The paper presents the results of a students’ survey carried out at “Vasile Alecsandri” University of Bacau, Romania, on the quality of educational process on online platforms in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was addressed to students from the Faculty of Engineering and the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports. The results of survey highlighted that most of students were satisfied with the measures taken by the university during the lockdown period and the way the teaching—learning-assessment process took place. However, some negative aspects were reported as: lack of an adequate infrastructure for some students, less effective teacher-student communication and interaction, impossibility of performing practical applications, lack of socialization, lack of learning motivation, less objective examination (e.g., possibility of cheating), possibility of physical and mental health degradation (e.g., too much time spent in front of screens, installation of a sedentary lifestyle). Consequently, for the new academic year, effective, and efficient measures must be implemented by the management of the university to remove, as much as possible, these negative issues and to improve the performance of online educational process.

One main drawback of electrical discharge machining (EDM) is related to the dielectric fluid, since it impacts both the environment and operator health and safety. To resolve these issues, recent research has demonstrated the technical feasibility and qualitative performance of vegetable oils as substitutes for hydrocarbon-based dielectric and synthetic oils in EDM. However, due to the higher content of unsaturated fatty acids, vegetable oils lose their stability, due to several factors such as heating or exposure to light or oxygen. The present study is a first attempt to analyze the extent to which the physic-chemical properties of vegetable oils change during EDM processing. Refractive index, dynamic viscosity and spectra analyses were conducted for sunflower and soybean oils. The results revealed that, under the applied processing conditions, no structural changes occurred. These findings are very promising from the perspective of EDM sustainability.

Milling parts with low rigidity (thin-walled parts) are increasingly attracting the interest of the academic and industrial environment, due to the applicability of these components in industrial sectors of strategic interest at the international level in the aerospace industry, nuclear industry, defense industry, automotive industry, etc. Their low rigidity and constantly changing strength during machining lead on the one hand to instability of the cutting process and on the other hand to part deformation. Solving both types of problems (dynamic and static) must be preceded by prediction of cutting forces as accurately as possible, as they have a significant meaning for machining condition identification and process performance evaluation. Since there are plenty of papers dealing with this topic in the literature, the current research attempts to summarize the models used for prediction of force in milling of thin-walled parts and to identify which are the trends in addressing this issue from the perspective of intelligent production systems.

The paper presents the results of a survey conducted among a total of 155 industrial engineering students from a Romanian public university to assess their awareness and concern about the facts and challenges imposed by the ongoing digital transformation. The study is based on a statistical analysis of the answers obtained from a questionnaire that contained closed-ended questions with predefined answers and open-ended questions where the respondents could express a personal point of view. Understanding the students’ needs and expectations, as well as the impact of the digital transition on their professional training and integration in a sustainable economy, will serve as a background upon which the quality of study programs can be improved by implementing appropriate measures. The results highlighted the necessity to supplement the curriculum with specialized courses in emerging technologies, to intensify students’ counseling on the digital transition, to upgrade the university’s infrastructure with equipment and software in the field of emerging technologies, to assist students with insufficient resources, and to stimulate women to participate in skilling, upskilling, and reskilling programs in STEM fields. These changes will expand the sustainable development principles in formal university education, ensure competency-centered learning, and increase access to inclusive and quality education.

Electrical discharge machining with solid electrodes represents an efficient solution to generate blind cavities with complex geometry. Vegetable oils represent an alternative to conventional dielectrics, which are considered harmful for the environment and human health. This study tested the feasibility of two widely used vegetable oils, sunflower and soybean, under intense machining of three alloys with application in aeronautic industry, aiming for high process productivity and a good surface quality. The results have revealed that vegetable oils are capable to ensure an improvement of the material removal rates that can reach up to 55.15 % compared to mineral oil. Also, the vegetable dielectrics allowed an improvement of surface quality for non-ferrous alloys, up to a maximum of 19.70 %, whereas for the stainless steel, the mineral oil has provided a better surface finish.

In the original version of our article