As Novac/Lea Balenovic writes on the 12th of August, 2019, after two years of hard work, sleepless nights, laboratory tests, assurances from professors that the project is feasible, then rolled up sleeves and "physicals", students of the Zagreb Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture (FSB) created their first electric car, which is also the first Croatian electric race car, and they have already tested it.
The FSB Racing Team has actually been in existence for fifteen years already, and their story began as far back as in 2004, when one of the FSB students and Formula One enthusiasts were surfing online and stumbled across the Formula Student International (FS) competition. They obtained permission to participate after painstakingly persuading professors from the faculty and the Student Association and then recruited other enthusiasts from the faculty.
Today, however, the team is no longer made up of just students of Zagreb's FSB, but also those from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER), the Faculty of Science (PMF) and more, and in total there are, says Mark Marasović, the head of marketing for that student team, about fifty of them.
''With each project comes a shift of generations. After the project is over, most students graduate and leave the team, and then mostly new, ''fresh'' people come and start working on new projects. We always try to transfer the knowledge and technical solutions from the previous cars to the next generation of students, but sometimes it's difficult to do that because with the passing of generations, parts of the knowledge is lost and students have to do a good deal of work and research to find out why something is done this way and how,'' Marasović explained, adding that the team functions like a real company that has its own hierarchy and weekly meetings.
The FSB Racing Team has seven cars behind it. More specifically, they have made five race cars, all powered by petrol engines, and for the last two, the Arctos and Strix, they also made upgraded "R" versions. In fact, every new FSB Racing Team car brings a number of improvements in comparison to the previous ones, making their vehicles lighter, made from better materials, and equipped with better driving characteristics.
But the last car that has been made by them stands out the most. The idea of developing an electric race car came from three students who also worked on the last FSB Racing Team vehicle. Although some professors were very skeptical about the possibility of developing such an ambitious project, the mere presentation of the detailed concept totally knocked them off their feet. This is a model called FSB RT06E Vulpes, which is, as the head of marketing in the team explained, the first 100 percent electric car, and they're already working on preparing a brand new one.
''In parallel with the production of Vulpes, we're working on the construction of a new car that will be compete next year and, of course, will be electric again. We plan to reduce the weight, improve some structural solutions and start developing new components that we've purchased so far,'' Marasović noted.
''All of the electronics, from the battery management system (BMS), the vehicle control units (VCUs) to the safety assemblies and steering wheel electronics, have been designed and constructed by us, and that applies to most of the mechanical parts. The parts we purchased are just the screws, nuts, tires and the like,'' stated this talented group of Croatian students whose latest car reaches a truly impressive top speed of 110 km/h, and accelerates to 100 km/h in a mere three seconds.
They have already participated with this car at FS in Austria, where they are ranked among the top ten in two categories, cost and business plan, and they're now preparing for Hungary and for the unofficial competition of teams from the region, FS Alpe Adria.
To clarify, this is a European competition that places a focus on engineering skills rather than driving skills when evaluating student cars, which is not surprising since teams come from colleges that are ''creating'' future engineers. The points to be scored are firstly in regard to the static part, such as the design report, the bill of costs, the business plan and the technical inspection, and the dynamic part.
In total, they have competed in ten competitions across the European continent, and they're particularly proud of the Silverstone competition in England which was held five years ago, when the team finished 10th in the competition with as many as 97 student teams on the course. In addition to England, they also competed in Germany, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
All of their cars, as Marasović stated, must pass a technical check to ensure safety on dynamic tests, and this is judged by judges from the likes of Formula One, among others. A key part of the project, according to the FSB Racing Team, is funding, since the entire project is funded by sponsors and donors.
Joško Rogulj, Program Director at GlobalLogic, one of the partner companies, points out that the company is open to recruiting students with whom it has collaborated, as "with this project they have also gained the experience and knowledge necessary for a real business environment."
In addition to GlobalLogic, the team was also assisted by Bosch, Auto Zubak and many others, including the world-renowned Rimac Automobili, where many members go to practice and some even get jobs there after completing their further education. Matko Skutari, a team leader who came up with the idea of making an electric car, is currently working as an intern at Rimac Automobili.
''Our members are often employed in auto industry companies, and many of them are now in leadership positionsm'' said Mark Marasović proudly.
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It's become somewhat the norm to read about the huge amounts of talent and innovative skills this country has to boast about, from incredibly sporting stars to entrepreneurs, inventors and scientists. For such a small country with a seemingly continually decreasing population, it has a lot to offer. Croatian students are among those who consistently showcase their abilities across a very wide range of skill sets and fields.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marta Duic writes on the 6th of June, 2019, talented and innovative computer game development students at Croatia's Algebra High School have launched a campaign for their interesting new product on the crowdfunding platform Indiegogo, their product, called Brawlament, was created by these students during this academic year.
The eleven-member team from this highly respected Croatian educational facility went step by step from their initial idea of their product's prototype right up to the realisation of their final product, after which they decided to take advantage of possible crowdfunding opportunities so that they could raise the necessary funds to allow for market entry and eventual commercialisation of this new Croatian game.
With the creation of this new game, the team of inventive creators wanted to revive the ''mood'' of old hits that users are nostalgic for and still very happy to play now when given the chance to.
"The team is made up of a number of game developers, and they may still be students today, but if we look at the campaign phase before the launch on Indiegogo and the campaign phase now, we can honestly say that they really are true game developers.
Our team consists of programmers, 2D and 3D artists, sound artists, and some of them also work on our social networks and websites,'' said Jurica Adamek, a computer science student and assistant in the development of computer games at Algebra.
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FSB's Zagreb student, Šime Grbić, has created an autonomous robotic car that uses compressed air and pneumatic ''muscles'' to drive, thrilling international innovators.
As Lucija Spiljak/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 26th of May, 2019, among the more than 600 innovations from 35 countries around the world at the tenth anniversary of EuroInvent, the largest European innovation exhibition recently held in Romania, excellent success has been achieved by Zagreb student Šime Grbić, a young innovator and student FSB Zagreb, otherwise from the Dalmatian city of Zadar, who won six medals for his project of a vehicle powered by pneumatic ''muscles''.
This year he enrolled at Zagreb's FSB to head in the direction of Mechatronic Engineering and Robotics, and the backbone of his final work on his undergraduate studies was the subject of the designing and driving of pressurised vehicles. His mentor prof.dr. Željko Šitum recognised the potential of the project and encouraged Šime to partake in EuroInvent, which turned out to be a significant and unprecedented success. In this paper, the innovator points out, the knowledge gained during his studies was well applied, and Grbić was particularly interested in the development of robotics and autonomous vehicles.
''Given the fact that I come from a working family, I'd always helped my dad out in the garage by repairing various machines, so I came into contact with practical design and learned a lot because there was no opportunity for practical work in school," this successful Zagreb student stated. This was his first appearance at an international show and as such, his first prize. "I was helped out by my mentor, the company Festo, which donated components for making it, FSB Zagreb's Mechatronic Association, and my parents and my girlfriend who boosted my morale and sometimes financial support," Šime said.
This innovative Zagreb student returned from EuroInvent with many medals, and the top of the top is the gold medal of EuroInvent. His vehicle powered by pneumatic muscles is the model of an autonomous vehicle or a mobile robot that uses compressed air for its start up and running. The air is controlled by its valves in its pneumatic muscles, which, by their contraction, rotate the crankshaft of the vehicle and thus drive the vehicle.
"The rotation is solved by the help of a linear pneumatic stepper motor, which is a new type of pneumatic actuator proposed by a professor from the University of Twente in the Netherlands, which has enabled us to have a proper geometry of turning and rotating the vehicle's interior and exterior wheels,'' Šime states. As compressed pressure is used for the drive, the vehicle is also more environmentally friendly because it has no harmful emissions.
"The application can be part of a hybrid vehicle or as a mobile robot for inspection in explosive atmospheres where sparking can lead to ignition or explosion," says Grbić. Mobile pneumatic robots are relatively new in the world of robotics, but he believes that there is plenty of room for further development and progress.
"For the time being, these vehicles are mostly found as experimental setups and as a visualisation of engineering know-how and skills, just as there is in the field of mobile robotics and pneumatic robots as a whole, there is still room for improvement, but also for further application and for use,'' the talented Zagreb student states.
His car is now nearing completion, and further upgrade is said to be expected in the software industry where he would like to add some functions like a remote control, so it isn't only autonomous.
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Click here for the original article by Lucija Spiljak for Poslovni Dnevnik
As VLM/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 20th of May, 2019, two respected Croatian newspapers, Večernji list and Poslovni dnevnik, in cooperation with the University of Zagreb and the Faculty of Economics in Zagreb, are set to organise a round table entitled Future in Croatia and a ''time travelling'' exhibition through Večernji list's history.
After successful events already held in Osijek, Koprivnica, Rijeka, Zadar and Split, Zagreb will now play host to this national action launched by the Vecernji list group with the ultimate goal of retaining young educated people here in Croatia in the face of continuing and concerning negative demographic trends.
The event will be opened by Večernji list's Andrea Borošić, Prof. dr. sc. Lorena Škuflić and Prof. dr. sc. Damir Boras.
The Zagreb roundtable will discuss the vital importance of the retention of young and educated people here in the Republic of Croatia, and will be attended by numerous significant figures from across the spectrum of both politics and science in Croatia who have succeeded in standing out in their respective fields.
The first part of the program will conclude with the official opening of Večernji list's exhibition "We've been together for 60 years", which, through interesting and interactive content, will present the rich history of Croatia's media leader, along with an introductory speech from the curator.
At the very end of the program, an interactive forum will be held during which a student contest in writing projects will presented, and the present Večernji list group will reward the excellence of Croatian students.
Guests will be Podravka's dr. Sc. Jasmina Ranilović, PLIVA's Blagica Petrovac Šikić, UVI eSports d.o.o.'s Marko Komerički and the directors and founders of the company Hodajuće reklama Tino Vrbanović and Ante Starčević, who will present their encouraging and successful business ventures and projects which have been realised here in Croatia to all those gathered there.
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Click here for the original article by VLM on Poslovni Dnevnik
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 17th of May, 2019, the regional student competition, held at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing in Zagreb, marked the completion of the SIM (P) ATIC PLC + Challenge 2019 project.
This project, initiated by the student association EESTEC and supported by the faculties of electrical engineering in Croatia, Slovenia and Serbia, as well as by no less than Siemens, provides the region's young future engineers with a more detailed insight into the issues that engineers usually encounter in industrial automation in order to better prepare for such work out there in the real world.
Three winning teams, one from each country, as well as the overall regional winner were selected. The winning team from Croatia consists of Karlo Hercigonja, Ivan Ratković and Nikola Benazić from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing in Zagreb, from Slovenia, the winners were Urban Aravs, Jernej Štremfelj and Tina Vindiš from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Ljubljana, and from Serbia, the team consists of Uroš Rakonjac, Petar Kovačević and Dejan Bogdanović from the University of Electrical Engineering in the Serbian capital of Belgrade. The regional winner of the competition is the team from Zagreb, Croatia.
Namely, the SIM (P) ATIC PLC + Challenge 2019 competition started back at the beginning of April with theoretical part of the workshop, where university lecturers from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering from Zagreb, Belgrade and Ljubljana held lectures otherwise not covered by the curriculum. In the next phase, the student teams solved the task by which the best two teams in the country qualified for the regional final in Zagreb. Within this competition finale, the finalists presented their respective solutions of the additional part of the task. Each team had ten minutes available to them for their presentations and five minutes to answer the questions from panel members.
Significant knowledge in the field of industrial automation was also demonstrated by other teams, all judged by a panel consisting of three experts from each country.
Each member of the panel evaluated teams from neighbouring countries in the categories of the quality of the created program and their presentation skills. The Croatian members of the panel were prof. dr. sc. Igor Erceg (FER), mr. Sc. Tomislav Pavić (A & C Automation Adria) and B.Sc. Marko Bunić (Siemens), while from Slovenia and Serbia, there were two university professors and one Siemens representative.
"This competition is an excellent example of synergy between faculties, students and economics. Siemens wants to support projects that encourage the development of professional and practical knowledge of future engineers from this area because we're also strategically focused on the areas of automation and digitisation, which were the cornerstone of this competition,'' said Medeja Lončar of Siemens at the award ceremony.
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As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 23rd of March, 2019, Business Matchmaker, organised by the eSTUDENT student association and the Office for consulting and career development at Zagreb's Faculty of Economics, will be held on the 26th of March this year at Zagreb's Faculty of Economics (Trg JF Kennedy 6), beginning at 9:00. The completion of the official part is expected to be at 15:00.
This innovative project allows students to personally present themselves in a short four minute selection interview to a group of desired companies. Interviews will be held in the halls of the faculty, and the continuation of the meeting and greeting, to which all participants are invited, will be in "Kefi" after 15:00 that same day.
Business Matchmaker is an event which resembles the speed dating principle and is intended for EFZG students to represent themselves to their potential employers. After the interview, employers and students will evaluate each other and the best students can then expect another round of interviews, where they will be able to learn more and find out more about employment opportunities in their desired companies.
In this interesting and useful way, students on the lookout for an employment position are able to properly develop their self-presentation skills and get to know how the labour market works firsthand. This year's Business Matchmaker will see the participation of as many as 21 companies divided into five different groups.
Lucija Matašin shared her personal experience of last year's Business Matchmaker and what it did for her career-wise:
"By participating in Business Matchmaker, I got a student job, which is honestly everything but ''student'' style. Along with that [I got] a great reference for my CV and a lot of motivation and courage to make it easier to deal with stress in similar situations in the future. I met the people from the company, which I might once meet again, because the world is really small and who knows where I'll be tomorrow, and maybe I'll bump into some of these people again on my way. This eSTUDENT initiative and the Office for consulting and career development really provide EFZG students with something they don't get through their classes.''
The companies participating in the project are 24sata, Addiko Bank, Atlantic Grupa (Group), ATOS, British American Tobacco, Croatia Osiguranje (Insurance), Deloitte, DIV Group, EC, INA, Kaufland, King ICT, KPMG, L'Oreal Adria, mStart, Philip Morris Zagreb, Samsung, SofaScore, Syskit, Talentarium and Zagrebačka banka.
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As Lucija Spiljak/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 14th of January, 2019, despite the continuing problems on Croatia's labour market and the mass exodus of the country's talented youth, Croatian students and student associations have some truly valuable projects which showcase real effort, work, and common proactivity with the hope for prosperity, survival and finding employment. Among them is eSTUDENT, the most active Croatian student association founded back in 2004 under the initiative of proactive students and assistants, with the wish that the association and its members become initiators of change, gain practical experience and develop a network of knowledge.
Students lead the association, its projects and its various initiatives, and their goal is, among other things, to provide additional education to other students with a variety of grants, projects, and study quality enhancement. Today, the association is made up of students from the University of Zagreb and other institutions of higher education, with more than 300 members, and each year the association organises more than twenty projects involving thousands of students from across the Republic of Croatia and the wider region. They also launched the Starter project with which, unlike classical student services, work finds the students.
"This involves state-of-the-art technology and programming solutions which have enabled us to send a job offer directly to via email to every student looking for an internship or for employment. Starter's application is free, fast and simple, it provides direct access to excellent jobs, practices and scholarships,'' explained Julija Puškar, the coordinator of Starter at eSTUDENT. They began with the Starter project to link proactive Croatian students to employment programs for the best companies operating across the Republic of Croatia.
"The Starter system is a platform which delivers ads to students, depending on their personal preferences, more specifically to a specific target group of students, many companies send their ads to our system, and members of eSTUDENT who are actively working on the system will forward ads to a particular student group on a daily basis. You just choose the type of ad you want to receive - practice, internship, part time jobs, full time jobs, and the so on.
So, Starter helps students out and makes it easier for them to look for internships or jobs, while allowing companies to search for the best candidates for certain jobs,'' explains Puškar. The first step sees the company send an advertisement to Starter, this ad is then passed on to students with specific interests, and then applications go directly to the employer.
Active members of the Starter team then review the application for the particular ad before submitting the application. There is also the possibility to receive advice on how to improve an application before submitting it to a business or company. In the academic year 2017/2018, the Starter system received more than 350,000 emails and has more than 3,500 active members. The eSTUDENT Student Association is also conducting several projects including Moot Court Croatia, App Start Contest, Case Study Competition, Elektroboj, Mozgalo, Smartup, and Vizionar.
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Click here for the original article by Lucija Spiljak for Poslovni Dnevnik
As of 2016/17, there were 770 Croatian students attending university in the United Kingdom, a figure which is over three times higher than three years before when just 255 Croats were studying in the United Kingdom.
Despite the fact that the international application and enrollment load has been flattened in recent years when it comes to the UK’s higher education system, the number of talented foreign students willing to get a British degree remains high. Moreover, there are students coming from particular countries who, over the past few years have intensified their presence within British universities.
Shedding light on official statistics, Studying-in-UK.org revealed that Croatian students are in that category. Following their country’s accession to the European Union back in 2013, the number of Croatian students attending UK universities increased largely on a year-on-year basis.
According to these statistics, last year, British universities were home to 770 Croatian citizens, which, when compared to three years previously, was more than three times higher.
Statistics from 2013/14, on the other hand, show that during that year there were 255 Croatians enrolled in UK universities. Moreover, in the previous year, there was not a single Croatian citizen studying in the UK.
Universities in England are home to the majority of these students. Out of 770 Croatian students in the UK, 645 of them were attending an English university as opposed to 85 students in Scotland, and 40 students in Wales. In Northern Ireland, on the other hand, there were only five Croatian students attending university who were enrolled during the 2015/16 academic year.
The number of Croatian students in British universities by constituent country (Northern Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales) over the past several years is shown on the table below for the time period 2013/14 – 2016/17.
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Devastating statistics for Croatia's future.
Student enrolment in Croatia. A look at the coming year.