FERI

Special focus was also the transfer of knowledge to new volunteers, as well as recently established or reactivated student branches and Young Professionals affinity groups. The event was impeccably organized, delivering everything expected in a Congress – informative sessions about IEEE, personal and professional growth workshops, and ample networking opportunities.

Lucija Brezočnik, as a member of the IEEE Region 8 Humanitarian Activities Committee (IEEE R8 HuAC), presented how technology and related IEEE programs can help solve local problems. She focused mainly on the presentation of the SIGHT groups (IEEE Special Interest Group on Humanitarian Technology) and the new funding programs of the IEEE R8 HuAC committee, which can be found on the website huac.ieeer8.org.

Jani Dugonik, as a corresponding member of the IEEE Region 8 Women in Engineering Subcommittee (IEEE R8 WIE), presented the 2023 annual report on the number of members, number of affinity groups, programs and awards.

First, there was a presentation of the Skylabs company at their headquarters in Tezno, followed by a tour of the premises on Koroška cesta and at UM FERI with dr. Iztok Kramberger. Skylabs and LEIS are participating in the TRISAT project, in which they observe the Earth with nanosatellites. Finally, there was the award ceremony for the workshop on computer training, which took place during the year.

This JEMSHI Master aims to prepare professionals in speech, language, and hearing sciences to be innovative, communicative, and adaptable in addressing current and future challenges in the field, while also prioritising ethical and legal considerations and the needs of specific populations. Our plan is to provide an unique opportunity to future students to develop their professional and interpersonal skills in a multicultural environment, and organisations to obtain new high quality solutions to societal challenges.

At the meeting, colleagues from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, presented the projects in the field of technologies for people with disabilities: ADORE, INTUX, SET4Inclusion, AI-ENABLE and Certified Digital Accessibility Training.

The students learned about Databox's solutions for developing integration solutions with different data sources and services and the challenges developers face when integrating with various sources. During the lecture, the students were challenged to implement a Dashboard using the Databox solution to integrate and visualize metrics and data from selected services.

The invited lecture and the practical challenge enriched the Convergence and Integration of Systems course with additional knowledge and practical skills related to integrating information systems and services.

In the meeting, we discussed all of the results that will be produced in the TechWhiz project, individual partner contributions and responsibilities, and the important project management issues that have arisen since the previous meeting. We are happy to report that the project is proceeding well, and the main tools that will be produced in the project, namely the TechWhiz Studio (an application to configure sign language), TechWhiz Gloss Loader (a web-based solution to facilitate interpretation of the spoken language to sign language) and TechWhiz Dictionary (an online dictionary that will define the searched terms in a sign language using the visualisation from the Studio and the definitions from the Gloss Loader), are close to complete. The tools should soon become available to try for yourself. We will make sure to let you know when this happens.

Among the registered teams in Slovenia, the CodeMonkeys team (Enej Krabonja, Oskar Forštnarič, Sven Wolf Zajšek - all three students of ŠP R-IT) took first place. This team is also the youngest team registered for these competitions in Slovenia. Among the teams in IEEE Region 8, the team achieved 717th place and was ranked 2361st out of 4221 ranked teams in the world ranking of this competition. This year, 1,229 more teams than last year entered this world ranking, making this year's competition the biggest ever (https://mga.ieee.org/news/32-ieee-news/504-mga-scoop-december-2023-ip).

This year's team competed under the mentorship of Assoc. prof. dr. Ales Zamuda. Both in the promotion of the event and the organization, the assistant Jani Dugonik helped, who also heads the IEEE Student branch of the University of Maribor. The event was sponsored by IEEE Slovenia and IEEE CIS Slovenia, the Institute of Computer Science and the Institute of Informatics.

More about this event at UM FERI is written in the report for IEEE, and the list of competition results is available on the website of the competition.

Congratulations!

Boštjan Šumak and Maja Pušnik from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Maribor coordinated the meeting with partners from Slovenia (Inštitut za napredno upravljanje komunikacij), Turkey (Istanbul Universitesi – Cerrahpasa), Portugal (Instituto Politécnico De Portalegre) and Spain (Universidad De La Iglesia De Deusto Entidad Religiosa). The Spanish partners hosted the meeting at University Deusto.

The project's main objective is to enhance inclusive education in HEI with AI, making the teaching process more inclusive for students with disabilities and special needs. More info is at https://aienable.eu/.

Other participants included @Darja Ivanusa Kline, @Tuncer Can, @Irfan Simsek, @Olga Dziabenko, @Sergio Duarte, @Diego López-de-Ipiña González-de-Artaza and others.

The researchers are collaborating with the GEMMA laboratory, Institute of Computer Science, in the framework of the bilateral ARIS project. They presented their research work and exchanged ideas for further cooperation. The visiting research team consists of the leader Prof. Dr. Shuang Liu, and collaborators Dr. Qiguo Dai, Dr. Di Zhao and Dr. Dandan Zhao. Dr. Qiguo Dai presented a framework for learning with heterogeneous combinations of features to predict interaction in ncRNAs, and Dr. Di Zhao presented research on key technologies for biomedical text mining.

The website was created by the company Estrogeni srl, with the outstanding work of Agostino Santacroceand his team, with the support of Silvia Cappellozza, Aliona Lupu, Diana Mantegazza and Jenia Dubrivna.

ARACNE Projectis more than just a project: it has the mission to create a vast and interconnected innovation ecosystem centered around silk in Europe. We view silk not merely as an industrial sector but as a powerful tool for expressing cultural and landscape heritage. Our aim is to bridge culture, tradition, and modern industrial production within an ideal network of exchange and vision.
ARACNE Projectalso brings together 11 partners and 3 associated partners from 7 European and non-European countries.

We invite you to explore our new website https://aracneproject.eu/, where you can learn more about the ARACNE Project, our partners, and the exciting initiatives we have in store and to follow us on LinkedIn https://lnkd.in/e6wjTibrand subscribe to our YouTube channel https://lnkd.in/epbUjUiMto stay connected and informed about our upcoming activities and discoveries.

European Commission| European Research Executive Agency (REA)

Our partners: CREA Ricerca| Iniziativa| L.E.P.L. State Silk Museum | Nauchen Tsentar Po Bubarstvo Vratsa | Cultural Foundation of Piraeus Bank Group (PIOP)| Univerza v Mariboru| Ethnikon kai Kapodistriakon Panepistimion Athinon| IMIDA - Instituto Murciano de Investigación y Desarrollo Agrario y Medioambiental| D'orica gold jewellery| Association Chemins de la soie| SERICYNE
Our associated partners: Università degli Studi di Padova| Council of Europe| Mouseio Technis Metaxiou

The University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (UNIMORE) is one of the oldest universities in Italy, founded in 1175. Department Enzo Ferrari works in the fields of the automotive industry, electrical engineering, mechanics, telecommunications and ceramic materials. Jernej Frangež took part in training abroad as part of the Erasmus+ program. During the training, he saw the institute's organisation, workflow, and research projects.

As part of the visit, he visited and presented the faculty to the company Marmotors, founded and managed by Dr. Luca Marmorini. The company is developing internal combustion engines and hybrid powertrains, where Dr. Marmorini has extensive Formula 1 experience as a former lead engineer at Scuderia Ferrari and Toyota. The company's current major projects are supporting the development of an engine for Yamaha's Moto GP motorcycle and an efficient propulsion system for aircraft.

The roundtables will take place virtually from 9 to 13 October at 10 am:

• 9th of October: Erasmus @ Africa
• 10th of October: Internationalization of Higher Education for Students
• 11th of October: Internationalization of Higher Education for Academics
• 12th of October: The impact of European Universities
• 13th of October: The Impact of AI in Higher Education

Registration and more information is available on the ATHENA Erasmus Days 2023 website.

The address was given by the dean, Professor Dr. Gorazd Štumberger, who began his second term as the head of the faculty and wished everyone a successful year ahead. The Vice-Dean for Educational Activities, Associate Professor Dr. Boštjan Vlaovič, emphasized the importance of relationships among the staff, a focus that will continue in the future. For the first time in his new term, Associate Professor Dr. Marko Hölbl, the Vice-Dean for Research Activities, addressed the FERI community, offering encouraging words in support of the excellent research work conducted at the faculty. Following a pleasant conversation and breakfast, a group photo was taken of all teaching staff and employees from various service departments who joined us on this day. We hope that the academic year will continue as it began - with opportunities for camaraderie."

On Friday, September 29, 2023, at UM FERI, we welcomed new students. Our new students were first greeted by the dean of the faculty, Prof. Dr. Gorazd Štumberger, who wished them a successful academic journey. Further insights into their studies were provided by the Vice-Dean for Educational Activities, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Boštjan Vlaovič. The new students were also addressed by the Vice-Dean for Student Affairs, Gaja Gujt, and the head of tutors, Nina Planinšek, who introduced them to extracurricular student life they can expect during their studies.

In an effort to enhance the freshmen's experience, a musical performance by Leopold I took center stage, adding a touch of cultural enrichment to the occasion.

Following the event held in the atrium, the fnew students were divided into respective classrooms where comprehensive presentations on their specific study programs were delivered. This served as an opportunity for the new students to gain a deeper understanding of the academic journey that lay ahead, equipped with essential information and practical guidance. Throughout this process, tutors were readily available to engage with the new students, fostering meaningful interactions and potentially laying the foundation for enduring friendships.

For a visual glimpse of the event, we invite you to explore our extensive PHOTO GALLERY."

More information about SBLP 2023 and his talk is available at https://cbsoft2023.ufms.br/en-US/palestras/sblp.

Doctor Honoris Causa is conferred in recognition of exceptional and outstanding achievements, contributions to the development and operation of the University of Maribor, and the enhancement of its reputation. Professor Hameyer serves as the head of the Institute for Electrical Machines (IEM) at RWTH Aachen University and is a globally renowned scientist. He is distinguished by numerous innovative and groundbreaking projects in the field of electrical engineering, wherein he and his colleagues have achieved remarkable success.

His impressive bibliography comprises 700 articles, and he is the author of four books while also serving as the editor of several special issues in scientific research journals. The WoS database records more than 4,300 citations of his work, and the Scopus database records more than 6,100 citations. He has been collaborating with our faculty on research and projects since 1993. During this time, he has co-authored 20 original scientific articles with researchers from the Institute of Power Electrical Engineering UM FERI. Furthermore, he has provided access to original software and research equipment, facilitated visits by researchers and professors, promoted the inclusion of researchers in the scientific committees of international conferences, and engaged in many other activities.

The book is published in open access and available via: https://press.um.si/index.php/ump/catalog/book/812.

The Book promotes ATHENA's research and innovation capabilities and the strong cooperation potential of all contributing ATHENA partners.

The second volume of the ATHENA Research Book (ARB) complements the first volume, published in November 2022, by putting more emphasis on the institutional aspects of research carried out by the members of the alliance and on their achievements through an annotated bibliography of their outstanding academic publications. This new volume also reflects the alliance’s performance in the form of short reports on work packages and on the lectures given within the ATHENA Colloquial Talks. A chapter with student contributions is again included, as in the first volume.

The SET4Inclusion project aims to improve inclusive digital capabilities of the higher education sector to enable equal educational opportunities for all students, especially for students with disabilities or special needs. The two days were dedicated to finishing the activities in work package 2, which included development of a Theoretical framework on inclusive digital education and two Self-evaluation tools, one for HEI management and one for HEI teachers.

Title: The Paradigm Shift in SE & PL Research & Teaching due to LLMs,

Abstract: AI has slowly (?) made it into the reality of software engineering (SE) and programming language (PL) research and teaching over the last 10-20 years. For example, in research, think of grammar inference and pretty-printing models in PL; think of bug-prediction models and search-based software re-engineering in SE. However, the capabilities of (contemporary) large language models (LLMs) in terms of understanding (?) of software languages and related tasks of evaluation, translation, summarization, etc. may be interpreted as reaching a new level of AI-related qualities in SE and PL research and teaching -- to the extent of challenging the status quo. In this meeting, let’s put on the SE/PL hat and discuss a few related questions such as these: i) How can stereotypical SE/PL "tasks" be differently approached in the view of contemporary LLMs and other AIs? ii) How do SE/PL courses need to be adjusted to appropriately develop student skills in the view of contemporary LLMs and other AIs? iii) How does SE/PL research need to be adjusted in the view of contemporary LLMs and other AIs? iv) How do SE/PL symbolic computation approaches of parsing, type checking, refactoring, etc. need to be reevaluated in the view of impressive (?) and contemporary LLM/AI capabilities -- does ML make symbolic computations redundant (to what extent)? v) How to usefully inject more classic SE/PL strongholds into LLM architectures so that we get a win-win (rather than hallucinating AIs and the lack of using strong symbolic computation capabilities)? vi) How to — in terms of (AI) ethics and policy — redefine priorities or the value system in SE/PL research and teaching so that we — as a community — can make a useful contribution to a stable society in the near future?

The speaker: Prof. Dr. Ralf Lämmel, University of Koblenz, Germany
Joint work: Susanne Göbel, University of Koblenz, Germany

About the speaker: Ralf Lämmel held positions at University of Rostock, CWI & VU Amsterdam, Microsoft USA, University of Koblenz, Facebook London as well as various appointments during sabbaticals. He is a W3 professor in CS and dean of the CS faculty at the youngest university of Germany — University of Koblenz. He is professor in software languages and his research and teaching interests relate to the intersection of the areas of software engineering and programming languages with particular interest in executable language definitions, software analysis and transformation, as well as AI applications in these areas. He is the award-winning author of the "Software Languages Book". He is a co-founder of the SLE conference and the GTTSE summer school series.

More information:

• https://dblp.org/pid/l/RalfLammel.html
• https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=rlhpWRQAAAAJ&hl=en

You are welcome!

For more information on the Summer School, please visit http://enai-summerschool2023.um.si/ . This website will also be used for posting presentations and videos of lectures and workshops. The main topics covered were research integrity, data management, academic and research integrity breaches, plagiarism, contract cheating, academic writing, ethical publishing and dissemination, academic integrity policies, and academic integrity in using artificial intelligence tools.

On Monday, 21st August, the Summer School focused on using AI tools in relation to academic integrity. On Tuesday, 22nd August, topics related to plagiarism, contract cheating (writing of assignments for students or writing of papers by researchers by third parties), and a portal for victims of academic integrity violations were presented. On Wednesday, 23rd August, the lecturers presented how to implement an appropriate academic and research integrity policy. On Thursday, 24th August, the Summer School participants learned about ethical publication and dissemination of research results and academic writing that aligns with the principles of academic integrity. On Friday, 25th August, they learned how to answer research ethics and data management questions. On Wednesday, 23rd August, the lecturers and students visited the Institute of Information Science. The focus of their visit was on the presentation of the Vega supercomputer, the largest supercomputer in Slovenia.

The summer school was attended by 18 Czech Republic, Georgia, Turkey, and Slovenia students. The Summer School was lectured by 12 lecturers from the UK, the Czech Republic, Germany, Turkey, and Slovenia. Two members of the FAITH project from Portugal also active participate in the Summer School. There were also 83 registered virtual participants (41 from Slovenia, nine from Ukraine, eight from Georgia, six from Kazakhstan, six from Oman, three from Latvia, three from Canada, two from Romania, one from Angola, one from Egypt, one from Ireland, one from India, and one from the UK) who listened to lectures and workshops via videoconference.

The first conference day began with the invited talk by Philipp Blanch, titled Deep and compositional, or shallow and direct: two routes and one loop for a new approach to language understanding in conversation. It was followed by 6 oral presentations of scientific contributions and discussions. In the afternoon, 13 posters were presented, some of them remotely. After the first conference day, the participants had the opportunity to attend the conference business meeting.

The second day of the conference hosted two invited speakers. Liesbeth Degand presented a talk titled Discourse markers in interaction: distribution and functions, and Marko Robnik Šikonja a talk titled Challenges in explaining machine learning models for text. In the two following sections, researchers presented current findings on semantics and pragmatics research of dialogue that is being performed at universities around the world using state-of-the-art language technologies.

The content of the talks and the presentations will be published in the conference proceedings. More information on the SemDial 2023 – MariLogue conference program is available HERE.