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Lifelong Learning as a Way of Life. 90th Anniversary of Prof. Stanislovas Masiokas

Virtual Exhibitions

February 6 marks the 90th anniversary of Prof. Stanislovas Masiokas, an electrical engineer, former Dean of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, member of the Reconstruction Council and Senate of Vytautas Magnus University, and President of the Rotary Club of Kaunas. Professor devoted 52 years to scientific and pedagogical work at Kaunas Polytechnic Institute, and since 1990 at Kaunas University of Technology. On the occasion of the honourable anniversary, KTU Museum prepared a four-part virtual exhibition “Lifelong Learning as a Way of Life. 90th Anniversary of Prof. Stanislovas Masiokas”. “Lifelong learning is not a slogan or a fashion statement, it is a way of life,” wrote Prof. Stanislovas Masiokas in his autobiography. This thought became the title of the exhibition. The exhibition uses documents from KTU Archive and photographs from the personal archive of Prof. S. Masiokas, KTU Museum and Photo Archive. The exhibition was prepared by the Head of KTU Museum Dr. Audronė Veilentienė.

Childhood and Studies After the War

Prof. Stanislovas Masiokas was born on 6 February 1933 in Janioniai village, Ramygala Volost, in the family of average farmers. He was the youngest, sixth child. His father was self-taught but through self-education, he reached the level of a veterinary practitioner and, together with his eldest son, established a model farm. Prof. S. Masiokas said that the family had always expressed respect for science and education, and everyone wanted the youngest child to be able to pursue higher education. In 1943, after graduating from Jotainiai Primary School, Stanislovas was admitted to the first grade of Ramygala Gymnasium. From 1945 to 1948, he attended Panevėžys 1st Gymnasium for Boys but due to difficult financial conditions, he had to skip one year of school to help his family with farming.

In 1949, Stanislovas returned to Ramygala Secondary School, where he attended 9th grade. At school, he established physics and mathematics clubs with his classmates. While at school, he completed a tractor driver’s course at Ramygala Machine-Tractor Station and spent his summers working in the fields with the most powerful machinery of the time. Together with mathematics teacher Vladas Rinkevičius and other classmates, he designed the school stadium and was actively involved in its construction. School mathematics problem books were no longer interesting for a curious pupil, so he received by post the problem books for the university entrance examinations. Stanislovas enjoyed school dance parties, where he played the accordion, he was a member of the folk dance group, the school choir, and was involved in sports, specifically, wrestling and shooting.

In 1952, Stanislovas Masiokas graduated from school and was admitted to then prestigious Faculty of Electrical Engineering of Kaunas Polytechnic Institute (KPI) to study the specialisation of electrical equipment for industrial enterprises (52/9 academic group). During his studies, Stanislovas decided to get involved only in scientific activities and already in the second year of studies, he became the chairman of the faculty’s Student Scientific Society (SMD). In 1954, at the initiative of KPI, the 1st Scientific Conference of Students of the Baltic and Byelorussian SSR was organised, where Stanislovas was tasked with the organisation of the sections of Electrical Engineering and Physical Sciences. In the 4th year of studies, Stanislovas became interested in then modern fluorescent lighting and chose this topic for his thesis. In 1957, S. Masiokas graduated from the institute with honours, obtaining the diploma in electromechanical engineering.

At Kaunas Polytechnic Institute

After graduating from KPI, he was appointed to the Urban Design Institute and worked as an hourly-paid lecturer at KPI. In 1959, he married Kristina Merfeldaitė. After two years of compulsory appointment, KPI Vice-Rector for Research Petras Baskutis invited S. Masiokas to apply for doctoral studies at the Department of Electrical Engineering. When Stanislovas wished to continue his research work in his chosen field, KPI sent him to the doctoral studies in Light Engineering at the Moscow Energy Institute (MEI) with Prof. Vladimir V. Meshkov, one of the most prominent light engineering scientists of the time. After completing his doctoral studies, S. Masiokas returned to KPI Faculty of Electrical Engineering, where he worked as an assistant. On 16 October 1964, Stanislovas Masiokas defended his doctoral thesis “Starting Control Apparatus and the Working Time of Fluorescent Lamps” at the Research Council of the Moscow Energy Institute. (On 30 March 1993, the dissertation was recognised as a doctoral dissertation of technical sciences of the Republic of Lithuania by the Research Council of Lithuania)

In 1964, S. Masiokas became a senior lecturer, in 1965 – an associate professor, in 1966 – the head of the Department of General Electrical Engineering. In 1964-1966, two new faculties of Radioelectronics and Automatics were separated from KPI Faculty of Electrical Engineering and formed. Assoc. Prof. S. Masiokas was elected and served as the Dean of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering from 1967 to 1973. In 1969, he spent 10 months on a fellowship at the University of Toulouse in France. After this fellowship, Stanislovas Masiokas continued his research activities and took up the subject of the application of high frequency current for lighting. At his initiative, a laboratory for light technology was set up at KPI. This was enough for a science field of light engineering to appear in Lithuania. This was the beginning of the Lithuanian School of Light Engineering. Later, he became interested in the screening of the teaching process, which grew into the modern Information Visualisation problem. Screening of the teaching process began in 1974. A new teaching methodology was developed: the method of optimal information gain. Assoc. Prof. S. Masiokas gave public lectures to teachers of various higher education institutions in the former USSR (1981-1985). The main topic of these lectures was “Screening of the Teaching Process”. Prof. S. Masiokas wrote: “When lectures and exercises began to be screened with colour negative slides, the problem of the contrast between the amount of information on a slide and its visibility arose. Therefore, not only the teaching methodology but also the lighting technique had to be addressed. A new slide projection technique was needed. Young talented engineers Julius Makčinskas and Edmundas Andužis were interested in improving it. Thanks to their ingenuity, energy and hands of gold, projectors as much as 2-3 times more powerful than standard projectors and directional screens as much as 7 times more efficient than conventional diffusion screens were developed.”

Assoc. Prof. S. Masiokas and his wife and colleague Assoc. Prof. Kristina Masiokienė were the pioneers of the screening of the teaching process and the developers of the slide projection equipment at KPI. At their initiative, a specialised classroom with cinema and slide projectors was installed and directional screens were developed at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering. The slide sets and slide projectors were awarded silver and bronze medals at the Exhibition of Achievements of the People’s Economy of the USSR. The slide projectors were exhibited at the International Exhibition in Dresden. The experience of the screening of the teaching process was published in 27 publications (1975-1982), and the summarised research material was published in a book: S. Masiokas, K. Masiokienė. Static Screening of the Teaching Process. Kaunas: KPI, 1982. – 88 p. (in the Russian language). In 1968-1990, S. Masiokas was a member of the Presidium of the Scientific-Methodical Council of Electrotechnics under the Ministry of Higher and Special Secondary Education of the USSR, in 1967-1990, he was the chairman of the Commission of the Publishing of Electrotechnical Literature of the Lithuanian SSR Higher Education. In 1988, from the very first days, Prof. S. Masiokas worked in the initiative group for the restoration of VDU and was a member of the VDU Restoration Council (1989-1990). The meetings of the Commission on the concept and structure of VDU were held at the Chamber I of KPI, the Department of General Electrical Engineering.

In the Independent Lithuania

After Lithuania gained its independence, Prof. S. Masiokas was a member of VDU Restoration Council and Chairman of the Ethics and Statute Supervision Commission (1990-1996). At Kaunas University of Technology, he continued his pedagogical and research activities at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering (now the Faculty of Electrical and Electronics Engineering). Prof. Stanislovas Masiokas has developed modules in various subjects, which he taught: light technology, information visualisation, fundamentals of professional communication (part of which is visualisation). He has organised various courses: “Distance Learning Courses” (2002-2004), “Continuing Education Courses” (2004-2010), “Visualisation of Educational Information” (for lecturers), “Lighting Technologies” (for engineers). The course “Visualisation of Educational Information” has been attended by over 1000 lecturers of KTU and other higher education institutions. The professor delivered courses in Lithuanian, as well as Russian and French languages. And he also taught master’s students from Spain, Portugal and Poland in English. Prof. S. Masiokas was also actively involved in expert activities: he was the chairman of the Commission for Publishing General Textbooks of Higher Education (1992-1997); the vice-chairman (2003-2005) and chairman (2006-2009) of the Commission for Selecting Textbooks of Higher Education (textbooks for the award of the ministry’s prizes), and the author of the Technical Encyclopaedia (2000-2010), and a scientific consultant for the articles in light technology.

In 1991, Prof. S. Masiokas established the publishing house Candela and was its director. Supported by the G. Soros Foundation, it acquired the most necessary computer publishing equipment. During its 23 years of work, the publishing house has published 18 scientific, educational and fiction books, as well as a number of smaller publications; from 1996 to 2000, it published and printed 11 issues of the prestigious continuing scientific journal “Veterinary and Zootechnics”.

Social Activities

Prof. S. Masiokas was actively involved in public activities: he was the president of the Restoration Kaunas Rotary Club and the first president of the restored club (1993-1995), the vice-chairman of the Lithuanian Rotary Committee. As a representative of Lithuanian Rotary, he participated in the Geneva Rotary Conference (1995), and gave a presentation on the plans for the creation of a Lithuanian Rotary District at the Budapest Rotary Conference (1999). Prof. S. Masiokas compiled and published three Lithuanian Rotary directories (catalogues), prepared most of the club’s publications, designed the elements of the club’s computer graphics, and compiled the historical material of Kaunas Rotary Club. Prof. S. Masiokas is the initiator and promoter of the Lithuanian keyboard “ĄŽERTY”. At his initiative, the installation of the keyboard became one of the projects financed by Kaunas Rotary Club. In 2010, Prof. S. Masiokas was awarded the title of Honorary Member of Kaunas Rotary Club. Since 2003, he has been the head of the club “Elektra”, and since 2010, he has been involved in the activities of KTU “Emeritus” club.