Twinning action for spreading excellence in Artificial Intelligence of Things

AIoTwin project coordinator Prof. Ivana Podnar Žarko gave a presentation on " Artificial Intelligence for Internet of Things Devices " at the First Croatian Symposium on Artificial Intelligence organized by the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (HAZU) on 21 November 2023. She highlighted the new concept of Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) , which brings artificial intelligence into our physical environment and removes the boundaries between the physical and digital worlds. This new concept is being explored by the AIoTwin consortium to find new opportunities and solutions for device intelligence and autonomy in the physical environment. The presentation (in Croatian) is available on the symposium website: https://www.hrui.org/program .

Laboratorij za Internet stvari FER-a ima otvoreno radno mjesto doktoranda (istraživača) na period od 2 godine za rad na istraživačkom projektu AIoTwin – Twinning action for spreading excellence in Artificial Intelligence of Things. AIoTwin je projekt financiran iz programa Obzor Europa za širenje izvrsnosti u primjeni umjetne inteligencije za Internet stvari. Okuplja istraživače s tri europska sveučilišta (FER, Tehničko sveučilište u Beču i Tehničko sveučilište u Berlinu) i jednog istraživačkog instituta ( RISE , Švedska). Nudi mogućnost kraćeg usavršavanja na navedenim institucijama i suradnje s vodećim europskim znanstvenicima uz značajni razvoj kompetencija i karijera mladih znanstvenika. Što nudimo? rad na primjeni raspodijeljenih algoritama i umjetne inteligencije za rješenja iz područja Interneta stvari iskustvo sudjelovanja u projektu financiranom iz programa Obzor Europa suradnju s vrhunskim znanstvenicima vodećih europskih institucija mogućnost kratkoročnog usavršavanja na odabranoj instituciji u trajanju do 2 mjeseca stjecanje potrebnih akademskih vještina i kompetencija za samostalnu znanstvenu karijeru motivirajuće i kompetitivno radno i laboratorijsko okuženje Što tražimo? kandidata koji je završio diplomski studij (ili će ga uskoro završiti) iz područja računarstva ili elektrotehnike znanje iz područja strojnog/dubokog učenja i komunikacijskih mreža programski jezici Java i/ili Python izvrsnog korisnika engleskog jezika u govoru i pismu motiviranog kandidata za rad u međunarodnom istraživačkom timu fokusiranog na postizanje zadanih projektnih ciljeva Zainteresirani kandidati mogu se prijaviti slanjem kratkog životopisa voditeljici projekta prof. dr. sc. Ivani Podnar Žarko na email ivana.podnar@fer.hr .

On Saturday, November 25, 2023, the Open Doors Day of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER) took place and attracted numerous visitors. This event offered the public, especially high-school students, the opportunity to explore the study programmes available at FER and learn about the ongoing research projects. Numerous departments and laboratories showcased their work, including the Internet of Things Laboratory . Assistants Ivan Kralj , Katarina Mandarić , Ivan Čilić , Dora Kreković , and Mislav Has presented the recently completed IoT-field project, which encompasses a comprehensive IoT solution from sensors through an interoperable platform to a user application for monitoring crops and meteorological conditions in the field. Attention was also drawn to the urban garden set up in the FER courtyard and the quantity of the harvest. Visitors were particularly interested in the involvement of students in projects, and it was emphasized that, over the course of more than 3.5 years of the IoT-field project, students were actively engaged, resulting in a significant number of group projects, as well as undergraduate and graduate theses. In addition to IoT-field, we presented the AIoTwin project, highlighting our collaboration with technical universities in Vienna and Berlin, as well as the RISE research center in Sweden. A new concept, the Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) , was introduced and explained. AIoT brings artificial intelligence into our physical environment and removes the boundaries between the physical and digital worlds, opening up new possibilities for device intelligence and autonomy in the physical environment. Furthermore, assistants shared their experiences and impressions from their undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral studies with the visitors, mostly high school seniors and eighth-grade elementary school students. This Open Doors Day of FER has, traditionally, proven to be extremely informative, contributing to the promotion of studies and science. More photos from the event can be found below.

Are you interested in applying for a postdoctoral research fellowship in the field of AI and IoT or distributed systems in general? Candidates with a PhD degree can apply for a scholarship (EUR 3,625.00 per month, non-taxable) granted by the Croatian Science Foundation . Only citizens of the EU or a country associated with the Horizon Europe program can apply. A postdoc would work at FER under the supervision of Prof. Ivana Podnar Žarko , the AIoTwin coordinator, as a member of the IoTLab within the Twinning project - AIoTwin - funded by the Horizon Europe program from June 1, 2024 to December 31, 2025 (exact dates are flexible). The Croatian Science Foundation is accepting applications for this position until December 1. Contact Prof. Ivana Podnar Žarko < ivana.podnar@fer.hr> as soon as possible if you are interested.

The 1st AIoTwin Summer School was a 3-day event held at the historic St. John’s Fortress in Šibenik, Croatia, September 4-7, 2023. The event brought together participants from academia, both renowned experienced researchers and PhD students, to exchange ideas and learn about the latest advances at the intersection of AI and IoT. The summer school was organized by the AIoTwin consortium, a Horizon Europe project that aims to strengthen research and innovation excellence in AIoT in Croatia and other EU Member States.  Key highlights from the Summer School include:  Keynotes by Petar Šolić on alternative sensing, Danh Le Phuoc on using knowledge graphs to build perceptual IoT systems, Thiemo Voigt on the road to in body and battery-free IoT, and Alexander Artikis on complex event recognition.  Tutorials on LPWA protocols, the IMUNES network emulator for performance evaluation of edge deployments, orchestration aspects in distributed computing continuum systems, decentralized graph mining, successful PhD journey, and proposal writing and evaluation of collaborative Horizon Europe projects.  Hands-on sessions on federated learning for IoT edge devices using a small cluster of Jetson Nano and Xavier devices (specially transported from Berlin to Šibenik!) to jointly train models without sharing raw data, and on the framework for creating high-level Service Level Objectives (SLOs) to enforce them in cloud and edge environments.  PhD poster and pitch session where PhD students presented their research on a variety of innovative topics.  The event provided a valuable opportunity for participants to network with other experts in the field and to be inspired to pursue careers in AIoTwin research and development.  The AIoTwin consortium is committed to organizing future summer schools and other events to promote research and innovation in AIoT.

After the successful completion of the 1st AIoTwin Summer School, the AIoTwin Consortium held the Plenary Meeting in Šibenik on Friday, September 8, 2023 . The work package leaders presented the status of activities in their work packages, reviewed the achieved KPIs and set the plans for the following period until the end of 2023. Here are some highlights: one short-term staff exchange was successfully completed, another is still planned until the end of 2023 two short-term trainings were successfully organized in 2023 one expert visit is planned for October/November 2023 the first summer school has achieved all set objectives all 4 Research Domains were covered by the project activities, with a strong focus on RD1 and RD2 two joint conference publications and one joint journal publication are planned and on their way. We are looking forward to the new project results!

The first PhD forum within the scope of the AIoTwin project was held as a part of the 1st AIoTwin Summer School in Šibenik from September 4th to September 7th, 2023. 11 PhD students actively participated and presented their research topics and the results obtained within their doctoral studies through the short pitch-talk presentations. Afterwards, the participants had the opportunity to discuss their research ideas and contributions with other participants and senior researchers from the AIoTwin consortium at the poster session.

We are thrilled to announce that the final program for the 1st AIoTwin Summer School is now available! The programme includes four keynote lectures, six comprehensive tutorials and two intensive hands-on workshops. In addition, we are organizing a boat trip and a visit to the St. Nicholas' Fortress , which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Programme Details : https://www.aiotwin.eu/_download/repository/SummerSchool2023-DetailedProgram-v1.pdf The AIoTwin Consortium is looking forward to this exciting learning journey at the intersection of the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence.

We call for doctoral students to participate in the PhD Forum organised as part of the 1st AIoTwin Summer School in Šibenik, Croatia on September 6, 2023. The PhD Forum offers doctoral students the opportunity to present their work and discuss the details of their original contribution with top academics – professors and senior researchers working in the field of IoT and AI - from leading European universities. The aim is also to encourage interaction and networking between doctoral students from different universities.  Deadline for submission of Extended Abstracts: August 25, 2023 Further information about the PhD Forum and particpation is available here . And all information (programme, venue, registration) about the 1st AIoTwin Summer School can be found here .

Berlin, Germany - TU Berlin hosted a highly successful two-day hands-on workshop on Knowledge Graphs, AI Models with VisionKG, and Learning on Edge Devices with Flower from June 19 to June 20, 2023 . Participants from FER-Unizg, TU Wien, and TU Berlin gained valuable insights into the latest advancements and practical applications of these technologies.