Pristupačnost
The Department of Electrical Engineering Fundamentals and Measurements (ZOEM) was founded on April 4, 1924 as the Laboratory for Electrical Measurements at the Royal Technical College in Zagreb. It was founded by prof. Josip Lončar, who according to some sources is the first Croatian academician in the technical field. The laboratory later changed its name to the Laboratory for Fundamentals of Electrical Engineering, and in 1949, by aligning with the organizational units of the University of Zagreb's Technical Faculty at the time, the Laboratory became the Department for Electrical Engineering Fundamentals and Measurements, which is the name it has retained to this day.
Therefore, on April 4, 2024, we rightly celebrate our 100th anniversary, and despite the various changes that occurred as a result of the reorganization of the umbrella institutions, all members of today's Department can proudly boast of their scientific and institutional connection with the members of the original laboratory of Professor Lončar.
It is extremely difficult to single out only some achievements and persons who marked ZOEM in the last 100 years, because any selection will unfairly neglect top scientists and their valuable results. During its long history, the Department has produced a number of greats in the field of electrical engineering, which includes as many as four academics: Josip Lončar, Toma Bosanac, Vojislav Bega (HAZU) and Zijad Haznadar (ANU BiH). In the following, we can mention only a few details from the exceptional careers of our great men.
In his rich long-term career, prof. Josip Lončar was, among other things, one of the first scientists in this region who dealt with technologies related to television, radio engineering, methods of detecting and measuring radioactive radiation, and it is important to note that today the prestigious award of the first order at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing bears his name.
Prof. Tomo Bosanac was a distinguished expert in the field of the theory of electromagnetic fields and circuits, and in his career he was involved in the design of extremely complex machines and devices that were pioneering in this area at the time. Let's single out the first hydroelectric power plant like the Maribor island of 24 megavolts, a 120 megavolt hydrogenerator for the Split power plant and the construction of a cyclotron at the Ruđer Bošković Institute in Zagreb.
Prof. Vojislav Bego founded a metrology laboratory at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering equipped with the most modern measuring devices and measuring standards, many of which he made himself. One of the most famous projects is the creation of a voltage scale, which found that the official unit of voltage, the volt, was incorrect by as much as 8 millionths, which resulted in its correction in 1990.
Unfortunately, it is difficult to mention all the greats who marked our Department, but it is important to mention that thanks to them and their achievements, the Department of Electrical Engineering Fundamentals and Measurements secured its position as a key historical figure in the process of establishing and developing the scientific field of electrical engineering and electrical engineering industry in these areas.
Strong cooperation with the economic sector
In all the years of its activity, the Department has had extremely strong cooperation with the economic sector, where the cooperation with the Končar company must be highlighted, which historically developed in parallel with the Department and whose histories are deeply imbued, both through project cooperation and the exchange of personnel that often spent a large part of their business careers in each of these institutions. The story of the greats of ZOEM is also largely the story of Končar. Therefore, it is no coincidence that the company Končar is the main sponsor of this event and the monument, which will be released by the end of 2024. In addition to the company Končar, there is a whole range of companies from different economic sectors, including Yazaki Europe LTD, HOPS, Agrokor, Multicom, NEOS and many others.
Scientific achievements
Members of the Department are also authors of numerous university textbooks and manuals and participate in the organization of important international events such as the colloquium "Transformer Research and Asset Management" (ICTRAM), the colloquium "Smart Grid Metrology" (SmaGriMet), IMEKO, the world congress held in Cavtat in 2003, the IMEKO TC4 Electrical Quantities conference held at the FER in Zagreb and the brand new IEEE/Cigre international conference, which further confirms their contribution to the profession and the scientific community.
Scientific success both at the individual and at the institutional level today is most often expressed in statistics, so through this prism we can boast of mentoring 103 successfully defended doctoral dissertations and 178 master's theses, as well as 280 scientific papers published in the WoSCC database, of which 166 in scientific journals and , looking at the database of projects established in 2002, 42 scientific projects (27 Croatian and 15 international), of which ZOEM employees are also project coordinators for as many as 22.
Today, ZOEM employs personnel who cover a wide range of methods and technologies, both in electrical engineering and computing. We have a research group that continues the path paved by the greats of electrical engineering by focusing on modern principles and methods of measuring electrotechnical quantities. Then there is the electromagnetism research group, which focuses on a wide range of topics related to the analysis and simulation of electromagnetic phenomena by studying electromagnetic fields. Finally, we also have researchers who are primarily oriented towards computer technologies, dealing primarily with methods related to electronic business, data management and the application of data analysis and machine learning methods in various domains. Due to the wide and varied set of research areas we cover, both electrical engineering and computer science, we can freely describe ourselves as a kind of "FER in miniature" and we are open to promising talents of various scientific interests to whom we strive to provide the opportunity for continuous and effective professional development in our environment.
As a department with a rich and long history, we feel proud, but also a kind of burden of past successes and top scientific results of our greats. Taking into account the hundred-year heritage, we are ready to use traditional values as a basis for future development, but at the same time we are open and ready for the changes and adaptations that are necessary to remain relevant and successful in the modern world.
A photogallery is available on the link here.