Mircea POPA awarded Professor Emeritus

  Date
March 24th, 2022
  Author

Dr. ing. Mircea POPA has been awarded Professor Emeritus by the Politehnica University of Timisoara, as per the Decision of the Senate of the UPT, no. 66/24.03.2022,

for the remarkable didactic, scientific and management results, as well as his significant contributions to the development of the Department of Computer and Information Technology, of the Faculty of Automation and Computing and of the Politehnica University of Timisoara, throughout his professional activity, since 1984.

Professor Dr. Eng. Mircea Popa (b. 1955) is conducting for over 38 years a remarkable academic and scientific activity at the Politehnica University of Timisoara, Department of Computer and Information Technology, as one of the members which continued the development of the first department and the first university-level study program in Computing in Romania, which were launched in our University. He also contributed in a consistent manner to the development of the Faculty of Automation and Computing as Vice-dean, from 2004 until 2012, as well as to the development of the Politehnica University of  Timisoara as Vice-rector, from 2012 until 2016.

Along his academic career he published over 150 scientific papers in prestigious journals and volumes of conferences, at international and national level, 7 books and 4 academic handbooks. He is an author or co-author of 4 patents for invention, out of which 3 have been successfully applied in the local industry. He was involved in over 30 research and development grants and contracts, out of which 7 have been coordinated by him as director/ principal investigator, on high interest topics in the field of computer science and engineering.

His scientific activity in the area of electronic computers and information technology has been focused towards a set of topics of high importance and interest, such as: digital microsystems, memories and processors, embedded systems, reconfigurable systems, internet of things, smart systems, sensors and sensor networks. He is a PhD supervisor in Computer and Information Technology since 2008, with a number of three PhD theses successfully finalized currently.

Professor Popa has been involved in the development of some major project in the area of education:

  • Coordinator and UPT representative of the project "Internationalization, equity and institutional management for a quality higher education" (IEMU), during 2014 - 2015;
  • UPT representative of the project "Development and re-enforcing the quality culture in the Romanian academic education system" (QUALITAS), during 2014 - 2015;
  • Expert in the project "Improvement of public policies and of the quality of regulations in the academic education system, by updating the quality standards" (QAFIN), during 2018 - 2021.

During his activity, professor Dr. Eng. Mircea Popa occupied a set of distinguished and honorable academic and management positions:

  • Vice-rector of the Politehnica University of Timișoara, for a 4-year period, during 2012 - 2016;
  • Vice-dean of the Faculty of Automation and Computing, for 8 years, between 2004 - 2012;
  • Chair of the following international scientific conferences: ICEEC 2004 (Cairo, Egypt), ELECTROSCIENCE 06 (Venice, Italy) and SISY 2011 (Subotica, Serbia);
  • Member of the Steering Committee of the international scientific symposium SACI, for the following editions 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016;
  • Member of the Editorial Board of the Scientific Bulletin of the UPT, Transactions on Automatic Control and Computer Science (2006 - 2019).

In 2013, professor Popa has been awarded with the title Honorary Professor of the Obuda University of Budapest. Moreover, he is, or was, a member in a significant number of scientific and professional committees, which prove both the national and international levels of visibility and recognition of his activity:

  • Member of the ACM (since 2002);
  • Member of the IEEE (since 2002);
  • Expert member of the ARACIS (Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education), Engineering Sciences Board (since 2008);
  • Expert member of the CNATDCU (National Council for Attestation of University Titles, Diplomas and Certificates), Automation, Computing and Informatics Board (2016 - 2020);
  • Evaluator member of the UEFISCDI (Executive Unit for the Financing of Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation), Computers, Information Technology and Systems Engineering Board (since 2016).