International Scientific Journals
of Scientific Technical Union of Mechanical Engineering "Industry 4.0"

The new economy requires the creation of a methodology for training a new type of worker – a “knowledge worker”, whose activities will ensure the innovative development of business entities and social security of workers for a comfortable and safe life. An innovatively receptive specialist with pronounced creative thinking during the formation of a new economy and its subsequent sustainable functioning with a characteristic vector of social development has the intellectual potential for the development and practical use of highly effective innovations that ensure the achievement of strategic goals declared at the state level. To form such a specialist, it is necessary to transform methodological approaches to the intellectual support of educational processes, professional activities and advanced training based on the concept of “lifelong education” (“education through life”).
The features of the functioning and development of the domestic education system in the context of the requirements of the state strategy for sustainable economic development are considered. The need to improve methodological approaches to the educational process with an increase in research and socio-humanitarian components is shown. Education in all forms of its manifestation like as a target process or self-learning is a systemic process in which professional skills and abilities are an important, but not a determining component of a harmonious member of society, which, through its activities, contributes to its progressive development. The fundamental goal of education is to form a harmonious personality, in which the talents laid down at the gene level are manifested and developed to the full extent in adequate accordance with moral criteria based on universal human values and national mentality.

Following some theoretical investigations, through the analysis of educational policy documents, we will compare the education system in Romania and France. The motivation for choosing this theme for analysis was represented by the numerous similarities between the two education systems. The analysis criteria of the present study considered the following criteria: the structure of the education system, educational policy principles, purposes, costs.

In this scientific paper, we investigate the impact of interactive software on teaching a specialized subject at a vocational school based on research conducted. Interactivity is now one of the fundamental components of ICT and digital education. Interactive software can be useful for teaching specialized subjects because it allows students to interact with the material and gain practical experience, which can enhance their learning. In the 21st century, students are increasingly identifying with the use of ICT in education, and it is necessary for teachers to continually educate themselves in their use and incorporate them into their lessons.

In this paper we will explain a solution to identify the users which poetically are trying to cheat the computer-based exam. Nowadays, the online exams are very useful to identify the people with right knowledge to do a job or to certificate them based on their knowledge. One of the major concerns for the organization of computer-based exams is the potential for cheating in collaboration with employee responsible of monitoring or due to the lack of human invigilation. The proposed solution will analyze in real-time the behavior of student and will alert the monitoring employee for suspicious activity of any exam.

The survey “Evaluation of the screen time our children spend daily for using digital technology” was conducted as part of a master thesis in Social Entrepreneurship at the American University in Bulgaria in March 2023. Analysis of the data for “time spent” by children on interacting with electronic devices is increasing alongside with the grow of the child and is directly influenced by entering formal education system. Acceptable “time spent” for the majority of parents is 1-2 hours in age group 5 to 9 (pre- and primary school) and 3-5 hours for 10 and above (when children enter the phase of adolescence). The parental that digital technologies are having positive
impact over children (educational, social and digital skills development) is growing with the child growing up, and for the age group 10 -14 (secondary school) and 14 and above (gymnasium) it is dominating among parents.

Extended Reality (XR) stands as a hypernym for Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR) and Virtual Reality (VR) technologies and represents an increasingly important Industry 4.0 technology rank. XR technologies are enriching or replacing the environment with digital information. This introduces new possibilities for learning, collaboration, product presentation or other fields of application in companies. Various meta- and individual studies prove a positive influence of XR elements on learning success. However, the appraisal of results must be made with caution since no standard is currently available to measure learning success. This paper contributes to this situation by providing a framework to perform a generic measurement of learning success when using XR. The developed framework follows the 4-level evaluation model according to Kirckpatrick focussing on response, learn, apply, and benefit to the organization and is further developed meeting the specific requirements of XR training. The developed framework adresses two dimensions: the evaluation of the short term as well as the long-term training success. Furthermore, the paper gives insights in the practical validation of the framework done by an industrial company using a VR Training within the onboarding process. The framework is intended to help organizations to systematically assess the learning success of XR-supported training compared to traditional paper-based training.

This article describes an experimental setup for the practical teaching of process control in an undergraduate mechanical engineering curriculum. The system is practice-oriented and is based on developing students’ skills in control system application of real process systems. A PLC (Programming Logic Controllers) program is proposed to introduce simulation aspects and final control design practices in scale processes (Unloading and Handling Station). It is based on the principle of introducing a PLC-supported, Siemens Simatic S7-200 PLC controller-controlled production system with the help of SIMATIC Step 7 Programming Software, presenting the scenario for the system and writing the PLC program accordingly. This algorithm prepared for the Unloading and Handling Station operation is not unique and without alternatives. The aim here is to enable students to get to know the system and program the system with different approaches according to the algorithm they have developed.

The presence of technology in everyday life has also entered the field of education, including as a virtual environment. Metaverse is one of the technologies that can bring new learning and teaching processes. It is a virtual environment that allows multiple users to interact in a 3D space. This technology can bring new ways of learning and teaching, such as simulations, virtual visits to museums or historical sites, virtual exercises, and more. The use and development of applications for these technologies, as well as artificial intelligence, is the connection between ICT and educational techniques. The goal of this article is to define metaverse and describe the roles of virtual, augmented, and mixed reality. The use of artificial intelligence and applications in metaverse can also bring new opportunities for personalized learning that adapts to the needs and preferences of individual students. For example, based on the analysis of the data from previous interactions and results there can be created recommendations for students and their learning.

New technologies of Industry 4.0, their measurement and research tools are named; the consequences and risks for society, the state and people are defined. Peculiarities of modern management of intellectual personnel are studied. The motivation of the work of the intellectual staff is substantiated. The importance of the involvement of intellectual personnel in the company has been proven.

Social media, being used by billions of people around the globe have a significant impact on the field of big data. The proliferation of social platforms has resulted in a deluge of unstructured data in the form of user-generated content, including text, video, audio, and web pages. This data, while rich in information, poses significant challenges for traditional data processing tools, which are primarily designed to handle structured data. Processing unstructured data requires specialized tools and techniques, such as natural language processing (NLP) and artificial intelligence (AI). One solution for processing this type of data is the IDOL tool, which can not only collect data from social media, but can also process it with the help of artificial intelligence. With its support one can extract trends, dynamic patterns or relationships to improve business decision-making. In the current paper, a new approach for processing unstructured data from social media is proposed, which involves collaboration and integration of different software products.

The research problem refers to the consequences of the 3rd industrial, digital, revolution on society and individuals and their (consumer) identity: digital intergenerational gap, technological dependence, technological influence on the behavior and (consumer) identity of individuals and the authoritarian (demotivational) effects of contemporary consumerism. The research subject is the influence of “high-tech culture” [21] on society and individuals and their (consumer) identity. The main hypothesis is that the impact of digital civilization and culture on society and individuals and their (consumer) identity is ambivalent (de/-humanistic). The scientific goals are: 1) description of the polyvalent impact of digital civilization and culture and computer communication, as well as technological accessories for communication; 2) understanding the digital generation gap and the analogy between (virtual) social groups: “digital natives” and “digital immigrants” [21] and “netocrats and consumtary” [8], as contemporary consumers; 3) scientific explanation of the authoritarian and emancipatory effects of high-tech culture and consumerism on contemporary consumers; 4) scientific prediction of new, digital, slave ownership, as a consequence of the development of robotics within the framework of the 4th industrial revolution. The social goals are: expanding knowledge about digital civilization and culture and 2) pragmatic explanation of the dis-/functional consequences of the 3rd and 4th industrial revolution. Desk research [9; 5] is used as a method of collecting and analyzing data from previous research, along with methods of observation, deduction, induction, abstraction, concretization and synthesis. Results are achieved goals.

Digitalization of public services is a key component in the development of e-government. Citizens’ opinion, needs and overall satisfaction with the provided services are key to the successful implementation of digital transformation across the government sector. Hence, for policy makers it is highly important to develop efficient methods for analyzing public opinion. The main aim of this paper is to use unconventional apparatus to mine public opinion in the Bulgarian government sector. The proposed approach relies on the application of natural language processing and text mining techniques. The study aims at discovering the sentiments and emotions freely expressed by citizens in popular social media websites in Bulgaria. Several topics of public interest are analyzed and insights on public perception of aspects of Bulgarian e-government are derived. Furthermore, benefits and limitations of using sentiment lexicons for mining public opinion are outlined.