The delegation of the West Ukrainian National University, consisting of Prof. Anatoliy Sachenko, Assoc. Prof. Lesia Dubchak and Assoc. Prof. Pavlo Bykovy, visited Athens, Greece and Sofia, Bulgaria in term from February 28 to March 8 within international project SUDEM “SUstainable Disaster and Emergency Management processes digitization”.
In Athens, the WUNU team acquainted students and staff of Hellenic Army Academy as well as National Technical University of Athens with project SUDEM and disseminated the project results. Besides, the WUNU team has run the meaningful negotiations with Prof. Nikos Bardis as Co-Chair of the 14th International IEEE Conference IDAACS’2027. The focus was on the venue and concept of the conference, the format, the program and key organizational issues of the conference including its budget. First, the WUNU team visited the venue candidate Hellenic Armed Forces Officers’ Club, located in the city center with its ancient architecture and compact arrangement of rooms for conference sessions.
On the second day, the WUNU team visited the Hellenic Army Academy, located on the picturesque outskirts of Athens and not far from the sea. Prof. Bardis demonstrated the auditoriums and rooms that could be used to run the IDAACS’2027 plenary, oral and poster sessions. He confirmed that Hellenic Army Academy will grant all the necessary rooms for IDAACS’2027.
Moreover, the WUNU team had a very meeting with Prof. Antonios Kladas, Chairman of the IEEE Greece Section. After discussing the possible ways of IEEE Greece Section involvement into the coming IDAACS’2027 application to IEEE, the parties were agreed on further steps regarding the procedure for preparing a signing the correspondent Memorandum of Understanding.
During the last three days the WUNU team was in Sofia, where a series of working meetings of the SUDEM consortium were held at the Institute for Space Research the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences as part of the closing this project. It is aimed at developing modern approaches for using the digital technologies and artificial intelligence for disaster and emergency management, as well as strengthening cooperation between partner universities and organizations under the ERASMUS+ program. As the final event a press conference of the consortium teams (Bulgaria, Germany, the Netherlands and Ukraine), as well as the Vice-President of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences was made at the BTA Press Club (https://www.bta.bg/bg/pressclub/archive/34922). Finally, the project coordinator, Dr. Georgi Georgiev, summarized the results of the project implementation, outlined the final stages of the project work and made conclusive remarks. Besides, the further directions for cooperation between the partners were identified.
In addition, the WUNU team visited the Faculty for Information Systems and Technologies of the University of Library Studies and Information Technology in Sofia. They met with the Dean of the Faculty, Prof. Georgi P. Dimitrov, and Prof. Vladimir Jotsov and discussed the hot and prospective areas of joint scientific research and preparing the joint international projects. Moreover, the participation of Bulgarian scientists in the 14th International IEEE Conference IDAACS’2027 in Athens were discussed.
Trip of Prof. Anatoly Sachenko, Assoc. Prof. Lesia Dubchak and Assoc. Prof. Pavlo Bykovy demonstrated the active role of the West Ukrainian National University in shaping international scientific cooperation, strengthening academic partnerships, and preparing for the IEEE IDAACS’2027.