Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Lucian Tamaris


"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


Monday, May 16, 2011

Top Universities: classification

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
INFORMATICĂ


Learning Sciences


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)


Wednesday, May 11, 2011

UBB at Microsoft Imagine Cup 2011


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/



Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Testing Einstein's Universe


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/


Tuesday, May 3, 2011

eLSE 2011 & Military Circle-RO

"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/