National Competence Centre for High-Performance Computing
Thanks to EuroCC2 team from Montenegro, EuroCC and 27th International Scientific and Professional Conference – Information technology IT2023 were featured in the June issue of IEEE Region 8 News magazine (Vol 4 No 2). You can access the full issue at the following link. The News bulletin is published quartterly and distributed to over 80000 IEEE members in Region 8.
On World Telecommunications and Information Society Day, prof. Dr. Tomo Popović was invited to participate in the morning TV program on national television RTCG hosted by Ms. Andrea Sekularac. The discussion was about the current state of ICT in Montenegro, digital divide in Montenegro and throughout the world. The very important issue of education and capacity building necessary to address the challenges of digitization was also discussed. During the discussion, important issues of digital transformation, IT megatrends, and especially challenges related to artificial intelligence were touched upon.
FF4EuroHPC experiment AIMHIGH featured in national magazine Glasnik published by Montenegrin Chamber of Economy (Feb-Mar 2023 issue). The article provides summary and results of the FF4EuroHPC experiment called AIMHiGH that focuses on the use of HPC and AI for developing computer vision solutions for smart farming solutions in poultry sector. The focus of the article is to provide an insight on how HPC can be utilized by SMEs, in this case focused on digital innovation, to provide smart solutions for agri-food sector. The full version of the magazine can be accessed here.
Within the FF4EuroHPC experiment, DigitalSmart Montenegro, together with DunavNET, University of Donja Gorica, Radinovic Company, and Meso-promet Franca, used HPC and AI to develop ML prediction models for computer vision that can be ported on Edge AI and integrated into Smart agriculture systems for poultry farms.
The smart agriculture solution developed within this experiment could boost the productivity of poultry farms by potentially reducing both manual labor costs and chicken mortality rates by about 10% each. This is accomplished because assessing the weight of chickens in real-time increases the uniformity of the finished product and reduces the impact of stress on both the chickens and manual labor. Furthermore, real-time insight into poultry barns allows for improving disease management due to early detection.
HPC provided the technology organisations DigitalSmart Montenegro and DunavNET needed to develop smart agriculture solutions quickly and efficiently using machine learning and computer vision, in this case for the needs of the poultry industry. The computer kit has become a part of the PoultryNET platform offering, and there is an opportunity to sell such components to third-party vendors active in the market of smart agriculture solutions.
Mr Milutin Pavicevic (Alicorn CEO and PhD candidate at the UDG) and Mr Kosta Pavlovic (PhD candidate at the UCG) were invited to the national TV program “Good morning Montenegro”. The discussion was focused on AI and ChatGPT, perspectives and possibilties.
We are excited that NCC Montenegro is going to be a part of EuroCC2 and Castiel2 projects. The EuroHPC JU continues to fund two flagship projects, EuroCC and Castiel, to build a European network of National Competence Centres for HPC, acting as a hub to promote and facilitate HPC uptake and related technologies across a range of industries. The projects were selected following the call DIGITAL-EUROHPC-JU-2022-NCC-01Search for available translations of the preceding link. The main goal of the EuroCC2 is promoting HPC to boost digital skills, jobs and industrial competitiveness in Europe.
Starting on 1st January 2023, the project EuroCC2 will run for a 3-year period with a total budget of up to €62 million, provided by the Digital Europe Programme and the EuroHPC Participating States. CASTIEL 2 will also run for a 3-year period starting 1st January 2023 and receive up to €3 million funding from the Digital Europe Programme.
EuroCC 2 and Castiel 2 follow on from EuroCC and Castiel, which started on 1 September 2020 and ran for two years. The two projects received funding from Horizon 2020. More info at the EuroCC2 website.
Deep learning and HPC training organized by NCC Montenegro and UDG is featured in the national news portal CDM. The presentations and guest talks will be accessible to students and academia, industry, and general public. There is a very interesting line up of lecturers coming from reputable institutions from the region and abroad. More information about the training is available here. Click on the image below to open the post at the CDM news portal.
