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The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which was adopted by all member states of the United Nations in 2015, provides a global framework for improving the quality of life of all people on our planet. At the heart of this plan are 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which direct efforts towards eradicating poverty, reducing inequality and stimulating economic growth, while simultaneously caring for the environment.
Universities play a key role in achieving the goals of sustainable development, as they serve as incubators of new ideas and solutions for the numerous global challenges we face.
The UN therefore launched The United Nations Academic Impact initiative in 2010, which connects students, the academic community, scientists and researchers around the world. Thanks to a dynamic network of higher education institutions, this initiative serves the wider international community as a source of energy and innovation for young people and the research community.
A research group from Stanford University in California (USA) published this year's study on scientific citations, a list that ranks 2% of the world's most influential scientists, or about 210,000 of the most cited scientists in all disciplines.
Two lists were published: the list of the most influential scientists for the entire scientific career and the list of the most influential scientists for 2023.
The list of the most influential scientists in the world for their entire scientific career includes 82 Croatian scientists, three of whom are from FER. Academician prof. Sven Lončarić, PhD, and Prof. Silvio Hrabar, PhD, is ranked among the 2% most cited scientists in the world in the field of Information & Communication Technologies, while prof. Hrvoje Pandžić, PhD, is among the most cited in the field of Enabling & Strategic Technologies.
The list of the most influential scientists in the world for 2023 includes 116 Croatian scientists, five of whom are from FER.
Academician Prof. Sven Lončarić, PhD, Prof. Silvio Hrabar, PhD, and Assoc. Prof. Alan Jović, PhD, in 2023 were the most cited in the field of Information & Communication Technologies, while Prof. Hrvoje Pandžić, PhD, distinguished in the field of Enabling & Strategic Technologies, and Prof. Damir Žarko, PhD, in the field of Engineering.
The study used data from the Scopus database, which measures the influence of scientists until the end of 2023. The study classifies scientists into 22 scientific fields and 174 branches. The study is available in its entirety here.
"Working from Croatia for the whole world and being the best in the world in what you do" is the key vision of the dean, prof. Vedran Bilas, PhD, which he spoke about in the middle of August 2024 on the Croatian National Television.
Dean Bilas believes that we should brand Croatian universities, institutes, high-tech ecosystems and position them more strongly internationally, just as we do for Croatia in the context of a tourist destination.
"We need to put Croatia on the map of the European Union as a high-tech destination. We already have numerous positive examples from our classic industry, which has been operating for decades, but there are more and more examples of young successful Croatian technological companies, whether in the field of artificial intelligence, information technology, robotics, electromobility..." Bilas points out, and faculties, universities and scientific institutes form the inevitable core of this potential.
In order to better integrate into the European research area and raise the international visibility of Croatian science, it is important to participate in highly competitive Horizon projects.
"Currently, FER is the best-positioned Croatian institution in terms of the number of Horizon projects, we have a total of 17 contracted, with a total value of around 8.5 million euros", said Dean Bilas.
Speaking of internationalization, he believes that we cannot develop the Croatian high-tech industry with the base of students we currently have. And therefore, the message of the academic community is clear: Croatian universities must be internationalized.
The recording of the interview is available on our YouTube channel (in Croatian).
The scientific colloquium entitled "Public-private partnership in science and higher education", organized in cooperation with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing and the Faculty of Law of the University of Zagreb, on October 30, 2024, brought together leading experts from Croatia, Slovenia and Ireland with with the aim of exchanging perspectives and discussing incentives, risks and successful models of public-private partnership (PPP) in science and higher education.
The scientific colloquium was also attended by Her. E. Wendy Dorman-Smith, ambassador of Ireland in the Republic of Croatia, and the deans of FER and the Faculty of Law prof. Ph.D. sc. Vedran Bilas and prof. Ph.D. sc. Ivan Koprić.
Public-private partnerships have been successfully used as an effective model for the development and management of public infrastructure. In science and higher education, PPPs enable access to investments, strengthen research capacities and encourage innovation.
You can watch the recording of the event on FER's YouTube channel via link, and the photo gallery it is available at the link here.
Cooperation between the Czech Republic and the Republic of Croatia in the field of science, research and development is the main topic of the seminar that brought together experts from both countries at FER on October 2, 2024 with the aim of strengthening ties between academic institutions, research centers, and private and public sectors from Croatia and the Czech Republic. The seminar was organized in cooperation with the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Zagreb, under the auspices of the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs and FER.
Key opportunities for cooperation between Croatia and the Czech Republic were presented at the seminar, with a special emphasis on the exchange of innovative solutions, technologies and the application of joint projects within European programs. Special attention was paid to sectors such as energy, robotics, cyber security and the development of new technologies, which are key to the future economic growth of both countries.
The Croatian Machine Learning Workshop (CMLW) is a one-day research workshop organised to foster a vibrant Machine Learning (ML) community in Central and Eastern Europe.
CMLW will be held in Zagreb, at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, on Saturday, November 9th. The workshop is organised by FER, Eastern European Machine Learning (EEML) and researchers from Google DeepMind. CMLW is a part of the EEML Workshop series, which aims to introduce cutting-edge topics in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, such as Deep Learning, Reinforcement Learning and various application areas, to students, researchers and practitioners.
Due to great interest, all places for participation are already filled, but you can join the waiting list here. More information can be found on the official website of the CMLW workshop and below.
FER is honored to host one of the leading scientists in the field of artificial intelligence, Chi Wang, Senior Research Scientist from Google DeepMind, who will hold a lecture on the future of AI technology application and development of developer tools on October 21, 2024.
Chi Wang is the founder of AutoGen, an advanced open-source framework for agent-based artificial intelligence, which makes it easier and more efficient to create AI applications. AutoGen is a pioneering attempt to solve the issue of generic programming for agentic artificial intelligence, and his lecture will explain the key functionalities and concepts of this tool. Wang will show how AutoGen is applied to a wide range of tasks and industries, and how it opens the door to the next generation of AI applications. In addition, Wang will share the latest research and development advances, providing insight into the future of this rapidly growing field.
The lecture is an opportunity for all students, researchers and experts interested in artificial intelligence to hear firsthand the latest trends and advances of one of the world's leading experts in this field.
We invite you on October 21, at 1 PM, to join us in the Gray Hall of FER. Participation is open to the public, with prior registration here.
A lecture by a professor from one of the most innovative European universities, KU Leuven (KUL), opened an expert meeting on the topic "Chips, universities and technological development", which was held on 24 of September 2024, in the organization of FER with the aim of encouraging technological development in the Republic of Croatia.
Professor Georges Gielen from the prestigious Belgian University of KUL, expert in analog chip design and former vice-chancellor for research, engineering and technology at KUL, shared the key factors in his introductory lecture entitled "Why is KU Leuven an entrepreneurial and successful university?", emphasizing that a top university must combine top education with top research and the valorization of that research in order to have a maximum impact on society.
The third meeting of STEM teachers at FER brought together about 200 teachers of informatics, mathematics, physics, computing, professional subjects in technical schools and classroom teachers from all over Croatia. The goal of the meeting, recognized by the Agency for Education and Training (AZOO) as an official education for teachers, was to enable primary and secondary school teachers to improve their competencies through inspiring lectures and interactive workshops on a wide range of topics from the STEM field. In addition to acquiring new knowledge, teachers had the opportunity to explore the possibilities of their schools' cooperation with FER and to exchange ideas and experiences with colleagues from other parts of Croatia.
Dean of FER prof. Vedran Bilas believes that our young talents from Croatia should work for the whole world and that they do it the best in the world. Therefore, among other things, FER stands for stronger internationalization and exposure to the challenges of competitive foreign universities.
The first generation of students of the international study programe "Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters Degree in Brain and Data Science - NeuroData" arrived to Zagreb to participate in a two-week summer school organized by the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER) and the Faculty of Medicine (MEF) of the University of Zagreb.
The summer school, which lasts from August 26 to September 6, this year hosted 14 top students from Italy, Germany, France, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Russia, Vietnam, Thailand, USA, Mexico and Brazil.
NeuroData is a study program that combines the fields of neuroscience and data science, and is implemented by a consortium of universities from six countries. The coordinator is Bar-Ilan University from Israel, and in addition to the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing and the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Zagreb, the partners are universities in the Netherlands (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), Portugal (Universidade de Lisboa - Instituto Superior Técnico), Italy (University of Padua). and Finland (University of Jyväskylä).
The Faculty of Electrical Engineering at University of Zagreb (FER) is proud to announce that it has provided a significant contribution to European sovereignty, with valuable business impacts. European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) finalized the 273-M€ procurement contract for JUPITER, the first EuroHPC exascale supercomputer granted to the consortium of Eviden and ParTec. JUPITER will be hosted at Forschungszentrum Jülich in Germany, where the brain of the system will be based on the brand new general-purpose Rhea processors by SiPearl that have been designed in Europe with FER being one of the key partners of SiPearl in design and verification of those processors.
"FER is proud to be at the forefront of what is among the most advanced global supercomputer processor technology research and to partner with leading European industry and research organizations SiPearl, Eviden, Barcelona Supercomputing Center and others to create the first European general purpose processor for supercomputers. Partnering with SiPearl allowed us to have a unique opportunity to be able to work with great industry experts on the design and verification of what will be the family of globally one of the most advanced and powerful processors.
Also, being a member of European Processor Initiative project funded by EuroHPC JU, we team with the brightest minds, share ideas and solutions and make Faculty of Electrical Engineering at University of Zagreb recognized on the global research map" , said Mario Kovač, professor and Director of FER HPC research center.
What are exascale supercomputers
Supercomputers solve problems that are significantly beyond the capacity of a single office computer/laptop, since they can process significantly larger amounts of data and make calculations in seconds that would otherwise take months or even decades. Supercomputers are built out of the most advanced components and use large and complex building blocks.
One way of describing the power of computers is by comparing how many basic operations, such as e.g. additions, they can compute in one second. Thus, the metric is given in so called FLOPS (floating point operations per second).
An "Exascale supercomputer" can perform more than billion billion or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 (1018) operations (FLOPS) per second, or in short more than one exaFLOPS. To put this into perspective: it would take one million typical laptops to do the same number of computations in the same amount of time.