Class WalterZornTips (http://www.jarvana.com)
Examples

1. About Walter Zorn

"I recently stumbled across a site that contains a small treasure trove of incredibly useful code for Web applications. The site is walterzorn.com, the home of (as you might guess) one Walter Zorn, a software developer and recumbent bicycle enthusiast from Munich, Germany. I found Walter’s site because I was looking for a tool tip system written in JavaScript for my wife’s apparel company Web site and I found Walter’s cross-browser JavaScript library (to see how I used it go here and click on the “Why” link). This is one of the nicest tool tip libraries I’ve seen. It runs under Gecko Browsers (Firefox, Mozilla, Netscape 6+, Galeon and others), IE 5+, Opera 7+, Konqueror, and Safari, and features automatic bubble width, inclusion of any HTML content including formatting, images, breaks, tables, links, etc., and it supports extensions." Web Applications Alert By Mark Gibbs, Network World, September 12, 2007

Walter also offers some other excellent tools that I have yet to use “in anger”. These include an amazing DHTML JavaScript library that implements Drag & Drop for Images and Layers, a JavaScript VectorGraphics library, and a JavaScript Online Function Grapher that can do some impressive math is under development.

Ref.: A Tribute to Walter Zorn and His Famous Web Scripts,

- https://sites.google.com/a/balancegames.org/zorn/
http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/2007/0910web2.html

Notes:

• Roland says:
Sorry, but it’s true. Walter Zorn is dead. He died in may or april 2009.
Roland
Posted on July 19th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
• Norbert says:
Roland,
I am an old friend of Walter, but left for Australia 7 years ago. Walter and I spend weeks discussing recumbents before he built the Kreuzotter. I failed to contact him. Is it true he died? I am devastated. Can you email to me please, have you got details?
nok1969@gmail.com
Posted on November 5th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
Source: www.recumbentblog.com/2009/06/29/sometimes-you-just-want-to-know-more/

Walter Zorn Sites (www.walterzorn.com)

-http://edwardsmark.com/proofOfConcept/walterZorn/
• walterzorn.com (Archive) http://web.archive.org/web/20080109034423/http://www.walterzorn.com/
• kreuzotter.de (Archive)
Javascript DHTML API by Walter Zorn, http://www.walterzorn.com, Copyright (c) 2002-2003 Walter Zorn
- Walter Zorn Tooltips extension
http://www.wysiwygwebbuilder.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25422

“Walter Zorn's website no longer exists. Word has reached us that he is deceased. We are deeply in his debt!”
Source: http://www.virtlab.com/

2. JavaScript vector-draw library

Courtesy of Walter Zorn, you can now use JavaScript to draw objects on your web pages. Fire up your JavaScript Editor, follow the instructions below and you will be drawing shapes on your web pages in no time. (http://www.c-point.com)

Walter Zorn - wz_jsgraphics.js (JavaScript Vector Graphics Library)
- www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=59195345575&topic=14294

Source: Kevin Crosby (www.c-point.com)
http://www.c-point.com/javascript_vector_draw.htm
http://www.c-point.com/download/wz_jsgraphics.zip

3. Advanced DHTML, JavaScript (gualtierozorni.altervista.org)

"WZGrapher is an easy-to-use and small-footprinted Function Graphing and Calculation Program written in C language, with capabilities to plot both cartesian and polar functions. WZGrapher can also be used to graph numerical solution curves of integrals, to solve numerically and to graph ordinary differential equations up to the fifth order, and to calculate value tables (also of ODEs) including the first derivative values." Developer: Walter Zorn , 2007

WZGrapher Function Grapher
- http://gualtierozorni.altervista.org/grapher/grapher_app.htm
DHTML, JavaScript | VectorGraphics-Library
- http://gualtierozorni.altervista.org/jsgraphics/jsgraphics_e.htm
DHTML-Drag&Drop-Library
- http://gualtierozorni.altervista.org/dragdrop/dragdrop_e.htm

JavaScript, DHTML Tooltips
- http://linuxnotes.us/lostpages/walterzorn.de/tooltip_old/tooltip_e.htm
Rotate Image
- http://gualtierozorni.altervista.org/rotate_img/rotate_img.htm
Online Function Grapher
- http://gualtierozorni.altervista.org/grapher/grapher_e.htm

- http://web.archive.org/ (Walter Zorn, Munich, 2007)
http://www.frontiernet.net/~bambam0099/3SI/ToolTip/Website/tooltip_e.htm

4023976 visitors on www.walterzorn.com since 27. 12. 2002

4. Class WalterZornTips (http://www.jarvana.com)
org.wicketstuff.jwicket.tooltip

Class WalterZornTips
java.lang.Object
org.apache.wicket.behavior.AbstractBehavior
org.apache.wicket.behavior.AbstractHeaderContributor
org.wicketstuff.jwicket.tooltip.AbstractToolTip
org.wicketstuff.jwicket.tooltip.WalterZornTips
All Implemented Interfaces:
java.io.Serializable, org.apache.wicket.behavior.IBehavior, org.apache.wicket.IClusterable, org.apache.wicket.markup.html.IHeaderContributor
W
walterzorn - Static variable in class org.wicketstuff.jwicket.tooltip.WalterZornTips

WalterZornTips - Class in org.wicketstuff.jwicket.tooltip
This class is a wrapper around Walter Zorn's ToolTip library.
WalterZornTips(String) - Constructor for class org.wicketstuff.jwicket.tooltip.WalterZornTips

Source:
Maven-Focused Java Class and Archive Search Engine
- Jarvana searches the central maven repository and provides maven dependency information for classes and artifacts.
http://www.jarvana.com/jarvana/
http://www.avajava.com/tutorials/
http://www.jarvana.com/jarvana/view/org/wicketstuff/jwicket-tooltip-walterzorn/1.4.11/jwicket-tooltip-walterzorn-1.4.11-javadoc.jar!/org/wicketstuff/jwicket/tooltip/WalterZornTips.html

Examples
1. cniv-sigla.htm (http://www.icvl.eu, M. Vlada)

2. Terry Brooks: tabrooks AT u.washington.edu (INFO 343 Web Technologies - Autumn 2010)

JavaScript Vector Graphics Library (Walter Zorn)
Source:http://projects.ischool.washington.edu/tabrooks/343INFOAutumn10/walterZorn/zorn.htm

3. mapper.netzgesta.de © 2011 by Christian Effenberger

Demonstration .
mapper.js 2.4 allows you to add automatic area highlighting to image maps on your webpages (inc. export to SVG). It works in all the major browsers - Mozilla Firefox 1.5+, Opera 9+, Safari and IE6+. On older browsers, it can use "jsgraphics" from Walter Zorn (if installed), else it'll degrade and your visitors won't notice a thing.
Source: http://www.netzgesta.de/mapper

4. Pure Javascript Martin Browser Fractals By Peter Bromberg (2007)

"I've always had a fascination with fractal geometry. Its funny because I was so disinterested in mathematics that I almost failed 9th grade algebra. But once through college and with the advent of computers and graphics, math took on a whole new light for me. At home we have a coffee-table copy of Benoit Mandelbrot's book on Fractals (Mandelbrot could be considered the "father" of fractals, the Mandelbrot Set is named after him) ... Recently I came across Walter Zorn's Javascript graphics library and was impressed. Essentially he is drawing colored div tags into the browser, each absolutely positioned. No VML, no SVG - it's 100% pure client script, and it works with virtually every browser. The single .JS file is only about 19K, and if you compress it as I did, you can get it down to about 11K - not bad at all. So, I turned my attention back to my Martin Fractals article and decided to adapt the functions to use Zorn's library. ."

Source: http://www.eggheadcafe.com

Procesul de "predare-învăţare"

2011-02-16T01:52:00.000-08:00

The Learning Process vs. Intelligence

Procesul de instruire-învăţare

MOTTO: "An intelligence is the ability to solve problems or to create products, that are valued within one or more cultural settings". (Gardner 2003)

UNDER CONSTRUCTION ...

Este corect utilizat termenul de "predare" in cazul activitatii unui profesor (cadru didactic)? Nu, dupa parerea mea, deoarece este vorba de CUNOASTERE si INVATARE. Dupa cum vom observa, cunoasterea depinde atat de individ, cat si de comunitate (societate), in timp ce invatarea depinde doar de individ. Mai degraba se poate folosi expresia "instruire-învăţare"

CUNOASTEREA (un tezaur al omenirii): spatiu virtual si fizic de inventii, cunostinte, studii, analize, experimente si inventii stocate/pastrate sub diverse forme: carti, reviste, suporturi magnetice si optice, biblioteci digitale, etc. actualizate prin diverse cuceriri stiintifice, culturale etc.

INVATAREA (procesul/drumul catre cunoastere si fericire): omul este sortit sa inceapa -inca de la primele secunde de cand vine pe lume, un lung proces de cautare, de adaptare, de experimente, de bucurie, de fericire, de tristete, de dureri ... de impliniri, de remuscari ... de viata. Drama lui este ca toate acestea sunt influentate de evolutia cunoasterii proprii, ce inseamna de fapt INVATARE. ["Learning is evolution of knowledge over time" Roger E. Bohn, Ref.: c3.cniv.ro ]

KNOWLEDGE: a treasure of humankind
LEARNING: the process / path to knowledge and happiness

"O pledoarie pentru schimbare în educaţie nu ar putea începe, în zilele noastre, decât cu afirmarea rolului principal care revine cadrelor didactice în asumarea acestei schimbări şi cu sublinierea necesităţii de recuperare a principiilor pedagogice aplicate, în contextul actual dinamic, marcat de utilizarea noilor tehnologii pe toate palierele sociale, culturale şi profesionale." Mihaela Ilie, Radu Jugureanu, Otilia Ştefania Păcurari, Olimpius Istrate, Emil Dragomirescu, Dana Vlădoiu, Manual de instruire a profesorilor pentru utilizarea platformelor de eLearning, Editura LITERA Internaţional, Bucureşti, 2008

Nota-Resurse: http://profesorulcreator.siveco.ro (pdf) | Documente

Nota: TKS 2011, The First International Conference "Teachers for the Knowledge Society", Sinaia, 17-19 March, 2011 (MasterProf)
The Conference is the closing conference of a two years EU project: Training the MST Teachers through a Master Program for the Knowledge Society.
Invited speakers:
Howard Gardner, Harvard University
Pieter de Vries, Delft University
Wim Veen, Delft University

- http://conference2011.masterprof.ro/
- the abstracts: tks_abstracts.pdf (pdf)

"To learn is to acquire knowledge or skill. Learning also may involve a change in attitude or behavior."
Ref.: www.dynamicflight.com/avcfibook/learning_process/

For Dr. Howard Gardner, intelligence is:
"- the ability to create an effective product or offer a service that is valued in a culture;
- a set of skills that make it possible for a person to solve problems in life; - the potential for finding or creating solutions for problems, which involves gathering new knowledge. "(Gardner 2009, American Psychologist and Educator)
Ref.: Building the 21st-Century Mind: www.howardgardner.com

Computer and Learning

Results and performance obtained through the use of computers have boosted the development of all sciences. Man and the world interact continuously, reality is seen from multiple perspectives, the information we received through various channels so as to have an adequate response, the knowledge we have produced, not reproduced. Learning is individualized, and cognitive and emotional development plan can not ignore the cultural, social, technological. Computer inciting the ongoing reconfiguration of the image that we have about areas of knowledge by accessing different sources of information and provides another way to know and to produce knowledge. Learning is broadly defined as change. The focus can be on what we learn (the product of learning) or on how we learn (the process). It is about how we change and how we adapt, grow, and develop. This adaptation, growth, and development occur from the inside out. The 21st Century Skills are critically important to support the challenges of the modern work-place and the dynamic and rapidly changing knowledge society. Learning solutions focus on developing or enhancing the competencies and behaviors needed by individuals and teams in order to accomplish meaningful goals and create a positive work climate that encourages and values clarity, interaction, openness, diversity, community and results.

The triad "Learning-Knowledge-Development"

This conclusion lead to examine in detail the triad "Learning-Knowledge-Development" (Fig. 3):
• Development - a process in which something passes by degrees to a different stage (especially a more advanced or mature stage); "the development of his ideas took many years"; "the evolution of Greek civilization"; "the slow development of her skill as a specialist or a person "; Sustainable development is maintaining a delicate balance between the human need to improve lifestyles and feeling of well-being on one hand, and preserving natural resources and ecosystems, on which we and future generations depend; This component is a physical environment; this treasure can store;
• Knowledge – Knowledge is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as (i) expertise, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject, (ii) what is known in a particular field or in total; facts and information or (iii) awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation; the theoretical or; Knowledge acquisition involves complex cognitive processes: perception, learning, communication, association and reasoning. This component is a physical environment, but also a virtual environment; this treasure can store;
• Learning - Learning is acquiring new knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, preferences or understanding, and may involve synthesizing different types of information. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals and some machines. Progress over time tends to follow learning curves. Human learning may occur as part of education or personal development. It may be goal-oriented and may be aided by motivation. The study of how learning occurs is part of neuropsychological, educational psychology, learning theory, and pedagogy; One way we use the cognitive processes in our daily lives is with learning. Learning is not just something we do in school or in formal settings. We learn every day. Sometimes our very survival depends on how well we can learn. That may mean unlearning our learned limitations and regaining confidence in our ability to direct our own learning. In today’s world, someone who doesn’t know how to learn is left behind (http://www.cognitiveprocesses.com, 8 functions). By exploring your own learning process and determining your natural learning style, you can find the best ways for you to learn. Then you, not the instructor or the situation, are in charge of your learning. Learning is broadly defined as change. The focus can be on what we learn (the product of learning) or on how we learn (the process). It is about how we change and how we adapt, grow, and develop. This adaptation, growth, and development occur from the inside out. This component is only a virtual environment; this treasure cannot store.
- Figure 3 represents the relationship between Learning, Knowledge and Development.

Thomas Edison - 164

2011-02-11T01:57:00.000-08:00

Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an American inventor, scientist, and businessman who developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb.

Ref.: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Edison

Source: Google

The power of Learning

2011-02-09T03:16:00.000-08:00

IMAGINATION: "Imagination is everything. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand."(Albert Einstein)

WISDOM: "Wisdom is the daughter of experience." (Leonardo da Vinci)

WISDOM & DEFINITION: "The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms." (Socrates)

SUCCESSES: "Learning from our successes not our failures" (2009, MIT- E. Miller, M. Histen, A. Pasupath)

THINKING: "All what is correct thinking is either mathematics or feasible to be transposed in a mathematical model." (Grigore C. Moisil)

LEARNING & KNOWLEDGE: ”Learning is evolution of knowledge over time” (Roger E. Bohn)

LEARNING: "Human development is accomplished by knowledge and learning." (ICVL 2006, Vlada and Ţugui)

POWER & LEARNING: "Learning is power". (CNIV 2007, M. Vlada and R. Jugureanu)

TRUTH: "You can not teach someone everything. You can only help him discover the truth in himself." (Galileo Galilei)

TRUTH & UNDERSTAND: "All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them." (Galileo Galilei)

SCIENCES: "Sciences are models and virtual representations of knowledge." (CNIV 2008, M. Vlada)

PICTURE: "A picture is worth ten thousand as the words". (Chinese proverb)

CHARACTERS: "The book of nature is written in the characters of geometry". (Galileo Galilei)

LANGUAGES: "Natural environments are ruled by languages. Computer Science use artificial languages. Languages exist therefore, not for communication purposes alone, but particullarily for knowledge and processing." (eLSE 2005, M. Vlada)

NATURE & MATHEMATICS: "Laws of Nature are written in the language of mathematics". (Galileo Galilei)

INFORMATICS: "The informatics/computer science re-establishes not only the unity between the pure and the applied mathematical sciences, the concrete technique and the concrete mathematics, but also that between the natural sciences, the human being and the society. It restores the concepts of the abstract and the formal and makes peace between arts and science not only in the scientist' conscience, but in their philosophy as well." (Grigore C. Moisil)

MATHEMATICS: "If Mathematics was not "nothing would have been" no wheel and no computer, no press and no phone, no Computer Science or Cybernetics. But to all these entities materials invented by man, Mathematics helps man to think about life, create and imagine, to love nature and his fellows, to be emotional and brave, to be consistent and ordinary, to dream and be happy." (January 31, 2010, M. Vlada)

TEACHER: "A key role in promoting discipline among young people it is the teacher. It must fulfill its mission of teaching and teacher pedagogue using methods most appropriate discipline discovery by studying as many students. Teacher must his students not seeing the "good students" and "weak students", but "students" have to be guided to discover the knowledge and skills are encouraged to go through “step by step" learning and discovering the secrets of scientific knowledge." (February 1, 2010, M.Vlada)

TECHNOLOGY & MAGIC: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." (Arthur C. Clarke)

NEORONS & STARS: "10¹¹ = The number of neurons in the Human Brain = The number of stars in the Galaxy". (2010, Source: The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA , http://web.mit.edu/picow)

"Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere." (Chinese Proverb)

"To learn is to change. Education is a process that changes the learner." George B. Leonard

"The important thing is not to stop questioning." Albert Einstein

"Knowledge increases in proportion to its use - that is, the more we teach the more we learn." H. P. Blavatsky

"We need to bring learning to people instead of people to learning." Elliott Masie

"The ability to learn faster than your competitors may be the only sustainable competitive advantage" Peter Senge

"The next big killer application on the internet is going to be education. Education over the internet is going to be so big it is going to make e-mail usage look like a rounding error." John Chambers

Ref.: http://www.c2workshop.com/aboutus.htm

Dinu Toiba

2011-02-06T11:51:00.001-08:00

Creating Rich Web-Based LIMS With Programmable XML Technologies by Dinu Toiba

(Reprinted from American Laboratory September 2005)

"This article examines currently available Internet deployment options andillustrates the historical development of LIMS software from standard client/server technology through Web-enabled solutions to the arrival of rich, scalable Web-based LIMS applications. This technology is illustrated by the version 10 Web-based LIMS application (STARLIMS Corp., Hollywood, FL)."
"Conclusion: Impressive advances in the technology continuum over the past few years have ushered in an era of demand for enterprise-wide LIMS data availability. This data availability, coupled with the emergence of rich, fullfeatured Web-based LIMS, is facilitating timely enterprise action, reducing the total cost of ownership, and enabling multisite organizations to conform to best practices."

Source: www.starlims.com/AL_STARLIMS_v10.pdf (pdf)

In 1978, over 100 graduates of the Mathematics Faculty within the University of Bucharest have graduated from the Computer Science Department.Among the professors of this generation of computer experts we mention: Solomon Marcus, Livovschi Leon, Popovici Constantin, Văduva Ion, Tomescu Ioan, Cuculescu Ion, Vaida Dragoş, Mircea Maliţa, Andreian Cazacu Cabiria (dean), Dincă George (vice-dean), Nicolae Radu,(vice-dean), Niţă Constantin, Ichim Ion, Sireţchi Gheorghe, Georgescu Horia, Bâscă Octavian , Popescu Ileana, Atanasiu Adrian, State Luminiţa. Today, the graduates of 1978 unfold their activity in the country as well as overseas (USA, Canada, Germany, Austria, Greece, Israel) in the following fields: IT, research, higher education, finance, banks, administration, and telecommunications. A number of 9 graduates have PhDs in Mathemathics or Computer Science/Information Technology (Catargiu Dumitru, Crăciunean Vasile, Dima Nelu, Ioniţă Angela, Marinoiu Cristian, Răbâea Adrian, Stoleru Anca, Vianu Victor, Vlada Marin).

Promotia 1978 - Informatica
- http://fmi.unibuc.ro/ro/prezentare/promotia_1978/
(Facultatea de Matematica si Informatica, Universitatea din Bucuresti)

1.Aldea-Gabriela
2.Andronache-Elena
3.Anghel-Ilie
4.Barash-Mariana
5.Berciu-Ion
6.Borcan-Aurel
7.Butnareanu-Ariana-Cristina
8.Caracostea-Adriana
9.Cariga-Cristina
10.Cherches-Rodica
11.Chiran-Dumitru
12.Chiris-Stefan
13.Ciobanu-Claudia
14.Ciobanu-Marin
15.Covila-Gabriela-Otilia
16.Craciunean-Vasile
17.Craciunescu-Dana-Maria
18.Cretescu-Dan-Ion
19.Cristescu-Magda
20.Dancila-Dochie
21.Dan-Lucia
22.Dascalescu-Dumitru
23.Dautner-Angela
24.Dima-Nelu
25.Dinescu-Dan-Marius
26.Dobrescu-Magdalena
27.Draghicescu-Mircea
28.Dumitriu-Florinel
29.Dumitru-Viorica
30.Florea-Mihaela
31.Ganea-Livia-Maria
32.Grecu-Ileana
33.Gunescu-Gabriel
34.Haralambie-Marcel
35.Horoiu-Elena
36.Iacovachi-Adriana-Florina
37.Ionita-Angela
38.Iuga-Viorel-Marian
39.Ivanescu-Octav-Gabriel
40.Jecu-Valeria
41.Kovacs-Carol-Emil
42.Lepadus-Lucia
43.Litman-Irin
44.Macoviciuc-Ioan
45.Maldarescu-Maria
46.Marinoiu-Cristian
47.Maxim-Viorica-Florentina
48.Mazetti-Gentiana
49.Mihai-Ion
50.Militaru-Mihaela-Petruta
51.Mirea-Mircea
52.Miu-Virgil
53.Moisescu-Magda

54.Movila-Octavia
55.Munteanu-Aurel
56.Muresanu-Ana-Maria
57.Nagy-Antal-Laszlo
58.Nagy-Wilhelm
59.Necula-Eugen
60.Nenciu-Gigi
61.Nistor-Ioan
62.Nitulescu-Anca
63.Oancea-Mihaela-Carmen
64.Oprea-Constantin
65.Palade-Iulius-Cezar
66.Pasan-Virgil-Stefan
67.Patulescu-Vladimir
68.Pavel-Ovidiu
69.Pavoni-Violeta
70.Popescu-Gabriel
71.Popescu-Iulian-Daniel
72.Popescu-Mihaela
73.Rabaea-Aurel-Adrian
74.Radoslovescu-Ion
75.Ratiu-Veronica-Adriana
76.Romankiewicz-Carmen
77.Sandescu-Ruxandra
78.Sandu-Michaela
79.Serbanescu-Magdalena
80.Sfarti-Gabriela
81.Stanculea-Liana-Olimpia
82.Stanescu-Dan-Andrei
83.Stan-Florian-Constantin
84.Stanga-Irinel-Catalin
85.State-Dinu-Stelian
86.Stefanescu-Anca-Catalina
87.Stoleru-Anca
88.Szilagy-Ladislau
89.Taranu-Octavia
90.Teleojan-Lambina-Cristinel
91.Teosian-Kartgnez
92.Toader-Viorica
93.Toiba-Dinu
94.Trepadus-Mircea
95.Turceanu-Maria
96.Udristeanu-Anca
97.Ungureanu-Cristian
98.Ursu-Cornelia
99.Vianu-Victor
100.Visoiu-Dorin
101.Vlada-Marin
102.Voicu-Rodica
103.Vornicu-Irina
104.Zamfirache-Dan
105.Zamfirache-Vasile

Ref.:
- 2008: Întâlnirea promoţiei 1978 Informatică (www.agora.ro)
- 2011 (Miercuri 12.01.2011, ora 19.30): intalnirea cu Dinu la Bucuresti; au participat: Dinu, Irina, Ruxandra, Ariana, Viorica, Anca, Veronica, Elena, Craita si Sam, Angela, Catalin, Octav, Florin, Loti, Gigi, Iulius, Rados, Marinica, Vlad, Mitica, Gabi
- 2011 (Miercuri 19.01.2011, ora 19.30): a doua intalnire cu Dinu la Bucuresti; au participat: Dinu, Ruxandra, Ariana, Viorica, Anca, Veronica, Craita si Sam, Angela, Catalin, Octav, Florin, Loti, Gigi, Iulius, Rados, Marinica, Vlad, Mitica, Gabi

"Informatica restabileşte nu numai unitatea matematicilor pure şi a celor aplicate, a tehnicii concrete şi a matematicilor abstracte, dar şi cea a ştiinţelor naturii, ale omului şi ale societăţii. Reabilitează conceptele de abstract şi de formal şi împacă arta cu ştiinţa, nu numai în sufletul omului de ştiinţă, unde erau întotdeauna împăcate, ci şi în filosofarea lor." Grigore C. Moisil (1906-1973), academician, profesor la Facultatea de Matematică din Bucureşti, Computer Pioneer Award of IEEE Computer Society (IEEE - 1996)

Prof. dr. Vasile Preda

2011-02-03T03:54:00.000-08:00

PhD Professor Vasile Preda, University of Bucharest, Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, Romania

1. Mathematics Genealogy Project (http://genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu): Vasile C. Preda - Dissertation: Contributions To Statistical Decision Theory (original title in romanian language: Contributii in teoria deciziilor statistice) (Advisor : Silviu Guiasu)

2. MathSciNet (www.ams.org/mathscinet/): Preda, Vasile
• Total Publications: 114
• Total Author/Related Publications: 120
• Total Citations: 80

Domenii de interes: Statistica matematica, Teoria deciziilor, Optimizare, Cercetari operationale, Inegalitati variationale si teoria echilibrului, Convexitate generalizata, Teoria informatiei, Criptografie, Biostatistica, Asigurari de viata si de non-viata, Statistica in actuariat (http://fmi.unibuc.ro/ro/preda_vasile/).

- Conducator de doctorat în domeniile (din anul 1996): Optimizare, Statistica matematica, Teoria Informatiei, Matematica Actuariala, Inegalitati Variationale, la Facultatea de Matematica si Informatica, Universitatea Bucuresti
- 1996 – 2004: Decan Facultatea de Matematica si Informatica
- Membru al Senatului UB (din 1996)
- Director al Societatii Romane de Studii Criptografice (din 2006)
- Director al Centrului de Cercetari Operationale al Universitatii din Bucuresti
- Premiul "Gheorghe Lazar" pentru Matematica, Academia Româna, 1992
- Peste 200 de citari in reviste romanesti si straine, peste 80 in reviste ISI (sursa: CV-LINK (pdf))

Este un profesor si matematician ce intotdeauna promoveaza rolul matematicii in domeniul cunoasterii, in educatie si in cercetare. Utilizeaza teoriile pentru aplicatii utile si demonstrative. Este receptiv la tot ce poate sa ajute la argumentare, deductii, demonstratii si aplicatiii practice.

In perioada 2003-2005 a sprijinit organizarea si promovarea CNIV (Conferinta Nationala de Invatamant Virtual): http://c3.cniv.ro | 2003

-Gabriel Vasile, Solutii informatice: noi pasi catre un invatamant modern, IT&C, Market Watch, 27 octombrie 2003
- Personalitati academice participante la deschiderea primei editii CNIV 2003:
Prof. dr. I. Mihailescu, Rector Universitatea din Bucuresti
Prof. dr. V. Preda, Decan Facultatea de Matematica si Informatica
Prof. dr. V. Magearu, Decan Facultatea de Chimie

"Nu intamplator aceasta Conferinta se desfasoara la Facultatea de Matematica si Informatica: trebuie sa va spun ca de fapt, creatorul calculatorului modern, cel care a conceput cum functioneaza un calculator, este un matematician, si anume John von Neumann, iata deci ca matematica joaca un rol foarte important in viata noastra ..." prof. dr. Vasile Preda, discurs la deschiderea primei editii CNIV 2003.

Journals
Publisher: Romanian Academy, Publishing House of the Romanian Academy (Format: print and electronic)
1. ROMANIAN JOURNAL OF PURE AND APPLIED MATHEMATICS - Volumes

2. MATHEMATICAL REPORTS - Volumes

Helicoidal Models

2011-02-01T10:40:00.000-08:00

DNA vs. Software Development

1. "Helicoidal” models for DNA dynamics

2. The Helicoidal Life Cycle - Software Development

1. "Helicoidal” models for DNA dynamics
Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is the nucleic acid that contains the hereditary information used in the development and functioning of all living organisms. The total genetic information in a cell is called its genome.

Ref.: Giuseppe Gaeta, Centre de Physique Théorique, Ecole Polytechnique, An amended version of simple “helicoidal” models for DNA dynamics
- http://dnainfo.wikispaces.com/James+Watson
- http://dnainfo.wikispaces.com/What+is+DNA%3F+
Read more: http://www.genome.gov/25520880
- The National Human Genome Research Institute began as the National Center for Human Genome Research (NCHGR)
- www.genome.gov/10001772 The Human Genome Project (HGP)
- www.dna-structure.com/ DNA Structure:
- www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-hrLs03KjY&feature=related
- www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwfO6SzGaEg&feature=related

2. The Helicoidal Life Cycle - Software Development

Ref.: The Helicoidal Life Cycle – A Tool for Software Development and Enhancement
by Antonio Carlos Pinto Dias Alves, Unidade Gestão de Riscos
Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
"The Helicoidal Life Cycle allows superposition of different development phases, thus promoting saving time and costs. Although some phases can be completely superposed by others, each one can be tracked independently whereas the whole system development can be tracked by a separate helicoidal life cycle that covers the inner ones in an onion style. So, from the examples of use presented, we saw that reductions in development time and costs cannot be ignored. In some cases, those reductions reached almost 50%. May be, when CASE tools specifically designed for use with the helicoidal cycle be in use, savings can be even bigger."

- http://www.wseas.us (pdf)

Powers of Ten

2011-02-01T08:19:00.000-08:00

About Powers of Ten and Cosmic Zoom

"Powers of Ten takes us on an adventure in magnitudes. Starting at a picnic by the lakeside in Chicago, this famous film transports us to the outer edges of the universe. Every ten seconds we view the starting point from ten times farther out until our own galaxy is visible only as a speck of light among many others. Returning to Earth with breathtaking speed, we move inward- into the hand of the sleeping picnicker - with ten times more magnification every ten seconds. Our journey ends inside a proton of a carbon atom within a DNA molecule in a white blood cell."
Source: http://powersof10.com/film
- http://powersof10.com | http://www.eamesoffice.com
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA
- Cosmic Zoom : Discovery News, http://news.discovery.com/

"From a picnic blanket near Chicago out past the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies, every ten seconds the film pans out to show a square a factor of ten times larger on each side. The video then reverses, panning back in a factor of ten every two seconds and ends up inside a single proton. The Powers of Ten sequence is actually based on the book Cosmic View by Kees Boeke in 1957, as is a similar but mostly animated film Cosmic Zoom that was also created in the late 1960s. The changing perspectives are so enthralling and educational that sections have been recreated using more modern computerized techniques, including the first few minutes of the movie Contact, and in a short digital video called The Known Universe created last year for the American Museum of Natural History. Ray and husband Charles, the film's creators, were known as quite visionary spirits and even invented their own popular chair."
Ref.: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110201.html

Dr. Gheorghe Păun

2011-01-22T03:11:00.000-08:00

Dr. Gheorghe Păun is Senior researcher at the Institute of Mathematics of the Romanian Academy / member of RGNC (Spain)

- Corresponding Member of The Romanian Academy (1997)
- Member of Academia Europaea (2006)
- Included, by Thomson-Reuters Institute for Scientific Information, ISI, in the ISI Highly Cited Scientists: http://isihighlycited.com/
- "Gheorghe Lazar" award of the Romanian Academy, 1981.
- Honorary member and Doctor Honoris Causa of the International Academy of Informatization, Chisinev branch, 1998.

In Honour of Gheorghe Paun's 60th Birthday
- Ninth Brainstorming Week on Membrane Computing - BWMC11 (31st jan-4th feb 2011)
- University of Sevilla, Spain, Research Group on Natural Computing
Ref. : www.gcn.us.es/?q=9bwmc

Main Research Interests:

Formal language theory (and applications)
DNA Computing
Membrane Computing (initiator of this area - http://esi-topics.com, February 2003, and P systems ("P" from "Paun")- http://ppage.psystems.eu)

"Gheorghe Păun had a powerful influence on the development of theoretical computer science, especially the area of natural computing. He is the inventor of the new rapidly developing area of biocomputing - computing using membrane systems, or P systems. Due to the results and ideas of Gheorghe Păun in biocomputing the team of scientists working successfully in this direction was formed in the Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science."
Source: A tribute in honour of his 60th birthday, Computer Science Journal of Moldova, vol.18, no.2(53), 2010(pdf)

Course materials:
- Gh. Paun. Membrane computing: power, efficiency, applications. Slides. [pdf]
- Gh. Paun. Introduction to membrane computing. [pdf]
- Gh. Paun. Spiking neural P systems: a tutorial. [pdf]

Ref.: www.cs.ioc.ee/yik/schools/win2007/paun.php

Mathematical Books:
- Membrane Computing. An Introduction, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2002

Ref.: http://www.imar.ro/~gpaun/

"Sunt fenomene care nu pot fi modelate „la scară”, precum avioanele în tunelul aerodinamic – e cazul proceselor sociale, biologice, cosmice. E nevoie atunci de modele matematice. Ieftine, puternice, relevante, repetabile – cu menţiunea că de multe ori modelele sunt atât de complexe că nu pot fi studiate teoretic. Fie matematica de azi nu e pregătită pentru a le studia, fie pur şi simplu acest lucru este principial imposibil (matematica are limite pe care ea însăşi şi le-a definit şi identificat – vezi teoremele lui Godel, limitele calculabilităţii / algoritmicităţii, etc.). Şi atunci apare calculatorul, simularea. Se pune modelul într-un program şi se experimentează în lumea digitală, reglând parametri şi legături între ei şi observând pe ecran evoluţia procesului respectiv. Simplu în principiu, adesea extrem de util-relevant-eficient, cerând însă modele inspirate, programe bune şi calculatoare puternice."
Maria-Diana POPESCU, Interviu cu academician Gheorghe PĂUN, membru al Academiei Europene, "Viaţa eternă? - Existenţe virtuale în memoria unui calculator cosmic"
Source: http://www.agero-stuttgart.de

- In in Honour of Gheorghe Paun, Carlos Martín-Vide, Victor Mitrana (Eds.): Grammars and Automata for String Processing: From Mathematics and Computer Science to Biology 2003

- http://www.upitmedia.ro/

Natural Computing

1. artificial neural networks (McCulloch and Pitts 1943)
2. genetic algorithms (Holland 1975), the Splicing model (Head 1987), Molecular Computing (Adleman 1994)
3. P systems (Paun 1998)

"At the present time, Natural Computing consists of three branches. The first is based on observations of the brains operation and has as a theoretical model, artificial neural networks (McCulloch and Pitts 1943). The second branch is based on the properties of DNA and it has as precedents genetic algorithms created by (Holland 1975), the Splicing model (Head 1987), and Molecular Computing (Adleman 1994). The third branch of Natural Computing is based on the operation of the cells and has P systems (Paun 1998) as a theoretical model. Genetic algorithms and neural networks have been implemented on conventional electronic computers. DNA-based molecular computing has been implemented in the laboratory. P systems have yet to be implemented electronically or biologically."
Source: http://www.gcn.us.es/

Theory and Construction of Molecular Computers (Japan, 1996-2001)

Molecular Computation Project (MCP) is an attempt to harness the computational power of molecules for information processing.
"Information processing on the molecular scale has been sought in several ways other than Adleman's, but the DNA computation is inherently different from other previous approaches: it aims the construction of a general-purpose computer based on the theory of universal computation. This goal seems to be hinted by the nature of DNA molecules, that is, an arbitrary concatenation of four natural bases forms one DNA sequence."
- Publication list of MCP

Ref.: http://hagi.is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/MCP/

From Turing machines to molecular computers

- Maya Kahan, Binyamin Gil, Rivka Adar, Ehud Shapiro, Towards molecular computers that operate in a biological environment, 2008 (pdf)

Note: Prof. Shapiro (Weizmann Institute of Science) was involved with the Japanese Fifth Generation Computer Project during the '80s and published numerous scientific papers in the area of concurrent logic programming languages. In the early '90s, Shapiro's innovative research in programming languages led to the establishment of Ubique, a company that develops interactive online environments. Shapiro's design of a universal molecular computer, which inspired the creation of the molecular automaton, was awarded a U.S. patent.

Journal of Computer-Aided Molecular Design: www.springerlink.com/content/102928/

Prof. Dr. Ion Văduva

2011-01-21T12:46:00.000-08:00

Ph.D. Professor Ion Văduva - Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Bucharest, Romania

From 1970-1993: the Director of the Computing Center, University of Bucharest (founded by Gr. C. Moisil).
In 1977 obtained "S.Stoilow" prize of the Romanian Academy of Science.
Founded and coordinates the scientific seminar "Stochastic Modeling and Simulation": http://www.ssmss.ro
2000-2004: Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics.
Coordination PhD (pdf)
http://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_Văduva

Ref.: http://genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=85150

Teaching Experience
- Multivariate statistical analysis
- Computer simulation and Monte-Carlo methods
- Information management systems
- Stochastic models of operations research
- Background of computer science
- Computer simulation languages
- Software reliability
- Computerised stochastic models
- Fuzzy modeling of systems
Research interests
- Computer simulation of random variables, random vectors and stochastic proceses
- Monte-Carlo techniques Mathematical Statistics
- Data analysis
- Statistical quality control
- Reliability (including software reliability)
- Discrete systems analysis
- Simulation of systems reliability

Domnul Profesor Ion Văduva are contributii importante in dezvoltarea informaticii din Romania, fiind un militant activ in promovarea implementarii diverselor proiecte si programe privind informatica. A promovat studierea diverselor discipline ale informaticii ce erau importante pe plan international. In domeniul cercetarii a elaborat si coordonat foarte multe contracte de informatica aplicata. Este respectat si iubit de studentii informaticieni de la Facultatea de Matematica si Informatica din Bucuresti. Pentru doctoranzii pe care ii coordona si pentru colaboratorii de la seminariile stiintifice, era o bucurie sa constate ca primeau ajutorul concret in cercetarea pe care o desfasurau.

Personal, ii sunt recunoscator domnului Profesor pentru urmatoarele:
-ca student si apoi ca cercetator la CCUB (Centrul de Calcul al Universitatii Bucuresti) m-a sprijinit si incurajat mereu, a avut incredere in mine
- in anul 1984 mi-a recomandat ca domeniu de cercetare si de doctorat, Inteligenta Artificiala (1981-1990 in Japonia era in desfasurare proiectul japonez privind generatia a V-a de calculatoare: sisteme inteligente)
- in anul 2003, m-a sprijinit si mi-a acordat incredere pentru initierea si organizarea primei editii a CNIV (Conferinta Nationala de Invatamant Virtual): VIRTUAL LEARNING - SOFTWARE EDUCATIONAL.

Prof. dr. Adrian Atanasiu

2011-01-19T06:55:00.000-08:00

Adrian Atanasiu is Ph.D. Professor at the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer, University of Bucharest (Romania)
Ref.: www.galaxyng.com/adrian_atanasiu/

Am avut placerea sa cunosc calitatile pedagogice si de cercetator ale Profesorului Adrian Atanasiu: corectitudine, rigurozitate, perseverenta in cercetare, rezolvitor neobosit de probleme, argumente si demonstratii pentru aplicatii. [In poza de mai jos prof. Atanasiu se afla in primul rand, cel mai din dreapta: intalnirea promotiei de informatica, 2003 - www.mateinfo78.com; vorbeste acad. prof. Solomon Marcus; la prezidiu sunt profesorii: C. Popovici, H. Georgescu, I. Cuculescu, I. Tomescu; dreapta, in primele randuri: profesorii Dragos Vaida, Virgil Cazanescu, Liliana Popescu, Constantin Nita]

Courses (pdf):
Criptografie, Coduri, Lingvistica, Fundamentele Informaticii

Articles :-Injectivity of the Parikh matrix mapping
-Codifiable languages and the Parikh matrix mapping
-P-Systems and Arithmetical calculus
-Arithmetic with membranes
-Recursive Calculus with membranes
-P-Systems and Context-Free languages
-Local splicing grammar systems
-Distributed Encryption Systems
-On the Error-Tolerant Closure of Languages

Ref.:www.informatik.uni-trier.de/

"Definitia 1.1 Criptografia este studiul metodelor matematice legate de securitatea informatiei, capabile sa asigure confidentialitatea, autentificarea si non-repudierea mesajelor,precum si integritatea datelor vehiculate ([1])."

[1] A. Menezes, P. Oorschot, S. Vanstome, Handbook of Applied Cryptography
[4] G. J. Woeginger, http://www.win.tue.nl/~gwoegi/P-versus-NP.htm
[5] S. Cook, http://www.claymath.org/millennium/P_vs_NP/Official_Problem_Description.pdf

Source: A. Atanasiu, www.galaxyng.com/adrian_atanasiu/cript.htm (curs 1)

Informatics, Computer Science, IT

2011-01-15T08:54:00.000-08:00

ROMANIAN

STIINTE EXACTE:
1. Matematica
2. Fizica
3. Chimia
4. Informatica

Update: 6 martie - Noul regulament de funcţionare a CNATDCU
- http://www.moficial.ro (pdf)
- http://www.ad-astra.roo

NEW: Informatica este arondata la :

panel: P1. Matematica si stiinte ale naturii

comisia: INFORMATICA
domenii: INFORMATICA
Ref. : Ordinul 3759 din 9 februarie 2011 (Ordinul 3759/2011) privind aprobarea Regulamentului de organizare si functionare a Consiliului National de Atestare a Titlurilor, Diplomelor si Certificatelor Universitare (CNATDCU)

-COMPONENTA NOMINALA a panelurilor pe domenii fundamentale ale Consiliului National deAtestare a Titlurilor, Diplomelor si Certificatelor Universitare

P1. Matematica si stiinte ale naturii

Domeniile Stiintei si Tehnologiei
1. Stiinte naturale si exacte
2. Stiinte ingineresti si tehnologice
3. Stiinte medicale
4. Stinte agricole
5. Stiinte sociale si economice
6. Stiinte umaniste

- Manualul Frascati: LINK (pdf) | OECD, 2002.
- ISSE (www.insse.ro): anuarul statistic al Romaniei (cap 13) - (pdf)

Lista domeniilor pentru studii universitare de licenţă

- Nomenclatorul domeniilor de studii universitare de licenţă: Hotărârea de Guvern nr. 676/28.06.2007 | Anexa nr. 1: LINK

Informatica - Computer Science (USA); Europa: Informatique (Fr), Informatics (Eng), Informatik (Danish, German, Swedish), Informatica (Naderland, Italian);

Informatics: (computing) a branch of information science, and of computer science, that focuses on the study of information.

OBS.: Cadrul Naţional al Calificărilor din Învăţământul Superior (CNCIS)
- www.rncis.ro, Registrul National al calificarilor din invatamantul superior (National Higher Education Qualifications Registry)
- http://www.edumanager.ro/articol.php?id=8411

OBSERVATIE: The ACM Computing Classification System (1998)- Valid through 2011
- http://www.acm.org/about/class/ccs98-html
OBSERVATIE: Classification Schemes of Information Science (by Chaim Zins, JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGy — March 2007) - This unique collection of 28 classification schemes portrays and documents the profile of contemporary Information Science at the beginning of the 21st century.
- http://www.success.co.il/is/classifications.html
- http://www.success.co.il/is/zins_28schemes.pdf (pdf)

ENGLISH

1. Informatics
Informatics can be synonymous with:
1. Informatics (academic field), a broad academic field encompassing human-computer interaction, information science, information technology, algorithms, and social science
- Computer science, the study of complex systems, information and computation using applied mathematics, electrical engineering and software engineering techniques.
- Information science, the study of the processing, management, and retrieval of information
2. Information technology, the study, design, development, implementation, support, or management of computer-based information systems
3. Informatics (software company), a software company

Ref.: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_science
Note 1:
What is Informatics? (Source: University of Michigan, http://informatics.umich.edu)
"Think Facebook, automobile navigation systems, clinical trials, online marketing, internet searches, medical imaging, risk assessment, disaster preparedness and response, financial market analysis, DNA analysis, artificial intelligence, internet security, online community organizing, smartphone applications, digital archives, medical records storage and retrieval, political polling, supply chain management, real-time weather maps, etc. The applications are endless.
Informatics combines solid grounding in computer programming, mathematics, and statistics, combined with study of the ethical and social science aspects of complex information systems. Informatics majors learn to critically analyze various approaches to processing information and develop skills to design, implement, and evaluate the next generation of information technology tools.
Informatics graduates are well prepared for many roles in business, research, government, and non-profit organizations. Depending on the track of study completed, graduates are also equipped with the academic background necessary for graduate study in many fields including computer science, business, education, information, statistics, law, medicine, public health, and natural and social sciences."

Note 2: Attracting (more) students to the Informatics discipline (ppt)
www.informatics-europe.org/docs/Venice-Dec2008.ppt
http://www.informatics-europe.org
Informatics was:
-about computing, data processing and process control
- centered once around mainframes and mini’s
Now is:
- about designing and creating processes and systems and their interactions with the world
- centered around networks, embedded systems and intelligent (information/software) environments
- critical in everything (science, business, society)
- used by everyone, everywhere
- business domain of many information and software companies (large and small)
- major factor in economy, innovation and of ICT policies
- challenging future ethics, privacy, security
- major intellectual discipline of this century (cf Constable 2005) and.. a household word!

2. Computer Science (CS)
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems. Computer science, the study of complex systems, information and computation using applied mathematics, electrical engineering and software engineering techniques.
Areas of computer science:
- Theoretical computer science /Theory of computation
- Algorithms and data structures
- Computer elements and architecture
- Multiprocessing
- Computational science
- Artificial Intelligence
- Software Systems

Ref.: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_science

3. Information Technology (IT)
Information Technology defines an industry that uses computers, networking, software programming, and other equipment and processes to store, process, retrieve, transmit, and protect information. IT spans wide variety of areas that include but are not limited to things such as processes, computer software, computer hardware, programming languages, and data constructs.

Ref.: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_technology

OBS.: The ACM Computing Classification System (1998)- Valid through 2011
- http://www.acm.org/about/class/ccs98-html

OBS.: Classification Schemes of Information Science (by Chaim Zins, JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGy — March 2007) - This unique collection of 28 classification schemes portrays and documents the profile of contemporary Information Science at the beginning of the 21st century.
- http://www.success.co.il/is/classifications.html
- http://www.success.co.il/is/zins_28schemes.pdf (pdf)
- http://www.success.co.il/is/zins_conceptsof_is.pdf (pdf)
“Information science is an interdisciplinary field concerned
with the theoretical and practical concepts, as well as
the technologies, laws, and industry dealing with knowledge
transfer and the sources, generation, organization, representation,
processing, distribution, communication, and uses of
information, as well as communications among users and their
behavior as they seek to satisfy their information needs.”

“Information science is the study of how information
is used, acquired, organized, and evaluated by humans.
Defined this way, it is essentially synonymous with “informatics”
as it used in the context of health/biomedical
informatics in the United States. A key point is that it focuses
on information as opposed to technology.”

"Information science is an interdisciplinary field encompassing
all aspects of data from data generation via measurement
and observation, through data capture, analysis, representation,
organization, evaluation, storage, transformation, presentation,
protection, and retention. Note that ‘Data’ can be
used as a collective noun in English. As such it can and
should be used to imply a set of symbols, and would be
preferable to using ‘information’ in such a narrow context
(Rush & Davis, 2006). (Charles H. Davis [12])"

(Source: Conceptions of Information Science by Chaim Zins, JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, 58(3):335–350, 2007)