(This content has been translated automatically.)

Dear students,

We are in the midst of a week in which we are commemorating the Day of the Struggle for Freedom and Democracy and the International Students’ Day, while at the same time the celebrations of 450 years of the University of Olomouc are coming to a climax. Some of the events are behind us, others are still ahead of us – you can find an overview of them in the Journal. Don't forget that you can listen to Friday's festive concert on Radio Vltava. You can also still visit the Temple of Wisdom and Symbols of Wisdom (in Czech) exhibitions and their accompanying programme.

WHAT'S GOING ON AT UP?

At the last management meeting on Wednesday, 8 November, the draft of the new UP Statute was discussed, which will be submitted to the deans and then to the entire academic community for comments. Also, the results of the Rector's Honorary Recognition for authors of academic books in 2023 are known. Read the full summary (in Czech) (after logging in the UP Portal), we will prepare another one for you again in 14 days. More detailed information will subsequently be available in the minutes of the management meeting in UPShare, as well as in the minutes of other bodies, in UP standards and documents and on other information platforms.

The UP canteens and FreshUPs bistros will have reduced hours on Thursday, November 16. All UP canteens will be open only until 2:30 p.m., and the bistros until 4 p.m. Bistros in Holice (Šlechtitelů) and on tř. Svobody 26 will close at 2:30 pm.

On Tuesday, November 21, FreshUP in the main building of the Faculty of Science (17. listopadu 12) will be open only until 13:00 due to the celebration of 70 years of the faculty.

If you want to find out whether your thesis, professional article or sports performance is worthy of further appreciation, submit it to the competition for the UP Rector's Award. The winners will receive a diploma from the hands of Rector Martin Procházka and a financial reward. To enter the competition, the work should be sent together with a completed application form, testimonials and an evaluation of its contribution. In the case of sports prizes, a proposal sheet must be completed on behalf of the individual or team. You can do so until 26 November. More information can be found in the UP Journal article (in Czech), and the proposal and forms can be found here.

Do you already have a project in the works, or just an idea, and you're looking for a place to start? Try applying for the 15th year of the student grant competition at UP, which the Rector of the University announces precisely to ensure that interesting projects do not fail due to lack of funding. Students of the doctoral programme where UP is the training institute or academic staff of UP can be the project's researchers. Applications are to be submitted only electronically until 16 January 2024 at 16:00. For the terms and conditions of the competition, application instructions and information on funding limits or priority topics, please see this PDF (in Czech).

In 2022, over 16 000 library units were added to the UP Library's collection. And since libraries are magical places, but even so, they are not inflatable, books need to be discarded as well. You can now find a selection of selected volumes for CZK 5 on a special website. The offer includes subjects such as Czech literature, history, psychology or law, and there is also fiction. For more information and purchasing procedure, please visit the UP Library website (in Czech).

The library also invites you to a training session on citation and the Citation Manager Citation PRO Plus (in Czech).

Only until the end of November can you nominate yourself or someone else for the Werner von Siemens Prize (in Czech). It is open to students, teachers and scientists in the fields of engineering, science and medicine. If the nominee wins, the person who recommended him or her will receive 10,000 CZK. The financial reward is, of course, linked to the awards themselves: 1,000,000 crowns will be distributed among this year's winners. You can apply or nominate someone on the award website (in Czech).

LECTURES

When and why does artificial intelligence hallucinate? What is the success rate of detecting AI plagiarism? How can the human voice be cloned? What about ethics? These and other questions will be answered by Kamil Kopecký from the E-security project of the Faculty of Education of UP during a lecture (in Czech) that will take place on Monday, 20 November at 4 pm in the auditorium of the Faculty of Education of UP. The event is part of the DigiUP (in Czech) series, focused on digital marketing – come to its seventh (IG and current trends) and eighth (Mistakes have moved us on or "fuckups" in digital) part.

On Thursday, 23 November, a lecture by Constitutional Court Judge JUDr. Jaromír Jirsa will be held on the Constitutional Court's rulings in the area of health care. In the lecture, which will take place in the Large Auditorium of the Theoretical Institutes of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Prague from 3 to 5 pm, the former president of the Czech Judicial Union will focus on cases in which topics such as informed consent, participation rights, compensation for non-pecuniary damage and "do not resuscitate" procedures have resonated.

Meeting with dissidents D. Kroupa and V. Pelikán, who will share their personal stories and experiences with the struggle against totalitarianism, will take place on Thursday, 16 November at 13.30 in Building B of the Faculty of Law (classroom K.21). Details including reservation of seats here (in Czech).

Discussion with Ivo Telec, Head of the Department of Private Law and Civil Procedure and the Centre for Intellectual Property Law of the PF UP, entitled DSA: Digital Services Regulation. Benefits or threats?, will take place on 21 November at 17:00 in Building B of the PF UP (in MS1 classroom). Details including seat reservation here (in Czech).

The lecture Consent as a Foundation, given by Hermine Hayes-Klein, an expert on informed consent and human rights at the international level, will be held on 27 November in collaboration with APODAC (Association for Birth Homes and Centres) on the occasion of the Day against Violence against Women. Details, including seat reservations, here (in Czech).

The conference on Judicial Review of Acts Issued in the Field of Academic Self-Government will take place on 4 December and is organised by the Faculty together with the Supreme Administrative Court. Attention will be paid both to acts affecting the legal sphere of university students and to acts performed within the framework of organisational relations within academic self-government and their representatives, within labour relations, etc. For details, please refer to this PDF (in Czech).

INVITATIONS

Have you been to see the new Envelopa Hub (in Czech) building that won the Business Project of the Year 2023 competition (in Czech) a few days ago? It serves as the UP Innovation and Technology Transfer Centre and its next guided tour will take place during the Olomouc Design Days (in Czech) festival. The meeting is on Monday, 20 November at 16:00 in the foyer. In addition to representatives of the UP Science and Technology Park, the unique premises will be presented by Ing. Evžen Entner from the architectural studio Alfaprojekt Olomouc, who is behind the design of the entire building. To participate, you must register on the VTP UP website (in Czech).

How do people who have decided to expand their knowledge and skills at an older age see our university? The answer can be found until the end of the year in the UP Library in the Armoury (Zbrojnice). The exhibition Palacký University through the eyes of the students of the University of the Third Age (in Czech) is already on display in its magazine reading room. At the same time, you can vote for the most imaginative photo – just write the number of the selected image on the ballot and drop it into the prepared box. The winner will be announced at the opening of the exhibition, which will take place on 21 November at 5 p.m. with the participation of the renowned photo-documentary photographer Jindřich Štreit and the composer and vice-rector of UP Vit Zouhar.

AFO takes place only one week a year, but you can create a festival atmosphere at any time, even in your own home! On the Watch and Know platform you can watch several world documentaries focused on science and knowledge. The collection has recently been enriched by the AFO58 winning film Constanta. For registered viewers, AFO offers a free selection of films, interviews and other content interwoven with a love of science and film.

Celebrate the 450th anniversary of our university by visiting the panel exhibition that was recently presented at the Czech Center in New York as part of the UP presentation in the USA. The exhibition, which traces the rise of our university from its beginnings to the present day, was created in cooperation with the UP Publishing House, the UP History Department, the RUP Marketing Department and the Welcome Office, and is now located in the Department of International Cooperation and is freely accessible to everyone at Vodární 6.

At the same time, we would like to invite you to the Welcome Office, which has been providing support and services to the international community of UP for a year now. Come and meet the team that provides daily services to international students and, together with the RUP Human Resources Management Department, also to the staff.

NEW STANDARDS

• Quality Assurance Procedures and Methods at UP – Amendment No. 2

  This amendment to the UP internal standard, effective from 15 November 2023, is intended for UP employees and students and regulates selected indicators related to the field of education and the third role of UP.
  
  All UP standards, including the ineffective ones, divided by UP units, with the possibility of filtering and searching in them can be found by students and employees of UP after logging in to files.upol.cz.
  

COMPETITION

Want to wear a stylish fanny pack that just about anyone doesn't have? Old banners from university events that can't be reused have been turned into a fashion accessory for Sustainable University under the hands of designer Kattypop. You can win one if you send us the correct answer to the competition question to soutez@upol.cz by Monday 20 November and then the luck of the draw will smile on you. If you don't win, don't despair – you'll find some limited edition bumbags in UPoint from December! The question today is: How many priority areas does the UP Sustainable Development Strategy address?