Grants awarded for research and development projects in the field of technical sciences

On 27  September  2021, grants were awarded for research and development projects in the field of technical sciences, within which the vice-rectors of the University of Sarajevo, Prof. Dr. Mirza Dautbašić and Prof. Dr. Tarik Zaimović hosted the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Norway H.E. Olav Reinertsen.

The University of Sarajevo, in cooperation with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), has implemented a grant scheme for research and development projects in the field of technical sciences. This activity was implemented within the project “Better Governance to Faster Economic Growth” (EGG), which UNDP is implementing in cooperation with the Government of the Kingdom of Norway.

Financial resources were available in the total amount of 120,000.00 KM, and the main focus of financing was on the application of research and development solutions in the IT industry and the automotive industry, all in order to contribute to economic development and create preconditions for creating new jobs.

During today's event, four research and development projects in the field of technical sciences were presented, which achieved the right to funding based on the results of the evaluation by UNSA and the UNDP team of evaluators:

• “Optimization of design and process parameters in the manufacture of components in the automotive industry using new technologies” (Prof. Dr. Maida Čohodar Husić, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Sarajevo);
• “Parallelized infrastructure for advanced computer simulations in engineering” (Prof. Dr. Muris Torlak, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Sarajevo);
• “Detection of horizontal traffic signs using AI methods in order to improve autonomous driving” (Prof. Dr. Emir Buza, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Sarajevo);
• “Optimized acceleration of video lectures” (Prof. Dr. Elmedin Selmanović, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, University of Sarajevo).

The basic criteria for project proposals were research grounding in scientific facts, potential for publication, as well as application in practice and in the market, and visible benefits from the industries concerned (automotive and IT industry), which may ultimately result in better competitiveness of industries and new employment.