BSc Thesis: The use of ML to assess plant health

Ms Almira Suljovic, a student of the Faculty of Applied Sciences, defended her BSc Thesis in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. The topic of the thesis work was the use of machine learning to detect diseased plants by processing images of the leaves. The work included creation of a prediction model as well as the integration of the model into a mobile application for the use by farmers. She has done her thesis work under the supervision of prof. Tomo Popovic, PhD, and mr Stevan Cakic, MSc.

BSc Thesis – the use of ML to detect plant disease

ABSTRACT – Early detection and prevention are one of the biggest difficulties in the field of agriculture. Late detection of plant diseases or the use of wrong pesticides often leads to crop damage, reducing food quality. As the leaf is the best indicator of whether a plant is healthy or not, we can construct prediction models using machine learning to identify leaf status in the shortest possible time, thus preventing or reducing losses. This thesis shows how to determine leaf health status using the Detectron2 software library and the faster R-CNN neural network. The model was trained using a dataset with 6407 images. The initial dataset was extended using the RoboFlow tool. Google Colab, an environment for the development of cloud computing and machine learning, was used for testing and implementation. The practical application of the machine learning model was realized using an application developed using the Flutter platform.

Master Thesis: Practical Use of ML in the Fight Against COVID-19

Mr Bogdan Laban, a master student at the University of Donja Gorica, defended his Master thesis titled “Practical Use of Machine Learning in the Fight Against COVID-19”. The thesis was done at the Master academic studies “Information Management in Health Care” at the Faculty of International Economics, Finance and Business, under the supervision of his mentor prof. dr Tomo Popovic.

Mr. Bogdan Laban defended his MSc thesis on the use of ML to fight COVID-19
The presentation included interested real-life examples

ABSTRACT – This study aims to find applicable combination of recent AI technologies and its uses during the COVID-19 pandemic. As AI has shown great improvements in the last few years, with many new feature-filled tools out on the market, it is almost certain that AI can help find ways to circumvent the dangers of COVID-19, in the form of noticing it, and preventing it. Authors cited in this work are AI professional, specializing in neural networks and their appliances in real world, in the form of visual processing and understanding, which will provide me with a solid hypothesis to base my master thesis on.

As this pandemic still has a solid grasp on the world, especially on less developed countries like Montenegro, I believe it makes a great testing ground for attributes like – percentage of people abiding pandemic specific laws (social distancing, mask wearing, etc.). Unfortunately, people of Montenegro are very divided on this issue, ranging from avid abiders, to those who completely ignore all safety procedures, even the most basic ones. As such, I believe this study will provide me with an insight into the right tools and tests for the residents of Montenegro, which vary a lot.

Another Master Thesis in Applied Machine Learning

Open Mind Academy: Programming and Game Development in Python

Open Mind Academy, implemented with support of UDG and NCC Montenegro, is offering a hands-on course “Programming and Game Development in Python”. The course is designed for high school and college students to learn Python, programming concepts, and apply those to game development.

First four terms will be held online:

  • Introduction, tools installation, concepts
  • Basic data types, conditionals, loops
  • Lists, dictionaries, functions
  • Object oriented programming

Then, the course will have a live portion that will be organized into minimum of three days of intensive work and team collaborations. This part will take place at the University of Donja Gorica. The flyer for the course is available here.

The online terms will be on 3, 7, 10 and 15 of July. The live part will be arranged with students to best fit everyone’s availability. Applying for the course needs to be done at the following link.

This attractive course is designed for high school and college students

Open Mind Academy: Courses Starting Soon

We are continuing with the activities on Open Mind Academy. There will be enrollment into courses targeting high school students for this Summer. A new course for Programming games in Python will be starting soon. There will be courses on HPC/AI and Machine Learning, Parallel Programming, and others (link). Stay tuned!

Open Mind Academy continues this Summer

Innovations at the Faculty for Information Systems and Technologies

From the next academic year, classes at the Faculty of Information Systems and Technologies, University of Donja Gorica, will be organized in two modules: Software Development (M1) and Digital Transformation (M2). In the Software Development module, the focus is on the analysis of requirements and design of information systems, programming and agile software development, and system integration and deployment. The Digital Transformation module focuses on information technology management, digital innovation of business processes, and new value of the use of technologies such as artificial intelligence and Blockchain. 

This approach, together with strengthening foreign language skills of our students, is preparing them for a global labor market. In addition, new modules create a very good foundation for our Master’s studies offering modules Artificial Intelligence, Software Engineering and Digital Transformation.

New approach should allow easier transition to new Master program for Artificial Intelligence

AI Master program presented at Axon webinar

This semester, the AXON Association of Applied Psychology Students organized a series of multidisciplinary lectures linking psychology and artificial intelligence, entitled “The Era of Artificial Intelligence.”

During the last session held on April 28, Dr. Tomo Popovic presented a new Master Program in Artificial Intelligence, which is being implemented at the Faculty of Information Systems and Technologies, with the support of NCC Montenegro and the EuroCC project. The presentation was followed by over 30 participants.

AI Master program presented at the AXON webinar
There was over 30 attendees at the event

First Semester of the New AI Master Program

The first semester of the new Master program in Artificial Intelligence at the Faculty for Information Systems and Technologies, University of Donja Gorica, is being wrapped up. The program is implemented with the support from EuroCC Montenegro.

The first semester of the new Master programme in AI is being wrapped up

Students worked hard both in theoretical and practical aspects of the curriculum. Some of the students took part in research projects and some have already presented their first papers at scientific-technical conferences. Our graduate students attended the following courses:

  1. History of ideas
  2. Research methodology
  3. Engineering Mathematics
  4. Advanced Programming
  5. Data Science and Big Data
  6. Digital Transformation

Moving on towards new challenges in the next semester!