Stefan cel Mare University of Suceava, Romania

Located in north-eastern part of Romania, in South Bukovina, a region of scenic beauty with a strong focus on values and cultural tradition, the Stefan cel Mare University is a modern institution with 50 years of tradition in higher education. In 2005, the University adopted the principles of the Bologna Declaration and of the Magna Charta Universitatum.
The main objectives of the Stefan cel Mare University of Suceava are in accordance with the EU policies: to train highly qualified and competent professionals to face global competition, to harmoniously shape the students’ personality, to enhance creativity and encourage improvement, to continuously develop scientific research, to seek for a permanent assessment of scientific performance of the members of the academic community, as well as to constantly improve the educational and scientific research activities with a view to structural, qualitative and economically successful integration within the European area of higher education.
All 9 faculties of our University provide 3-4-year undergraduate and 2-year master programmes, as well as PhD training in 7 faculties: The Faculty of Food Engineering, The Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, The Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Mechatronics and Management, The Faculty of History and Geography, The Faculty of Letters and Communication Sciences, The Faculty of Forestry, The Faculty of Economic Sciences and Public Administration.
The University has continuously developed since its foundation; at present, Campus I comprises almost 66.000 square meters of teaching facilities, two gymnasiums, a synthetic-grass sports ground provided with a hot-air inflatable rooftop and equipped with a lighting system, Planetarium, as well as a Swimming and Kinetotherapy Complex. The University provides accommodation for over 1000 students in 4 residential facilities of European standards.
A renovated university restaurant of 250 seats, 2 exhibition rooms, a library with 6 reading rooms and all the university buildings equipped with teaching rooms, laboratories with computers and devices necessary for research and study, all these qualify the campus as a place favorable to the development and affirmation of students and teachers.
The growing need for updating the current infrastructure due to a consistent increase in the number of students determined the need to design for a second campus. The new campus will be built on a surface of nearly 75 acres and will comprise buildings with lecture halls, 4 modern accommodation buildings, nanotechnology and biotechnology research laboratories, a sports arena with 4000 seats, a university restaurant, a dendrological park, a botanical garden, an olympic swimming pool, sport grounds, etc.

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Mechatronics and Management

With a tradition in Suceava Higher Education since 1977, the faculty has developed from the initial Machine Manufacturing Engineering mechanical section through the gradual training of specialists in various mechanical engineering fields. The Faculty has over 35 years of experience in research, conducted in research laboratories with modern equipment and highly qualified staff.
The Tribology and Contact Mechanics Laboratory was setup at the University of Suceava in 1978. The first research activities involved elastohydrodynamic traction as phenomenon and application in traction drives and rolling contact fatigue. Many original test rigs were conceived and build to assess the effect of various factors upon EHD traction and the effect of traction upon contact fatigue. These results led to more than 10 design versions of EHD traction drives, four of which were applied in Romanian industry. After 1985, realizing that considering the EHD contact as a black box cannot lead to progress, the research effort was slowly shifted towards the understanding of physical phenomena which govern the shear behavior of EHD oil films. Starting from quantum mechanics and involving thermodynamics, statistical physics and physical chemistry, a new scientific domain was established, called Physics of lubrication. The research group advanced theoretical explanations for shear behavior of EHD oil films, which are validated by extensive experimental work. Naturally, due to the availability of personal computers, Contact Mechanics became a new field of interest both as theory and experiment.
The main goal of the Laboratory of Advanced Manufacturing Technologies for Metal Cutting is to provide interdisciplinary knowledge, attributes and skills necessary for applying the principles of advanced manufacturing systems within the manufacturing industry. Based on the competence and experience of the laboratory’s staff and its specific research equipment, the laboratory has the capabilities required to devise and develop innovative and cost-effective manufacturing solutions and also offer manufacturing performance analysis, system optimization and product design. The laboratory activities are related to the manufacturing of mechanical components including process and component design, mechanical systems design, metal cutting technologies, modern processes and techniques, elaboration of CNC programs, maintenance of manufacturing and production systems, as well as the development of new mathematical models and process analyses for various metal cutting manufacturing processes. Due to the long tradition of the VAREHD and TEHNOMUS international conferences organized at Suceava and due to the participation of the highly qualified staff of the Faculty in various international conferences in other European countries, numerous collaboration agreements with foreign institutions were established.