The ID/IFR graduation ceremony – the class of 2021
Excitement in hybrid format: live from the Auditorium and online from all over the world
Emotions and special moments both in the Auditorium and online on Saturday, June 26, at the Graduation Ceremony of distance and part-time students – the class of 2021 - event organized for the first time in hybrid format and broadcast live on the Facebook and YouTube channels of the E-Learning Center.
The graduates of ID (distance learning) and IFR (part-time education) classes met for one last festive occasion – the Graduation Ceremony of the class of 2021. The event was organized by the ID/IFR and eLearning Center of Politehnica University Timisoara and reunited graduates and professors from all four ID/IFR specializations within UPT.
If last year, graduates were able to celebrate the completion of studies only virtually, this year, for the first time, the ID/IFR Graduation Ceremony took place in mixed format. The majority of graduates and teachers could enjoy the emotions of a physical meeting in the Auditorium, after more than a year and a half of exclusively online meetings.
Along with them, but equally active and excited, their colleagues, living in cities and countries far from Timisoara, joined the event through the Zoom platform.
The families and close ones of the graduates were able to watch the entire festivity in real time, the event being broadcast live on the Facebook account and YouTube channel of the ID/IFR and e-Learning Center.
The ceremony began with the welcome speech addressed by the host of the event - Dr. Eng. Diana Andone, Ph.D. - Director of the ID/IFR and e-Learning Center within UPT, followed by singing of the traditional Gaudeamus - both by those in the room and by those online.
The welcome speech from the management of the university was given by prof. Liviu Cadariu-Brăiloiu, Ph.D., vice-rector of Politehnica University Timișoara and, at the same time, a professor of the ID and IFR students. He addressed the graduates:
“I am excited that we can go back to a somewhat normal life and kick off the season of graduation ceremonies (…) I dare believe that you, those who graduate bachelor studies today, had had a plan three or four years ago when you became our students. Perhaps you were much more driven than the full-time students. I hope your plans continue and that today is not an end in your careers, but a new beginning. (…) Thank you and, once again, congratulations!”
A special guest at the opening of the event was Victor Holotescu – an exceptional graduate of distance learning Informatics, class of 2016, who joined the online guests to share the benefits distance learning brought in his life.
He shared that: “Firstly, I want to congratulate you for graduating university in distance learning (…) I went to faculty right after finishing high school, being the only one ending up in a distance learning section, and, at first, I wanted to transfer to full-time to be with my colleagues. Along the years, whenever I ran into former colleagues, they would always tell me how difficult it was for them and how stressful their subjects were. Meanwhile, I had started working and participating to many student competitions, where I won many prizes, and therefore managed to be better prepared for the demands of the industry, and also be a step ahead of my peers at the end of our studies. (…) I wish you the best moving forward, be it in your current careers, in new ones, or master or doctoral studies”.
The Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Information Technology
The Telecommunications Systems and Technology – distance learning specialization
The first to speak on behalf of the ETCTI faculty was prof. eng. Radu Vasiu, Ph.D., the president of the Senate of Politehnica University Timișoara, responsible for the Telecommunications Systems and Technology distance learning specialization, and an advocate for distance learning at UPT.
“I can only say that I am glad that 25 years ago, we embarked on this adventure of distance learning, being the first Romanian university to create distance technical education study programs (…) As you see, in the end, you followed an education style that will become the norm eventually. What happened in the last almost two years during the pandemic only highlighted the fact that modern educational tools can be used successfully if used properly. (…) We are aware that it wasn’t easy for you over the last 3 or 4 years, especially since some of you had also worked or have families. Most of you are actually at an age when you also had children around you and other responsibilities and had to find a way to juggle with everything. But it is possible, as you have proven, and we are happy and congratulate you for this feat.”, prof. Vasiu congratulated the graduates.
The dean of the Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Information Technology, prof. eng. Dan Lascu, Ph.D., spoke to the graduates about the impact they had had on the teaching staff:
“I must confess that this ceremony is the most beautiful of our graduation festivities, and one from which we from full-time learning – both professors and students – should learn something (…) every time I sit and wonder what we, the professors, learned from each generation that is about to graduate. Every time, when it comes to distance learning, a few qualities come to mind: tenacity, bravery, determination, and, especially, maturity.”, had said prof. Lascu to the graduates.
The representative of the TST ID students – Jurj Lidia – addressed the online audience:
“I am grateful, and I can say this on behalf of my colleagues, for the opportunity to study remotely at Politehnica University Timișoara. For those of us with families, those who live abroad, or had to work, it was really helpful.”, she explained during the ceremony.
The Faculty of Automation and Computers
The Informatics – distance learning specialization
Prof. Lăcrămioara Stoicu-Tivadar, Ph.D., spoke on behalf of the Faculty of Automation and Computers. She made the Informatics ID specialization possible 26 years ago, and also delivered the thoughts and congratulations of the faculty dean – prof. Marius Marcu, Ph.D. – to the graduates.
“I am glad that Diana and her team still have the energy to organize such a ceremony, one we always enjoy attending. (…) We always have to find a way to balance all we do. You managed to find this balance – between studies, families, the desire to be better, you had the courage to step into the academic world from the world of industry, homes, families, and fight against everything around you and graduate. I commend you from the bottom of my heart. Know that you are examples for those around you”, Lăcrămioara Stoicu-Tivadar told the graduates.
Tapai George Pamfil – the Informatics ID graduate chosen by the class of 2021 spoke next in the Auditorium Hall:
“Here we are at the end. It’s the moment when some of us may say our goodbyes, and some may continue their studies. Looking back, these past three years have passed too quickly. In this time, we worked together with our professors (…) Your purpose, dear professors, was to give us the opportunity to discover new things to use in our future activity, to help understand when we could not understand, to be patient with us when someone else might have lost patience. Our purpose was not to change our direction, to stay focused, and learn as much as possible from what you had taught us.”
The Faculty of Communication Sciences
The Communication and Public Relations – distance learning specialization
The Dean of the Faculty of Communication - Prof. Daniel Dejica-Carțiș, Ph.D., welcomed the audience in the Auditorium Hall:
"I'm glad to be here today, in such an emotional and vibrant atmosphere. There are two are representative rooms in Politehnica University Timisoara: The Senate Hall in Lloyd Palace - a traditional, classical image - the image of the first century of our university - and this Auditorium maximum - the image of the new century of Politehnica. They are halls visited, over the years, by presidents, prime ministers, ambassadors, consuls, genius people, specialists in their field of activity, and, here, today, you - the graduates of this year's class. I congratulate you for this, I wish you much success in your future activities, I congratulate our colleagues at the ID / IFR and E-Learning Center, which for more than 25 years have had this vision to develop this type of education that today is a landmark of education, which is nothing less than full-time education", he said.
The academic responsible for the Communication and Public Relations ID specialization - Assist. Prof. Mugur Dragomir, Ph.D., was among the members sitting in the Auditorium presidium and welcomed the attendees with this message:
"As a graduation ceremony, flashes, photos, cameras, and more recently, these broadcasts set the mood. But, paraphrasing the philosopher Constantin Noica (..) he said that something in the inter-human relationship would not be able to get caught in these television records - those friendships, love that I think you have built among you, as students, and between you and teachers. We hope that these unseen threads be carried by you in the places where you came from and, as King Ferdinand said, to go further the spirit of the university".
Luca Oana - Graduate from Communication and Public Relations ID was the one designated by her peers to send the audience the thoughts of the graduates:
"I'd like to tell you a few words about the day I went again to sign up for faculty. That day, the only quote that was in my mind was ‘the best time to plant a tree was ten years ago, but the second-best moment is today’. With these thoughts I went, I signed up, and today was the last time the alarm rang to wake us up for college.", she recalled.
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
Machine Building Technology IFR Specialization
Lecturer eng. Adrian Dume, Ph.D. - Academic responsible for the Machine Building Technology IFR specialization congratulated the graduates both on his and the management of the faculty’s behalf:
"From the management of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering we have a beautiful message: Congratulations on your involvement in all IFR education at TCM (...) You are a beautiful generation. I am proud to see you in such a large number. I hope you have learned something nice in the four years. We had a year and a half in the pandemic, many online hours, many projects carried out online, along the busy Saturday-Sunday activities. My congratulations are endless!", he addressed the graduates.
The graduate designated by the TCM IFR 2021 class was Boroş Timeea:
"Today I’m feeling a sense of calm, but also a feeling of sadness. Calm comes from the fact that today we celebrate the completion of the four years of work, with success, at least so far. We all took a fairly important step towards fulfilling the vision and goals needed for the good life that we all want. And the feeling of sadness comes from the fact that these last four years have passed too fast. (..,) I want to wish you a lot of success in everything you will do, keep your heads up and, last but not least, trust that everything will be fine", she told her colleagues.
Among those who have sent greetings and virtual messages to the distance and low-frequency learning graduates have also been members of the CeL team, both the technical and administrative teams.
Lecturer eng. Muguraş Mocofan, Ph.D. - member of the team and at the same time teacher for the students at TST ID sent a message from the Auditorium Hall:
"Through you we get a feeling of today’s reality. You bring reality to the university. We get a better sense of what your needs are, what you need to learn from us. And this makes me enormously glad, we have very good collaborations. Bachelor projects often try to solve your problems at work. These are things that help me develop myself professionally", he confessed.
The final message addressed to the graduates came from Diana Andone, Ph.D., CeL director, at the same time a professor in the TST ID specialization and a distance learning promoter:
"On my part, personally, I can say I'm very proud of you because you resisted. The words that come most often in my mind are resilience and trust. You have first had resilience, that is, the desire to be able to pull through, because, despite the fact that you have a family, most of you, jobs, and some of you, children. Always, before the pandemic conditions, this room was full of children running around here(...) You have this resilience because most of you are not even in a radius of 60 kilometers around Timisoara, as students usually are. Coming from all over Romania, from Europe and other continents. Coming happily, with determination, with confidence to follow their studies. (...) I wish you a lot of success, I hope to see you again at the graduate meetings!", ended Dr. Diana Andone.
The graduates of the four ID / IFR specializations then heard their name called as students for the last time, and then were called on the stage to receive diplomas granted by the ID / IFR and e-Learning Center. These were handed over by the academic officers of each specialization in the presence of those who attended the online ceremony.
Then followed the climax of the event - the graduates of the four specializations threw their heels in the air, followed by the intonation of the anthem of Politehnica University Timisoara and the official group photograph for the class of 2021 - both with those present in the room as well as those attending virtually.
The event recording can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hixovm3khja.
