Students’ Perceptions on Corporate Social Responsibility at the Academic Level. Case Study: The Faculty of Administration and Business, University of Bucharest

During the last decades, the social responsibility of institutions, public as well as private, has been subject to intense debates, activities and academic research. The aims of the paper are to highlight in short the importance of the social responsibility of institutions, and to analyze the results of a research regarding students’ perceptions on corporate social responsibility activities of a Romanian university. By using primary data obtained from a survey based on a questionnaire a set of three hypotheses was tested during our research. The information was processed by using the SPSS software. The results of our research emphasize that students attach importance to the corporate social responsibility at academic level, a fact indicated through their involvement degree in the specific activities of this concept.social responsibility, corporate social responsibility, students, university

Information and Ecological Behaviour towards the Natural Resources Consumption of the Population of Bucharest

Over the last decades, the consumer’s ecological behaviour has been the topic of intense debates, academic activities and researches. The scope of our article is to briefly highlight the importance of concrete actions aimed at informing and getting awareness of the environmental aspect in the consumption of natural resources, and also analyze the results of a research regarding the adult population perception of the methods developing ecological behaviour in consuming natural resources. A set of three hypotheses has been tested during the research using primary information obtained through a questionnairebased survey. The information has been processed using SPSS software. The results of our research outline the facts that the population of Bucharest is selective when choosing the information channels, that there is a low correlation between the civic expression and the individual behaviour due to an early development of the non-government organizations, the reduced civic involvement and the adverse accommodation of messages to target groups. Those who are interested in informing and developing the consumers’ ecological behaviour would rather need the support of fellow citizens than of the institutions authorized to promote such a message.ecological behaviour, consumer, natural resources, environment, information, Bucharest, concern

Autonomous Vehicle Coordination with Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks

A coordinated team of mobile wireless sensor and actuator nodes can bring numerous benefits for various applications in the field of cooperative surveillance, mapping unknown areas, disaster management, automated highway and space exploration. This article explores the idea of mobile nodes using vehicles on wheels, augmented with wireless, sensing, and control capabilities. One of the vehicles acts as a leader, being remotely driven by the user, the others represent the followers. Each vehicle has a low-power wireless sensor node attached, featuring a 3D accelerometer and a magnetic compass. Speed and orientation are computed in real time using inertial navigation techniques. The leader periodically transmits these measures to the followers, which implement a lightweight fuzzy logic controller for imitating the leader's movement pattern. We report in detail on all development phases, covering design, simulation, controller tuning, inertial sensor evaluation, calibration, scheduling, fixed-point computation, debugging, benchmarking, field experiments, and lessons learned

THE EUROPEAN EMERGENCY NUMBER 112

The working of the 112 Emergency Call System is a natural need in a civilized country that has as a main objective to protect its citizens. The single European emergency number 112 was introduced to enable citizens to call the emergency services (such as police, ambulance and fire brigade) by using the same number anywhere in the European Union (EU). This is especially important as European citizens increasingly travel to other EU countries for work, study or leisure. According to EU legislation, Member States must ensure that users of any type of telephone, fixed or mobile are able to call the emergency services free of charge by using the European emergency number 112. This number is now available in all Member States.112, emergency call, European Union

CODE: description language for wireless collaborating objects

This paper introduces CODE, a Description Language for Wireless Collaborating Objects (WCO), with the specific aim of enabling service management in smart environments. WCO extend the traditional model of wireless sensor networks by transferring additional intelligence and responsibility from the gateway level to the network. WCO are able to offer complex services based on cooperation among sensor nodes. CODE provides the vocabulary for describing the complex services offered by WCO. It enables description of services offered by groups, on-demand services, service interface and sub-services. The proposed methodology is based on XML, widely used for structured information exchange and collaboration. CODE can be directly implemented on the network gateway, while a lightweight binary version is stored and exchanged among sensor nodes. Experimental results show the feasibility and flexibility of using CODE as a basis for service management in WCO

Automatic Recognition of Object Use Based on Wireless Motion Sensors

In this paper, we present a method for automatic, online detection of a user’s interaction with objects. This represents an essential building block for improving the performance of distributed activity recognition systems. Our\ud method is based on correlating features extracted from motion sensors worn by the user and attached to objects. We present a complete implementation of the idea, using miniaturized wireless sensor nodes equipped with motion sensors. We achieve a recognition accuracy of 97% for a target response time of 2 seconds. The implementation is lightweight, with low communication bandwidth and processing needs. We illustrate the potential of the concept by means of an interactive multi-user game

Wave Monitoring with Wireless Sensor Networks

Real-time collection of wave information is required for short and long term investigations of natural coastal processes. Current wave monitoring techniques use only point-measurements, which are practical where the bathymetry is relatively uniform. We propose a wave monitoring method that is suitable for places with varying bathymetry, such as coral reefs. Our solution uses a densely deployed wireless sensor network, which allows for a high spatial resolution and 3D monitoring and analysis of the waves. The wireless sensor nodes are equipped with low-cost, low-power, MEMS-based inertial sensing. We report on lab experiments with a Ferris wheel contraption, which is a technique used in practice to evaluate and calibrate the state-of-the-art wave monitoring solutions.\u

Tandem: A Context-Aware Method for Spontaneous Clustering of Dynamic Wireless Sensor Nodes

Wireless sensor nodes attached to everyday objects and worn by people are able to collaborate and actively assist users in their activities. We propose a method through which wireless sensor nodes organize spontaneously into clusters based on a common context. Provided that the confidence of sharing a common context varies in time, the algorithm takes into account a window-based history of believes. We approximate the behaviour of the algorithm using a Markov chain model and we analyse theoretically the cluster stability. We compare the theoretical approximation with simulations, by making use of experimental results reported from field tests. We show the tradeoff between the time history necessary to achieve a certain stability and the responsiveness of the clustering algorithm

Information and Ecological Behaviour towards the Natural Resources Consumption of the Population of Bucharest

Over the last decades, the consumer’s ecological behaviour has been the topic of intense debates, academic activities and researches. The scope of our article is to briefly highlight the importance of concrete actions aimed at informing and getting awareness of the environmental aspect in the consumption of natural resources, and also analyze the results of a research regarding the adult population perception of the methods developing ecological behaviour in consuming natural resources. A set of three hypotheses has been tested during the research using primary information obtained through a questionnairebased survey. The information has been processed using SPSS software. The results of our research outline the facts that the population of Bucharest is selective when choosing the information channels, that there is a low correlation between the civic expression and the individual behaviour due to an early development of the non-government organizations, the reduced civic involvement and the adverse accommodation of messages to target groups. Those who are interested in informing and developing the consumers’ ecological behaviour would rather need the support of fellow citizens than of the institutions authorized to promote such a message

Business in practice - innovation management

In group of six, we have been put in charge of managing an automotive firm during its transition to a more ecological and sustainable model. We developed our team and strategies for the different department in order to generate the most value added and renew the whole portfolio. This paper is a summary of the three weeks of simulation we went through and the different strategy and methods we used to make our firm successful