ATU Education Fair

March 20

The ID/IFR and Digital Education Department was present at ATU Education Fair, to promote UPT's distance learning (ID) and part-time learning (IFR) admission offer. Hundreds of students visited the DeL stand. Young people had the opportunity to discover UPT's educational offers and to try the latest Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR) applications developed by the students of the Master of Multimedia Technologies.

100 Years of Innovation Nokia Bell Labs

May 16

DeL and CM teams participated in the event „100 years of Nokia Bell Labs Innovation”. During the event, Cătălin Săvioiu, a Multimedia Technologies master student, presented the Nokia Museum in Virtual Reality (VR). The application developed included 3D scanned objects integrated in interactive Quizzes, designed to help the audience discover the evolution of phones.

European Museum Night 2025

May 18

„European Museum Night 2025: A Digital Journey from MECIPT to Virtual Reality” brought hundreds of visitors to the UPT Museum. CeL, CM and Spotlight Heritage Timisoara teams presented the fusion between technology and digital art. The guests explored Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) installations from Spotlight Heritage Timisoara, discovered the history of computer science with MECIPT-1 (the first Romanian university computer), interacted with the installation
Patterns of Poetry and explored the digital universe
Physic AI Virtual Garden .

Start UPT

September 26

The CeL team was present at the event Start UPT: Opening of the academic year 2025-2026to welcome the new generation of students. In addition to the essential guide to the UPT Virtual Campus, we also revealed to new students how we are actively involved in the future of education. We provided information about the local initiatives and European partnerships we are running, projects that bring the latest technologies and learning methods right here at the Polytechnic University of Timișoara.

European Researchers' Night 2025

September 26

Hundreds of visitors, from small to large, attended the European Researchers' Night 2025 at the UPT Technical Museum/ExperimentariumTM. The public explored the history of computer science with MECIPT-1, the first Romanian university computer. Visitors had the opportunity to virtually travel through Timisoara with Spotlight Heritage Timisoara apps and research results from the E³UDRES² Ent-re-novators project.

Presentation: Best practices for international curriculum

February 27, 2025

Dr. Diana Andone, Director of DeL, gave the presentation „Best practices for international curriculum by Politehnica University of Timisoara”, during the visit of the Erasmus+ KA2 international project. The presentation, addressed to experts from universities in Argentina, Colombia and Spain, emphasized UPT's commitment to innovation and excellence in digital education. The results obtained in Erasmus+ projects (ABCtoVLE, MODE-IT, ACADIGIA, OpenVM, TalkTech) and MOOCs on the UniCampus platform were shared, highlighting best practices in digitization and online education.

Open Campus Night

October 5, 2025

Dozens of visitors, from small to large, explored the UPT Museum and Experimentarium Tm during the Open Campus Night event. Participants, along with the Spotlight Heritage Timisoara Timisoara team, explored the city with Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) applications. The public also got acquainted with MECIPT-1 and enjoyed interactive physics and chemistry demonstrations.

UPT student from Morocco

July 7

The Polytechnic University of Timisoara hosted dr. Salma Bouterraka from Hassan I University of Morocco, recipient of the „Eugen Ionescu” scholarship (AUF & UNESCO). Salma's research focused on the perception and use of emerging technologies (AI, VR, Blockchain) in academia, including a comprehensive survey with professors and students. The methodology included interviews with 17 Timisoara-based professors, including Prof. Regina Kaplan-Rakowski (University of North Texas, USA), and a focus group with Generation Z students. Its presence at UPT underlines the importance of French-speaking mobilities and UPT's role as an active partner for international researchers.

US visit

July 7

DeL hosted Prof. Regina Kaplan-Rakowski from the University of North Texas, USA, a recognized specialist in educational technologies. The event was organized by the Department of ID/IFR and Digital Education in collaboration with the UPT Multimedia Centre. Prof. Kaplan-Rakowski gave the presentation „Virtual Reality as a Platform for Emotional and Cognitive Engagement”, exploring the role of Virtual Reality in revolutionizing learning by enhancing cognitive and emotional engagement. The visit was an exceptional opportunity to exchange ideas and best practices, paving the way for new international collaborations between UPT and the University of North Texas.

The expertise of Prof. Kaplan-Rakowski, vice president of CALICO and author of more than 150 papers, extends from VR and generative artificial intelligence to gamification with applications in STEM education and language learning.

Dr. Diana Andone at IEEE DEMOcon

October 7

On October 7, IEEE Day 2025, Dr. Diana Andone, CeL Director and IEEE Education Society Vice President, attended the IEEE DEMOcon conference in Florida, USA.
During the event, she gave the presentation „Open minds: artificial intelligence in digital and open education”, in which he spoke about how generative artificial intelligence influences digital education and the future of engineering.

On this occasion, Dr. Diana Andone officially announced that the 2026 edition of the IEEE DEMOcon international conference will be held at the Polytechnic University of Timisoara, being organized by the Department of ID/IFR and Digital Education.

EDEN 2025 Annual Conference 

Dr. Diana Andone and Conf. Dr. Ing. Vlad Mihăescu represented UPT at the EDEN Digital Learning Europe 2025 Annual Conference in Bologna, with the theme Shaping the Future of Education in the age of AI. They gave a series of presentations, highlighting UPT's expertise and project results. Among them, they presented the results of the Accelerate Future HEI project at an Action Lab event.

Vlad Mihaescu: EDEN Senior Fellow

One of the most special moments of the conference was the presentation of the EDEN Senior Fellow Award to our colleague Conf. dr. dr. eng. Vlad Mihăescu, a recognition underlining his valuable and long-lasting contribution to the development of open, distance and e-learning in Europe, as well as his support and commitment to EDEN's evolution and progress.

Vlad Mihaescu - Keynote speaker at DisCo Conference 2025

June 25-26

Conf. Dr. Ing. Vlad Mihăescu, member of the DeL team and Vice President of the UPT Senate, was Keynote speaker at the 20th edition of the DisCo Conference 2025, held at the Microsoft headquarters in Prague. His presentation, entitled „Digital Pathways to Empowerment: Fostering Future Skills Through Microlearning and MOOC Platforms”, explored how digital education platforms can support young people, women and vulnerable groups through flexible and accessible learning opportunities.

Dr. eng. Diana Andone, CeL Director - Keynote speaker and trainer at the International Conference „Harnessing Artificial Intelligence for Inclusive Education”

October 21-24

Dr. ing. Diana Andone, Director of DeL, participated as Keynote Speaker and trainer at the international conference „Harnessing Artificial Intelligence for Inclusive Education”, organized by the University of South Kazakhstan and CAREC Institute. His presentation focused on the ethics of Artificial Intelligence in higher education, emphasizing the need for accountable and transparent ecosystems, as well as the importance of integrating ethics into institutional strategies, developing digital competences for students and teachers and fighting digital inequality through international collaborations. 

Experts from universities such as Stanford, Nazarbayev and Palacký contributed to the event, along with specialists in AI solutions for inclusion.