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Milana Čugalj named the best young chef of Serbia at the ‘Food Vision by Open Balkan’ competition

From November 22 to 24, as part of the ‘Wine Vision by Open Balkan’ festival, the second competition for young chefs was held – Food Vision by Open Balkan.

The top award, the title of the Best Young Chef, was won  by  Milana Čugalj , a PhD student of Gastronomy at the Department of Geography, Tourism and Hotel Management at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad.

Milana Čugalj, with the support of her assistant, successfully competed with more than 30 young and talented chefs. In a challenging competition, her task was to prepare a traditional dish in a modern way, and she decided to prepare  lamb  chop. Through exceptional creativity and professional approach, Milana won a gold medal and the title of the best young chef.

In addition to Milana, the team from the Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad consisted of three other students whose work, organization and final dishes, received numerous positive reactions from the eminent world committee of judges.

The preparations were conducted under the expert mentorship of Dr. Bojana Kalenjuk Pivarski, Goran Radivojević, Dr. Maja Paunić, as well as assistants Velibor Ivanović and Stefan Šmugović.

Congratulations to Milana Čugalj and her team on this remarkable achievement.

First three places for Serbia at the regional IT competition in Bucharest

At the   regional IT competition “ICPC SEERC 2024,”  teams from Serbia won   the first three places in the competition of 91 teams from 10 countries   and achieved the best success of our country so far, as well as a placement at the European and global level of the prestigious ICPC competition.

The 2024 Southeastern European Regional Contest was held   from 16 to 17 November in Bucharest, Romania for competitors from Albania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, North Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Türkiye, Ukraine, and Serbia.

The competition consisted of 13 tasks that had to be solved in five hours.

Students from the University of Novi Sad (Team Infinity – Tadija Šebez, Nikola Pešić, Viktor Lučić) won the first place,  the second place was taken by the students of the Faculty of Computer Science of the Union University, and the third place by the students at the University of Belgrade.

All three teams have qualified for the European level of the competition, which will take place from February 28 to March 2 next year in Portugal.

The teams of the University of Novi Sad and the Faculty of Computer Science of Union University have directly qualified for the world level of the prestigious competition, which will most likely be held in China.

Our Scientists Among the Top 2% of the Most Cited Researchers in the World Again

A new review of the top 2% most cited researchers globally, published by Stanford University (the so-called Stanford list), has been released. Faculty of Sciences professors ranked on the list for lifetime achievements are Prof. Emeritus Dr. Neda Mimica-Dukić and Prof. Dr Dušan Jakovetić, while those listed for achievements in 2023 are Prof. Emeritus Dr. Neda Mimica-Dukić, Prof. Dr Dušan Jakovetić, Assist. Prof. Dr. Stevan Armaković , Assist. Prof. Dr Sanja Armaković, and Prof. Dr Ante Vujić.

The database on which the top 2% list is based includes standardized data on citations, the h-index, adjusted hm-index by co-authorship, citations by different authorship positions, and a composite index.

Óbuda University Awarded Honorary Professorship to Ivana Štajner Papuga

The long-term collaboration of Prof. Dr. Ivana Štajner Papuga, Full Professor at the Department of Mathematics and Informatics, with colleagues from Óbuda University in Budapest, which spans for over a decade, was recognized this September with a significant award from Óbuda University. Our colleague, Prof. Dr.  Ivana Štajner Papuga, was promoted to the title of honorary professor at a ceremonial opening of the new academic year at Óbuda University in Budapest, held on September 9, 2024.

The award was confirmed by the Senate of Óbuda University, and the diploma was presented to her by the Rector, Prof. Dr. Levente Kovács. The following day, Prof. Dr. Ivana Štajner-Papuga gave a lecture titled “Three Fuzzy Problems” at a mini-symposium for laureates.

Óbuda University is one of the largest higher education institutions in Hungary, with over 12,000 students across 7 faculties in Budapest and the surrounding towns, in various fields including engineering, information technology,  sciences, economics, agriculture, and pedagogy. Founded in 2010 as the legal successor of Budapest Tech, Óbuda University has a 140-year-long history. In the 2024 world university rankings published by Times Higher Education (THE), Óbuda University ranked among the top 1,200 higher education institutions in the world, placing it in the top 4% globally.

Great Success of our Students Andrijana Bilić and Milinko Perić at GESC 2024

We are proud of our PhD students from the Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Environmental Protection, Andrijana Bilić and Milinko Perić, who won the second prize at the prestigious 2024 Global Environment Solutions Challenge, held in Shanghai, China.

The competition gathered teams from around the world to find innovative solutions to the global plastic pollution problem. Our students stood out with their creativity, knowledge, and dedication in developing the project on the topic “Self-cleaning anti-microplastic filters,” under the mentorship of Dr. Sanja Armaković.

We congratulate our team on this outstanding achievement and are proud that they represented our institution at such a high level.

This success confirms the quality of our education and the dedication of our students to solving global environmental problems.

Faculty of Sciences at the World Finals of the International Collegiate Programming Contest Programming Competition Finals (ICPC)

The team from the University of Novi Sad (with 3 out of 4 members from the Faculty of Sciences), after winning the first place in the Southeast European regional competition, participated in the 47th finals of the largest global programming competition – ICPC.

The team members were:

  • Nikola Pešić (Faculty of Sciences)
  • Viktor Lučić (Faculty of Sciences)
  • Tadija Šebez (Faculty of Technical Sciences)
  • Marko Savić, coach (Faculty of Sciences)

The finals were held in Luxor, Egypt, and included teams from 130 universities worldwide. Our University of Novi Sad team achieved an excellent result – 17th place! Furthermore, according to official criteria, they share 13th place, as teams solving the same number of tasks after 12th place are ranked equally (time penalties are not counted).

This result ranked us higher than world-renowned universities such as MIT, Kyoto University, St Petersburg University, ENS Paris, ETH Zurich, Carnegie Mellon, Oxford, Stanford, and many others.

The top 12 teams are awarded medals, and our team performed at a level worthy of a top 10 placement, but due to a minor mistake, that opportunity slipped away. Nonetheless, they truly deserved it for the effort they put into their preparation, leaving a chance to aim for a medal next year.

We are grateful to the Microsoft Development Center in Serbia and the Serbian Mathematical Society for their help and support.

Stefan Nikolić Awarded for the Best Doctoral Dissertation by the European Design and Automation Association

Assistant professor at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad, Stefan Nikolić, received on March 26, 2024, in Valencia, the award for the best doctoral dissertation in the category “New Directions in Systems Design Methods and Tools, Simulation and Validation, Embedded Software Design, and Optimization for Embedded, Cyber-Physical, Secure and Learning Systems.”

The award was presented by the European Design and Automation Association at the ceremony in the Hemisferic Center of the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia.

Nikolić’s dissertation, “Automating the Design of Programmable Interconnect for Reconfigurable Architectures,” is the result of years of research conducted during his PhD studies and as Assistant at the School of Computer and Communication Sciences, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland.

Isidora Kešelj and Milica Radaković, winners of the national scholarship “For Women in Science”

On December 25, 2023, the national awards “For Women in Science” for 2023 were awarded, and out of three, two winners are from the Faculty of Sciences. The awards were given to: Ana S. Dobrota, Isidora Kešelj and Milica Radaković.

Isidora Kešelj is Assistant Professor in the field of Animal Physiology at the Department of Biology and Ecology, and her work is based on finding solutions for male infertility.

Our focus is on men and we treat male infertility. We want to see how it can be solved and the government is supporting our research. The projects we implement are also supported by the government. In the world of science, women have their place. There are a lot of us in Serbia.

Isidora Kešelj

Milica Radaković works at the Department of Geography, Tourism and Hotel Management, dealing with climate and environmental change research, and this award will contribute to further advancement of her work.

The award means a lot to me and contributes to expanding my knowledge of science and my results even more.

Milica Radaković

The National Awards ceremony within the thirteenth cycle of the L’Oréal-UNESCO program “For Women in Science” was organized by the Ministry of Science, Technological Development and Innovation, the Commission of the Republic of Serbia for Cooperation with UNESCO and the L’Oréal Balkan company. Through this program, female scientists receive funds for the realization of their research projects (€5,000 each).

Previously, Marija Lesjak and Snežana Papović from the Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Environmental Protection, Mirjana Ćuk and Nevena Veličković from the Department of Biology and Ecology and Jelena Aleksić from the Department of Mathematics and Informatics have received this scholarship.

Six new projects financed within the PRIZMA program of the Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia

As part of the PRIZMA program, the Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia will finance 97 projects in the next three years in which 898 researchers from 91 scientific research organizations will participate. Six projects led by the Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad have been accepted for financing, of which five are in the field of science and mathematics and one is in the field of artificial intelligence:

  • “Global and local analysis of operators and distributions” (GOALS) led by Prof. Dr Nenad Teofanov
  • “LArge SCale and Distributed Optimization” (LASCADO) led by Prof. Dr Nataša Krejić
  • “Mathematical Models of Fluid Flow with Variable Viscosity” (FluidVarVisc) led by Prof. Dr Marko Nedeljkov
  • “Integration of Biological Responses and PBTK Modeling in Chemical Toxicity Assessment: A Case Study of Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA)” (ToxIN) led by Prof. Dr Nebojša Andrić
  • “Natural based efficient solution for remediation and revitalization of contaminated locations using energy crops” (ReNBES) led by Prof. Dr Snežana Maletić
  • “Graphs in Space and Time: Graph Embeddings for Machine Learning in Complex Dynamical Systems” (TIGRA) led by Prof. Dr Miloš Radovanović

New project of HORIZON EUROPE Innovation actions – “Restore4Life”

“Restoration of wetland complexes as life supporting systems in the Danube Basin (Restore4Life)” is a HORIZON EUROPE Innovation Action project in which our Department is a partner. The coordinator of this international project is Dr Mihai Adamescu, head of the research center for systemic ecology and sustainability from Romania, while the coordinator of the project for the Faculty of Sciences is Prof. Dr Dušanka Cvijanović. This project under the project name HORIZON-MISS-2022-OCEAN-01; Action: HORIZON-MISS-2022-OCEAN-01-02 will be implemented in the period from 2023 to 2027.