Founded 2007. Leading research institution engaged in developing strong, pragmatic and principled national security and defence policies, and informing current and future security leaders. Research areas include: US national security and defence policy; regional security challenges; national security; US military forces and operations; terrorism, irregular warfare and crime; weapons of mass destruction and nuclear proliferation.

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Center for a New American Security

Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the most disruptive technologies of our time. Interest in the use of AI for urban innovation continues to grow. Particularly, the rise of smart cities—urban locations that are enabled by community, technology, and policy to deliver productivity, innovation, livability, wellbeing, sustainability, accessibility, good governance, and good planning—has increased the demand for AI-enabled innovations. There is, nevertheless, no scholarly work that provides a comprehensive review on the topic. This paper generates insights into how AI can contribute to the development of smarter cities. A systematic review of the literature is selected as the methodologic approach. Results are categorized under the main smart city development dimensions, i.e., economy, society, environment, and governance. The findings of the systematic review containing 93 articles disclose that: (a) AI in the context of smart cities is an emerging field of research and practice. (b) The central focus of the literature is on AI technologies, algorithms, and their current and prospective applications. (c) AI applications in the context of smart cities mainly concentrate on business efficiency, data analytics, education, energy, environmental sustainability, health, land use, security, transport, and urban management areas. (d) There is limited scholarly research investigating the risks of wider AI utilization. (e) Upcoming disruptions of AI in cities and societies have not been adequately examined. Current and potential contributions of AI to the development of smarter cities are outlined in this paper to inform scholars of prospective areas for further research.

https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/6/1473/pdf

Contributions and risks of artificial intelligence (AI) in building smarter cities: Insights from a systematic review of the literature

Educational life worldwide has been shaken by the closure of schools due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. The ripple effects have been felt in the way both teachers and students have adapted to the constraints imposed by the new online form of education. The present study focuses exclusively on the beneficiaries of the educational process and aims to find out their perceptions of face-to-face and e-learning and their desire to return, or not, to the traditional form of education. These perceptions are represented by 604 students of the Politehnica University of Timisoara, who were asked to respond anonymously to an 8-question questionnaire between December 2020 and February 2021. The results show the respondents’ levels of desire to return to school (especially of those who have only benefited from e-learning) and their degree of involvement during online classes. The results also specify the advantages and disadvantages of the two forms of education from a double perspective, namely that of first-year students (beneficiaries of e-learning exclusively), and of upper-year students (beneficiaries of both face-to-face and e-learning). The study points out key information about e-learning from the students’ perspectives, which should be considered to understand the ongoing changes of the educational process and to solve its specific problems, thus ensuring its sustainability.

E-learning vs. Face-to-face learning: Analyzing students’ preferences and behaviors

The traditional goal of a company is to earn profit to pay its shareholders, but, nowadays, for the business to be sustainable in the long term, a strategy of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities is needed to meet stakeholder demands, respect ethical principles and give an appropriate answer to organizational stakeholders. The objective of the paper is to identify how strong the correlation between CSR and profit is, and how companies behave in the periods they have losses, whether they continue to do CSR activities, they reduce the activities, or they give them up. Thus, CSR is attributed to the concept of “doing good” and profit to the expression of “doing well”, from which a “positive business” can be built. Our empirical research consists of a panel data econometric model using logistics regressions to highlight the correlation between profit and the decision to do CSR activities and feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) regressions to identify the correlations between the level of CSR activities and the dimension of profit, an expression of financial performance. The main results emphasize that the companies which implement CSR activities in a greater extent are more profitable in economic terms.

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Doing Well or Doing Good: The Relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility and Profit in Romanian Companies

This paper explores how Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques integration into circular economy (CE) in product design phase. Designing products for circularity is a phenomenon, which is rising in manufacturing industries to develop and improve product sustainability as well as to drive extra cost prevention mechanisms in production. Circular product design strategies and similarly some guides have been developed by academia to help designers in industries to design products which match best with characteristics of circular products. In addition, implementation of AI technologies in CE solutions increases productivity through higher optimization and real-time data analysis. This research used qualitative research methodology as two stage process. First a literature review on concepts of circular material design and integration of AI in CE along with smart production. Secondly, framework on the key roles of AI in circular product design and the key enablers are proposed based on the findings of qualitative research and theoretical part of the study. The outcomes of the study suggest a positive influence on implementing AI techniques in CE solutions in manufacturing industries.

Key enablers for deploying artificial intelligence for circular economy embracing sustainable product design: Three case studies

Since, in some higher education institutions, it is not mandatory for students to turn their webcams on during online classes, teachers have complained that their students have adopted this behaviour once the educational activities moved online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Considering this, the present research aimed to identify the reasons behind students’ choice to hide their faces during online classes and find possible solutions to remedy the situation to enhance the educational process’s sustainability. Thus, this article presents the results obtained by applying an online questionnaire between December 2020 and January 2021 among the students pursuing an academic degree, recording 407 responses. The results highlighted the fact that more than half of the students participating in the study reported that they do not agree to keep their webcams on during online classes, the main reasons being anxiety/fear of being exposed/shame/shyness, desire to ensure privacy of the home/personal space, and chances that other people might walk into the background. The relevance of the research, besides the scarcity of studies on the topic, is also given by the fact that finding and understanding the reasons for this behaviour are, in fact, the first steps in undertaking regulatory interventions on it.

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/6/3203/pdf

Analysing Students’ Reasons for Keeping Their Webcams on or off during Online Classes

This article aims to show the extent to which socially responsible Human Resource Management practices are implemented in multinational companies. As more recent studies highlight, the manner in which companies in Romania presently comprehend the social responsibility of their actions is mostly aimed towards the social component of the outer environment in which they function and less towards their own employees. In Romania, at the moment, there are only a few studies that catalogue the efforts made by companies in order to become more responsible towards their employees, or in other words, studies that present Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) within its relationship with Human Resources Management (HRM). The research method we used for our case study was the semi-structured interview, applied on 32 respondents from the multinational companies carrying out their activities in the automotive sector in western Romania. Our study shows that multinational companies from the automotive sector are aware that CSR effects a series of long-term advantages, either externally—enhancing the company’s reputation and consolidating its brand as employer, its competitive advantage on the market, its media visibility—or internally—fostering an organizational culture that may generate greater engagement from its own employees, and financial advantages.

A Human Resources Perspective on Responsible Corporate Behavior. Case Study: The Multinational Companies in Western Romania

This study investigates how the development of artificial intelligence (AI) is perceived by the students enrolled in technical and humanistic specializations at two universities in Timisoara It has an emphasis on identifying their attitudes towards the phenomenon, on the connotations associated with it, and on the possible impact of artificial intelligence on certain areas of the social life Moreover, the present study reveals the students’ perceptions on the sustainability of these changes and developments, and therefore aims to reduce the possible negative impact on consumers, and at anticipate the changes that AI will produce in the future In order to collect the data, the authors have used a quantitative research method A questionnaire-based sociological survey was completed by 928 students, with a representation error of only ±3% The analysis has shown that a great number of respondents have a positive attitude towards the emergence of AI, who believe it will influence society for the better The results have also underscored underlying differences based on the respondents’ type of specialization (humanistic or technical), and their gender

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Technical and Humanities Students’ Perspectives on the Development and Sustainability of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

The concept of sustainability has been given more and more attention lately as the effects of climate change drastically impact society and threaten the wellbeing of future generations. In this context, universities are expected to build bridges between the academic and research communities on the one hand and society on the other, and to further the values associated with this concept in order to care for the generations to come. Thus, the present study describes the causes that have led to the emergence of this concept, defines it, and highlights some of the actions taken by universities and researchers. The question raised regards the position of the top Romanian universities towards the concept of sustainability. The way it is used explicitly in their strategic plans is viewed as proof as to whether the universities give it prominence or not, and as such, act accordingly. In order to achieve the primary objective of the research, a quantitative and a qualitative analysis were carried out. The main conclusion drawn is that the top Romanian universities are still at the beginning in terms of raising awareness about the concept and in terms of implementing sustainable measures in the domains that help them build sustainable universities.

Vasile Gherheș

Papers

E-learning vs. Face-to-face learning: Analyzing students’ preferences and behaviors

Analysing Students’ Reasons for Keeping Their Webcams on or off during Online Classes

A Human Resources Perspective on Responsible Corporate Behavior. Case Study: The Multinational Companies in Western Romania

Technical and Humanities Students’ Perspectives on the Development and Sustainability of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

The Concept of Sustainability in the Romanian Top Universities’ Strategic Plans