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.

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.

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.

A group of researchers from Stanford University in California (USA) recently published a study on the scientific citation, ranking around 160,000 of the world's most cited scientists in all disciplines and listing 2% of the world's most-cited scientists . The paper is available here . The study published two lists: a list of the most influential scientists for their entire scientific career and a list of the most influential scientists for 2019. The list of the most influential scientists in the world for the entire scientific career includes 47 Croatian scientists, including two from FER. Professor Sven Lončarić, Ph.D., is ranked in the top 1% of scientists in the world in the field of "Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing", and associate professor Dubravko Babić, Ph.D., in the top 2% of scientists in the world in the field of "Optoelectronics and Photonics". The list of the top 2% of the most influential scientists in the world for 2019 also includes 47 Croatian scientists, three of whom are from FER: professor Sven Lončarić, Ph.D. , in the field of "Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing", associate professor Hrvoje Pandžić, Ph.D. , in the field of "Energy" and professor Damir Žarko, Ph.D. , in the field of "Electrical & Electronic Engineering". The study used data from the Scopus database , which measures the impact of scientists until the end of 2019. The study, which categorises scientists into 22 fields and 176 branches, analysed citations from 1996 to 2019 and was based on a complex model that used six standardised metrics of scientific productivity.

Every year, FER hosts a number of foreign students who spend a semester or more expanding their knowledge, experience, and international contacts by taking the opportunities offered within the Erasmus+ mobility programme. Despite the challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic, this academic year FER has once again attracted students from all over the world. Below you can read some of the impressions from several exchange students who have spent the last few months in Zagreb.

The 44 th International ICT Convention MIPRO 2021 will be held from 24 to 28 May 2021 in Opatija , with the technical co-sponsorship of the IEEE. This year's slogan of the conference is "ICT in Renewable Energy Technologies" , and it will cover various areas of ICT application, from microelectronics, electronics, data science, biomedicine, telecommunications, through computers in education, engineering education to intelligent and business intelligent systems, robotics, digital economics, law and many other areas. This year, MIPRO gives special importance to hydrogen energy and a new conference called "Regional Hydrogen Energy Conference - RHEC" has been established and will take place for the first time. Although the convention consists of conferences, special session, various interesting workshops, round tables, invited presentations and lectures and other program segments, this announcement is primarily intended for authors of scientific and professional papers. The deadline for abstract submission is Monday, 18 January 2021. Papers can be submitted to 15 different conferences and/or 1 special session. All papers will undergo two double blind peer review, and the same author can submit multiple papers. Presented papers in English will be sent for inclusion in the IEEE Xplore Digital Database. Paper instructions for authors, deadlines, registration fees and other important details are available at www.mipro.hr   or via contact e-mail mipro@mipro.hr .