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.
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.
Representative of NCC Montenegro Ms. Sanja Nikolic participated in the HPC Masterclass, a hybrid event held at “Ovidius” University of Constanța (20-24.05.2024) co-organized by NCC Romania. The second day of the training event was dedicated to NCC’s shared experience on HPC academic utilization and research excellence, introducing presenters from NCC Portugal, Montenegro, Bulgaria, France, and Luxembourg. Ms. Nikolic presented the development of the HPC+ (HPC and related technologies) educational ecosystem in Montenegro, intensively driven by the EuroCC project, NCC Montenegro and the University of Donja Gorica.
NCC Montenegro is focused on developing HPC/HPDA/AI academic programs, study courses, and training portfolios, following a sustained learning pathway:
• HPC/AI-related seasonal schools to mobilize high-school students and high-tech enthusiasts to enroll in HPC/AI-related academic programs. (“Open Mind Academy”). • BSc restructured program (M1-Software Development and M2-Digital Transformation), and first nationally accredited AI Master Program, at Faculty for Information Systems and Technologies. • Professional training courses, workshops, and networking events for academia and industry participants providing in-demand HPC/AI knowledge, technical upskilling, and supercomputing hands-on sessions.
NCC Montenegro’s training portfolio covers technology-specific know-how (HPC system architecture and applications, Parallel Programming, Python Programming, Deep Learning, Edge IoT, Computer Vision, NLL) and industry-specific priority domains, defined by the Smart Specialization Strategy of Montenegro (energy, health, tourism, agriculture, ICT).
NCC Montenegro is also fully exploiting joint training opportunities within the pan-European NCC network – to capitalize on their HPC expertise and resources, as well as productive collaboration with key MNE stakeholders (business associations, technical affiliations, and funding institutions) – to enhance national HPC/AI awareness, outreach and uptake.
The AI for Scientific Computing Bootcamp provides a step-by-step overview of the fundamentals of deep neural networks and walks attendees through the hands-on experience of building and improving deep learning models for applications related to scientific computing and physical systems defined by differential equations. The material will cover more advanced topics such as physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) and operator learning and make use of tools like NVIDIA Modulus to develop and train the models. This online bootcamp is a hands-on learning experience where you will be guided through step-by-step instructions with teaching assistants on hand to help throughout.
A scientific paper “Output Manipulation via LoRA for Generative AI” by I. Culafic et al., was presented at the 23rd International Symposium INFOTEH-JAHORINA, 20-22 March 2024. The training for the prediction models was takin around six hours on an NVIDIA RTX 4090 24GB VRAM GPU. This research will serve as a basis for a future experiments on HPC resources. The paper is published at IEEE Xplore at: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10495995
ABSTRACT – Generative Artificial Intelligence has witnessed a surge in popularity in recent years, characterized by the emergence of groundbreaking models like DALL-E 2, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion, which have spearheaded advancements in this technological domain. This research aims to harness the potential of Stable Diffusion and its extensions for the purpose of training a LoRA (Low-Rank Adaptation) model to generate images that closely resemble the original subject matter, utilizing a predetermined amount of example data. The primary objective of this research is to demonstrate the prowess of Stable Diffusion and generative AI in a broader context, delving into the possibilities offered by open-source frameworks, highlighting the challenges associated with poorly organized training data and the advantages of properly organized and edited datasets, conducting a comparative analysis of diverse diffusion models and examining various LoRA strength examples. This research also aims to compare the results from larger training parameters on both small and relatively large training models for the purpose of determining if overfitting, over training on one specific subject, is more prevalent with smaller or larger datasets.
NCC Montenegro and NCC Spain, collaborators at the EuroCC project, organized the “HPC and AI Workshop” designed for academia, scholars, researchers who are interested in learning how to use Artificial Intelligence and High-performance Computing in real case scenarios. This has been achieved through five lectures featuring educators from Spain and Montenegro presenting successful case studies:
Borja Perez Pavon, from Universidad de Cantabria, talked about HPC systems and highlighted they are available for different research projects by accessing various free access calls.
Ivan Jovovic, AI researcher and PhD candidate at the University of Donja Gorica explained from the use of multiple GPUs to handle large data sets to the cons and pros of data parallelism.
Stevan Cakic is a PhD student at the University of Donja Gorica, talked about the application of AI and HPC in agriculture, delving into deep learning and high-performance computing.
Ahmad Al Mughrabi, active researcher and multidisciplinary predoctoral scholar at the Universitat de Barcelona, discussed the applications of HPC and generative AI, acknowledging certain challenges that need consideration in the implementation of HPC in real-case scenarios.
Dejan Babic, a PhD candidate at the University of Donja Gorica presented the concept AI and HPC use cases in medicine.
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