The Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing and the Biomimetics Lab of the Institute of Bioengineering of the University of Auckland have successfully conducted a transglobal experiment Underwater distance communication - from New Zealand to Croatia. The experiment was conducted as part of the "Advancing Diver-Robot Interaction Capabilities - ADRIATIC" project, funded by the Office of Naval Research Global (ONR Global). The goal of the trials was to test novel diver-robot interaction modalities developed within the project. The scenario consisted of a diver equipped with sensors embedded in the diving suit and a gesture recognizing diving glove in a pool in Auckland, and the D2 AUV in the Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies - LABUST pool in Zagreb collaborating together. The diver used the smart diving glove to recognize gestures and send them acoustically to a poolside PC. The commands are then sent over a http server to a poolside PC in Zagreb and again translated to acoustic commands transmitted to the underwater vehicle. The vehicle executed simple movement actions mapped to these commands. The underwater cameras, as well as the cameras mounted in on the vehicle were streamed to Auckland to provide situational awareness, and the diver received a haptic feedback through the glove when a gesture was recognized and sent successfully. Considering the distance between ABI and LABUST laboratories and the current travel and collaboration restrictions in force, it was practically impossible to do a joint experiment in person. Introducing existing and new technologies towards enabling such remote collaboration experiences promotes equipment and infrastructure sharing and help crossing barriers standing in the way of science. The experiment Remote Underwater Communication - from New Zealand to Croatia is available here .  

In this year’s FER Internship program, 118 companies have posted more than 350 positions for students . Judging by the number of applications, students were particularly interested in professional internships at RealNetworks, Amphinicy, CROZ, Gideon Brothers, GlobalLogica, Byte Lab, Končar - Institute of Electrical Engineering and Shape 404 . More than 230 students took the opportunity to spend part of the summer in a new job and further develop their skills. The companies have prepared interesting tasks that students will solve with the help of mentors. Students began their internships on July 1 and will complete them by September 30, lasting three to six weeks. Professional internships are a great opportunity to develop new skills that students will be able to use in their later job search, and previous experiences have shown that interns value the opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills acquired during their studies in practice.

On June 16, 2021, the Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies - LABUST had its first official visit . Third graders from the Elementary School Ivan Gundulic from Zagreb paid a visit to the new laboratory. They were introduced to the new space and LABUST activities. The students showed great interest in learning about different kinds of underwater and surface vehicles, from autonomous ships to micro unmanned submarines. LABUST member Đula Nađ, who organized the visit, also prepared a presentation to demonstrate more clearly the work of the lab. For the interactive and fun part of the visit, LABUST members organised a challenging water obstacle racing using the ASV .  

University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, Unska 3, 10000 Zagreb is announcing C A L L   F O R   A P P L I C A T I O N S to the Postgraduate doctoral study programme Electrical Engineering and Computing for obtaining the academic degree of Doctor of Science (6 semesters, the first enrolment period in the academic year 2021/2022) in the area of technical sciences, scientific fields of ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING and COMPUTING Students can enrol in the 3-year study (full-time study) or the study with an extended duration of research work, in the duration of 5 years (part-time study). Enrolment quota: 60 students in total. Students of the doctoral study pay the tuition fee in the amount of HRK 60,000.00, paid in instalments of HRK 10,000.00 per semester. Classes begin in November 2021. Applications are submitted to the Registry Office at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, Unska 3, every working day from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., from the day of the announcement of the Tender until 26 August 2021 inclusive. Interviews with candidates, which are an obligatory part of the enrolment procedure, will be held on 31 August and 1 September 2021 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Candidates will receive notifications on the exact time of their interviews via email. More information is available by telephone at (01) 6129 920 or via email: doctoral.study@fer.hr and information on the postgraduate doctoral study can be found at https://www.fer.unizg.hr/en/studies/doctoral .

In late May, members of the Internet of Things Laboratory set up a real small garden in FER’s backyard as part of the IoT-Field project. Numerous sensors monitor the conditions for tomato and pepper seedlings planted by our University colleagues from the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zagreb . While planting the seedlings, for the experiment we are conducting, part of the seedlings was enriched with the substrate. The aim is to determine the influence of the selected substrate through the collected data from the sensor, plant condition and yield. Given the effort and attention our garden has, we have no doubt of a rich harvest, and then who knows? Anything is possible, maybe FER registers a family farm as well! In addition to our professors and assistants, students also joined the set-up process, spontaneously while passing by for which we thank them. Check out how we worked with non-program tools in the pictures below.

In the context of the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU , the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing and the Embassy of Portugal in Zagreb are co-organizing the event "Robotics and AI in Society: Impacts and Questions Raised" . The event will take place on the 20th of May 2021 , starting at 4 PM, in a hybrid form - online, and for the limited number of attendees in the FER's Main Hall. Please join us online via the MS Teams , and on Sli.do for questions. The program of the event is available here .  This event is related to the priorities of the Portuguese Presidency, in particular to the priority of fostering Europe’s recovery leveraged by the climate and digital transitions. The goal is to showcase how robotics can be useful for the citizens and to discuss the implications of the introduction of robotics and AI in large sectors of society/workplace. After the short welcome speeches from H.E. the Ambassador of Portugal, Ms. Paula Leal da Silva , and the FER’s Dean, Prof. Gordan Gledec, Ph.D. , the event will continue with the lectures given by Prof. Pedro Lima, Ph.D. , from the Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon and by Tomislav Bracanović, Ph.D. , from the Institute of Philosophy, Zagreb. Their lectures, "Positive impacts of Robotics/AI in society" and "Artificial intelligence among social animals", will raise key issues and serve as the starting point for the "Roundtable on the impacts and questions raised by the introduction of Robotics and AI in society", where professors from FER, Jan Šnajder, Ph.D., and Stjepan Bogdan, Ph.D., will join Prof. Pedro Lima and Tomislav Bracanović in the discussion. The moderator of the round table will be the Vice Dean for Research, Prof. Nikola Mišković . More information about the speakers can be found in the detailed news content.

The 12th International Symposium on Image and Signal Processing and Analysis (ISPA 2021) will be held from 13th till 15th September 2021 at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER) in Zagreb , Croatia. ISPA 2021 is organized by the University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing and is technically co-sponsored by EURASIP, IEEE Signal Processing Society, IEEE Croatia Section, and IEEE Croatia Section Signal Processing Society Chapter. Conference proceedings will be submitted for inclusion in the IEEE Xplore Database. Interested participants to welcome to attend the conference while prospective authors are kindly invited to submit their manuscripts reporting original work to the main conference or to one of the focused special sessions . The submission deadline is May 25, 2021. Conference website: https://www.isispa.org/

From now on, all our students and visitors will be able to easily find their way around FER as the Faculty corridors have been refreshed with new wayfinding signs whose colors match our visual identity. Faculty buildings - named A, B, C, and D - are identified with their own colors, and services, departments, and halls are labeled bilingually. This marks another step forward as we prepare to welcome a large number of international students that we expect in the fall! You can see the photo gallery of the hallways below the notice.

In March 2021, the first fast charging station for electric vehicles was put into operation at FER. The charging station was procured by Croatian Science Foundation Program as part of the scientific research project " FLEXIBASE - Flexibility of High Conversion Microgrids". "The charging station is part of the microgrid of FER's SmartGrid Lab, which consists of distributed flexibility sources based on converters. It will test control algorithms developed to optimize the operation of the microgrid and maintain its stability during the transition to islanding, i.e. disconnection from the electricity distribution networks", explained FLEXIBASE project leader, Assoc. Prof. Hrvoje Pandžić, PhD . Numerous researchers from the Department of Energy and Power Systems, as well as members of the project team, were involved in connecting the e-charging station to the SmartGrid Lab's control system. The use of the e-station is free of charge for the employees of FER. More information about the FLEXIBASE project can be found at the bottom of the release.