0000000000339540
AUTHOR
Valentin Grecu
Using Design Thinking to Redesign the Educational Experience
In a world that is ever changing and full of uncertainties, there is an undeniable need to equip students with competencies that exceed cognitive knowledge, thus enabling them to develop their individual potentials. Using case study methodology, Design Thinking and ProblemBased Learning, this paper presents a program that brought together students and teachers from different faculties with the purpose of developing innovative solutions to important and pressing societal challenges. Given the unprecedented context generated by the worldwide spread of SARS–COV2 Virus, the program challenged students to find solutions to redesign the educational process. The aim was to equip them with the skil…
Some considerations on adapting academic qualifications to the Romanian labor market
The paper presents the results of some research carried out by the authors during the activities of the “Academic Entrepreneurial Laboratory – Progress through Innovation and Practice – (Univers Practic)” and seeks to evince certain key aspects pertaining to the adaptation of university qualifications to the needs of the Romanian workforce. First, the general context of higher education and the current state of affairs, as reflected by the analysis of relevant works in the field are presented. This is followed by a presentation of the main results of a questionnaire-based study that evinces the opinions of students, graduates, and company managers with regard to the necessity of adapting ac…
Creative Teaching Methods for Educating Engineers
Active learning has received considerable attention over the past several years. Often presented or perceived as a radical change from traditional instruction, the topic frequently polarizes academic staff. Todays students are bombarded with plenty of information and are distracted by technology gadgets (such as smart phones) or suffer from attention deficit disorder [10]. Thus, academic staffs are challenged to capture students attention and to engage them in the didactic process. The paper presents two innovative teaching methods experimented in the seminaries of the Production Planning course that has been taught at the Faculty of Engineering of Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu and the i…
Improving Maintenance Activities of Machine Tools
The paper follows the current trends in the field of maintenance, proposing approaches that fit in the concept of Total Productive Maintenance (TPM). First it is presented a new proposal for tracking in-service machine tools. This is based on the identification of three operating states: good running condition, state of repair and stationary state. During the stationary state there are differentiated two distinct types of stops: natural stays and unproductive stays (those who often produce considerable losses). Based on the information contained in the records made for tracking the operation of machine tools there are proposed formulas for calculating some operational indicators and practic…
Four Perspectives of Applied Sustainability: Research Implications and Possible Integrations
How is applied sustainability being understood and implemented in academics’ and practitioners’ circles? Participants to the workshop “Sustainability Performance Assessment” within the ICCSA 2017 conference are confronted with this overarching question, which they address from their specific backgrounds and theoretical standpoints.
Political Challenges, Best Practices and Recommendations for Energy Sustainable Municipalities
Integrated system solutions, together with improved management of municipal infrastructure and environments, are essential to address energy challenges. A number of aspects should be examined and developed, including eco-cycle models demonstrating integrated solutions for energy, waste and water, integrated land use and transportation, ecosystems planning, sustainable building design, and strategies to reduce air pollution. It is imperative to apply the principles of sustainable development and support smart solutions today if we are not to compromise the ability of future generations to meet their needs tomorrow. We should think of urban systems as living organisms and find synergies betwe…
Augmented Reality Applications in the Transition Towards the Sustainable Organization
Business companies are increasingly aware that the world where they operate in is facing increasing environmental, economic and social challenges, thus there is a trend in most companies to align their processes and services with a sustainability agenda. Customers, shareholders, financial partners, governmental agencies, NGOs, globalization and internationalization of environmental and social standards exert new pressures on them to do so. Industry is widely recognized as being essential for wealth creation and development, although it is at times considered a source of environmental degradation and social concerns. Thus, industry must play an important role for the transition towards the s…
The Sustainable University – A Model for the Sustainable Organization
Abstract The issue of sustainable development (SD) is increasingly present among the concerns of the international academic community. However, the depth of our unsustainable practices suggests that insufficient progress has been made to move from an unsustainable lifestyle to sustainable development. By sharing ideas, concepts, tools, experiences learned in different contexts, it is anticipated that we will all learn many things that will help us to help our academic communities and companies to develop the skills to make progress towards sustainable development. In response to increasing concerns of society about environmental degradation and increasing demands for a transition to a more …
Benefits of entrepreneurship education and training for engineering students
In the present economic situation, having knowledge of an academic subject is no longer sufficient for a new graduate. Students are increasingly required to have skills and abilities which will increase their employability, such as: the retrieval and handling of information; communication and presentation; planning and problem solving; and social development and interaction. Entrepreneurial education and training provides individuals with the ability to recognize commercial opportunities, self‐esteem, knowledge and skills to act on them. It includes instruction in opportunity recognition, commercializing a concept, managing resources, and initiating a business venture. It also includes inst…
Assessing Sustainability: Research Directions and Relevant Issues
The growing research debate concerning sustainability and its applications in interdisciplinary domain represents a conjunction point where basic and applied science (scientific computation and applications in all areas of sciences, engineering, technology, industry, economics, life sciences and social sciences), but also qualified practitioners, compare and discuss advances in order to substance what we consider a the future perspective: “applied sustainability”. A relevant issue in order to compare and benchmark different position is the “sustainability performance assessment”. It means to discuss in a general view critical aspects and general issues in order to propose research direction…
Innovative Changes for Reaching Sustainability in Universities
Abstract This paper presents an original approach to the changes required for the transformation of universities in sustainable universities. The focus is on the innovative approach of all activities and relationships of the university: teaching, scientific research and other services offered by the university, the relations of the university with the communities where it operates, inter-university relations, relations with business environment, etc. Based on the experience and information gathered by the authors in the strategic project “Improving University Management”, it is proposed a better, more efficient and more effective way of using the resources of universities, thus sharing the …