Category: Twinning

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The AI Conference on Building a National AI Strategy

The AI Conference, organized by the World Bank on September 24-25, 2024, in Budva, Montenegro, brought together global AI experts, policymakers, and stakeholders from both the public sector and academia to explore the integration of AI into national strategies/policies, government operations, and public services. Representatives from NCC Montenegro actively participated in the two-day workshops, engaging in discussions on AI opportunities, challenges, and practical use cases for public administration. They emphasize the importance of digital upskilling and AI expertise, the need for data repositories and open data policies, and the establishment of advanced computing infrastructure. NCC also elaborated on its activities and efforts in the development of a HPC/AI ecosystem in Montenegro.

Mr. Marash Dukaj, Minister of Public Administration, delivered a welcoming speech recognizing the necessity of AI and its potential to enhance public administration, economic development, and societal progress. He highlighted AI’s ability to enrich citizens’ lives through personalized services, enhanced resource management, business process optimization, and new innovation opportunities. The Ministry of Public Administration, in partnership with the World Bank through the BEST project, is set to develop a strategic roadmap for AI adoption in Montenegro.

Dr. Keegan McBride, lecturer in AI, Government, and Policy at the Oxford Internet Institute, outlined essential AI concepts for public sector implementation. Barbara Ubaldi, Head of the Digital Government and Data Unit at OECD, shared valuable insights from AI strategies in OECD countries, highlighting various public sector AI applications, and lessons learned. AI expert, Varun Hemachandran presented practical examples of AI in government contexts, while Divya Siddarth, Executive Director of the Collective Intelligence Project, stressed the critical role of stakeholder engagement in AI development.

Participants engaged in working groups and brainstorming sessions focused on envisioning a national AI strategy, creating building blocks for AI governance, and addressing potential challenges in administrative services, tax policies, and digital health. The conference provided a dynamic platform for discussing strategic, transparent, and responsible approaches to AI integration in the public sector, fostering valuable knowledge, insights and networking opportunities to advance Montenegro’s AI agenda.

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Fortissimo’s ten-year mission continues: the FFplus project launches the first open call for small and medium-sized enterprises and startups worth 24 million euros!

The Montenegrin National Center of Competence in High Performance Computing (NCC Montenegro) invites Montenegrin companies to take advantage of the unique opportunity to improve their business using advanced HPC technologies and artificial intelligence and apply for the FFplus call for business experiments and innovative studies. NCC Montenegro, as a center that coordinates initiatives in the field of HPC at the national level, will provide support in the assessment of the company’s readiness for HPC and AI, but also in the selection of EuroHPC JU resources and in finding partners in accordance with expertise and potential.

FFplus is a European initiative that highlights and promotes the adoption of High Performance Computing (HPC) by SMEs and start-ups across Europe. The scope of targeted actions includes solving business challenges through computer methods (modeling and simulation, data analytics) on HPC systems, as well as the use of supercomputer resources for the development of software solutions and (generative) artificial intelligence (AI) services.

With more than a decade long history and a strong reputation in Europe, the Fortissimo projects (Fortissimo 1 and 2, FF4EuroHPC) received a budget of 42.8 million euros and successfully performed more than 130 experiments involving more than 300 partners. These efforts have resulted in 120 success stories from over 20 EU countries, where SMEs have developed new products and services with the help of high-performing computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence, thereby boosting the EU economy. Building on the methods and achievements of the Fortissimo project series, the FFplus call, with a total budget of EUR 30.0 million, including EUR 24.0 million for SMEs and startups, will continue to support and empower SMEs and startups towards innovations.

SMEs and start-ups now have the opportunity to convey their innovative potential through two types of open calls of the FFPlus project (open until September 4th, 2024):

  • Business experiments will address HPC adoption by SMEs to address specific business challenges of SMEs that have not previously used or had no experience with HPC services.
    • The maximum request for financing per proposal is 200,000 euros. Expected duration of the experiments: a maximum of 15 months with a planned start on January 1st, 2025.
    • Per application, it is possible to have a maximum of five partners in the consortium
    • The call is intended for experiments involving innovative, agile SMEs, focused on innovations resulting from the use of advanced HPC services.
  • Innovation studies will support European SMEs and start-ups already active in the field of generative AI technology, which lack the necessary computing resources to scale up.
    • The maximum total funding for each innovation study is 300,000 euros. Expected duration of the experiments: a maximum of 10 months with a planned start on December 1st, 2024.
    • A maximum of three partners are allowed per application. There are no indirect costs.

Creating history: the first Montenegrin success story in the Fortisimo project

Within the framework of the five-day Fortissimo call, FF4EuroHPC, the consortium with the support of NCC Montenegro, which included Montenegrin partners DigitalSmart doo (coordinator), Radinović Company, Meso-Promet Franca, University of Donja Gorica, and DunavNET from Serbia, implemented a successful pilot project-experiment AIMHIGH in which partners used HPC, machine learning and IoT technology in agriculture to develop a new solution for monitoring and predicting diseases among poultry.

Are you ready for supercomputing and artificial intelligence?

Montenegrin companies that want to find out if they are ready to use supercomputers and AI technologies in their business can do so by filling out the HPC4SME company assessment tool and find out if and how the organization can benefit from free supercomputer services. Companies that are interested in carrying out the assessment and filling out the questionnaire will be additionally supported by the Montenegrin National Competence Center NCC Montenegro.

You can find the questionnaire at: https://hpc4sme.eu

For more information about the call, you can visit the website of the FFplus project: https://www.ffplus-project.eu/ or contact the Montenegrin National Competence Center (NCC Montenegro) directly at luka.filipovic@udg.edu.me or sanja.nikolic@udg.edu.me

More information about NCC Montenegro: https://eurocc.udg.edu.me/

FFplus call [eng]Download
FFplus poziv [cg]Download
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Collaboration with NCC Cyprus: A lecture on LLMs by dr Constantine Dovrolis at IT2024 (video)

Dr. Constantine Dovrolis, Director of the Center for Computational Science and Technology (CaSToRC) at The Cyprus Institute (CyI), gave an academic lecture on the Large Language Models (LLMs) at IT2024 conference co-organized by EuroCC NCC Montenegro. This was a part of collaborative efforts and initiatives between NCC Cyprus and NCC Montenegro. The lecture was attended by over 80 people at the conference. With permission of dr Dovrolis we deliver you the video from the conference here.

A great contribution from NCC Cyprus team at the IT2024 conference
Attended by over 80 people at the site
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Supercomputing info day – HPC success stories from five NCCs

NCC Spain, NCC Netherlands, NCC Slovenia, NCC Cyprus and NCC Montenegro organized collaborative” Supercomputing INFO DAY” where companies from different industries shared their experience on using HPC infrastructure which improved their products and services, optimized business workflows and elevate industry competitiveness. Participants had the opportunity to explore how they could access supercomputing resources for free and in an easily accessible manner.

Marko Lekic, Fleka CTO, company shown personalized banking software solutions and improvements using NLP and ML classification algorithm.

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AIMHiGH project presenation at NCC Cyprus Industry Day event

The Computation-based Science and Technology Research Center (CaSToRC) of The Cyprus Institute hosted a landmark “Industry Day” on Tuesday, January 16, 2024, organized within the framework of the EUROCC2 project.

During the Industry Day event , a representative from DigitalSmart Stevan Čakić from Montenegro presented the AIMHiGH project in a segment titled “Another success story from a past collaboration between industry and research.” The focus of the presentation was on how the project integrates high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) into poultry farming, creating innovative solutions for the agricultural sector. The collaboration, part of the H2020 initiative and the FF4EuroHPC application experiments, was highlighted as a prime example of successful partnership between industry and academia, driving forward technological advancement in agriculture. This concise presentation underscored the significance of collaborative efforts in bringing about cutting-edge innovations in traditional sectors.

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Online event: Artificial Intelligence and High-performance Computing for real case scenarios

SAVE THE DATE: January 29th, 11:00 AM, register for free: https://bit.ly/3tGjim3

We are organizing an online training event on Artificial Intelligence and High-performance Computing for real case scenarios. This workshop is designed for academia; scholars, researchers, students, who are interested in learning how to use AI/ML and High-performance Computing in real case scenarios. This will be achieved through five lectures featuring educators from Spain and Montenegro who will present successful case studies. This is a twinning effort by two NCCs.

Agenda for the online training by NCC Montenegro and NCC Spain
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Supercomputing Info Day

Collaborative ” Supercomputing INFO DAY” involving NCC Spain, NCC Netherlands, NCC Slovenia, NCC Montenegro and NCC Cyprus will bring together companies from different countries and different industries to share their experience on using HPC infrastructure to improve their products and services, optimize business workflows and elevate industry competitiveness. By showcasing inspirational use cases and success stories, the event aims to promote company benefits arising from supercomputing opportunities and NCC services for industry.

We are inviting you to join us on 24th of January for the online industry event and discover supercomputing possibilities and potential for your company. Registration for the event: https://eurocc-spain.res.es/supercomputing-info-day/

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