The present paper represents an introspection into the world of social media marketing (SMM) with focus on higher education institutions (HEI). The continuous expansion of social media allows universities to move closer to the millennial... more
The present paper represents an introspection into the world of social media marketing (SMM) with focus on higher education institutions (HEI). The continuous expansion of social media allows universities to move closer to the millennial generation. Since education is about acquiring knowledge, transferring information, and professional development all of them being subject of the individual evaluation of the student, traditional marketing channels are not enough. Spreading flyers, printing brochures, web-sites, or word of mouth (WOM) are examples of promotional instruments that have been used for years by Universities. The substantial competition among universities and even among faculties inside the same university represent realistic motives for HEI's to discover and apply new marketing promotional techniques. Marketing concepts like brand community or critical mass do apply even in this sector characterized by such special features. Education and especially HEI was one of the laggards when it comes to social media marketing (SMM). Unfortunately a distinctive characteristic of most universities in our country was to consider SMM is just for household goods or consumer loyalty and neglected such an important marketing channel. According to Anderson (2008), an important objection against marketing practices by academics was that it would undermine academic standards of quality and excellence. [Gibbs 2002] considers that marketing policies in HEI have to follow the 'collaborative relationships' model. Nowadays, social media has emerged as a way for students to connect with the university in a more casual and familiar manner. For HEI's relationship marketing involves building and maintaining a relationship of value exchanges between the institution and the three main customer groups: alumni, current students and future students. [Efthymios Constantinides & Marc C. Zinck Stagno 2011].By maintaining such a close relationship between past, present and future, faculties may change the perception from time oriented towards family/community oriented and to ultimately influence the enrollment process. Using quantitative methods, data from official Facebook pages, and qualitative research methodology, a survey regarding the content and interactions on students already enrolled, the present paper tries to emphasize the importance of SMM in a higher education institution in Romania. We start from two hypothesis: 1) social media can impact University's choice 2) social media will tighten the connections between actual students and the university. Hypotheses are followed by positive outcomes, the electronic word of mouth (e-WOM) will be used and a major target market prospected. The use of SMM in academia is fairly new.
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The current paper proposes a new way of experiencing learning, based on the concept of immersive education with the help of an emergent technology: virtual reality. Traditional education is extremely limited in terms of experimentation,... more
The current paper proposes a new way of experiencing learning, based on the concept of immersive education with the help of an emergent technology: virtual reality. Traditional education is extremely limited in terms of experimentation, and nowadays the evolving technologies aim to solve this shortcoming in order to give students the chance to experience studying in a different manner. At present, the emphasis is usually on teaching the theory basics, while the practical aspects are often ignored and treated superficially, especially in the engineering domain. Implementing immersive education enables both students and teachers to understand any school subject, but also to experience it in real time, thus getting in touch with the most important aspects of that domain. The approach presented in our paper is accomplished through a mobile application called ARVEE, which proposes an interactive, fun and yet educational way of learning astronomy and making students pursue a career in astronomical engineering or in fields related to manufacturing of accessories for astronomical telescopes and instruments. Using virtual reality, students can experience and learn easier the broad concepts of a school subject. The application proposes to combine both traditional and immersive education, the result being the use of virtual reality not only for recreational but also for educational purposes. The application was tested on a group of primary school pupils enrolled in an extracurricular programming club, and the results were extremely satisfying. Besides presenting our app and the way it can support the current educational challenges (e.g. lack of practical exercises), we also analyzed some other existing virtual reality applications that offer similar experiences to the one implemented by ARVEE.
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Virtual communities are seen as the social fabric for learning, being present in more and more educational contexts. The communities' cohesion and, in the same time, their members' satisfaction are increased through various... more
Virtual communities are seen as the social fabric for learning, being present in more and more educational contexts. The communities' cohesion and, in the same time, their members' satisfaction are increased through various personalization mechanisms. Among them, an important role is played by intelligent recommendations of educational resources and tools considered useful by other community members with similar profiles. The paper presents a web-based platform that supports the process of lifelong learning through the creation of collaborative virtual communities. Both professionals and non-professional are put into connection, using a hybrid recommendation algorithm based on an ontological approach. The access to the platform is done via a professional social network account, thus increasing the accessibility of the platform and its integration in current social learning ecosystem. After logging in, all the details available in the professional social network account are i...
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The current work is done within the context of Romanian National Program II (PNII) research project "Application for Using Image Data Mining and 3D Modeling in Dental Screening" (AIMMS). The AIMMS project aims to design a... more
The current work is done within the context of Romanian National Program II (PNII) research project "Application for Using Image Data Mining and 3D Modeling in Dental Screening" (AIMMS). The AIMMS project aims to design a program that can detect anatomical information and possible pathological formations from a collection of digital imaging and communications in medicine (DICOM) images. The main function of the AIMMS platform is to provide the user with the opportunity to use an integrated dental support platform, using image processing techniques and 3D modeling. From the literature review, it can be found that for the detection and classification of teeth and dental pathologies existing studies are in their infancy. Therefore, the work reported in this article makes a scientific contribution in this field. In this article it is presented the relevant literature review and algorithms that were created for detection of dental pathologies in the context of research project ...
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This paper debates upon the adoption of a social learning platform to support the highly dynamic industry of consumer electronics' providers, acknowledging the role of emerging technologies on the delivery of efficient lifelong... more
This paper debates upon the adoption of a social learning platform to support the highly dynamic industry of consumer electronics' providers, acknowledging the role of emerging technologies on the delivery of efficient lifelong learning solutions. The discussion is based on mixed research methods, in which structured interviews and online questionnaires were used and customized for various stakeholders of such a social learning platform within the Danube region: students, professors, representatives of career development centers of universities and private companies. Having a clear regional value, the conclusions can still easily be extended to the world-wide current context, in which individuals are challenged to constantly further develop, to stay attractive on the labour market and aligned with continuously changing trends of digital age.
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ABSTRACT
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This paper presents the MPI parallelization of a new algorithm—DPD-B thermostat—for molecular dynamics simulations. The presented results are using Martini Coarse Grained Water System. It should be taken into account that molecular... more
This paper presents the MPI parallelization of a new algorithm—DPD-B thermostat—for molecular dynamics simulations. The presented results are using Martini Coarse Grained Water System. It should be taken into account that molecular dynamics simulations are time consuming. In some cases the running time varies from days to weeks and even months. Therefore, parallelization is one solution for reducing the execution time. The paper describes the new algorithm, the main characteristics of the MPI parallelization of the new algorithm, and the simulation performances.
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ABSTRACT Presents the parallelization of a new algorithm - thermostat - for molecular dynamics simulations. It should be taken into account that molecular dynamics simulations are time consuming. In some cases the running time varies from... more
ABSTRACT Presents the parallelization of a new algorithm - thermostat - for molecular dynamics simulations. It should be taken into account that molecular dynamics simulations are time consuming. In some cases the running time varies from days to weeks and even months. Therefore, parallelization is one solution for reducing the execution time. The abstract discusses the new algorithm, the main characteristics of the MPI parallelization of the new algorithm and simulation performances.
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Research Interests: Business and Engineering
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The authors present in this paper the environment, the development and the results of the Serious Games exploitation for Master's level teaching, where the studied games are proposed by IBM in its INNOV8 Smarter Scenarios. The... more
The authors present in this paper the environment, the development and the results of the Serious Games exploitation for Master's level teaching, where the studied games are proposed by IBM in its INNOV8 Smarter Scenarios. The students that are using the system are enrolled at the Faculty of Engineering in Foreign Languages from the University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest in the Master program of Business Administration and Engineering. The particularities of this academic program come from the teaching activities given in English to students from different countries (from Europe, Africa and Asia) and with very different backgrounds (in engineering, economic studies, sciences). The INNOV8 games are based on IBM's Smarter Planet real-world examples: Smarter Traffic (regulate the flow of traffic in a city), Smarter Supply Chain (maximize efficiency and profitability while reducing carbon emissions) and Smarter Customer Service (maximize customer satisfaction and revenue). They int...
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We describe in this paper the best practice used at the Faculty of Engineering in Foreign Languages from the University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest for the introduction of digital logic to the students from the first year of study in the... more
We describe in this paper the best practice used at the Faculty of Engineering in Foreign Languages from the University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest for the introduction of digital logic to the students from the first year of study in the fields of Information Engineering and Applied Electronics, where the subjects are given in English and French. The particularities include the position of the subject in the first year and the wide-ranging backgrounds of the students, which come from a large number of countries. Many disciplines in the computer science curriculum, like as digital design, computer organization and architecture, embedded systems, etc... contain hardware components. The support of the course includes laboratory and homework assignments concluded sometimes with moderate projects and comprises computer simulation or/and practical prototyping. While the laboratory practical prototyping covers usually simple designs using breadboards, when one chooses the simulation as suppor...
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Pain is the unpleasant condition raised as a normal response of the body to injury and illness. In the case of Chronic Pain Syndrome, this can ailment can continue even after the cause that provoked it has disappeared. The classical... more
Pain is the unpleasant condition raised as a normal response of the body to injury and illness. In the case of Chronic Pain Syndrome, this can ailment can continue even after the cause that provoked it has disappeared. The classical painkiller medicines (like paracetamol, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and opioids) are used as therapy, but they raise problems of overdose, adverse side-effects and addiction. Virtual Reality Therapy (VRT) is showing promise as a possible drug-free substitute for pain management. The VRT lets patients to navigate through Virtual Reality environments and to execute operations which are often personalized to specific medical conditions. It offers a multisensory experience that captures the subject attention on an innate level and attenuates the discomfort. Besides the lack of painkiller medicine drawbacks, it is well received by the young patients, which usually have supplementary restrictions to the pharmacological agents. We present in the paper...
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The current paper presents a state of the art of medical e-learning, highlighting the main features of existent applications, the technologies used to develop them, as well as the challenges they had to overcome in order to maximize the... more
The current paper presents a state of the art of medical e-learning, highlighting the main features of existent applications, the technologies used to develop them, as well as the challenges they had to overcome in order to maximize the value of educational activities. Although e-learning is a well-known practice of enhancing education, the research question here is whether it is fully adapted and exploited in the medical field. Based on the pros and cons of each analyzed tool, a new model to leverage medical e-learning is proposed. As a trend, most applications in medical e-learning target a certain medical specialization, very few being applicable for any medical discipline. Furthermore, certain areas pose specific limitations: for example, physical examination in clinical practice can't be taught in an e-learning environment, thus e-learning should complement but not replace the traditional medical education. Medical imaging and surgery are the medical fields highly supported by e-learning applications, followed by medical ethics, medical biochemistry, pediatrics. Some applications are merely customizations of well-known e-learning platforms (e.g. Moodle or Dokeos), others exploit advanced technologies such as virtual reality, 3D graphics, multimedia technologies, physical simulations or artificial intelligence. We consider that a major drawback of current medical e-learning platforms is the insufficiency of didactic material: most applications present didactical case studies (real or virtual), but their amount is far from enough. Thus, we propose an e-learning model which incorporates a medical atlas containing a large volume of expertly-annotated real cases, easily accessible and searchable, for various medical specializations. The repository will " self-evolve " , by allowing participants to upload their own materials. A formative learning module will be available. Also, group work will be allowed when putting diagnostics, thus collaborative learning techniques will be exploited in order to increase the information retention rate among users. We claim that the e-learning tool based on our model will be useful not only for undergraduate medical students, but also for continuous medical education.
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Transnational enterprises are assigning design and production around the world, but research is aimed to generate and support the enterprises’ networks formation and operation as virtual enterprises through the setting-up of... more
Transnational enterprises are assigning design and production around the world, but research is aimed to generate and support the enterprises’ networks formation and operation as virtual enterprises through the setting-up of service-oriented workspace environments. We consider here a role-based authorization approach to service invocation as necessary in order to enhance and guarantee the integrity of the transactions that take place in the business environment of a virtual enterprise. The virtual enterprise network and the virtual team are the main concepts used in analyzing the network architecture for geographically dispersed enterprises as support for business development. Using this e-business oriented paradigm this chapter presents an enterprise network monitoring solution based on open source software (OSS) implemented in the PREMINV Research Center, at the University “Politehnica” of Bucharest.
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A serious issue in the medical field is the treatment of patients affected by chronic pain, burns or recovery treatment after an accident or surgery. The regular treatment is providing the patient with opioid pain relievers medications... more
A serious issue in the medical field is the treatment of patients affected by chronic pain, burns or recovery treatment after an accident or surgery. The regular treatment is providing the patient with opioid pain relievers medications that in a wide variety of cases leads to addiction. To prevent the partial use of pain reducing drugs in patients that suffer from minor to medium pain and delay their use as much as possible, we propose the use of Virtual Reality technology. Current technological advances have allowed virtual reality application to leave their mark in the medical sector by the use of different training simulators and applications that help the doctors experience from simulating a variety of surgeries. In this paper we present the effects of Virtual Reality immersion on patients that suffer mild to medium pain, as well as our knowledge in the implementation of a virtual reality application that can achieve a positive effect on this serious issue. A direct benefit of successfully creating an application would be the reduction in the amount of pain the patient feels. A second positive effect would be the decrease in the consumption of pain relievers and a better response of the patient to the recovery treatment without the risk of becoming depended on opioids.
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Diabetes is an illness known to require continuous observation and a personalized approach in order to avoid the long-term complications. Creating a Diabetes Electronic Health Record for the Romanian patients has been an aspiration for... more
Diabetes is an illness known to require continuous observation and a personalized approach in order to avoid the long-term complications. Creating a Diabetes Electronic Health Record for the Romanian patients has been an aspiration for many years and this paper presents the creation of a national repository for the data from diabetes patients. There is explained the necessity of such action, the initial steps, as well as some features of the application.
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The current paper proposes the improvement of the smart university model, defined as a set of highly technical interrelated elements, by implementing a social learning platform within the university ecology. This platform should permit... more
The current paper proposes the improvement of the smart university model, defined as a set of highly technical interrelated elements, by implementing a social learning platform within the university ecology. This platform should permit the collaboration of various stakeholders – students, professors, university representatives and companies and should increase the visibility of the most meritorious graduates. In this paper, the research methodology applied to check the feasibility of the concept is presented, as well as the results obtained from the various structured interviews and online surveys conducted mainly in Danube Region countries.
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Advances in product development concepts have demonstrated the trend for integrating different development phases through the integrated product data model and collaboration technologies. Future product-development processes will take all... more
Advances in product development concepts have demonstrated the trend for integrating different development phases through the integrated product data model and collaboration technologies. Future product-development processes will take all aspects of the whole product lifecycle into account. At the same time, interaction and communication technologies will allow people with different knowledge backgrounds and dealing with different aspects of a product work together to achieve the best product design. This paper sketches a future vision of product development with an emphasis on the support of creative design. We call it direct digital design. This paper presents a vision of next-generation enterprise working environments and describes a core information technology that future systems can be built on. The concepts of a virtual enterprise (VE) and of virtual teams, enabled by a new generation of internet/intranet/ extranet-based services are discussed here, as a means to stay competitive and to thrive in a turbulent market.
In this paper the knowledge management and business intelligent concepts will be defined in order to analyze enterprise internal and external resources based on the knowledge transfer & capitalization. The main goal of the paper is to... more
In this paper the knowledge management and business intelligent concepts will be defined in order to analyze enterprise internal and external resources based on the knowledge transfer & capitalization. The main goal of the paper is to propose some knowledge management solutions to support knowledge applications development at the enterprise level. An expert system for products identification when the technical characteristics are known will illustrate how this system works.
... 272 A. Draghici et al. ... The integration of these two aspects is very rare and limited to a formal process, that means the existence of policies, manuals, procedures and registers unification [6]. In the following lines there will... more
... 272 A. Draghici et al. ... The integration of these two aspects is very rare and limited to a formal process, that means the existence of policies, manuals, procedures and registers unification [6]. In the following lines there will be presented an approach for the integrated evaluation ...
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In order to achieve a market objective that otherwise could be out of reach, enterprises, which do not have the complete knowledge for developing all the components needed for their products, need to outsource the development of specific... more
In order to achieve a market objective that otherwise could be out of reach, enterprises, which do not have the complete knowledge for developing all the components needed for their products, need to outsource the development of specific parts; in this way a cooperation with other enterprises working in the same industrial sector starts. It is then possible to say
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This paper presents some research results based on the concept of collaborative infrastructure (as virtual enterprise business network), in order to unify existing standards for supply chain management and to provide support in various... more
This paper presents some research results based on the concept of collaborative infrastructure (as virtual enterprise business network), in order to unify existing standards for supply chain management and to provide support in various decision making ...
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The CONPROF project developed by the automation engineering company IPA SA, the University Politehnica of Bucharest and the Romanian-American University contributes to the sustainable development of the cooperation between higher... more
The CONPROF project developed by the automation engineering company IPA SA, the University Politehnica of Bucharest and the Romanian-American University contributes to the sustainable development of the cooperation between higher education institutions and businesses by facilitating the training of students in higher education and the transition from being a student to being employed. It ensures in this way the increased employability of the graduates through counseling, vocational guidance, practical training and integrating three main components: curriculum, the student's initial skills and labor market needs. A central activity in the instruction is the complementarity of the practical training stage performed in the summer holyday after the third year of study by developing and implementing interactive learning methods using a simulated enterprise. The roles open in the application are: Admin, Professor and Student. In the simulated enterprise workflow, the activities start ...
Abstract. In order to be competitive enterprises continuously implement ICT strategies & architectures to improve manufacture, research, products quality, sales, services and costs control. All large enterprises have a local area network,... more
Abstract. In order to be competitive enterprises continuously implement ICT strategies & architectures to improve manufacture, research, products quality, sales, services and costs control. All large enterprises have a local area network, a virtual private network, an Intranet and Internet, servers and workstations for operations, administration and management working together for the same objective: profits. The virtual enterprise and the virtual team’s concepts are discussed in this article. This work analyzes the network architecture for geographically dispersed enterprises (seen as virtual enterprises) as support for virtual project development by virtual teams work. In addition, the paper presents an enterprise networks monitoring solution using open source software (OSS).