The guiding principle of UM is its commitment to research excellence and international comparability in the wider research area.
With a commitment to excellence in research and creating a stimulating environment for achieving top research and artistic achievements, we strive to discover new knowledge, connect with leading international research organizations to participate in research and artistic projects, create opportunities for active involvement of students in research, artistic and development work and consolidating knowledge transfer activities to contribute to the development of society, addressing global challenges and economic progress in the region and the wider environment.
In the period 2021-2030 we are pursuing following strategic goals:
- Sustainable, socially responsible and quality development of scientific sciences and artistic disciplines, as well as research areas and sub-areas developed by UM, taking into account the principles of smart specialization with an emphasis on solving social challenges.
- Achieving scientific and artistic excellence in all areas of activity of research and artistic groups of UM, taking into account the principles of the Leiden Manifesto.
- Establishment of the UM Technology and Innovation Center for efficient central infrastructural support for scientific research and innovation processes and technological transfer of knowledge to the environment.
- Striving for stable systemic financing of research and artistic work at UM and establishing comparable conditions for a quality research environment that will enable balanced development in all members.
- Strengthening creative interdisciplinary research cores in key research orientation areas.
- Exercising open access to scientific documents, data and research results and public research infrastructure.
News
Research stories
The guiding principle of the University is the commitment to research excellence and international comparability in the wider research area.
Researchers in focus
doc. dr. Iztok Kramberger
His research pertains mainly to seeking new methods and principles regarding direct man-machine interfaces and at the same time to quantum technologies or direct interaction between technology and nature, which includes space technologies as well. Through his research, he is trying to create new technologies and transfer them to modern technological applications through innovations, based on a high level of miniaturisation, with the aim to increase their intelligence, whereby, with a touch of biological inspiration, he understands technological innovation as the seed of technology, the result of which ensures its continuous adaptation to the changing environment.
doc. dr. Nejc Novak
Nejc Novak is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maribor, Slovenia. His research interest is in advanced computational modelling and simulations, cellular structures, auxetic cellular materials, characterisation and optimisation of cellular structures, crashworthiness, blast and ballistic loading. Nejc Novak was promoted to Doctor of Philosophy in 2019 at the University of Maribor, Slovenia with thesis title “Computational simulations of auxetic cellular structures”. He was the visiting researcher at the University of Kumamoto, Japan, at the Georgia Institute of Technology, USA, at the Beijing Institute of Technology, China, as well as at the Politecnico di Milano, Italy.
asist. Anja Mauko
Anja Mauko is a young researcher at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maribor, Slovenia. In her doctoral studies she is focusing on mechanical characterisation of novel cellular metamaterials. Her research work also covers the field of computational numerical simulations and experimental dynamic loading. She is habilitated as an assistant in the field of mechanical design. During her doctoral study, she visited Czech Technical University in Prague, Czechia, Izmir Institute of Technology, Turkey, and the University of Kumamoto, Japan.
asist. Yunus Emre Yılmaz
Yunus Emre Yılmaz is a young researcher at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maribor, Slovenia. In the year 2020, he enrolled in a doctoral study in which he researched novel cellular metamaterials. His main research focus is the mechanical characterization of metamaterials under high strain rates. He is a member of the laboratory for Advanced Engineering Simulations and Experimentation (ACE-X) for complex computer modeling and simulations, high-performance computing, and the development and characterization of cellular metamaterials. He is habilitated as an assistant in the field of mechanical design.
doc. dr. Matej Borovinšek
Doc. dr. Matej Borovinšek obtained his PhD in 2009 in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maribor, from the field of irregular cell structures. His research focuses on the field of geometric characterization and reconstruction of advanced cellular structures, the development of new cellular structures using optimization methods, and the field of advanced numerical analyses. He was the visiting researcher at the Okinawa National College of Technology, Japan and at the University of Graz, Austria. His pedagogical work covers the areas of computer-aided design and engineering numerical analysis.
prof. dr. Zoran Ren
Zoran Ren earned his Ph.D. from the University of Wales, Swansea College, Great Britain, in 1994 and then joined the University of Maribor to pursue an academic career, becoming a full professor of Mechanical Engineering in 2005. He is the Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow since 2000 when he spent a year at the Friederich Alexander Universität Erlangen Nürnberg in Germany. He is an expert in advanced computational modeling and simulations, high-performance computing, modeling of fast transients in solids, machine elements design, and development and characterization of cellular metamaterials. He is heading the Laboratory for Advanced Engineering Simulations and Experimentation (LACE-X) and is a visiting professor at the University of Kumamoto, Japan, and the Beijing Institute of Technology, China.
prof. dr. Matej Vesenjak
Prof. Dr. Matej Vesenjak received his Ph.D. in 2006 from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maribor. His research focuses on computer-aided design and development and characterization of advanced cellular structures and (meta)materials. He cooperates in scientific research within a widely established network of international cooperation with many research institutions in Slovenia and abroad, which resulted in many outstanding joint scientific achievements. He is also a visiting professor at foreign universities and has received many national and international fellowships and awards for his academic achievements.
izr. prof. dr. Miran Ulbin
Miran Ulbin studied mechanical engineering at the University of Maribor, obtaining the doctorate in 1996 with the thesis title »Contribution to the research of contact problems on gears using finite element method«. He is an associate professor in mechanical design at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maribor, with research interests mainly related to numerical analyses, computer-aided design and computer programming. He was the visiting researcher at the Berkeley Nuclear Laboratories, Berkeley in England, at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg in Germany and Institute of Thermomechanics, Prague in Czech republic.
prof. dr. Urban Bren
The research of prof. dr. Urban Bren pertains to molecular modelling in the field of chemical carcinogenesis and microwave catalysis as well as to computer-aided planning of active substances. He received practically every award dedicated to younger Slovene researchers (the Prešeren, Samec and Pregl award, the Jozef Stefan Golden Emblem), the Pregl award for outstanding achievements in chemistry and related disciplines as well as the prestigious Best Felow Prize of the World Federation of Scientists that has selected him in international competition as one of the thirteen most promising scientists. He is especially proud of the joint publication with Prof. Arieh Warshel, Ph.D., winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2013.
doc. dr. Marko Jukić
Marko Jukić started his research career in the development of active substances in 2011, namely in the field of pharmaceutical chemistry and bioinformatics where he focuses in particular on planning new antibacterial and antiviral medicines as well as developing new algorithms and computer tools for medicines planning. He takes part in the international scientific community with original scientific articles in scientific journals and as an author of software. He is pleased to cooperate in the pedagogical process and teach younger generations, taking an active part in internationally recognized projects for public awareness and education, such as covid.si and sidock@home.
izr. prof. dr. Natalija Ulčnik
Natalija Ulčnik is an associate professor of Slovene language and lecturer in the Department of Slavic languages and Literature at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Maribor. Her research pertains to the history of Slovene (literary) language, lexicology, lexicography, phraseology and paremiology. She focuses on linguistic development principles and changes in Slovene as well as the literary language variability, recently also on preparing phraseological learning material in digital environment. She was involved in several research projects in linguistics and is a member of the research programme Slovene linguistics, literature and teaching Slovene.
izr. prof. dr. Darinka Verdonik
Darinka Verdonik works as a senior scientific associate and senior lecturer at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Her underlying education is in linguistics and she habilitated in Slovene language. Despite her humanistic orientation, from the very start, her career is developing at a technical faculty, where she began as a technical associate in charge of preparing language sources necessary for the development of speech technologies. Today, besides engaging in research work that is primarily focused on the spoken language and the meaning of words in the context of a situation, she is also holding lectures in communication and media literacy at this faculty.
asist. Sandi Majninger
Sandi Majninger is an assistant at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science of the University of Maribor. His teaching activity includes courses related to the development of web applications and online technology. His research also pertains to the computer processing of natural language as well as to language technologies. He is particularly interested in computer algorithms for the recognition and determination of meaning from texts that are written in natural language. Within the Laboratory for Heterogeneous Computer Systems, he participates in numerous projects in which he is developing and coordinating the development of software.
izr. prof. dr. Mira Krajnc Ivič
Mira Krajnc Ivič, associate professor of Slovene language, is employed in the Department of Slavic languages and Literature at the Faculty of Arts in Maribor. Her research pertains to text linguistics, linguistic pragmatics, conversation analyses, stylistics and partly to discourse analysis. It focuses on the elements of individual texts on the level of syntactic and semantic coherence, their dependence on extralinguistic context elements and on the relations between texts from the perspective of genre. Among other works, she is the author of monographs Talk as a Type of Communication Contact and Contemporary Slovene Syntax: Discourse and Grammar.
Upgrading the national research infrastructure RIUM
With the RIUM project, the University of Maribor will significantly upgrade the existing research infrastructure on the priority research orientations Advanced Materials and Technologies, Health and Safe Food and Smart Energy and Circular Systems through the purchase of new state-of-the-art scientific research equipment. The equipment will be available to Slovenian researchers according to the principle of open access.
The method of indentation will be established as one of the leading quantitative methods of materials analysis and mechanical characterization of materials at the micro and nano levels.Prof. dr. Franc Zupanič, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
