Biographical note

Dagmar Cagáňová, assoc. prof. in Industrial Engineering, acts as the Ambassador / Representative for Foreign Affairs at the Institute of Industrial Engineering and Management, the Faculty of Materials Science and Technology in Trnava, the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Slovakia. She is also the co – founder of the European Alliance for Innovation in Slovakia, a management committee member of E-COST (European Collaboration in Science and Technology) TN 1301 Sci Generation, the executive committee member in Danubius Academic Consortium (Academic Network for Integral Innovation), a steering committee member of Danube strategy Priority Axis 7: Knowledge society - science, research, innovation and ICT for the Slovak Republic, as well as a member of iATDi (International Association for Technological Development and Innovations). Her professional interests, research topics, and international collaborations are mainly focused on Intercultural and Innovation Management, Managerial Skills, International Relationships and Diversity, Mobility and Smart Cities, and Gender Diversity. She is the member of journal editorial boards, co-editor of current content Special issues journals (MONET, WINET, Sustainability), an organiser, and a steering committee member of numerous domestic and international summits and conferences, acts as a tutor on PhD study programmes and has participated in numerous domestic and international projects as a team member and as the Project Head. She is the co-editor of Internet of Things, IoT Infrastructures 2014, part 2 and Smart City 360, 2015 published by Springer, the co-editor of Springer scientific monograph Mobility IoT 2018, 2019. To date, she has published more than 300 publications, 7 scientific monographs, 17 papers in current content journals with IF, 67papers in databases WOS and 87 in databases SCOPUS and has over 500 citations, 241 of them in quotation databases WOS and SCOPUS, h-index in WOS is 6 and SCOPUS h-index 8. 

Natália Horňáková, MSc. PhD. works as a Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Industrial Engineering and Management, the Faculty of Materials Science and Technology in Trnava, the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Slovakia. N. Horňáková has received a doctorate degree at the Institute of Industrial Engineering and Management in the study branch Industrial Management. She deals with the issue of Business Logistics, Industrial Engineering and Management, Innovation Management and Managerial Skills. N. Horňáková has been a team member of several home and foreign projects including project H2020 with the title Linking Research and Innovation for Gender Equality. She is the author and co-author of several domestics and foreign publications, including scientific monographs and publications in the current content journals, such as Mobile Networks and Applications (MONET) and Wireless Networks, as well as the co-editor of Springer scientific monograph Mobility IoT 2018 and a special issue of the journal MONET with the title Smart solutions with the focus on innovations from various perspectives. During the years 2014-2015, she was an active member of the student part of the Academic Senate STU and a member of organizing committees of various international conferences. N. Horňáková is also a member of organizational and program committees of domestic and foreign conferences, as well as a member of iATDi (International Association for Technological Development and Innovations). 

Andy Pusca, Assoc. prof. is the rector of Danubius University, Galati Romania. After graduating from the Law Faculty within “Danubius” University in 1999, graduating from the Administrative Sciences at the Faculty of Public Administration within the National School of Political and Administrative Studies in Bucharest in the same year, he became a teacher. A. Pusca had worked as a lawyer, but returned to his first passion, being a teacher. He has worked with several higher education institutions, teaching at the most prestigious universities in Romania. A. Pusca’s extraordinary professional experience of living at the National Institute of Magistracy can’t be omitted, where he coordinated the activity of trainee magistrates, and then taught Civil Law at the Police Academy and the National School of Political and Public Administration Sciences, Bucharest. As his soul always belonged to Galati, here at “Danubius” University of Galati, A. Pusca in 2008 chose to dedicate his entire energy to implement his daring vision in a field with fierce competition – higher education institutions in Romania. He managed to achieve that through effective strategic measures, by finding alternatives to diversify the institutions’ offerings and change their approach. All of this was achieved with the help of dedicated staff, enthusiastic students and graduates of our university. As a rector, along with his team, he has approached the future of the modern “Danubius” University, valuing old traditions of higher education, as true strategic visionaries, demonstrating their new mentality of project management regardless of the field they operate in: education, research-development-innovation or services. Internationalization, entrepreneurship, open and online are the key terms that will support and direct their determined efforts to fulfil the objectives of the “Danubius” University mission, the institution that managed to connect the global community through quality, professionalism, enthusiasm and involvement of its people - students, teachers, non-teaching staff, graduates.”

Pedro Filipe Cunha is currently a Professor of Advanced Manufacturing Technologies and Operations Management, in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Instituto  Politécnico de Setúbal, Portugal (Polytechnics Institute of Setúbal/School of Technology (ESTS). He is currently the Director of CENI – Centro de Integração e Inovação de Processos (Centre for Integration and Innovation Processes) and his fields of research and development  concern Production Planning and Logistics, Collaborative Networks, Development of New Business Models for Products and Services, Modelling and simulation of manufacturing system, Systems integration and Process improvement. He has been involved as member in several international, national, scientific and professional communities and associations. The CIRP – International Academy of Production Engineering Research and AIM – European Academy on Industrial Engineering are two important international originations he has contributed to with his activities, including being the Chair of international conferences, such as the 3rd CIRP International Conference in “Digital Enterprise Technology” in 2006, the 46th CIRP International Conference in “Manufacturing Systems” and the 39ª Conference AIM – European Academy for Industrial Management” in 2017, and also as a member of various international conferences Scientific Committees. He has been involved and coordinated different R&D projects, and he is the author and co-author of more than 40 scientific publications, including scientific papers, book chapters, and books. He has been devoted to reviewing and editing at well-recognized international journals, examples being the International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing, Procedia CIRP and the CIRP Journal of Manufacturing Science and Technology. His link with the community has been displayed through different type of education activities and projects. Relevant projects were developed for industrial companies and organizations, only a few examples being SECIL Group, Volkswagen-Autoeuropa, Cluster of Competitiveness Engineering an Tooling and PRODUTECH – Production Technologies Cluster.