BSc thesis on prompt engineering

Mr. Veselin Andric defended his BSc thesis titleld “Prompt endineering for LLMs” at the Faculty for information systems and technologies. The devence took place on 2 Oct 2024 and it was done under mentorship of the EuroCC (NCC Montenegro) and HPC4S3ME teams’ members. This was a part of the effort to promote HPC and AI related technologies in the teaching curricula and research activities at UDG.

ABSTRACT – Prompt engineering is one of the primary areas of Natural language processing (NLP). It is a process that involves designing and improving inputs that are given to a language model such as ChatGPT, with a goal of getting wanted results. This dissertation investigates details of prompt engineering, it’s theoretical foundation, methodologies and practical uses in different tasks of NLP.

Mr. Veselin Andric defended his BSc thesis on Prompt Engineering
The provided an overview of NLP, LLMs and prompt techniques

HPC in Europe Podcast

Welcome to “Supercomputing in Europe” podcast from the EuroCC and Centre of Excellence network where we will talk about all things supercomputers.

Listen to stories by guests from all around Europe who talk about their work and give us interesting insights on the role of supercomputers in multiple fields such as life science, machine learning, engineering, data science, quantum computing, and more.

In the first episode, listen to EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) executive director Anders Dam Jensen discuss with communication specialist Apostolos Vasileiadis (ENCCS, RISE Research Institutes of Sweden) about EuroHPC JU and the state of supercomputing in Europe and its future.

In the second episode listen to Marta García-Gasulla and Filippo Mantovani from Barcelona Supercomputing Center discuss with Sally Kiebdaj (Center of Excellence in Exascale CFD, HLRS – High-Performance Computing Center Stuttgart) about the European Processor Initiative and CEEC CoE.

Spotify: https://lnkd.in/dSHmk2Kx
Apple podcasts: https://lnkd.in/dyuBMFyM

New academic paper on Montenegro’s HPC ecosystem development

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.

NCC Montenegro hosts Supercomputing Workshops for new UDG students

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.

AIFUSION – Artificial intelligence in agriculture, medicine and energy

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.

A detailed agenda is available at link.

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.

Image(s) from previous workshops

Virtual bootcamp “AI for Scientific Computing” successfully conducted by NCC Germany, Sweden, Austria and Montenegro

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.

Two NCC-supported and AI-related research papers @SymOrg 2024 conference

Representatives from NCC Montenegro in joint efforts with young researchers from UDG, published two scientific papers at the SymOrg 2024 conference, organized by the Faculty of Organizational Science, University of Belgrade, at Zlatibor, Serbia on June 12-14, 2024. The conference, traditionally envisioned as a platform for knowledge innovation and empirical research, bringing together representatives from the scientific and professional community, was themed: ”Unlocking The Hidden Potential Of Organization Through Merging Of Humans And Digitals”, aiming to address the newfound need for balance in the era of AI.

Image source: SymOrg 2024 website

The scientific paper “Detection of Scoliosis” by Elvis Taruh, Enisa Trubljanin, and Dejan Babić explores the application of a deep learning model integrated with a web application to detect scoliosis using x-ray images. Utilizing a dataset of 198 x-ray images from Roboflow, the initial model performance was unsatisfactory, prompting manual annotation of 245 images, which significantly improved the model’s accuracy. YOLOv8, a state-of-the-art object detection algorithm, was used to train two models, demonstrating improved performance with manual annotations. The web application, built with Flask, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, provides a user-friendly interface for analyzing scoliosis detection results. The backend uses MySQL for data storage and management, facilitating efficient image processing, result display, and feedback from doctors. Evaluation metrics indicate that the second model, which underwent refined annotation and augmentation, performed better, avoiding overfitting and demonstrating higher precision. This approach enhances early scoliosis diagnosis and offers a scalable solution for other medical detection challenges, supporting healthcare providers with more accurate diagnostic tools and improving patient care.

Click on image to open SymOrg 2024 proceedings

In the paper “LLM Consistent Character Bias”, the authors Igor Culafic and Tomo Popovic investigate the potential of Large Language Models (LLMs) for character imitation in media, education, and entertainment. Traditionally, LLMs have been used for tasks like web search and programming, but this study focuses on their application in mimicking specific characters from books. Using a dataset created from the Ciaphas Cain anthology of Warhammer 40k, the authors trained models using Low-Rank Adaptation (LoRA) methods. Three models of varying sizes (1.1B, 7B, and 10.7B parameters) were tested, with training conducted on a NVIDIA RTX 4090 GPU. The study found that the larger models (7B and 10.7B) performed well in maintaining character consistency, though they occasionally struggled with specific details and displayed unexpected behaviors like excessive emoji usage. The smallest model (1.1B), despite higher LoRA Rank parameters, was less effective and prone to errors such as repetitive responses and long rants. The authors conclude that LLMs can successfully imitate fictional characters given adequate data and training, suggesting future improvements could make them useful in various fields, including education and therapy. These models have the potential to enhance interactive experiences in theme parks, video games, and educational tools by providing authentic character interactions. However, they caution against using these models as replacements for human therapists due to their limitations and tendency for inaccuracies.

Click on image to open SymOrg 2024 proceedings

Both research papers were partly supported by the EuroCC2 project that is funded by the European High-Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (JU) under Grant Agreement No 101101903.