EuroCC2 gearing up – Meeting with CoE BioExcel

Representatives of NCC Montenegro and NCC Macedonia had a joint introductory meeting organized by – Centre of Excellence for Computational Biomolecular Research from Sweden, on 18th of May 2023. BioExcel has been developing/using state-of-computational and software tools and modelling techniques since 2015, to address some of the biggest scientific challenges in the area of bimolecular research.

Research in the BioExcel focuses on structural and functional studies of the main building blocks of living organisms – proteins, DNA, membranes, solvents and small molecules such as drug components. BioExcel CoE’s activities support researcher work in core disciplines in the computational sciences such as: Integrative structural biology, Biomarkers design, Nanotechnology and materials science, Personalized medicine, Physiology, Neuroinformatics, Multi-scale QM/MM modelling.

BioExcel Ambassadors’ Program was also presented, as an attractive opportunity for the NCCs and local academic or government institutions, working in the field of computational bimolecular modelling and simulations and duly interested in collaborative research, trainings and outreach activities.

In the scope of elaborated CoE-NCC cooperation and joint efforts on HPC use in the respective domains, NCC Montenegro shortly presented its current activities and potentially interested partners in the area of bimolecular research. BioExcel emphasized its widely acknowledged software tools and training events, including its upcoming, annual flagship BioExcel Summer School (September 2023, Sardinia, Italy), which provides a comprehensive combination of lectures and tutorial sessions on bimolecular modelling and simulations, using modern applications and tools including GROMACS, HADDOCK, PMX. Registration and information: https://bioexcel.eu/events/bioexcel-summer-school-on-biomolecular-simulations-2023/

InnovateYourFuture: a successful 2-day ANSO workshop on IoT and AI

A very successful two-day workshop for students and industry tool place on 22-23 April 2023. The workshop was done in the context of tge training project called “Competency Training for IoT and AI – InnovateYourFuture” supported by ANSO – Alliance of International Science Organizations, China. The organization is done in collaboration with EuroCC Montenegro and Montenegrin AI Association. Edge AI devices obtained with the support from  NVIDIA Academic Grants. During the event, UDG also presented relevant projects currently implemented at UDG such as H2020 DEMETER, DEP EUROCC2, IPA HPC4S3ME. The agenda for the event is available here.

ANSO InnovateYourFuture Workshop on 22-23 April 2023
Introduction to AI and ML
ML and Decision Support
Data Science lecture
IoT i agriculture and DEMETER project
ML/AI in medicine

During the first day, attendees had a chance to interactively participate in lectures coverin Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence and MAchine Learning, Data Science and Analytics. Lectures were given by Luka Filipovic, Marko Grebovic, Stevan Cakic, Ivan Jovovic, and Dejan Babic. During the second day, the focus was on practical training and hands on experience. Students worked with Stevan Cakic, Zoja Scekic, Ivan Jovovic, Dejan Babic, Igor Culafic, and Vesna Calasan. The hands on included work tools for dataset preparation, computer vision model training, edge AI devices and porting the prediction models to edge IoT. The students were split into groups and worked on solving practical problems in domains such as agri-food sector, health and medicine, and energy.

Around 40 people took part in the workshop

There was almost 40 people attending the event. We used the breaks for coffee and pizza to network, mingle and discuss interests and exchange experiences. It was also an excellent opportunity for young people interested in IoT and AI to network and get to know each other.

AI/ML and edge device NVIDIA Jetson Nano
Learning about data preparation
Second day took place in the Entrepreneurial nest collaboration space at UDG
Teams working on their group projects
Hands on with mentors

InnovateYourFuture – Competency Training in IoT and AI

UDG team continues with the implementation of a training project called “Competency Training for IoT and AI – InnovateYourFuture” supported by ANSO – Alliance of International Science Organizations, China. The organization is done in collaboration with EuroCC Montenegro and Montenegrin AI Association.  Edge AI devices obtained with the support from  NVIDIA Academic Grants.

Competence training on IoT and AI supported by ANSO

A two-day training workshop is organized for 22-23 April. The workshop will take place at the UDG. The workshop will include lectures on IoT, Data Preparation, AI, ML and Edge IoT/AI. The target audience is MSc, BSc, and high-school students, but also representatives from the industry and public interested in some hands on training on IoT and AI. are welcome, too. You can register for the event filling the form here.

Also, the workshop program is available for download:

Click to open Agenda in new window tab

Training Workshop on AI and IoT at the IEEE IT2023 Conference

UDG and NCC Montenegro team continue with the implementation of a training project called “Competency Training for IoT and AI – InnovateYourFuture” supported by ANSO – Alliance of International Science Organizations, China. A training event is organized in a form of Workshop at the upcoming IEEE IT2023 conference that is taking place 15-18 February in Žabljak, Montenegro (link). The workshop will include introduction to AI and IoT (AIoT), software tools for AI/ML, edge AI, and IoT, and presentation and practical demonstrations. The target audience is MSc, BSc, and high-school students, but others are welcome, too. The conference program is available at the following link.

Click on image to open IEEE IT2023 conference program

MAIA – Montenegrin AI Association

MAIA – Montenegrin AI Association is a Non-Governmental organization, founded in September 2022 with an ambition to bring together the Montenegrin AI community. Our goal is to popularize Artificial Intelligence related research and spread awareness of its importance in our country, but also encourage our society to join the fast wave of AI innovation in the World. Several NCC Montenegro team members are taking part in this initiative. Check MAIA website for more details at the following link.

Click on image for more info on MAIA

“Deep Learning and HPC” training successfully completed

The University of Donja Gorica (UDG), EuroCC Montenegro (national competence center for supercomputers) in cooperation with the National Center of Spain (NCC Spain) organized the course “Deep Learning and HPC”. Guest lecturers from renowned institutions such as Petar Veličković from the University of Cambridge and DeepMind (Introduction to Graph Neural Network), Borja Pavon from Universidad de Cantabria and Barcelona Supercomputing Centre (High-Performance Computing systems), Sergio Perez from Graphcore and Imperial College London (Making new AI breakthroughs with Graphcore IPU), Itana Bulatović from AI Clearing and Shanghai Jiao Tong University China (Deep Learning for Computer Vision), Andreea Deac from  Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms (Deep Reinforcement Learning), Aleksa Šuković from Max Planck Institute (Advanced NLP), Nikola Bulatović from University of Montenegro and Uhura (Introduction to NLP),  were involved in the implementation of the training. These classes are organized online for all interested participants.

During this training, we had 30 to 35 active participants from the start to the end of the course. The first and last classes were organized by teachers from UDG and NCC Montenegro (Stevan Čakić and Stevan Šandi) in person for students from UDG (Introduction to Deep Learning, Deep Learning for HPC, Deep Learning with Business and Ethics in AI). The course was mandatory for students of the master’s program Artificial Intelligence as an integral part of the course Deep Learning.

HPC systems
Making new AI breakthroughs with Graphcore IPU
Deep Learning and Computer Vision
Deep Reinforcement Learning
Introduction to NLP

Advanced NLP

Appreciative feedback on Parallel Computing Course

Parallel Programming training course was organised by UDG and HPC NCC Montenegro in cooperation with NCC Germany, from 8th November to 14th of December 2022. The training was dedicated both to companies interested in the parallel programming skills and to students eager to learn on theoretical basis and practical features of parallel computing, with 54 attendees registered in total. Program course covered: Concepts of parallel computers – purpose, architecture, division; Practical guidelines for the development of parallel programs based on the architecture of shared and distributed memory as well as on the hybrid model; Analysis of the performance of parallel programs including decomposition of serial program and transformation into parallel programs. Beside the theoretical part, the training also included practical examples, use cases and hands-on exercises that allowed participants to apply and test their parallel programming knowledge on supercomputing systems/HPC-working environment. Participants learned to identify parallelization problem, analyse parallel programs complexity and efficiency, and develop simple parallel program, with dedicated support of academic professors and HPC experts dr Luka Filipovic from NCC Montenegro and lecturers from The Leibniz Computing Center, NCC Germany.    

  

After the training, survey forms were sent out to regular participants, revealing interesting statistics on training activity, industry appeal and further expectations.

Regarding academic participants, this was an obligatory course for students of the MSc program Artificial Intelligence, but also 1/3 of students came from Engineering and IT faculty level programs. Regarding industry participants, the majority were coming from the ICT sector, with working experience up to 5 years (but also 38% with 15+ years).

Decision to attend Parallel Programming course was dominantly influenced by: 1) personal interest in developing parallel computing skills, 2) possibility to obtain practical experience and 3) engagement of international and experienced lecturers.

With regard to level of complexity, the majority of participants considered the program course demanding, but successfully managed. With regard to teaching program and course organisation, 65% and 71% of participants evaluated them with the highest grade, respectively. With regard to communication with lecturers, knowledgeable answers and useful consultations were highly appreciated. 86% of surveyed participants confirmed that the training course fully or mostly met their expectations. 

Being asked what they liked the most about the course, participants stated: hands-on approach, practical examples, expertise of lecturers and open source application used by NCC in Germany. And when it comes to possible improvements, focus was on providing more practical examples and tasks. Over 70% participants would be further interested in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Deep Learning training opportunities, and all industry representatives confirmed interest in potential cooperation with UDG on project activities.

The general aim of the training course was to increase the parallel programming skills in Montenegro, but also to promote EuroCC projects and supercomputing resources, and to encourage HPC-based project ideas and partnerships.