Seminars & Workshops
Civil Engineering Department at EPOKA University organized a training workshop entitled “Training on Structural and Material Laboratory Tests in Civil Engineering” on 31/05/2018 in Epoka University. The workshop took place at Civil Engineering Laboratory. Researchers and Lecturers of Civil Engineering Department at Epoka University were invited to share with Civil Engineering students of EPOKA and Polytechnic University of Tirana some of fundamental tests in Civil Engineering like:
• Schmidt Hammer Test & Core Drilling of Reinforced Concrete Columns
• Diagonal Compression Test of Red Brick Masonry Reinforced with Polypropylene Fibers
• Steel Rebar Tensile Strength
• Compressive Strength Test of Concrete Samples
The main idea was to help students to refine concepts learned in course classes and create a network among them by simple, inexpensive and enjoyable participation. More than 50 students participated in the workshop. It was very fruitful and the students had the opportunity to practice themselves and be interactive during the training. In the end to each of the participants it was delivered a Certificate of Participation from the Head of Department of Civil Engineering at Epoka University, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Miriam Ndini.
On October 15th, 2017, Mr. Alket Kumaraku was invited from the Department of Civil Engineering as a guest speaker to have an open lecture on the Water Supply Systems. Alket Kumaraku is a Hydrotechnic Engineer, Water Supply and Sewerage Systems at Polytechnic University of Tirana. Mr. Alket Kumaraku introduced the audience to the water supply systems focusing mainly on the Tirana region. In this open lecture, our guest presented the types of the water supply systems, systems schemes of water supply, components of the system, design of the water supply system, installation of the water supply systems as well as the loss of the water in the supply systems which is considered as Non–Revenue Water (NRW). Finally, general conclusions and drawbacks were outlined. At the end, students of Civil Engineering Department were welcomed to ask questions and express their ideas about the topic discussed.
On 19 January 2017, first year students of Civil Engineering at Epoka University visited “Altea and Geostudio 2000” laboratory in the framework of “Introduction to Civil Engineering” course. “Altea & Geostudio 2000” is a company specialized in the field of geo-technics and laboratory analysis of construction materials, which operates in Albania and Kosovo. The company has over 20 years of experience in this sector and serious work together with success have helped in the enlargement and its improvement over years. Our students had the opportunity to meet with Engineers, observe the ongoing process at the laboratory as well as understanding the fundamental concepts of Civil Engineering field. During the day, different testing procedures were presented to our students such as: soil tests, compression test conducted for the concrete samples and tensile test for the reinforcement, asphalt and other professional details. Thereafter, students are required to prepare a short report and submit it to the course supervisor. For more information about “Altea & Geostudio 2000” please visit the link here.
On Wednesday, 18 January 2017, Mr. Arian Jovani, Director of Dam Safety at Albanian Power Corporation (KESH), delivered his speech as invited speaker in an Open Lecture, organized by the Department of Civil Engineering at Epoka University. Mr. Jovani presented a topic about “Construction and Maintenance of Dams in Drini River” attended by Epoka students at the Conference Hall, addressing important issues to the Safety of the Fierza, Komani and Vau Dejes Dams. Finally, general conclusions and drawbacks were outlined. Our students were welcomed to ask questions and express their ideas about the topic discussed.
On 19-21 May 2016 Epoka University, the Polytechnic University of Tirana, and the Polytechnic University of Bari, respective Departments of Civil Engineering organized the “3rd International Balkans Conference on Challenges of Civil Engineering”, in Tirana. The Chair of the Conference, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Miriam Ndini, Deputy Minister of Environment of the Republic of Albania, Mr. Klejdi Xhaxhiu, the distinguished guest and keynote speaker Prof. Dr. Paulo B. Lourenço from University of Minho, Portugal, Prof. Dr. Niko Pojani from the Polytechnic University of Tirana, Albania, and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Anna Bruna Menghini from Polytechnic University of Bari contributed with their valuable speeches in the opening ceremony of the conference. The conference focused on nine core areas such as Structural and Earthquake Engineering; Computational Methods in Civil Engineering; Construction Technology and Management; Construction Materials; Geotechnical Engineering; Hydraulic, Coastal and Harbor Engineering; Historical and Monumental Buildings; Sustainable Design and Transportation Engineering. The Conference brought together approximately 100 academicians and professionals from 12 different countries in the Balkans and beyond. A social activity followed the conference in the cities of Berat and Durres, two cities that offer their beauty and history making the trip of the participants in Albania a memorable time.
Dr. Kerestecioğlu was invited from the Department of Civil Engineering as a guest speaker to have an open lesson on the climate change topic: “An inevitable destiny- Climate change” Dr. Kerestecioğlu is a Chemical Engineer graduated from Middle East Technical University with an MS degree in Environmental Engineering form Bosporus University. He had his PhD form Istanbul Technical University in Environmental Management. Following the graduation he worked as a professional consultant in wastewater and waste management. He chaired several leading Turkish Environmental Consultancy Companies such as System Planlama, United International Consultants (UBM) and COWI Turkey.
Beside his professional career Mr. Kerestecioglu lectured for the Environmental Engineering Design in Environmental Engineering Department of the Middle East Technical University for 15 years in addition to his academic activities in several universities in Thailand. He is author of several publications, three books and owns one patent for wastewater treatment. He worked as an executive member in the Environmental Committee of the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC) and in the Sustainable Development Committee of the European Federation of Consulting Associations (EFCA). Currently, he is a Director of “COWI Consult – Denmark”, co-managing “Infrastructural Project Facility-4” of “Western Balkans Investment Framework”, an initiative of EC to assist to Western Balkan Countries including Albania for accession to investment funds.
In his lesson, he presented the large scale result of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) studies on global warming. He exposed a clear and up to date view of the current state of scientific knowledge relevant to climate change. By presenting a variety of graphics, tables and pictures, he make a broad display of how the earth's climate has changed and is continuing changing over time. Throughout the earth's history, there have been periods of glaciation followed by warming trends in which the glaciers retreated toward higher altitudes and latitudes. He emphasized that warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since the 1950s, many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia. The atmosphere and ocean have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished, sea level has risen, and the concentrations of greenhouse gases have increased. Most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic GHG concentrations. It is likely that there has been significant anthropogenic warming over the past 50 years averaged over each continent.
Global atmospheric concentrations of CO2, methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) have increased markedly as a result of human activities and now far exceed pre-industrial values determined from ice cores spanning many thousands of years. Anthropogenic warming over the last three decades has likely had a discernible influence at the global scale on observed changes in many physical and biological systems. At present, the climate change education is still a peripheral in both research and practice. This topics is a new issue for Albanian and education on the prevention and measures to reduce the global warming effect it is of great importance. In this context, the audience was extremely interested in his speech and on the facts presented.
On April 3rd, 2015, a group of representatives of the non-governmental organisation Cultural Heritage without Borders held an open lecture about Cultural Heritage. Mrs. Lejla Hadzic, Regional Coordinator and the Head Office, presented the main activities that CHwB has been dealing with in the recent years such as: Restoration of Babameto House in Gjirokastra, E Ka Kush E Ka children’s activity series, Hammam (Turkish Bath), Kruja, as well as Regional Restoration Camps. Mrs. Elena Mamani, Project Manager and Deputy Head of Office, introduced the audience to the Emergency Intervention Plans of some of the buildings which are in immediate need for intervention in Gjirokastra.
Additionally, she introduced the latest results of the survey of the Heritage Site of Gjirokastra and the level of risk that the old monuments were threatened by. On the other hand, Mr. Mirian Bllaci, Project Manager, introduced another aspect of the cultural heritage, the Difficult Heritage. Among other things, he described the example of former imprisonment camp of Spac, where there has been an initiative on organizing functional, intergenerational, multidisciplinary working group, conducting site documentation and analysis and making priority actions for the restoration and museification of the site identified. All the three guests described interesting aspects related to Cultural Heritage, why preservation is important and what should be done to protect our cultural heritage. After the presentation CHwB members met with the Dean of Faculty of Architecture and Engineering, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hüseyin Bilgin and a group of lecturers from the departments of Architecture and Civil Engineering. In this meeting it was discussed about the possible fields of co-operation between CHwB and the respective departments.
UN and EU recommendations define a key role that every state has to grant to the partnership with Universities and scientific institutions considering them as key actors playing an important role in establishing the measures to minimize risk of disaster. In this context contacts between the 2 institutions have started since 2012 and are revitalized as of December 2014. Due to Albanian General Directorate of Civil Emergencies engagement and the assistance of International Organizations in Albania, a series of reforms in the civil protection field are undertaken. The goal is to align to the EU legislation, UN standards and those of OTAN. The collaboration of Albanian General Directorate of Civil Emergencies with homologue organizations continues to expand. On its end, the Albanian General Directorate of Civil Emergencies has established serious national objectives for year 2015, such as: the concluding and approval of 1st National Strategy on disaster risk reduction, the National Platform and Investment Plan, a new law approval on “civil protection”, the start of the implementation of the unified number of civil emergencies for Tirana centre, etc.
Albanian General Directorate of Civil Emergencies is in close collaboration with the Turkish Presidency of Disaster Management ( AFAD), this related to the Disaster Preparedness and Prevention Initiative for South Eastern Europe, IPA programs etc Civil protection system in Turkey is a clear system of reference for the Albanian objectives in the near future, having to do with a new form of restructuring of the civil protection. In line with the above, Epoka University together with the Albanian General Directorate of Civil Emergencies have studied each others capabilities and fields of actions. This brought to the identification of collaborative activities to be organized in the future. During the process it was noted that a series of fields of action required the others party contribution as to conclude to the successful goal fulfillment. These findings served as the basis for the Memorandum of Understanding signed today. The guarantee of success in the collaborative work is demonstrated by the energy and the promptness of both parties to collaborate. This promptness has widely manifested in all contacts concluded. The Architecture and Engineering Faculty at Epoka University and the Albanian General Directorate of Civil Emergencies are engaged to fulfill the duties deriving from the Memorandum of Understanding.
On December 18, Dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Engineering, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Huseyin Bilgin, held a meeting with the General Director of Civil Emergencies Office in Albania Mr. Shemsi Prençi. Together with the Director of Planning and Coordination of Civil Engineering, Mr. Maksimilian Dhima discussions are made about the future collaboration between the two institutions and preparation of the Memorandum of Understanding from both parties coming days. Mr. Bilgin emphasized the importance of such collaboration between the two institutions as such activities organized on the focus of civil emergencies are crucial for the social impact while further projects will increase the attention of students and their engagement on the cases of civil emergencies in Albania. Mr. Prençi welcomed future cooperation and joint projects and in the same time he appreciated the role and contribution of students in the process. At the end, Mr. Prençi expressed his special appreciation for the Epoka University, as being a very important and institution committed to the highest standard of education operating in Albania.
On 8-9 March Civil Engineering Department and Future Engineers Club will organize a workshop titled "Design of a real building by using Eurocodes", where SAP 2000 and AutoCAD 2015 will be used for the modeling and drawings. Invited will be the distinguished engineer MSc. Endri Zhulegu. All students of Civil Engineering Department are invited to participate this workshop. Hope to see you there,
Civil Engineering Department organized a workshop on "Earthquake Resistant Design" from the distinguished Prof. Dr. Rüstem Gül, Head of Civil Engineering Department at Erzurum Atatürk University, Turkey. The workshop was focused more on the main issues that civil engineers need to take into consideration when designing a reinforced concrete structure. Prof. Gül introduced the audience with recent examples from Turkey and the world of successful and unsuccessful applications of these design principles.
Dear Academician / Colleague, Epoka University, Polytechnic University, civil engineering departments are jointly organizing “2nd INTERNATIONAL BALKANS CONFERENCE ON CHALLENGES OF CIVIL ENGINEERING” to be held in Tirana, on 23-25 May 2013. We appreciate your interest in the conference and believe that the conference will be beneficial to you by providing with you the state-of-the-art information on different area and challenges in civil engineering. We are also hopeful that the conference will present to you many scientific research collaboration opportunities. On behalf of the organization committee, we look forward to seeing you at EPOKA University, Tirana, Albania. Topics Covered Structural and Earthquake Engineering Coastal and Harbour Engineering Computational Methods in Civil Engineering Construction Technology and Management Construction Materials Geotechnical Engineering Hydraulic Engineering Transportation Engineering Case Studies in Civil Engineering Conference Schedule Abstract Submission: 1 December 2012 Extended Abstract Submission: 5 January 2013 Notification of Abstract Acceptance: 15 January 2013 Full paper Submission: 31 March 2013 Notification of Full Paper Acceptance: 26 April 2013 Conference Dates: 23-25 May 2013 For more informations visit: BCCCE_2013 Conference Secretariat, EPOKA University, Tirana, ALBANIA. E-mail : bccce2013@epoka.edu.al Web : http://bccce2013.epoka.edu.al
