Name of the project: Developing Research and InnoVation CapacitiEs in Albania and Kosovo (DRIVE)

Short description: The project aims at developing the capacities of HEIs in Albania and Kosovo, both countries pertaining to region. Western Balkans, to improve their research and innovation performance. Besides the traditional training activities such as workshops and study visits, the project foresees establishing new structures in 4 HEIs that will focus research and innovation adopting an inter-disciplinary approach and eventually a close cooperation with partners from businesses and industry in line with the quadruple helix goals. Additionally the openness of HEIs towards other partners, local and international, will be further enhanced through the development of a network, supported also by a virtual platform that will ease the interaction and synergy among the members. Dedicated offices for research and innovation or networks for such purpose may be long due and not something new to developed countries, but for this region and for these two countries in specific, characterized by a low trust environment and a highly fragmented eco-system where cooperation, coordination and synergies are scarce, the deliverables of the project constitute a novelty.

Responsible person: Prof. Asoc. Dr. Mimoza Ibrani, coordinator for the University of Prishtina

Web page: https://driveproject-eu.com

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Name of the project: Accelerating Western Balkans University Modernization by Incorporating Virtual Technologies / VTech@U

Short description: VTECH is an Erasmus+ Capacity Building in Higher Education. The consortium has 11 partners out of which 6 are HEIs form Albania and Kosovo, and 5 partners HEIs from program countries namely Estonia, Poland, Slovenia and the Republic of North Macedonia. The project is envisaged to last for 3 years. VTECH project’s general aim is to introduce for the first time at Western Balkan universities the concept of Virtual Technologies as a tool for accelerating university modernization, while contributing on developing knowledge-driven society. By incorporating Virtual Technology in the academic culture of universities, this project aims at increasing the quality and level of efficiency in teaching and knowledge retention through interactive learning methods, thus contributing on skills enhancement and further building of digital society at Western Balkans countries.

Responsible person: Prof. Asoc. Dr. Mimoza Ibrani, coordinator for the University of Prishtina

Web page: https://vtech-project.eu

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Name of the project: Innovative Teaching Education in Mathematics (iTEM)

Short description: The aim of the project is to support the modernization, accessibility, internationalization of the Higher Education Field and to contribute to the cooperation between the EU and the eligible Partner Countries. The majority of students do not seem like studying Mathematics. They do not appreciate the importance and the role of Mathematics in solving real-life problems and applications. They think that only gifted and very talented students can understand and apply Mathematics. Calculus I and Linear Algebra are the backbone modules of 1st-year studies in any STEM degree. These modules are blamed for being a leading cause for student’s failure to meet the requirements of first-year Academic studies and ultimately to graduate. Some students even abandon their studies because of their poor achievements in Mathematics. Teaching Mathematics nowadays in Europe and beyond Europe seems to fail to link Mathematics with real – life and technology challenges. The iTEM project envisions to help undergraduate students to realise the impact of mathematics on their studies and professional carrier success independently of scientific discipline. The project main outcomes include (a) the integration real-life problems into Calculus I and Linear Algebra I to show the application of Mathematics in today’s technology; (b) the development of CAS, the incorporation of mobile tools & visualisations along teaching Mathematics; (c) the development of software that allows teachers to early identify student’s that face problem in learning Mathematics and so provide assistance to overcome these challenges; (d) the development of teaching and learning manuals for more effective teaching & learning Mathematics; (e) the training of teacher’s in the most modern & efficient teaching techniques like the Problem Based Learning (PBL) and Project Oriented Based Learning (POPBL) along Mathematics teaching.

Responsible person: Prof. Asoc. Dr. Isak Shabani, coordinator for the University of Prishtina

Web page: https://item.uni-pr.edu

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Name of the project: INTERnationalization at Home: Embedding Approaches and Structures to Foster Internationalization at Western Balkans / INTERBA

Short description: Internationalization of HEIs in the Balkan region so far has given a significant effect in modernizing the curriculum and exposure to different teaching and learning methodologies providing a better understanding on the role of education in XXI century. However, because the number of students and staff involved in these projects was limited, the impact has been asymmetric where some departments have reaped the benefits of these projects more than others. Thus, approaching internationalization on a more holistic way, by embedding and strengthening “internationalization at home”, is vital. The aim of the project is to strengthen international, intercultural and global dimension via Internalization at Home (IaH) implementation at partner HEIs in order to enhance the quality of education and to make a meaningful contribution to the society.

Responsible person: Prof. Asoc. Dr. Isak Shabani, coordinator for the University of Prishtina

Web page: https://interbaproject.com

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Name of the project: Innovating Multimedia and Digital TV curricula/DIMTV

Short description: “Currently, the electronic media institutions in Albania have an evident lack of specialists in the field of Multimedia and Digital TV (MDTV). During the transition period of the country, there was a wide spreading and increase in the number of electronic medias. Following this, a contradictory situation appeared. While the number of TV stations (public and private) and broadcasting services increased, the required professional support could not be provided due to the lack or very low number of experts in the field. Therefore, the application of high-quality standards service became impossible. The lack of professional manpower can be manifested nowadays, in the low technical quality video, audio and multimedia services provided. To cover this, experts from abroad have been hired but this does not solve the unemployment problem of the country. Therefore, there is a need for national MDTV-graduated experts so that the country does not need experts from abroad”.

Responsible person: Prof. Asoc. Dr. Mimoza Ibrani, coordinator for the University of Prishtina

Web page: http://dimtv-project.al/

 

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Name of the project: The development and implementation of PhD Curricula in ICT for Kosovo Education System / DI-PHDICTKES

Short description: The general aim of this project is to create a national curriculum for PhD Program in ICT, and initially involve in the program three Universities in Kosovo (and, in future, aim to increase the number of affiliated Universities) with direct involvement of Programme Country institutions that have demonstrated long time experience in similar programs. The Partner Country’s specific objectives are as follows: O1: Establishing a national research school in ICT in Kosovo; O2: Establishing a national curricula for PhD studies in the ICT field with key elements of learning outcomes, goals and skills; O3: Increase the research competences of Kosovo staff Universities; O4: Facilitate the accreditation process of the individual universities’ PhD programs to appropriate national bodies; O5: Implement the national PhD program, register the first generation of graduate students, which will be jointly supervised from Programme and Partner Countries.

Responsible person: Prof. Dr. Lule Ahmedi, coordinator for the University of Prishtina

Web page: https://phdictkes.eu/

 

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Name of the project: Security of E-voting with Blockchain Technologies

Short description: The aim of this project is to research, analyze and determine the principals for using the new blockchain technology with open sources paradigms for the process of e-voting. The goal to set out the added values and advantages that could be achieved when block chain technologies are used in specific or in all processes of the e-voting.

Responsible person: Prof. Dr. Blerim Rexha, coordinator for the University of Prishtina

Web page: to be added soon.

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Name of the project: Cooperative projects that solve real problems using IoT technology

Short description: The aim of this project is to enable cooperation between academic units at the University of Prishtina as well as with industry partners through data collaboration. The Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering is offering the IoT communication infrastructure to other academic units and industry partners. On the other side they feed the communication infrastructure with data. The goal is to use those data for solving real problems in various areas.

Responsible person: Prof. Dr. Bujar Krasniqi, coordinator for the University of Prishtina

Web page: to be added soon.

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Name of the project: Cyber Hygiene e-Learning course

Short description: The aim of this project is to strengthen the capacity and level of awareness in cybersecurity among students and teachers of the University of Prishtina in particular, and in general to increase of the overall level of cyber defense, implementation and development of the systems of informational data security.

Responsible person: Prof. Dr. Blerim Rexha, coordinator for the University of Prishtina

Web page: https://cybereducation.org/

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Name of the project: Mobility in ICTs between Linnaeus University in Växjö and University of Prishtina

Short description: This is an Erasmus + KA1 project that has the aim of supporting mobilities between Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Prishtina and Linnaeus University in Växjö, Sweden.

Responsible person: Prof. Dr. Lule Ahmedi, coordinator for the University of Prishtina

Web page: to be added.

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Name of the project: Mobility in ICTs between Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Gjøvik and University of Prishtina

Short description: This is an Erasmus + KA1 project that has the aim of supporting mobilities of students and staff between Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Prishtina and Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Gjøvik.

Responsible person: Prof. Dr. Lule Ahmedi, coordinator for the University of Prishtina

Web page: to be added.

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Name of the project: Automated Examination Timetabling in the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering - University of Prishtina

Short description: Preparing optimal examination timetables is extremely important for the universities, students, and teachers. Nevertheless, this is a complex task to be done manually as many constraints, regarding students, teachers, and facilities, need to be considered. Therefore, it is quite interesting, from the scientific perspective, as well as from practical point of view at the universities, to look at how such timetables could be generated in an automated manner. The objective of this project is to precisely deal with this challenge, by developing new optimisation methods based on metaheuristics and artificial intelligence techniques for the problem of examination timetabling at the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Prishtina, as well as for the existing variants of the examination problems in the literature. We aim to develop hybrid optimisation methods and automated algorithm selection for this envisioned problem. In addition, we shall develop a protype implementation for the examination timetabling at the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Prishtina. The project will contribute to the area of examination timetabling and will enable to boost the cooperation between University of Prishtina and TU Wien. In addition, this project will represent a huge opportunity to young Kosovar researchers to improve their research background in the fields of artificial intelligence, optimisation, and automated timetabling.

Responsible person: Prof. Asoc. Dr. Kadri Sylejmani, team leader for the University of Prishtina

Web page: https://sites.google.com/uni-pr.edu/examination-timetabling