ICETA 2018

He leads Cognitive Solutions for IBM in CEE. William is among the most exceptional IBMers appointed with the rare distinction of IBM Academy of Technology member. Top 100 technical leaders providing the direction of IBM with innovation that matters. William is also the Chairman of the Technical Experts Council for Slovakia and Czech Republic, focusing on innovation, patenting, research and state-of-the-art technologies and fostering the technical eminence of young talents/experts in the region.

Abstract of presentation: Cognitive business is a thinking business

Artificial intelligence (AI) is nowadays among the main topics on the agenda in Information Technology. We experience AI every day, in various forms, noting simply how the quality of interactions with computers has become much easier.

William will talk about the concept of cognitive, how important is the man-to-machine interaction powered by Watson and what are the implications of cognitive technologies. The audience will experience cognitive computing from a data perspective up to the wisdom level. William will provide an excursus to justify the adoption of cognitive solutions and how fundamental they will become in facing technological scenarios, including education and learning.

Peter Galambos is an associate professor, he is the Vice-Director of the University Research and Innovation Center and director of Antal Bejczy Center for Intelligent Robotic at Óbuda University, Budapest, Hungary.

Gabriel currently manages team of 130+ associates located in multiple centers in Slovakia, Czech Republic, Western Europe and Argentina supporting service delivery and life cycle management activities for largest business clients in EMEA region.

Gabriel started his career with AT&T in 1999 as a project manager coordinating service delivery activities for local retail and government clients in Slovakia. During his professional carrier with AT&T, he held multiple supervisory positions in Global Managed Services organization.

Before joining AT&T he has been an IT Specialist at IBM and prior that Junior Financial Clerk at DHL in Slovakia.

He holds Master’s degree in Management from Slovak Technical University. Gabriel was one of only fifty leaders across AT&T selected to participate in the 2011 Accelerated Development Program (ADP) – a year-long, intensive AT&T experience designed to advance business acumen and increase the strategic perspectives of participants as preparation for future leadership opportunities.

As member of the American Chamber of Commerce board of directors, chairman of Business Service Center Forum which units 32 companies operating Shared Service Centers or Business Process Organization in Slovakia which represent more than 31.000 employees as well as member of Sectoral Council for IT and Telecommunication actively contribute to business and IT industry development in Slovak republic.

In 2018 has been awarded IT personality of the year.

Abstract of presentation: Skills transformation, myth or reality?

Technology is dramatically evolving, so are changing skills requirements. Companies are looking to help customers apply technology to transform their business. Businesses invest into skills transformation development and training framework that will ensure they have the necessary skills to support their customers. What challenges are in front of us in Slovakia? How business academic cooperation can help and what are challenges to remain competitive in global market?

has over 20 years of experience in distance education. In 1994 she received a master's degree at the University De Montfortin Leicester in the UK. In 2001 she defended her doctoral thesis with the title of a doctor of technical sciences at Gdansk University of Technology. Since 1995 she has been the manager of Autodesk Authorised Training Centre at Gdansk University of Technology (Academic Partner). In 1998-2004, she served as head of the Distance Education Centre at Gdansk University of Technology. She is a founding member of the Association of Academic E-learning, advisor at U3A online. Since 9 years she has been conducting meetings with the computer for seniors. She has been involved in several European projects dedicated to active aging (e.g. Learn with Grandma, Seniors Acting Together, ForAge, MATURE). Since 2014 she has been represented the company PRO-MED sp. o. o. in the project ERASMUS + SP4CE. She is responsible for designing and implementing a platform for communication and joint activities for students, teachers and companies.

Abstract of presentation: Development of Human Resources - Learning in Clouds

In the article implementation of a free cloud based hosting MoodleCloud is presented. This solution supports users who do not have neither technical skills nor financial resources to install and support LMS Moodle. MoodleCloud was announced in July 2015 and it is free up to 50 users. The most important advantage is that owners are not responsible for upgrading the system, it means that the provider always runs the very latest release of Moodle. In order to get the free Moodle site users should fill in a form which is verified on a basis on their mobile phones. As a case study the site Development of Human Resources is presented. The URL https://dehure.moodlecloud.com/ was established for the workshop „Learning in Clouds: Fusion 360 Case Study”.

Associate professor Jiří Hrbáček graduated from Czech Technical University, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Department of Technical Cybernetics, with the focus on measurement technique in 1982. In 2001, graduated from a lifelong learning programme -the teacher in the field of Special Education in special and integrative facilities and schools, including elementary and secondary schools. Received the PhD degree in 2003 and was appointed associate professor in 2012. Since 2012 she works as a associate professor at the Department of Technical Education and Information Science. At the faculty he teaches electronics, electronics, digital technology, electronic systems, robot construction and programming. He is the guarantor of Technical and Information Education with a focus on education.

His area of interest for all his life is the development of systems controlled by microcontrollers. Digital technology, robotics and teaching of children in this area. Systematically, the teaching of building and programming of robots and robotic systems for pupils of elementary and secondary schools has been devoted to more than 10 years.

Abstract of presentation: Step by Step to the World of Science and Technology

The future of mankind and our society is directly connected to the development and evolution of scientific and technology fields. Our society needs more educated people, with a flexible attitude to respond to complex tasks, communicate at a higher level of efficiency, handle new information, perform in groups and contribute to team efforts, and gain new knowledge. Only such future employees will be capable to fulfil the actual and future demands of our society. Demands required in many technical fields, for instance: to secure a sustainable and efficient energy source, to utilize responsible available resources, to maintain an efficient and high level health care in all parts of the world, to utilize and develop smart technologies etc., are more and more important. On one hand these aspects are crucial, however on the other, we are facing a continuous decrease of young people's interest to study at technically oriented schools. This fact is a very serious problem not only in the Czech Republic but also in Slovakia. It is a key challenge. We need to find the answers on the following questions: How to drag the young people and also kids in the World of Science and Technology? When to start work with children to motivate them towards these fields? This paper presents possible ways how to solve these questions, verified by more than ten years of authors experiences with developing of education e-learning projects, organization of popularization and education activities such as "days of experiments", courses and competitions about robots and electronics. The attention is focused on courses called "Build a Robot", "Electronics as a game", and "Building and programming robots" for the target group of elementary and primary school pupils. The experiences confirmed that the optimal age for pupils of elementary schools to start a systematic co-work is between 8 and 9 years (3rd and 4th grades elementary school).

Jozef Hvorecky is a Professor at the School of Management in Bratislava, Slovakia. He is also a Honorary Lecturer for the Laureate program of the University of Liverpool, United Kingdom. During 45 year of his career, he taught at 17 universities in 12 countries of all continents.

As the author and coauthor, he has published 26 books and textbooks and more than 130 papers in journals and conference proceedings. His recent books are: Database Technologies (accompanied by a Problem Solver as its 2nd volume), Virtual Classroom (on effective online learning), and Last Will of a Researcher (on university management). He is keen of new educational technologies. For example, the Database Technologies textbook refers to his 30 videolectures on YouTube; a memory key attached to its Problem Solver contains more than 200 sample databases.

He is a member of the inniviative group Za živé univerzity – a team trying to revitalize Slovak academic life.

Abstract of presentation: Understanding Mathematics via Solving Non-Traditional Problems

In public opinion, “Mathematics = calculations“. In a more meticulous manner, (Schoenfeld, 1992) speaks about its reduction to abstraction, symbolic representation, and symbolic manipulation and criticizes its lessening to them as an unfortunate basis for education. In this contribution, we support his standpoint using the arguments from Knowledge Management. In particular, we call for a balance between learner’s explicit and tacit knowledge. We demonstrate the consequences of its absence and present a series of problems that could enrich teaching mathematics and enhance it in our desired direction. Our main aim is to make Mathematics more attractive for the students of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) in order not to repel them by making them unnecessarily confused of its content and problem solving methods.

Gabriel Juhás is a full professor of Applied Computer Science at  Institute of Computer Science and Mathematics, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, Slovak University of Technology, Bratislava. Gabriel Juhás was the dean and the vice dean of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology of the Slovak University of Technology (FEI STU). He was also the garant of the study program Applied Computer Science at FEI STU. He worked at several universities in Germany, namely at Technical University Berlin, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, where he received his habilitation in 2005. Previously, he was also visiting PhD student at BRICS, University of Aarhus in Denmark. His main research interest are theory of Petri nets and their applications in various areas focusing on business process modelling anf process mining. He is also very inerested in integration of Internet of Things with Big Data methods and Data as a Commodity resulting in concepts of social networks of data, data markets, shared data and data ecosystems.

Abstract of presentation: Continual Improvement Process in Scientific Publishing

In this contribution we discuss how continual improvement can be deployed in processes of scientific publishing using web based technology and online access. By continual improvement process we understand ongoing activities with the aim to improve a product or a service. When applied to a field of scientific publishing, where the products are scientific papers, continual improvement process yields to a new ecosystem of scientific publishing. In this new ecosystem, the research papers are considered more as a service than as a product of research activity. In other words, under continual improvement paradigm the result of scientific publishing process is understood more as a channel to share the knowledge of authors with the scientific community. A scientific paper is not anymore understood as a static document once published than staying constant. A scientific paper is rather understood as a dynamic document evolving in time, which can have different versions and releases, published online, enabling incremental and continual improvement in analogy to software as a service, with software new version releases and software support enabling continual improvement of software. In continual improvement process applied to scientific publishing, the pre-publication peer review is replaced by post-publication open peer review, where any researcher can write a peer review of a version of already published paper or comment the paper, give the paper a rating etc. Based on reviews or new results authors can anytime release a new version of the paper, correcting errors resulting in releases with mirror changes or adding new incremental results creating major releases. Such new ecosystem should also enable to create much more accurate citations, for example to easily refer to concrete definitions or results from other papers. Instead of making each paper self-contained, such concept enables much more flexible work for researchers including efficient reuse of part of other papers, for example in form of short comments building up from another paper etc. As a result, a new methodology of evaluating the impact of scientific papers in particular and new methodology of bibliometrics in general should arise, including those aspects investigated by altmetrics. Continual improvement process in scientific publishing creates also new challenges for the stakeholders including libraries, such as the need to guarantee the long term online and open access to scientific papers understood as an evolving collection of versions, the need to ensure the access to all versions of a paper or the need to visualize changes between versions, etc.

Bojan Lalic has a PhD in Industrial and Engineering Management and works as an Associate Professor at the University of Novi Sad. His research interest includes simulation modelling, e-learning, and innovation in manufacturing. Bojan is a director of Department of industrial engineering and management and a head of Chair for production systems, organization and management at the Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad. He managed numerous projects including TEMPUS, CEEPUS, National Research projects sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Serbia, Provincial Government of Vojvodina and Research project coordinated by Fraunhofer Institute, Germany. Bojan is currently a director of Belt and Road Institute at the University of Novi Sad, Serbia and an adviser to the Minister of Innovation and Technological Development. He published numerous papers in international journals and books.

Abstract of presentation: Key indicators for student performance at the e-learning platform: An SNA approach

The trend to adopt more online technologies continues in the higher education sector. E-learning represents application of new technologies and methods in education. This paper explores the employment of digital technologies to facilitate and support virtual spaces for bringing learners together. We used Social Network Analysis (SNA) method to analyze the data collected from the e-learning platform. SNA provides a poweful mathematical approach to study the process of computer supported collaborative learning from a theoretical point of view. In this study, we empirically evaluated data from the e-learning platform to find key indicators for student performance. The research was conducted at the University of Novi Sad, Serbia. Results indicate significant relationships among performance of students and the use of educational resources from the e-learning platform.

1. st. Vice President of National Union of Employers of Slovakia, 1. st. Vice President of IT Association of Slovakia, Chairman of the Supervisory board of SEWA (Slovak Electronic Waste company), CEO, Media Control company; former CEO, BaSys Group of companies.

He graduated from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics, Department of cybernetics at the Slovak Technical University in Bratislava in 1988. Today, he operates mainly in the field of intelligent control systems (SMART) objects and his company Media Control provides integrated design and implementation of very complex technical equipment of smart buildings. He was a coordinator of the iDom project – first fully automated and energy saving Smart home built in Slovakia in 2006.

From 2014 he acts within IT Association of Slovakia as a president or 1.st vice president and operates in several Slovak President of and international institutions in the field of promotion and development of the IT sector, digital economy and education. He was elected as a Chairman of the Executive board of Slovak National Digital Coalition for Digital Skills and Jobs in September 2017.

As of 2014 he acts as a member of the Board of The National Union of Employers (NUE) and he was elected 1.st Vice president in April 2018. NUE is the biggest employers organization in Slovakia, which associates two thirds of employers producing 70 percent of GDP and 80 percent of the Slovak export. Vice chair of the Digital Skills working group at DigitalEurope from 2018.

Abstract of presentation: What to do to force the edu system to match the needs of society?

The Edu system does not meet the requirements of the employers and the society still pays for this. How comes? Who will care about the lost generations of graduates who studied (hard?) and never ever worked in the field they have graduated in? Is the applicant for the study of numerous humanitarian prospects aware of the fact the NOBODY will employ him when he finishes the study? Are we rich enough to pay for all this? Who can transform the tertiary edu system (after decades of selfdestruction)?

Current position: University professor of Internal medicine, Jessenius Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University, Martin, Comenius University Rectors Advisor

Work experience:

Previous Position: Vice-rector for research and doctoral study, Comenius University, Bratislava (2011-2015), Head of Dept. of Informatics, Ministry of Education of Slovak Republic (2007), Minister of Education Advisor (2008-2010), University Professor, Comenius University, Jessenius School of Medicine, Martin (1981-)

Professional Experience: Research activities (computer analysis of heart activity, occupational risk management), Graduate of Distance Education „Course on Managing University-Industry Partnership“ IIEP UNESCO Paris and ECSM Brussels (2001), co-ordinator of Phare-Tempus Programs (ERQUAM, IQATFOQ, MED-NET, Management of Higher Education Institutions) (1996-2001), TEMPUS-UZDOC project (2013-2016), ERASMUS+PRIDE (2013-2016)

Professional Lecturing and Study Experience: Comenius University, Jessenius School of Medicine in Martin; University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands (2002), University of Limerick, Ireland (2001), University of Edinburgh, Scotland, (1999), Mayo Clinic – Rochester, Minnesota, USA (1995). European and World Congresses Lecturer (Athens, Zaragoza, Copenhagen, Philadelphia, Jeruzalem, Zurich, Beer Sheva, Muscat, Beijing)

Publications: Textbook – Editor in Chief: Differential Diagnosis by Laboratory Medicine (Springer – Germany, Springer – India, Medico-Pharmaceutical PH – China, Paschalidis – Greece). Textbooks: 15+, Scientific Papers: 80+, scientific abstracts: 300+, scientific lectures: 330+

Abstract of presentation: EXPONENTIAL MEDICINE - The incoming era of advanced ICT in medicine and medical education

Next generation ICT, Big Data, supercomputing are incoming on the scene of medicine. Therefore it is necessary to introduce the principles of these technologies also during medical education, both pre- and postgraduate. Medical data is expected to double every 73 days by 2020. Because of rocket-speed IT development, the linear growth of inventions and data collection analyses was replaced by exponential growth, so disruption phenomenon is today topic. The same principles are valid in healthcare area. Future doctors will see our medical future from Big Data databases, not our medical history. Patient will be the CEO of his own healthcare team. New era of healthcare includes ICT based self-care, self-monitoring, managing therapeutic regimens, organizing doctors’ visits, tests, and insurance. New medicine is providing an effective care programs designed and implemented in a manner that respects the capacity of patients and caregivers and minimizes the burden of treatment. There are new items on the scene of healthcare - healthcare wearables, consumable nanobots, robotic surgery, cognitive computing amongst others. Cognitive computing aims to imitate the human brain capability for perception, action and cognition through neurosynaptic chip. Quick era of rocket development of neural prosthetic technologies can replace or enhance functions of our central nervous system allow the direct communication of the brain with a computer. In healthcare big data holds enormous promise. We can see its impact in many areas of medicine (precision medicine, biopharmaceutical research, mobile health, telemedicine and telecare). Time needed to decode and to sequence the very first human genome took cca 13 years (1990-2003). Today it can be done in just 26 hours. Our health is closely linked to the health of others through genetics and health data. Sharing our health data helps others and help us. And the advanced ICT will be key elements of the future.

Ľudovít Molnár is a professor emeritus at the Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies, Slovak University of Technology. After the graduation Ľudovít Molnár started professional carrier in a field of Computer Science, as one of the pioneers in Slovakia in this field. In early 70 – ties Ľudovít Molnár was participating on a Computer science curricula development for University education, which later passed through IEE (Institute of Electrical Engineers in London) international accreditation as one of the first in CEEC. In research Ľudovít Molnár has been working in a field program system construction, artificial intelligence and knowledge based programming. He was a head of several projects for industry. Ľudovít Molnár has participated also on several international projects for European Commission and UNESCO. At the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Slovakia he has been working in different positions at department - Department of Computer Science and Information Technology, faculty - Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, and university itself - head of the Department, dean of the Faculty, president of the Academic senate of the University, rector of the University. He is the co-founder and the first dean of the Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies.

Abstract of presentation: Scaling and structuring of digital literacy

One of the main problems of universities (not only in our country) is a use of their graduates at the labor market. Situation in the field of information technology (IT) is a little bit different. Universities are not able to prepare sufficient number of graduates! It of course does not mean that companies are satisfied with knowledge and abilities of graduates starting to work for them. They usually complain that graduates are not sufficiently prepared to be “directly” involved to a working team – they are not “readymade” and they must be further educated by company itself. There are lot of arguments from the side of universities against “readymade” graduates for some particular company (scope of knowledge, deep of knowledge, short innovation cycle, …). Even more. Modern university equip their graduates by two important abilities: critical thinking and ability to learn. This two important abilities make the graduates flexible to adapt in a company, but, what is even more important, they are able to “adapt“ to “innovation” their current knowledge. This seems to be very important first of all in IT where innovation cycle is very short.

Generally, further education is usually realized in different way: teaching and learning, and learning is prevailing teaching. This is another argument for an importance of the above mentioned abilities equipped graduates of modern university.

A scope of knowledge in IT is very broad and deep. This naturally leads to its structuring in two basic ways: horizontally and vertically. We can see it very clearly at the university study, where we have:

• vertical scaling: undergraduate study, graduate study, postgraduate study.
• horizontal structuring: study programs.

In this contribution we discuss scaling and structuring of digital literacy in both graduate and postgraduate education.

Graduated from Bánki Donát Polytechnic, Budapest in 1971, received the Master Degree in Mathematics from the Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, the Ph.D. in Robotics from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1987, while the Doctor of Science degree from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 2004. He received his first Doctor Honoris Causa degree from the Technical University of Košice, Slovakia and the second one from “Polytechnica” University of Timisoara, Romania.

He served as the Rector of Budapest Tech from August 1, 2003 for a period of four years, and was reelected for five years in 2007. He is active as a full university professor.

He is a Fellow of IEEE, Senior Administrative Committee member of IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, member of Board of Governors of IEEE SMC Society, Chair of IEEE Hungary Section, Vice-President of the Hungarian Academy of Engineering.

He is the treasurer of IFSA (International Fuzzy System Association), he had been the President of Hungarian Fuzzy Association for ten years.

He serves as an associate editor of some scientific journals, including IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, member of editorial board of Journal of Advanced Computational Intelligence, member of various national and international scientific committees. He is the founder of the IEEE International Conference Series on Intelligent Engineering Systems (INES) and IEEE International Conference on Computational Cybernetics (ICCC), and some international symposia. He has served as General Chairman and Program Chairman of numerous scientific international conferences.

His present areas of research activity are Computational Cybernetics, Robotics with special emphasis on Robot Control, Soft Computing, Computed-aided Process Planning, Fuzzy Control and Fuzzy Sets. He has published books, more than 450 papers in books, various scientific journals and international conference proceedings. He received more than 550 citations for his publications.

Abstract of presentation: Spatial e-learning: Content delivery for the new generations

Learning habits have been radically changing nowadays as people getting connected every time and everywhere. The always-online generations require new ways of content delivery and in turn, the e-learning business is being very keen on developing the new standards of the field. The challenge is not easy though, especially concerning engineering disciplines where the practice or at least the vivid experience is crucial.

Recently, several novel modalities are evolving such like VR (Virtual Reality), AR (Augmented Reality), and MR (Mixed Reality) sharing the common root, namely the spatial embedding of education content. In my talk, the scientific and practical background of spatial learning is discussed through the example of the MaxWere content delivery framework.

Much the same way that command lines (e.g., DOS) were replaced by windowing systems (e.g., Windows), so should the use of 2D windows soon be superseded by 3D spatial content, leading to an even more effective way of working with e-learning systems. MaxWhere focuses on the management of networked 2D and 3D content, which is a key factor in content composition and consumption as well. As a result, the framework makes for a hugely effective way to integrate heterogeneous sources of data, and to then visualize, share and collaboratively work on large amounts of information while maintaining a low cognitive workload. Research shows that the solution can provide 30-50% increases in effectiveness in education and in productivity applications too.

The lecture highlights the most relevant researches that support the efficiency of 3D content integration and gives a direct experience through life-tested examples.

PhD in Physics (Institute on Nuclear Researches in Kyiv, 1988), member of Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (since 1996).

He is graduated from Odessa Higher Engineering Marine School (Navigator), Odessa National Polytechnic University (Automatic and Telemechanics) and Kyiv National University (Nucleaf Physics), and trained at the Torch High Technology Industry Development Center (Ministry of Science and Technology, P.R.China) on Plan, Building & Management on Science Park (2007).

• Since 2015 - advisor for National Science-Technological Association of Ukraine, which integrates all science and technological parks in Ukraine;
• 2011 - 2015 - advisor for the Vice-Chairman of the State Committee on Science and Innovations in Ukraine, member of international expert group on science-technological and innovation cooperation CIS;
• Since 2009 - senior advisor for the China Association of Plant Engineering Consultants (CAPEC);
• Since 2008 - Chairman of the Industrial Park International (Kyiv, Ukraine);
• Since 2004 - Chairman of the Business Partnership Association “Kyiv - Beijing”;
• 2002 - 2008 President of the Concern “Capital Region”;
• 1996 - 2008 Head of the Department on Innovation Cooperation of Ukrainian Academy of Sciences
• 1991 -2002 President of the JSC “ITM”;
• 1981 -1991 Researcher of the Institute on Nuclear Researches in Kyiv.

His R&D interests include creation of innovational institutional models for international and interregional innovation-investment cooperation, smart production and smart cities, innovational systems for industrial house building, for interactive eLearning for engineering and innovation needs, as well as strategic management and artificial intelligence systems, etc.

Abstract of presentation: Entrepreneurial university as innovation hub in transitional economy: New digital platform for SME globalization

High education system and transitional economy faces with both market and innovation challenges. The appropriate responses to these challenges have to be found under conditions when advanced knowledge is no longer created in universities and research institutions only, but is born in a large number distributed small and medium innovation enterprises as well. This encourages the universities and the businesses to search for new institutional forms for innovating education and educating innovation.

One of these forms is the establishment of an entrepreneurial university integrated with startup incubator jointly with business. In this case such university by creation based on smart contracts universal digital platform integrated in GVCs (Global Value Chains) actually turns into a modern innovation hub. In turn, such hub is able not only to incubate the startups and develop them into the new innovation enterprises, but to train innovative entrepreneurs as well.

Prof. Ľubica Stuchlíková graduated from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava (STU) in 1990, received the PhD degree in 1996 and was appointed associate professor in 2006. Since 2016 she works as a full professor at the Institute of Electronics and Photonics. Her fields of interest have been constantly widening during her career; electrical characterization of semiconductor structures, devices and materials since 1990, computer aided engineering education, retraining, lifelong learning since 2000 and gamification and design of education games since 2011.

Her priority is education, training of new electrical engineers and popularization of science and technology for children and youth.

In 2004 she established educational portal „eLearn central“ as a co-author. Original interactive animations, educational and popularization E-learning courses and modules have been created for the portal “eLearn central” by “eLearn central team”. She is head of this team and also cooperates with other teams in development of E-learning projects using Moodle platform.

Abstract of presentation: Support of Student Motivation as Key Condition for Successful University Graduates in Engineering Education

Technical education at Universities in general has its own specifics. Emphasis is put on the understanding, learning and practical applications connected to basic principles of science and mathematics. Therefore, technically oriented education except of IT is extremely unattractive. We are in an extremely complicated situation: there is a lack of new candidates at technical universities, the demographic curve is at its minimum and there is no interest in a more challenging education. Moreover, we have an exceptionally high number of students who are unsuccessful in the first year of their studies. They end up being demotivated because their selected studies do not meet their expectations. There are several solutions of this situation. One of effective solutions would be a systematic support of student motivation. This article discusses the current use of brainstorming, discussions, ideas and good arguments for fortification of student motivation. It is important that conditions for an effective verbal communication are met, each argument is considered and the best ones accepted, which changes the community to a group of self-realization. This way students are also encouraged to continue their studies as PhD candidates. By transiting from the traditional approach, students are given the opportunity to apply, analyse and evaluate their knowledge, improving their creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, decision-making, communication and teamwork.