A new academic paper ‘Sizing HPC Opportunities in Montenegro: Market Insights, Best Practices and Use Cases’ has been published in the scientific journal “Entrepreneurial Economy“.
The paper highlights the pivotal role of HPC in addressing critical societal, scientific, and industrial challenges, and explores its growing impact on businesses through data-driven decision-making, workflow optimization or innovative product design. The study underscores the importance of HPC infrastructure, Cloud services, and AI applications in driving digital transformation and enhancing the industry competitiveness of SMEs. The research also identifies key challenges in Montenegro including a shortage of HPC expertise, low demand for critical HPC performance, and certain concerns related to data security and IPR. Despite these challenges, market research revealed HPC opportunities related to high Cloud adoption, innovative product development and favourable business prospects. The paper also describe activities of the HPC National Competence Centre Montenegro, established through the EuroCC project, related to established HPC and AI related academic programs and training portfolio, and productive industry collaborations, demonstrated through successful use cases in smart agriculture, precise weather forecasting, and FinTech.
By harnessing both national expertise and international supercomputing resources, the NCC Montenegro has effectively integrated HPC technologies into research and business practices, driving technology innovations and smart growth.
As a part of the orientation week for new students, the EuroCC National Competence Centre Montenegro has organized a Supercomputing Workshop aimed at introducing incoming university students to the exciting world of high-performance computing (HPC).
The workshop featured interactive sessions where students could get insights into cutting-edge technologies used in supercomputing, such as parallel processing, intelligent algorithms, and data analytics. Experts from the NCC guided the participants through the technical fundamentals of HPC systems, demonstrated real-world applications related to Big Data processing and advanced AI modelling, but also provided examples of academic study cases and industry use cases, including Montenegro’s success stories.
The aim of the workshop was also to provide brief overview on HPC/AI related academic programs, training portfolio and NCC activities, to show how students can leverage supercomputing resources for academic projects and scientific research, or even for startup ideas and potential industry collaboration.
By exposing new students to the potential of supercomputing early in their academic journey, the NCC aims to support students’ development in high-demand, tech-driven carriers, and to foster community of innovative thinkers prepared to tackle complex and critical challenges of the modern world.
The University of Donja Gorica, with the support of the Innovation Fund of Montenegro, as part of the program for the organization of education in the areas of smart specialization of Montenegro, organizes a three-month training called “AIFUSION – Artificial intelligence in agriculture, medicine and energy.” The course will be held in the period from the end of September (September 21) to the end of December (December 21) 2024.
The education program is divided into 5 modules: Introduction to artificial intelligence, Computer vision, Natural language processing, Artificial intelligence and S3 in practice and Ethics and responsible use of artificial intelligence and work on the final project.
Apart from the fact that the participants will acquire enough knowledge and skills needed for further research in this very current field, they will have the opportunity to expand their network of acquaintances and meet young people with similar interests.
To apply, you need to fill out the Google form found at the link https://forms.gle/f8Pc8ozu9U3tHKY98. Applications last until September 20 (11:59 p.m.), and the course is scheduled to start on September 21.
In collaboration with the National Competence Center Montenegro (NCC Montenegro), the University of Donja Gorica (UDG), and the University of Montenegro (UCG), the company DigitalSmart has successfully started the development of a new model utilizing advanced High Performance Computing (HPC) technologies. This partnership represents an important step towards applying HPC resources to solve complex problems and enhancing academic and industrial processes in Montenegro.
The new model is designed to optimize data processing, providing faster and more efficient solutions for research and development in the field of generative artificial intelligence. The use of HPC technologies in this context enables greater scalability and precision in the analysis and processing of large datasets.
The experiment has been successfully submitted through the Fortissimo call, paving the way for further validation and application of this model on an international level.
NCC Montenegro is highlighting ongoing FFplus Open Calls to empower SMEs and Startups to develop innovative products and services with the support of HPC and AI.
European SMEs and Startups have the opportunity to shift their innovation potential through the two types of FFplus Open Calls (total budget €24.0 million):
Business experiments addressing the uptake of HPC for specific business challenges of SMEs that have had no prior use of HPC services. The maximum funding request per proposal is € 200,000.
Innovation studies, supporting SMEs and startups already active in the field of generative AI technology, which lack the necessary computational resources to scale up. The maximum funding for each innovation study is € 300,000.
Application deadline: September 4th, 2024!
Find out more about FFplus Open Calls, application details and NCC Montenegro’s support on:
The Montenegrin National Center of Competence in High Performance Computing (NCC Montenegro) invites Montenegrin companies to take advantage of the unique opportunity to improve their business using advanced HPC technologies and artificial intelligence and apply for the FFplus call for business experiments and innovative studies. NCC Montenegro, as a center that coordinates initiatives in the field of HPC at the national level, will provide support in the assessment of the company’s readiness for HPC and AI, but also in the selection of EuroHPC JU resources and in finding partners in accordance with expertise and potential.
FFplus is a European initiative that highlights and promotes the adoption of High Performance Computing (HPC) by SMEs and start-ups across Europe. The scope of targeted actions includes solving business challenges through computer methods (modeling and simulation, data analytics) on HPC systems, as well as the use of supercomputer resources for the development of software solutions and (generative) artificial intelligence (AI) services.
With more than a decade long history and a strong reputation in Europe, the Fortissimo projects (Fortissimo 1 and 2, FF4EuroHPC) received a budget of 42.8 million euros and successfully performed more than 130 experiments involving more than 300 partners. These efforts have resulted in 120 success stories from over 20 EU countries, where SMEs have developed new products and services with the help of high-performing computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence, thereby boosting the EU economy. Building on the methods and achievements of the Fortissimo project series, the FFplus call, with a total budget of EUR 30.0 million, including EUR 24.0 million for SMEs and startups, will continue to support and empower SMEs and startups towards innovations.
SMEs and start-ups now have the opportunity to convey their innovative potential through two types of open calls of the FFPlus project (open until September 4th, 2024):
Business experiments will address HPC adoption by SMEs to address specific business challenges of SMEs that have not previously used or had no experience with HPC services.
The maximum request for financing per proposal is 200,000 euros. Expected duration of the experiments: a maximum of 15 months with a planned start on January 1st, 2025.
Per application, it is possible to have a maximum of five partners in the consortium
The call is intended for experiments involving innovative, agile SMEs, focused on innovations resulting from the use of advanced HPC services.
Innovation studies will support European SMEs and start-ups already active in the field of generative AI technology, which lack the necessary computing resources to scale up.
The maximum total funding for each innovation study is 300,000 euros. Expected duration of the experiments: a maximum of 10 months with a planned start on December 1st, 2024.
A maximum of three partners are allowed per application. There are no indirect costs.
Creating history: the first Montenegrin success story in the Fortisimo project
Within the framework of the five-day Fortissimo call, FF4EuroHPC, the consortium with the support of NCC Montenegro, which included Montenegrin partners DigitalSmart doo (coordinator), Radinović Company, Meso-Promet Franca, University of Donja Gorica, and DunavNET from Serbia, implemented a successful pilot project-experiment AIMHIGH in which partners used HPC, machine learning and IoT technology in agriculture to develop a new solution for monitoring and predicting diseases among poultry.
Are you ready for supercomputing and artificial intelligence?
Montenegrin companies that want to find out if they are ready to use supercomputers and AI technologies in their business can do so by filling out the HPC4SME company assessment tool and find out if and how the organization can benefit from free supercomputer services. Companies that are interested in carrying out the assessment and filling out the questionnaire will be additionally supported by the Montenegrin National Competence Center NCC Montenegro.
For more information about the call, you can visit the website of the FFplus project: https://www.ffplus-project.eu/ or contact the Montenegrin National Competence Center (NCC Montenegro) directly at luka.filipovic@udg.edu.me or sanja.nikolic@udg.edu.me
NCC Montenegro representative Luka Filipovic took an active part as a Teaching Assistant in the Nvidia and EuroCC2 supported bootcamp “AI for Scientific Computing”, successfully organized by NCCs Germany, Sweden, Austria and Montenegro, on June 25–26, 2024.
The Bootcamp offered a comprehensive introduction to deep neural networks, focusing on applications in scientific computing and physical systems defined by differential equations. The curriculum included advanced topics based on NVIDIA Modulus to develop and train the models in various areas. This online Bootcamp features guided instructions and support from cross-NCC teaching assistants to facilitate learning, supporting participants to build and enhance AI/DL models.
