The 28th international conference of Information Technology 2024 (IEEE IT2024)

In the period from 21st – 24th of February the international scientific and professional conference “INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES 2024” will traditionally be hosted in Žabljak. These 28th years in a row scientific and professional conference is organized with the aim of a comprehensive and multidisciplinary view of current and development trends in the field of information and communication technologies.

The conference will be held in the organization of the University of Montenegro – Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Donja Gorica – Faculty of Information Systems and Technologies, IT Society Montenegro, University of Belgrade – Faculty of Organizational Sciences, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers – IEEE Association and IEEE Section for Serbia and Montenegro, with full support of the company Čikom from Podgorica.

Click to watch the video announcement (in Montenegrin)

The Conference shall host lectures and round table discussions about development trends in the field of information and communication technologies, as well as actual problems in this field in Montenegro. In agreement with the Organizing Committee of the Conference, interested institutions are invited to organize presentations of their scientific, research, professional, development, and production projects and achievements. Besides mentioned above, papers submitted and reviewed will be presented at the Conference.

We invite all those interested to follow the activities at the Conference online as well, through the video conference access links available on the official website

Learn more at the conference website: https://www.it.ac.me/en/

Click on image to open IT2024 conference website

Online event: Artificial Intelligence and High-performance Computing for real case scenarios

SAVE THE DATE: January 29th, 11:00 AM, register for free: https://bit.ly/3tGjim3

We are organizing an online training event on Artificial Intelligence and High-performance Computing for real case scenarios. This workshop is designed for academia; scholars, researchers, students, who are interested in learning how to use AI/ML and High-performance Computing in real case scenarios. This will be achieved through five lectures featuring educators from Spain and Montenegro who will present successful case studies. This is a twinning effort by two NCCs.

Agenda for the online training by NCC Montenegro and NCC Spain

EuroCC Montenegro website statistics

EuroCC NCC Montenegro website had over 10,000 visitors and over 25,000 visits during the last year. The number of visits was correlated with the organization of events, publishing od blog posts and announcements on social media. The overall stats since the website launch shows over 22,000 visitors and close to 60,000 visits. This is for the period from Jan 2021.

We had over 10,000 visitors in 2023

Scientific paper on forecasting meningitis with machine learning (MEDICON23)

A resarch paper on forecasting meningitis with machine learning written by B. Dobardzic, A. Alibasic, N. Milosevic, B. Malisic and M. Vukotic just appeared in the Proceedings of the Mediterranean Conference on Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing (MEDICON) and International Conference on Medical and Biological Engineering (CMBEBIH), September 14–16, 2023, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina—Volume 1: Imaging, Engineering and Artificial Intelligence in Healthcareat the following link.

Abstract – Meningitis is a life-threatening disease that can lead to severe neurological damage and death if not diagnosed and treated in a timely manner. In this study, the application of machine learning methods to create a predictive model for meningitis diagnosis based on clinical signs, blood, protein, and other health parameters is explored. Our goal is to determine the most reliable and accurate method of meningitis prediction. We analyze a sizable dataset of meningitis patients using cutting-edge classification techniques, such as Support Vector Machines and Random Forest. Findings have shown that machine learning techniques can accurately estimate a patient’s risk of meningitis. The importance of features for meningitis diagnosis is determined by evaluating them, and the
effectiveness of various models is also compared.

Click on image to open the proceedings

AI-AGE: Artificial Intelligence Supported Identification of Novel Non-invasive Biomarkers of Aging

Another AI and S3 related project is granted for implementation at UDG. The AI-AGE project proposes the use of machine learning (ML) algorithms and evaluation of state-of-the-art AI tools to train and create prediction models to identify novel non-invasive biomarkers of aging, and increased risk for development of age-related conditions. The idea is to utilize a large dataset of annotated retinal images from the UK Biobank, to explore deep learning (DL) techniques, most commonly based on convolutional neural networks (CNNs), such as U-Net and Res-Net, and transformers, but also to expand the research on the use of ensemble methods that combine ML techniques to improve performance and accuracy.

This project is a result of sustainability efforts by NCC Montenegro team and collaboration betweeb Faculty for information systems at University of Donja Gorica and Faculty of medicine at University of Montenegro.

Click to open AI-AGE website

Hackaton on the use of Computer vision in Montenegrin S3

During the 3 months of intensive work, NCC Montenegro team members were involved in organising 70 classes for more then 50 participants. Lectures were held twice a week, starting in October this year. The training started with Python programming module which focused on mastering all programming skills needed for further work and engagement with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Then we explored AI concepts, mathematical models, computer vision tasks, and provided hands-on examples of using Convolutional Neural Networks, Yolo architectures (YoloV7 and YoloV8), and the Detectron2 package for various computer vision applications. Throughout these modules, participants not only gained exposure to various tools, Python packages and libraries for facilitating AI model development but also had the chance to learn the integration of AI solutions into modern systems and applications with Flask and other web bases technologies. The attendees were informed on NCC Montenegro activities and introduced to capabilites of HPC and its application for AI development that requires lots of computing resources.

Hackaton took place on 23 Dec 2023.

After all classes we organised Hackathon day. The Hackathon gathered 20 teams to work on HPC/AI and Computer Vision projects in agriculture, medicine and tourism. Before the Hackathon Day, after which the best ideas were showcased and awarded, there were two weeks of intense mentor-guided sessions. These sessions helped teams with their projects and in figuring out high-performance computing needs for handling large datasets , execute experiments, and testing advanced AI models. This hackaton was implemented in cross-collaboration with the AI4S3 project funded by the Innnovation Fund of Montenegro.

The hackaton was attended by over 50 people
24 teams presented their potential application of HPC and AI in Montenegrin S3
The presentations focused on health, tourism, energy and food sectors
The hackaton ended in celebration and social event