Politehnica University Timisoara

The message of the rector

 
 

Dear Colleagues, Dear students,
 

Today we’re at the end of the first year in the new century of Politehnica University Timișoara. If a year ago we presented some milestones from the first century of our university's existence, I think it's time to talk more about the present and the future. How is the present of Politehnica looking? How will we consolidate this wonderful edifice of Timisoara and Banat in the future? If we take a look at what we have accomplished in this first year of the new century of UPT, we see, first of all, a change of institutional paradigm.

From the point of view of organizational culture, this year we have made important steps through the trainings provided for staff, especially for the university management, both for administrative and didactic skill improvement, trainings specific trainings to corporations, organized for the first time for an educational institution. We also aim to adopt certain standards in terms of university management, a traceability of the results of our actions, a constant feedback at managerial level on the actions we take.

Important steps have also been taken in terms of digitization, releasing, in a very short period of time, a number of applications through which we bring a breath of fresh air in the educational market, in the marketing market or applications for the administrative area, software applications that, during the pandemic, helped us grow at a fast rate, the entire university community being aware of this necessity. We intend to continue on this road of software application development for the academic field with an emphasis on forming one or more teams of professors and students, but also to expand the use of these apps and the resulting best practices among our academic partners.

In terms of research, we have devised methodologies to support financially, but not only, reasearchers with outstanding results in this field. I must admit that I am glad that in the last top of the most cited 2% authors of Scopus-indexed scientific papers, we have researchers who, on the one hand, confirm the status that Politehnica has always had, that is having valuable people in research, starting from those who laid the foundations of the university, academics or personalities trained at prestigious European universities, and until now, being, from this point of view, among the top three universities in the country. It also confirms that the generations to come keep the tradition and carry on the values that have consecrated us. In this top, not only do we have valuable researchers with entire careers’ worth of results, but also young people, who rise to the level of the established tradition.

Also in the research field, we came up with two interesting projects, which are already being confirmed, one of them being a technology transfer center, funded by ADR West, which lays the foundations for the development of projects with companies, according to the tradition established since the beginning of the university, the engine of regional development, but also a confirmation, by including the Research Center in data engineering, artificial intelligence and intelligent systems in the national roadmap of research infrastructures, the only one of its kind in Timisoara, which can open several funding opportunities for us through various programs. All these actions undertaken in the first year of the new century of our university are real pillars for the development strategy of the university. In the next period, we will develop actions related to the doctoral or postdoctoral area, the extension of multidisciplinary research in partnerships with other partner universities in ARUT or ATU.

In the didactic area, we started a series of trainings for approaching online education more attractively and more efficiently, to be able to use new teaching techniques, so necessary for the current generation of students, and in this context we will reward the best among us, who will become landmarks for their faculty peers. This year we have equipped new university laboratories in partnership with companies in the westestern region of the country, but we have also started equipping our university amphitheaters for modern hybrid teaching methods.

In regards to entrepreneurship, the results for the submitted projects in this area also came this year. One of them, dedicated to entrepreneurship in rural areas, with significant funds, confirms the status of a university that supports the development of the entire region, both in urban areas, as well as rural ones. Another project supports student entrepreneurship, which is especially useful for helping young people put their ideas into practice. The projects won from European or FDI funds were continued, increasing the number of colleagues involved in entrepreneurship within Politehnica, both in teaching and research, and the administrative side.

Although it was not the best year for growth on internationalization, UPT took important steps in the E³UDRES² project regarding European universities, participation in international fairs, although online. We improved and laid the foundations for new procedures or projects to prepare the institution for new approaches in the coming period.

However, our activity was not limited only to education and research – we have also had projects on culture and sports. Our cultural project seeks to establish a contemporary art center. This way, we continue the efforts started by our colleagues from Politehnica who had been involved in cultural projects in the last few years. This year, we had also opened our university’s spaces even more for art, and we try to build a dialog platform for the main stakeholders in the field of arts, while also seeking to expand our students’ involvement in contemporary art.

Our vision also gives a new meaning to what a green, university campus is, esentially a small town because, given the size of our community and the scope of our activity, Politehnica is a town within a city. The university’s estate is a considerable one for a Romanian university. Apart from maintenance, we are interested in expanding accesibility to all the spaces of the university, increasing research and technology transfer facilities, but also expanding and improving the sports facilities within Politehnica in keeping with both tradition, and future prospects in the field.

In December this year, we also celebrate the Sports Centennial of Politehnica University Timișoara. Besides, the sports legacy of Politehnica has been built alongside the university, being one of the few cases when the talks about starting a sports association have begun immediately after the university had been founded. A significant part of the Politehnica Timișoara brand is represented by sports, a testament being that in the last years, new sections were added to the sports club once C.S. Politehnica had rejoined the university in 2019. The football club also seeks to innovate by piloting a new organizational structure, as a joint-stock company through which we try to attract important people from the city community, and even the region, because, at the end of the day, Politehnica Timișoara is the entire region’s club.

I think we can be proud of our achievements in the first year in the new century of Politehnica and trust that our ambitions projects will once more establish Politehnica University Timișoara’s presence in the region, city and community as one of the most important drivers of growth.

Happy birthday, Politehnica University Timișoara!

Congratulations, dear members of Politehnica!

Vivat, crescat, floreat!

Conf.univ.dr.ing. Florin DRĂGAN
Rectorul Universităţii Politehnica Timişoara

 

 

 
 
Ultima actualizare: 2022-02-21
 
 
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