The Ambassador of Finland to Romania, Her Excellency Mrs. Leena Liukkonen, Visits Politehnica University Timișoara
The Ambassador of Finland to Romania, Her Excellency Mrs. Leena Liukkonen, Visits Politehnica University Timișoara
Politehnica University Timișoara received the visit of Her Excellency Mrs. Leena Liukkonen, the Ambassador of Finland to Romania, on Tuesday, February 20, 2024. She was accompanied by Mr. Janne Sukko, the commercial representative for the Southeast region, and Mr. Mircea Hotoleanu, the Honorary Consul of Finland. They were joined by Sabin Totorean and Florin Ciocan, representatives of Nokia, one of the most significant Finnish companies in Romania with whom UPT has a fruitful collaboration.
The guests were welcomed by a delegation from the management of Politehnica University Timișoara, led by its rector, assoc. prof. dr. eng. Florin Drăgan. Together, they explored the campus of Politehnica University Timișoara. The guests appreciated the architecture of the buildings and the support for the arts, exemplified by the MV Sci-Art Center, where they visited the "Almost Night, Almost Light" exhibition by the Cluj artist Mathias Bar. They also highlighted the strong connections with the business environment, reflected in the UPT Board of Directors, where Nokia is a strategic partner, as well as the modern laboratories, equipped with the support of local companies (the SMT Line, installed for the first time in a Romanian higher education institution, UPT's high-performance cloud platform, the Intelligent Control of Energy Conversion and Storage research laboratory), the support for sports, and the UPT Library – the most modern belonging to a higher education institution.
During the visit, the rector of UPT, assoc. prof. dr. eng. Florin Drăgan, presented a brief history of the oldest university in the western region of the country and the current efforts related to providing the best training conditions for students, maintaining and continuously improving relationships with the business sector, collaboration with universities worldwide, attention to research, internationalization of activities, and emphasis on digitization and sustainability.
Her Excellency Mrs. Leena Liukkonen, the Ambassador of Finland to Bucharest, stated that "this being her first visit to Timișoara since her accreditation in Romania, the objective was to get an initial impression of the university environment in the city, the economic sector, administration, prospects for collaboration with higher education institutions, and companies in Finland."
In turn, the rector of Politehnica University Timișoara, assoc. prof. dr. eng. Florin Drăgan, declared that "currently, UPT has collaborations with several higher education and research institutions in Finland, with whom it has developed various joint projects, including within the E³UDRES² alliance of European universities. However, there is a keen interest in further expanding these partnerships."
