TEMPUS PROJECT

TEMPUS PROJECT

Project title: Chemometrics E-learning Network

Project duration: 3 years

Project start: Fifth call for the Tempus proposals has already been announced. Application deadline is 23 February 2012

Project budget: about 1.200 M Euro

Background: This project originates from the attempts to introduce chemometric education in Russia at informal level via pre-conference short courses in 5 different Russian universities and Internet facilities. A lack of qualified tutors and handbooks induced this initiative that has not been supported at an administrative level. Some existing inputs are listed below.

Programme consists of three levels: Basics, Chemometrics, and Advanced. Basics level includes courses on Matrix Operations, Statistics, etc. Chemometrics level combines courses on PCA, Calibration, Classification, etc. Advanced level includes several more specific courses such as MSPC, DoE, N-way, etc.

Software: It has been decided ab initio that such a programme must be highly practicable in the sense that a student may not only read the introductory texts, but should also have a full access and ability to perform all relevant calculations, such as PCA, PLS, MCR, etc. This ambition resulted in an obligation to introduce new software that is fully compatible with any Web browser and at the same time has stand alone ability. No convenient chemometrics tools (Matlab, SIMCA, the Unscrambler) go along with these demands. At the same time, the highly popular MS Excel provided with a special Chemometrics Add-In (the core subroutines has already been developed by ICP), could serve for this.

Interactivity. The structure of each course is as follows.
       1. Tutorial is an electronic text-book (html format) containing theoretical material that is interactively connected with the supplementary materials (XLS books).
       2. Exercises is a collection of files (XLS format) with tasks and answers for the self-control
       3. Tests are collection of tasks and examples to be executed by a student and remotely checked by a tutor
All these modules should be linked within the Virtual Learning Center (VLC).

VLC is designed as a special web based learning environment that provides the following activities:
     - facilitate the access to the tutorials and supplements
     - provide the self and remote control of education
     - support the on-line student-to-student, student-to-tutor, etc communications

History. The project was initiated and conducted by Chemomerics Group in Semenov Institute of Chemical Physics RAS (ICP), Alexey Pomerantsev (tutorials) and Oxana Rodionova (software) in 2005.
In year 2008 it was supported by Nordic Council in the frame of Nordic-Russian Cooperation in Education - Preparatory Actions 2008 that granted small money for mobility and evaluation. At this stage the project team was reinforced with Sergey Kucheryavskiy (VLC) from Aalborg University Esbjerg (ACABS), Satu-Pia Reinikainen (recognition) from Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT), and Nadezhda Khodyreva (application) from Saint Petersburg State Technological University of Plant Polymers (STUPP). The Nordic grant is now completed .

There were two previous attempts to receive TEMPUS grant. This is the third one.

The goal of the TEMPUS project (as it seems now) is to develop a completely virtual learning programme in Chemometrics, which is recognized within the European Higher Education Area as a part three cycles education.

The team consists now of the following partners:
     - Federico Marini from University of Rome 'La Sapienza', Italy (URS) grant applicant
     - Oxana Rodionova and Alexey Pomerantsev from Semenov Institute of Chemical Physics RAS, Russia (ICP)
     - Nadezhda Khodyreva and Leon Rusinov from Saint Petersburg State Technological University of Plant Polymers, Russia (STUPP).
     - Sergey Kucheryavskiy from Aalborg University Esbjerg, Denmark (AAU)
     - Michal Daszykowski from the Department of Chemometrics, Institute of Chemistry, University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland (DCUS)
     - Vladimir Zaitsev from Shevchenko Kiev National University, Ukraine (KNU)
     - Anna de Juan from Universitat de Barcelona, Spain (UB)
     - Ekaterina Larionova from Tomsk Polytechnic University, Russia (TPU)
     - Sergey Zhilin from Altai State University, Russia (ASU)
     - Zholt Kormosh from Volyn National University,Ukraine (VNU)
     - Semen Spivak and Fayruza Badrtdinova from Bashkir State University, Russia (BSU)
     - Sergey Fomin from Informika, Russia (INF)
     - Anatoly Krasheninnikov from Lumex Co, Russia (LMX)
     - Nikolai Oskorbin from Gradient+ , Russia (GRD)
     - Oleksandr Gryzodub from Ukrainian Scientific Pharmacopoeial Center for Quality of Medicines Ukraine, (UPCQ)

Project Objectives & Outcomes are listed in the Logical Framework Matrix. Among them are the following key activities.

Student & teachers training is to be performed at the partner universities with the aim to test the VLC capacities which should be developed in accordance with the courses schedule. Therefore, such courses are planned not in the conventional oral style (lectures + workshops) but in a manner that simulates a distance self-education process.

Mobility is designed both for the students (6 from each university), which are to participate in the courses, and for the teacher who are to attend the workshops on e-learning. Additional consortium meetings and other management action should be also provided.

Partners' responsibility is to be arranged in due time. Modern state is as follows:
       - Overall organization and finance are managed by Federico
       - Budget is by Fayruza and Alexey
       - Recognition and harmonization are by Michal
       - Tutorials are managed by Alexey
       - Training is by Vladimir
       - VLC is developed by Sergey K.,Sergey F., and Sergey Z.
       - Implementation and adoption are by Leon, Ekaterina, Zolt, Vladimir, and Sergey Z.

Project general description
General description

All project documents are presented for editing at
Google Docs

Place for discussions is the Facebook closed group
Chemometric E-learning Network

Supplementary materials

TEMPUS documents (Fifth call)
Tempus IV – 5th Call for proposals
Fifth Call Application Guidelines
Instructions for Applicants
Detailed Workplan and Budget tables
Logical Framework Matrix
Mandate Letter
F.A.Q. (5th Call)
Tempus by country

Presentations
General TEMPUS
E-Form and E-Submission
Chemometric functions in Excel
Distance Learning Center
Course survey
Nordic 2009 Report

Tutorials
see here