The University of Silesiain Katowice was established in 1968 and now, with 12 faculties and several interdisciplinary schools and centers, nearly 24 000 students educated at Bachelor, Master and Doctoral levels and almost 2000 academic staff is one of the largest in Poland. Internationalization of research and education is one of the priority directions of development of the University which collaborates with almost 900 institutions from all over the world and actively participates in more than 40 EU-funded projects within Erasmus+ and Framework Programmes (as both partner and co-ordinator), focusing on joint research activities and exchanges of academic staff and students.
The Faculty of Ethnology and Educational Science, home faculty of Project coordinator, has 85 staff members and almost 800 students. The Faculty collaborates with domestic and foreign research institutions including numerous universities from Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Austria, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, UK ad other. Its research and educational activities are carried out in 8 departments. Special attention is paid to the research in the field of ICT, e-learning methodology, intercultural competences area, socialization and the formation of identity in terms of multiculturalism, social, educational and cultural conditions for development and education of children and youth.
The University of Silesia e-learning platforms provide students with more than 8,000 hours of effective work (http://el.us.edu.pl), The Faculty has developed a distance learning platform for training and educational activities (http://el.us.edu.pl/weinoe). Distance Learning Center of the University of Silesia provides technical support, course administration and training for teaching staff and students.
Eugenia Smyrnova-Trybulska
Eugenia Smyrnova-Trybulska – dr hab. Assoc. Prof. Head of Department of Humanistic Education and Auxiliary Sciences of Pedagogy. Background Knowledge:_PHD (theory and methodology of teaching (computer science), 1997); D.Litt. (Habilitation) degree in Pedagogical Sciences (theory and methodology of teaching (computer science).
Coordinator of distance learning platform of the Faculty of the Ethnology and Sciences of Education (http://el.us.edu.pl/weinoe). Author of more than 200 publications, 20 books in area of methodology of e-learning, multimedia, ICT-tools in education, teacher training. Author and methodology consultant of the elaboration of more than 150 e-learning courses. Main research projects and organizational activities: 2009-2010 – Coordinator and participant of a lot international project, in particular “E-learning – as a Road to Communicating in a Multicultural Environment, co-financed by the IVF (No.10920089); Coordinator of IRNet project International research network for study and development of new tools and methods for advanced pedagogical science in the field of ICT instruments, e-learning and intercultural competences’, Seventh Framework Programme funding scheme MARIE CURIE INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH STAFF EXCHANGE SCHEME (IRSES), (No: PIRSES-GA-2013-612536) (www.irnet.us.edu.pl). Coordinator of International scientific DLCC Conference (www.dlcc.us.edu.pl), 2008-2013 – Participation in the project UPGOW (“University – Partner of the Knowledge-Based Economy”). The project under the Operational Programme Human Capital, sub. 4.1.1 with support from the European Social Fund (ESF), task 46. Coordinator and methodology consultant for the project group to prepare 12 e-learning courses; 2012 – Participation In the EFS Project „Strenghtening of compatitive advantades In research and development of information technology In Moravian-Silesian Region. CZ1.07/2.3.00/09.0197”. Silesian University in Opava, School of Business Administration in Karvina, Karvina 2012; 2007-2008 – Participation in the project, funded by the Ministry of Education, “Post-graduate studies for teachers in ICT, foreign languages and other subjects”, co-financed by the European Social Fund (ESF) (University of Silesia). Postgraduate studies. The researcher. 2013 – Expert at the Project B2.2. entitled “Development of a set of national professional competence standards required by employers”, which concerns the development of 300 standards of professional competence, being run by Doradca Consultants Sp. z o.o., Institute for Sustainable Technologies – National Research, IPiSS WYG International, ŁCDNiKP, is particularly important and necessary. As part of the project qualification standards will be developed for such contemporary innovative and necessary professions as “Multimedia Application Teacher”, “Didactic of Distance Learning Teacher”, “On-line Examiner” (EFS).
She participated in more than 150 conferences. The member of the Scientific and Programme Committee of a lot of scientific international conferences, in particular DIVAI, DLSC, ICTE, NITO, IADIS (ICEduTech), other. Editor-in-Chief of the International Scientific Journal “International Journal of Research in E-learning” IJREL; Editor-in-Chief of E-learning series; member of a lot of Programme Committee of a lot of International Scientific Journal.
Coordinator of the IRNet Project
www.irnet.us.edu.pl
Coordinator of the Theoretical and Practical Aspects of Distance Learning Conference
www.dlcc.us.edu.pl
Coordinator of the Faculty Distance Learning platform
http://el.us.edu.pl/weinoe
Editor in Chief IJREL
http://weinoe.us.edu.pl/nauka/serie-wydawnicze/international-journal-research-e-learning
Editor in Chief of series on E-learning
http://weinoe.us.edu.pl/nauka/serie-wydawnicze/seria-e-learning/seria-e-learning
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Eugenia_Smyrnova-Trybulska
Małgorzata Przybyła-Kasperek
Małgorzata Przybyła-Kasperek is an Assistant Professor of the Faculty of Computer Science and Materials Science at the University of Silesia. She received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Institute of Computer Science at the University of Silesia in 2011 and a M.Sc. in Mathematics from the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry at the University of Silesia in 2006. The focus of her research is data mining, decision support systems and expert systems. Her studies are especially related to making decision based on dispersed knowledge and methods of conflict analysis. Małgorzata Przybyła-Kasperek has published over 50 articles, her Impact Factor is over 21.
The most important publications of recent years are:
– Przybyła-Kasperek M., Wakulicz-Deja A., Comparison of fusion methods from the abstract level and the rank level in a dispersed decision-making system, International Journal of General Systems, 46(4), 386–413 (2017),
– Przybyła-Kasperek M., Wakulicz-Deja A., Dispersed decision-making system with fusion methods from the rank level and the measurement level – a comparative study, Information Systems, 69, 124–154 (2017),
– Przybyła-Kasperek M., Selected Methods of Combining Classifiers, when Predictions are Stored in Probability Vectors, in a Dispersed Decision-making System, Fundamenta Informaticae 147 (2-3), 353–370 (2016),
– Przybyła-Kasperek M., Wakulicz-Deja A., The strength of coalition in a dispersed decision support system with negotiations. European Journal of Operational Research, 252, 947–968 (2016),
– Przybyła-Kasperek M., Wakulicz-Deja A., Global decision-making in multi-agent decisionmaking system with dynamically generated disjoint clusters. Applied Soft Computing, 40, 603-615 (2016),
– Przybyła-Kasperek M., Wakulicz-Deja A., Global decision-making system with dynamically generated clusters, Information Sciences Volume 270, 172–191 (2014),
– Przybyła-Kasperek M., Wakulicz-Deja A., A dispersed decision-making system – The use of negotiations during the dynamic generation of a system’s structure, Information Sciences,
Volume 288, 194–219 (2014).
Her Hirsch index according to the Web of Science database is equal to 6. She has served on the Program Committee for many international conferences: IJCRS, FedCSIS, ICCCI and INISTA and others. She has reviewed the articles for various journals: Information Sciences, Hacettepe Journal of Mathematics and Statistics, Transactions on Cybernetics, International Journal of Information Technology & Decision Making Knowledge and Information Systems and others. Participation in international and national projects: Małgorzata Przybyła-Kasperek is the Coordinator of the Erasmus+ Program at the Institute of Computer Science, from 2012. At that time, she supervised many foreign students from partner universities who carried out part of their studies at the Institute of Computer Science. She also took care of many students of the Institute of Computer Science who went to partner universities for study or practice. She led to signing new bilateral agreements by the University of Silesia. – Statutory research “Methods of Artificial Intelligence in Information Systems”, Institute of Computer Science, University of Silesia; – Participation in the project realized in the framework of specialties ordered by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education at the University of Silesia: Computer Engineering, Priority IV – Higher Education and Science; – Participation in the UPGOW “University as a Partner of the Economy Based on Knowledge” project realized in the framework of European Social Fund, in the framework of Operational Programme Human Capital, Priority IV – Higher Education. Teaching Małgorzata Przybyła-Kasperek has over ten years of experience in higher education teaching. She prepared and implements e-learning courses on the Moodle platform. One of the developed courses is: “Data analysis in business”, for the master’s studies, in the field of Computer Science. She has experience in conducting classes: Information Retrieval Systems, Expert Systems, Algorithms and Data Structures, Algorithms and Complexity, Advanced Algorithms and Data Structures, Data Analysis in Business, Basics of Data Mining, Internet search engines, Numerical Methods.
Beata Zielosko
Beata Zielosko works as an Associate Professor in the Institute of Computer Science, University of Silesia in Katowice. From 2011 to 2013, Beata Zielosko worked as a Senior Research Scientist in the Mathematical and Computer Sciences and Engineering Division at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia. She also served as teaching assistant for the course Combinatorial Machine Learning in KAUST. Dr. Zielosko is a member of International Rough Set Society (www.roughsets.org), KES International (www.kesinternational.org) and a member of Program Committees of several international scientific conferences. She is also a co-editor of international conference proceedings IJCRS 2017 and co-editor of international monograph published by Springer. Her main areas of research are data mining, application of databases to optimization of decision and association rules, greedy algorithms for decision and association rule induction, feature selection, and machine learning. Dr. Zielosko is a co-author of three monographs published by Springer. From 2015 dr. Beata Zielosko is an Erasmus faculty coordinator at the Institute of Computer Science, University of Silesia in Katowice; In 4.05.2015 – 8.05.2015, she participated in the framework of Erasmus + Program, Teaching Staff Mobility, University of Huelva, Spain;
Participation in international and national projects:
1. “Novel Algorithms in Machine Learning and Computer Vision, and Their High Performance Implementation”, 2011-2013. Project of Russian Federal Program Research and Development in Prioritized Directions of Scientific-Technological Complex of Russia in 2007-2013; 2. “High Performance Computing in Machine Learning for Analysis of Large Datasets”, 2010-2011. Project of Russian Federal Program Scientific Research and Educational Workforce of Innovative Russia; 3. Statutory research “Methods of Artificial Intelligence in Information Systems”, Institute of Computer Science, University of Silesia, 2009-2010 and 2014-2018; Participation in the European programs: 1. Participation in the project realized in the framework of specialties ordered by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education at the University of Silesia: Computer Engineering, Priority IV – Higher Education and Science. Contractor of the project – teaching the course (laboratories and lectures) “Practical use of database systems”, February-June 2014; 2. Participation in the UPGOW “University as a Partner of the Economy Based on Knowledge” project realized in the framework of European Social Fund, in the framework of Operational Programme Human Capital, Priority IV – Higher Education. Contractor of the project – teaching at postgraduate studies and authorship of chapters in textbooks for students, 2009-2010: – “Databases and basics of SQL programming”, IT in medicine: Analyst of Natural Data. University of Silesia, 2009, 59-72 (electronic version); – “The techniques of data acquisition”, IT in medicine: Analyst of Natural Data. University of Silesia, 2009, 73-86 (electronic version); – “Databases and programming in SQL”, IT in medicine: Bioinformatics. University of Silesia, 2009, 27-49 (electronic version); – “Designing of relational databases”, Databases for Oracle, University of Silesia, 2009, 3-19 (electronic version); – “Advanced database and data warehousing technologies”, IT in business: Exploration, Analysis and Data Visualization. University of Silesia, 2009, 137-152 (electronic version); Teaching: Beata Zielosko has over 15 years of experience in higher education teaching, also by using e-learning form on the Moodle platform. She has experience in conducting classes: analytical databases and data warehouses, databases, cloud computing, web application combinatorial machine learning, data warehousing, decision support systems, design of information systems, data analysis based on decision tress and rules.
Mariusz Boryczka
Mariusz Boryczka is an associate professor at the Institute of Computer Science of University of Silesia. He has been working at the Institute since 1982. He graduated from the Silesian University of Technology. In 1992 he defended his doctoral dissertation and in 2008 he obtained the habilitation qualifications of technical sciences in the field of computer science (at the Institute of Computer Sciences in Warsaw). His research interests concern optimization problems solved with the help of swarm intelligence methods, including ant colony optimization systems, genetic algorithms and others. On the one hand these are problems of an automatic programming and on the other – the optimization problems with no solutions of polynomial complexity. He is the author of scientific papers and reviewer of articles for international scientific journals and also a member of the program committees of international conferences. Since his studies he has been involved in programming in many languages, like Java, C/C++, Python, Pascal/Delphi/Oxygene.
Iwona Polak
Iwona Polak is working as a PhD in the Institute of Computer Science, University of Silesia in Katowice. She is an author of seven publications. She was project manager of project “Evolutionary algorithms in cryptanalysis and cryptography” (2015, 2017) and participated in project “Rehabilitation environment using virtual and augmented reality” (2017-2018). In 2018 she was awarded with Rector’s Team Award for scientific and research activities. She participated in several computer security workshops and conferences. She teaches programming and algorithmics since 2009 and is a coach of university’s team for Polish Academic Collegiate Programming Contest since 2014. In free time she dances and travels.