A training visit to Jordan had been successfully taken place at 14-18 of December 2014. Eight Teachers from Germany, Spain, Sweden, Tunisia and Egypt came to Jordan. The purpose of this visit is the training of local teachers at PSUT and GJU by the teachers who authored the modules. Visits to the faculties and laboratories involved in the project and introductions of the local teacher teams at PSUT and GJU Besides the structure of the MSC.ESE programme's structure in Jordan were arranged in this visit as well. Managerial issues related to the implementation of this project were also discussed in this visit.

As part of their research visits (project EMIS-Subsahara funded by the DAAD) in the department of Business Information Systems VLBA the University of Oldenburg, Mr MSc Ali Amin Rezai and Dipl. Inf. Jose Luis Sambo presented their research topics.

From 8 to 9 December 2014, as part of the DAAD-funded DASIK project, the final workshop took place in Port Elizabeth (South Africa) at the partner university Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU). Amongst others the DAAD, the University of Cape Town (UCT), the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) and various industry representatives (including SAP and SYSPRO) participated in the event.

The opening ceremony of the first international masters program "Environmental Management Information Systems" was held on the 19 November 2014 at the Pedagogical University (UP) of Mozambique. In addition to the master students the following people attended the event: Dr. Marcos Muthevuye - Lecturer and Director of Communications and Image at the UP , Prof. Dr. Dinis da Costa - Lecturer and director of the postgraduate program of the Technical College of the UP , Prof. Dr. Alberto Cupane - Lecturer and Director of the postgraduate program at the UP , MsC . Arlete Ferrão - Lecturer and Director of Education at the University of Technology in the UP , Prof. Dr. Armindo Monjane - lecturer at the UP and President for Alumni Mozambique , Susanne Jahn (DAAD lecturer Mozambique) and Prof. Dr.- Ing. Jorge Marx Gómez - Project and guest lecturer at the UP.

A visit to similar center at Vilnius Gediminas Technical University had been successfully taken place at 12-13 of November 2014. Four Lebanese and six Syrian staff members attended this visit. Presentation about scientific research activities at VGTU and business management faculty had been presented by colleagues from VGTU. This is besides visits to the VGTU institutes and laboratories, sunrise valley science and technology park and several presentations about start-up initiatives from VGTU. Managerial issues related to the implementation of this project were also discussed in the second day of this visit.

On 11 November 2014, the two PhD scholarship holders Ola Mustafa and Omar Khalil gave their colleagues a first insight into their PhD topics. Afterwards, an open discussion provided the opportunity to address the occuring research questions and possible areas of application. Mrs. Mustafa and Mr. Omar are both scholarship holders of the Erasmus Mundus Project Phoenix.

On Monday, the 10 November 2014 Ammar Memari, who is a research associate within the Department of Embeded Hardware / Software Systems, completed his disputation on "A Model for Adaptive Applications on the Semantic Web". The examination board consisted of Prof. Dr. Jorge Marx Gómez , Prof. Dr. Andreas Winter , Prof. Dr. - Ing . Jürgen Sauer and Dr. André Bolles. After the succesful disputation the new "Dr." invited everybody to a champagne reception.

Our sincere congratulations go to Ammar Memari and the best wishes for his future.

On November 7, 2014 Dr. Miada Naana successfully defended her Dissertation with the topic "Data Warehouse-basierte Konzeption eines strategischen Öko-Controlling-Systems ". The department Business Information Systems / Very Large Business Applications (VLBA) congratulates.

The new Erasmus Mundus project ASSUR has been started in 2014 to improve the cooperation between the European Union and Syria by strengthening political, cultural, educational, and economic links between the two regions.

Within the academic years 2014-2018, the project will award 56 grants to the Syrian students, researchers and staff for visits in EU.

The kick-off meeting was hosted at October 2014 in the University of L'Aquila, Italy. Dr. Tariq Mahmoud represented Oldenburg University in this meeting. All partners agreed on the next actions to be taken in this project to create the website, open the call for applications and then have meetings for the selection process.

The Erasmus Mundus project MAYA-NET has been launched in 2014 to foster the cooperation between the European Union and Latin American countries to enhance political, cultural, educational, and economic links between the two regions.

During the academic years 2014-2018, the project will award 120 grants to students, researchers and staff for visits in EU and LA partner universities. Study, research and job opportunities are available for citizens of European Union and nationals from Colombia, El Salvador, Mexico, Nicaragua, Honduras and Cuba.

The kick-off meeting was hosted at October 2014 in Universidad del Magdalena, Santa Marta, Columbia. Dr. Tariq Mahmoud represented Oldenburg University in this meeting. All partners agreed on the next actions to be taken in this project to create the website, open the call for applications and then have meetings for the selection process.

The transformation from car dealers to providers of mobility stands in the focus of the project "Regional Car-Balancing" (ReCaB). With the aim of getting more information from the customers perspective, a workshop with potential private and business customers took place at the 13th and 16th of October at the car dealing company VW Braasch. Discussing preferences, possible challenges and ideas of a future mobility service the workshop gave interesting insights into the topic.

A very special thanks goes to Karsten Uphoff from ecco for the excellent assistance with the moderation of the event.

Within the scope of the DAAD project "Master's degree course EMIS in the Subsaharan region" the two scholarship holders LLoyd Larbi from Ghana and Eugénio Alberto Macumbe from Mozambique are going to have a five month research stay at the University of Oldenburg.

Within the scope of the visit of the Oldenburg Business Informatics MBI Kayode Ayankoya (Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa) gave a presentation titled "A Data Science Framework for Strategic Decision Support in Small and Medium Enterprises".

A visit ti similar center at the University of Alicante had been successfully taken place at 23-24 of Septembr 2014. Four Lebanese and Five Syrian staff members attended this visit. Presentation about university organization in relation to research, technology transfer and UA model Besides fundraising of research and cooperation projects had been presented by colleagues from the University of Alicante. This is besides a visit to the technological transfer park and the institute for international economics at UA. Managerial issues were also discussed in the second day of this visit.

Fayoum University had successfully organized at 26-31. August 2013 a JMBioTec consortium workshop at Egypt. The main aims behind this workshop was to have a general discussion and finalization of the program, discuss the student requirements to apply to the new master programme at the Egyptian partner universities, determine the student fees (that will join the master after the end of the project), have agreement of joint master certificates, discuss some budget issues, arrange EG traveling to EU besides discussing potential improvements to the outputs and outcomes that will be carried out during the funded period of this TEMPUS project.

Oldenburg University and Modern University for Business and Science had successfully organized at 03-04. September 2014 a MATRE Steering Committee Meeting and a seminar to present and discuss the studies' results of WP1 at Beirut, Lebanon. The main aim behind this meeting was to have the second follow-up management meeting of the European and target partners to present the results of the WP1 and discuss any further suggestions and improvements to the outputs and outcomes that will be carried out during the funded period of this TEMPUS project.

Our third coordination meeting took place in Arusha at the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology from July 21st - 23rd. Everything is well on track. In Maputo, the master's programme will start in the end of August. 28 prospective students have already applied. In October, NM-AIST will follow. At the University of Ghana, Corporate Environmental Management and CEMIS will be offered as a bundle of electives, selectable by students of already established master programmes like e.g. Environmental Sciences. At all three institutions, teaching will be supported by German lecturers, where needed.

We are really happy with our results so far.

Apart from all the positive reports and the resolving of some issues on the organisational level, other topics were discussed during the meeting. A proposal about establishing joint doctoral education in the field of EMIS has been sent to the DAAD recently. Other opportunities for further cooperation (research!) will be explored on our next meeting in Oldenburg, Germany.

Many thanks to Karoli Njau and Cecil Kithongo King'ondu for hosting this event.

On the 22nd and 23rd July 2014 the project partner SYSPRO hosted the second DASIK Industry Workshop at its headquarters in Sunninghill, Johannesburg. The two-day workshop follows the success of prior industry workshops held in Port Elizabeth and Oldenburg, Germany in 2012 (Kick-off-Meeting) and 2013 (1st DASIK Industry Workshop) respectively. The workshop brought together some of the top global IT industry experts and leading academics to develop and conduct intense training courses in ICT-related research fields. The aim of the workshop was to encourage knowledge transfer and partnerships between countries as well as business and tertiary institutions. "The key to resolving most of the socio-economic problems facing Africa lies in the hands of education. With a sufficiently educated population, the opportunities for this continent are limitless," says SYSPRO Marketing Director, Meryl Malcomess. The theme of the first day of the workshop was 'The IT Industry's Demands for the Future' whilst the second day addressed 'IT Educational Insight and Need for Growth'. During the two days presenters from the DASIK project partners itself gave some insights in the project objectives and the results obtained so far. Furthermore, representatives from companies like iPlan, Mircosoft SA, SYSPRO, IQMates, CS Interactive Training and KPMG gave their experiences with IT industry's demands to the interested audience. As representatives from the city of Oldenburg and the State of Lower Saxony, Mr. Roland Hentschel and Mr. Lars Koenig also delivered a speech with regards to the relevance of the project with the region Oldenburg and Lower Saxony. Besides several interested members of companies and universities in South Africa Ms. Philina Wittke (Head of Information Center of the DAAD South Africa) and Ms. Maja Clausen (Head of Education, Research, Science and Innovation of the German Embassy Pretoria) were part of the invited guests. Further information is provided here.

Bahodour Mulojonov's research peroid in Germany has endet last week. He presented his research results in the framework of a research seminar. The VLBA department wishes him all the best for his future and his upcoming research activities.

The transformation from car dealers to providers of mobility stands in the focus of the project "Regional Car-Balancing" (ReCaB), which started in June 2014 under the direction of Prof. Jorge Marx Gómez. Within the next six months the project aims to develop a car-sharing-concept for car dealing companies. By means of a feasibility and a demand study the customer's demands, the need of adjustment at the car dealers side and important aspects of economic and technical feasibility will be identified.

An essential practical partner of the project is the car dealing company VW Braasch and its mobility manager Thomas Gäbelein.

Further information is provided here

The Tempus program supports the EU education programs since 1990: the development and reform of higher education institutions in the partner countries. The aim of the MATRE (Modernizing Academic Teaching & Research Environment in Business & Economics at Lebanon and Syria) project is to create two business centers at Lebanese and Syrian universities to strengthen the funding sources for scientific research supporting networks structure by establishing the network of HE institutions, motivating researcher & linking research to society. This network includes 8 EU, Lebanese and Syrian partners.

At 26-27. April 2014 the kick-off meeting of MATRE project was successfully held in Istanbul, Turkey. It had been decided in this meeting to add Damascus University form Syria in the project consortium. Moreover, planning the next activities in the following months had been initiated and the activities of the first work package had been started to be discussed in the next consortium meeting that will take place in Lebanon at September 2014.

On April 15th and 16th the second Selection Meeting was held in Oldenburg. In total 908 applications were submitted to the Electra Project. The Home and Host institutions as well as the members of the Scientific Committee evaluated all submitted applications. 557 applications passed the evaluation phases. The Selection Committee selected 44 scholarship holders. All mobilities will start in 2014.

The deadline for submission of papers for EnviroInfo 2014 has been extended until May, 2nd 2014. Click here to submit a paper. Further information is provided on the website of the EnviroInfo and in the related news.

On Friday, 4th of April 2014 the Fachausschuss "Informatik für den Umweltschutz" (Technical Committee "Informatics for Environmental Protection") met at the University of Hamburg. Within the scope of a strategic workshop all the relevant topics for the next years have been discussed.

Within the scope of the DAAD Summer School "Energy, Water and Sanitation in Urban and Decentralised Regions" Prof. Jorge Marx Gómez held a lecture with the topic "Research Cooperations with especially African and other Partner-Universities". Thereafter he participated in a workshop with the subject "Research Networks". The Summer School was organized by the Institute of Physics "Postgraduate Programme Renewable Energy".

From 24th until 26th of March 2014 the kick-off meeting for the EU-Tempus Project "JM-Biotec" took place in Hurghada, Egypt. The project is chaired by Dr. Sanaa Haroon of Faoum University. During this project a Joint Master Program for Biotechnology will be developed and implemented in Egyptian Universities. The University of Oldenburg will adress the scope of Environmental Information Systems.

The project group HAWK, their research advisors Andreas Solsbach and Andreas Messler (Business Informatics / VLBA, chaired by Prof. Dr. Marx Gómez) and CX4U AG presented their results within the scope of the CeBIT exhibition from 10th to 14th March 2014. The project group developed a VEE-Framework (Validation, Estimation, Editing) within the topic "Big Data - transparent energy consumption via efficient data processing".

In Tempus MSC.ESE project, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg hosted the fourht follow-up meeting and consortium project workshop at 14th and 15th of February 2014. The main aim behind this meeting was to finalize the syllabi of the ESE curriculum and start the process of authoring the modules and their teaching materials. The total number of participants was 29 and it is the first meeting in which the Syrian partners from Damascus University were able to attend. A picture of all attendants is available here.

Further information is provided here.

For the 12th time the Technical Committee "Informatics for Environmental Protection" of the German Informatics Society will award the "Environmental Informatics Prize". The prize is awarded for students' works in the field of environmental informatics. Such work takes the form of projects undertaken either as part of a course or for a degree (excluding PhD) at an academic university or a university of applied sciences. The projects must demonstrate the contribution of methods and technologies of informatics to the solution of environmental problems or dissemination of information supporting sustainable development in general.

The winners will be invited to present their work at EnviroInfo 2014 - ICT for energy efficiency, the 28th International Conference on Informatics for Environmental Protection to be held in Oldenburg, Germany.

Further information is provided here.

The TERP10-Course in the current winter-term has been cancelled. It has been postponed into summer-term. The course will take place from September 29th to October 10th. The exam will take place on October 13th. The registration will be unlocked in May.

For further information click here.

On November 28th 2013 Prof. Dr. Marx Gómez gave a lecture with the topic One Planet Living: Implications for Universities within the scope of the DASIK-Project at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in South Africa. You can watch the lecture here.

The deadline is approaching for submitting abstracts (of at least 2 pages) to the "28th International Conference on Informatics for Environmental Protection" to be held in Oldenburg (Germany) at 10-12 September 2014.

Deadline for abstracts: April 11th, 2014
Notification of acceptance: May 23rd, 2014

If your abstract is accepted, please be prepared that a camera-ready, full paper version has to be submitted until June 20th. We are looking forward to receive your abstracts and of course to meet you in Oldenburg. Details about the conference and the submission procedure can be found here.
Don't hesitate to contact us, if you have questions about the EnviroInfo 2014. Would you please be so kind to distribute the CfP to your network! Thank you very much in advance.

Kind regards,

EnviroInfo 2014 Organization Committee

From June 16th to 18th a workshop with the topic Electro mobility: assessing the shift from energy efficiency to material efficiency in the automotive life is going to take place at Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg in Delmenhorst (Germany). The workshop is organized by Alexandra Pehlken, Steven B. Young, and Wolfgang Stenzel.

Further information is provided here.

On thursday, 30.01.2014 Juma James Masele successfully defended his PhD thesis. The topic of the dissertation was Adoption of Green E-Business Applications for Sustainable Tourism Development in Developing Countries: The Case of Tanzania .

For the Erasmus Mundus Projects Phoenix, Electra and eureka SD applications may be submitted on short notice.

Scholarships are available for Bachelor, Master, PhD, Post-Doc and Staff in our partner-countries Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Ukraine, Argentina, Brazil, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico and Nicaragua.

For further information visit:

• Phoenix Project (Deadline: 27.01.14)
• Electra Project (Deadline: 31.01.14)
• Eureka SD Project (Deadline: 09.03.14)

On monday, 13.01.2014 Dania Perez Armayor successfully defended her PhD thesis. The topic of the dissertation was Technology Combinations Decision Model for Supply Chains Information Systems Integration.