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10th International Conference on Polymer Materials in the Automotive Industry – PMA 2025 and the 26th Slovak Rubber Conference

10th International Conference on Polymer Materials in the Automotive Industry – PMA 2025 and the 26th Slovak Rubber Conference

The prestigious scientific conference PMA & SRC 2025, focused on polymer materials in the automotive industry and rubber research, was held at Smolenice Castle from May 21 to 23, 2025. Among the speakers was Lucia Malíčková from the National Supercomputing Centre (NSCC Slovakia) and the National Competence Centre for High-Performance Computing (NCC for HPC).

In her presentation titled “Computational Modelling and High Performance Computing Driven Innovation in the Development of Polymeric Materials in the Context of the European Competence Centre Framework”, she introduced the potential of high-performance computing (HPC) in the modelling and development of innovative polymeric materials. She also emphasized the importance of collaboration within the European network of competence centres for HPC.

Participation in the event strengthened the connection between the industrial and academic sectors and highlighted the growing importance of HPC solutions for sustainable materials development in the context of the circular economy and innovations in the automotive sector.

The conference proceedings, which also include the contribution by Lucia Malíčková..

Building International Cooperation in HPC: Visit to ITER Tenerife and Teide HPC 17 Jul - At the beginning of July 2025, Lucia Malíčková, representative of the National Supercomputing Centre (NSCC) and the National Competence Centre for High-Performance Computing (NCC for HPC), had the opportunity to visit the renowned technological and research institution ITER – Instituto Tecnológico y de Energías Renovables, S.A. on the island of Tenerife. As part of the working visit, she met with the center’s director Carlos Suarez and Jesús Rodríguez Alamo to discuss opportunities for establishing cooperation in the field of high-performance computing (HPC), research, development, and innovation using advanced technological infrastructures.
Meeting with Michal Valko, expert on large language models 15 Jul - The National Supercomputing Centre and the National Competence Centre for HPC, represented by Lucia Malíčková, met with prominent Slovak scientist Michal Valko, who is among the world’s leading experts in artificial intelligence and machine learning. They discussed opportunities for future collaboration, with a particular focus on leveraging Slovakia’s HPC capacities to support advanced research in large language models and algorithms that require minimal human feedback.
Data, Theology and HPC: A Collaboration Seeking Paths to Understanding 8 Jul - Continuing our collaboration with the Faculty of Theology at Trnava University! The National Supercomputing Centre (NSCC) and the National Competence Centre for HPC will continue their collaboration with the Faculty of Theology at Trnava University in 2025. Following a successful joint study that demonstrated the potential of artificial intelligence and high-performance computing in the analysis of religious texts, representatives of both institutions met again to identify new areas and opportunities for future joint projects.
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Recording of the Webinar: Use of HPC at the Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute

Recording of the Webinar: Use of HPC at the Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute

Thank you to everyone who attended the expert online lecture Use of HPC at the Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute, led by Mgr. Mária Derková, PhD., from the Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute.

The lecture provided insights into how the Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute (SHMÚ) has been using the high-performance computing system NEC-LX (in operation since 2021), primarily for numerical weather prediction with the ALADIN model. Various configurations of the model and its broader applications were presented – including climatological and hydrological models, as well as models for air quality analysis and forecasting. The presentation also covered the processing of data from radars and satellites, along with a discussion on the potential for expanding HPC use to nowcasting, ensemble forecasting, and AI/ML techniques.

Building International Cooperation in HPC: Visit to ITER Tenerife and Teide HPC 17 Jul - At the beginning of July 2025, Lucia Malíčková, representative of the National Supercomputing Centre (NSCC) and the National Competence Centre for High-Performance Computing (NCC for HPC), had the opportunity to visit the renowned technological and research institution ITER – Instituto Tecnológico y de Energías Renovables, S.A. on the island of Tenerife. As part of the working visit, she met with the center’s director Carlos Suarez and Jesús Rodríguez Alamo to discuss opportunities for establishing cooperation in the field of high-performance computing (HPC), research, development, and innovation using advanced technological infrastructures.
Meeting with Michal Valko, expert on large language models 15 Jul - The National Supercomputing Centre and the National Competence Centre for HPC, represented by Lucia Malíčková, met with prominent Slovak scientist Michal Valko, who is among the world’s leading experts in artificial intelligence and machine learning. They discussed opportunities for future collaboration, with a particular focus on leveraging Slovakia’s HPC capacities to support advanced research in large language models and algorithms that require minimal human feedback.
Data, Theology and HPC: A Collaboration Seeking Paths to Understanding 8 Jul - Continuing our collaboration with the Faculty of Theology at Trnava University! The National Supercomputing Centre (NSCC) and the National Competence Centre for HPC will continue their collaboration with the Faculty of Theology at Trnava University in 2025. Following a successful joint study that demonstrated the potential of artificial intelligence and high-performance computing in the analysis of religious texts, representatives of both institutions met again to identify new areas and opportunities for future joint projects.
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Slovak Language in the Era of Large Language Models (with the Support of the Leonardo Supercomputer)

Slovak Language in the Era of Large Language Models (with the Support of the Leonardo Supercomputer)


You are warmly invited to a joint webinar on language modeling, organized by the National Competence Centres for HPC in Slovakia and Italy.  The rise of large language models (LLMs), which require vast amounts of training data, initially put users of low-resource languages at a disadvantage.

As part of our project, we are working to overcome this barrier for the Slovak language through several strategies that may also offer methodological insights for other low-resource languages:

  • Generating Bilingual Datasets: Using a carefully curated database of professionally edited Slovak books, we employ the LLaMA 3.3 70B Instruct model to translate texts into English and then back into Slovak. This process allows us to create two datasets—one for training a compact open-source model for English-to-Slovak translation, and another for improving the quality of machine-translated Slovak.
  • Summarizing Scientific Texts: Using Gemini Flash Experimental and the PLOS scientific database, we generate summaries of scientific articles in Slovak. This dataset supports the training of Slovak LLMs in the area of specialized scientific terminology.
  • Enhancing Cultural Context: Although models like DeepSeek and ChatGPT perform relatively well in Slovak, they struggle with culturally specific and contextual topics related to Slovakia. We plan to synthesize texts from Slovak sources to create a dataset that fills this gap.

Date and Time: June 11, 2025, 10:00 – 11:00 CEST
Venue: online
Language:   English
Speaker: Marek Dobeš
Co-authors: Radovan Garabík and Peter Bednár
Registration

Our aim is to mitigate the data scarcity for the Slovak language and enhance the performance of LLMs in terms of linguistic accuracy, scientific discourse, and cultural relevance. We believe that the approaches explored in this case study may inspire similar efforts for other low-resource languages.

This research is conducted on high-performance infrastructure — specifically, the Slovak national supercomputer Devana and. Leonardo one of Europe’s most powerful supercomputers operated by Cineca in Italy. These platforms enable us to process multilingual datasets, train models at scale, and test advanced LLM techniques with resource efficiency.

Although our case study focuses on Slovak, the methods and tools we are developing are broadly applicable to other underrepresented languages around the world. We warmly invite collaborators from all countries — not only from Central Europe or Italy, but from any region where a lack of language data poses a barrier to AI development. Our project demonstrates how European collaboration and shared use of supercomputing resources can open up new possibilities for inclusive, multilingual language modeling — especially for countries that have so far had limited opportunities to contribute to the creation of multilingual language models.

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Bilateral Meeting of National Competence Centres for HPC from the Czech Republic and Slovakia: Strengthening Cross-Border Cooperation

Bilateral Meeting of National Competence Centres for HPC from the Czech Republic and Slovakia: Strengthening Cross-Border Cooperation


Dňa 28. mája 2025 sa v Bratislave uskutočnilo pracovné stretnutie zástupcov Národných kompetenčných centier pre vysokovýkonné počítanie (NCC) zo Slovenska a Českej republiky, ktoré sa stretli s cieľom prehĺbiť spoluprácu v rámci projektu EuroCC 2 (Grant Agreement 101101903) a koordinovať ďalšie spoločné aktivity v oblasti vysokovýkonného počítania (HPC) v stredoeurópskom regióne.

Za slovenskú stranu sa stretnutia zúčastnili Lucia Malíčková a Halyna Hyryavets. Českú republiku reprezentovali Tomáš Karásek a Kateřina Beranová z EuroCC Czech Republic, zastupujúci IT4Innovations – Národné superpočítačové centrum ČR.

Lucia Malíčková, Tomáš Karásek, Halyna Hyryavets a Kateřina Beranová

During the intensive discussions, the partners focused primarily on current challenges and opportunities in the field of international cooperation, with particular attention given to:

  • the exchange of best practices in reaching target audiences,
  • the organization of joint training sessions and activities for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs),
  • the sharing of successful case studies (“success stories”) and the preparation of their coordinated presentation,
  • the planning of joint cross-border events.

The meeting also contributed to the alignment of communication and dissemination strategies of both centres, with the aim of enhancing the effectiveness of outreach regarding the benefits of high-performance computing among both expert and general audiences. The participants appreciated the opportunity for an in-person meeting, which helped strengthen inter-institutional ties and opened up new areas of potential collaboration.

EuroCC Slovakia a EuroCC Czech Republic deklarovali záujem o pokračovanie spoločných iniciatív, ktorých cieľom je systematicky rozvíjať kompetencie v oblasti HPC a posilňovať regionálnu synergiu medzi národnými centrami v rámci európskeho HPC ekosystému.

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Artificial Intelligence in Business: Trends, Tools, and Practical Applications

Artificial Intelligence in Business: Trends, Tools, and Practical Applications


On May 20, 2025, an expert lecture titled “Artificial Intelligence in Business – Trends, Tools, and Practical Use” was held at Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra. The event aimed to present the possibilities of applying artificial intelligence (AI) in the environment of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and to support their digital transformation through the use of high-performance computing (HPC). The event was organized by the Union of Slovak Clusters. The content of the lecture focused on current trends in the field of AI, the presentation of specific tools and technologies, as well as practical examples of their application in business practice.

Lucia Malíčková

The discussion also addressed the challenges and opportunities that AI presents for small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as the possibilities for effectively implementing solutions based on high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure. One of the main speakers was Lucia Malíčková, who represented the National Supercomputing Centre (NSCC) and the National Competence Centre for High-Performance Computing (NCC for HPC). In her presentation, she outlined specific examples of AI applications across various sectors, as well as the services and support that NSCC and NCC provide to companies in adopting innovative and digital solutions. She also emphasized the opportunities for Slovak enterprises to engage in European initiatives related to AI and supercomputing.

The event took place within the framework of the BrAIn project – Bringing Artificial Intelligence towards SMEs, which is funded by the Interreg Danube Region Programme. The project supports digitalization and innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises across the Danube region by facilitating knowledge transfer in the field of artificial intelligence.

The National Supercomputing Centre (NSCC), together with the National Competence Centre for High-Performance Computing (NCC for HPC), provides professional support, consulting services, and access to advanced technologies for businesses interested in leveraging artificial intelligence and high-performance computing. This assistance enables companies to implement innovative solutions effectively. These institutions also organize expert events, workshops, and tailored consultations focused on addressing the specific needs of small and medium-sized enterprises during their digital transformation journey.

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FF+ and the NCC for HPC: Supporting Innovation through High-Performance Computing 

FF+ and the NCC for HPC: Supporting Innovation through High-Performance Computing 


During the international conference Austrian-Slovenian HPC Meeting 2025 (ASHPC25), held from May 19 to 22, 2025, in Rimske Terme, Slovenia, representatives of the Slovak National Competence Centre for High-Performance Computing (NCC for HPC) met with Tina Črnigoj, dissemination and promotion coordinator of the Future Factories Plus (FF+) project. The meeting provided a valuable opportunity for expert discussion and the exchange of perspectives on connecting national digitalisation initiatives with strategic European projects. It highlighted promising synergies between the FF+ project and the mission of the NCC for HPC in Slovakia, particularly in the areas of advanced computational performance, innovation potential, and support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) facing increasing challenges in digital transformation and competitiveness.

Božidara Pellegrini, Tina Črnigoj

FF+ is an ambitious European project aimed at accelerating digital transformation and promoting sustainability in manufacturing. The project’s goal is to connect manufacturing companies with digital innovation hubs and centres of excellence across Europe. At the same time, FF+ provides a framework for collaboration at the European level, which is essential for the effective sharing of knowledge, technologies, and best practices among EU member states.

The National Competence Centre for HPC in Slovakia has long focused on supporting industrial digitalisation through high-performance computing (HPC), artificial intelligence (AI), and data analytics. Its goal is to enable Slovak companies – including SMEs – to harness the potential of modern technologies for innovation, increased efficiency, and reduced time-to-market for research and development. In this field, the NCC for HPC has experience in implementing pilot projects, providing technological consulting, and organising tailor-made training programs.

The meeting with the FF+ team at the ASHPC25 conference represented an important step towards building bridges between national and European initiatives. Both sides agreed on the need for further coordination and the development of collaboration. Specific opportunities for synergy were identified, such as involving industrial partners in testing and applying HPC solutions, as well as exchanging data models and algorithms between research and manufacturing entities.

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NCC for HPC at ASHPC25: Strengthening European Partnerships

NCC for HPC at ASHPC25: Strengthening European Partnerships


From May 19 to 22, 2025, representatives of the Slovak National Competence Centre for High-Performance Computing (NCC for HPC) attended the prestigious international conference Austrian-Slovenian HPC Meeting 2025 (ASHPC25), held in the picturesque setting of Rimske Terme, Slovenia.

ASHPC25 is an annual event that brings together HPC experts, users, and solution providers from across Europe, offering a platform for professional exchange on the latest developments, challenges, and trends in high-performance computing. The Slovak Competence Centre for HPC was represented at the conference by Halyna Hyryavets (communication activities and international cooperation), Božidara Pellegrini (innovation support and services for the private sector), and Tomáš Kollárik (educational activities and cooperation with academia). On the very first day of the event, a meeting of the Central European Working Group took place, bringing together national HPC competence centres from Central European countries. This session provided valuable space for exchanging experiences, identifying common challenges, and fostering synergies within the EuroCC project.

During the conference, the Slovak team actively participated in several expert discussions and bilateral meetings. Božidara Pellegrini led a working session with Tina Črnigoj, dissemination coordinator of the Future Factories Plus (FF+) project, focused on identifying synergies in supporting innovation, digital transformation, and the involvement of SMEs in adopting HPC, AI, and advanced technologies. Halyna Hyryavets and Božidara Pellegrini also held discussions with Karina Pešatová, founder of the Central European Chapter of Women in HPC, exploring opportunities for future collaboration. Tomáš Kollárik established new contacts with experts and potential trainers for the upcoming educational activities of the NCC, thereby strengthening the network of professionals in the fields of HPC and data analytics.

The working groups and panel sessions addressed several current topics, including access to EuroHPC JU computing resources, improving the efficiency and availability of training services, targeted communication towards diverse user groups, and supporting companies and startups in adopting HPC and data technologies. Discussions also covered the development of the AI Factories initiative, which represents a new impulse for strengthening European capacities in the field of artificial intelligence.

Participation in the ASHPC25 conference was highly beneficial for the Slovak team. It contributed to strengthening regional and European cooperation, establishing new partnerships, and deepening expert dialogue on the importance of HPC for research, public services, and business.

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Central European Working Group in Slovenia

Central European Working Group in Slovenia


On May 19, 2025, we met with representatives of National Competence Centres for High-Performance Computing (HPC) from Central European countries. The in-person meeting of the Central European Working Group, held in Slovenia, provided us with an exceptional opportunity to exchange experiences, strengthen regional cooperation, and discuss the shared challenges and opportunities we face within the EuroCC project. We built professional relationships and engaged in constructive discussions with representatives from neighboring countries that, like Slovakia, are running their national HPC competence centres and working on their continuous development. Such meetings play an important role in shaping common approaches, identifying synergies, and sharing best practices in delivering services to users—whether they are research institutions, the public sector, or businesses.

Božidara Pellegrini, Tomáš Kollárik, Halyna Hyryavets

The National Competence Centre for HPC in Slovakia was represented at the meeting by Halyna Hyryavets, who is responsible for communication, marketing activities, and cross-border cooperation; Tomáš Kollárik, who oversees educational activities; and Božidara Pellegrini, who focuses on facilitating HPC services for the private sector and building partnerships with companies.

As part of the working discussions, we addressed several current topics. We focused on access to EuroHPC JU computing resources, discussed ways to improve training and educational services to better meet user needs, and also explored how to enhance the clarity and accessibility of information through targeted and clear communication.

An important topic of discussion was also the support for companies and startups in accessing HPC infrastructure. We shared our experiences and discussed joint initiatives at the European level. A significant part of the meeting was dedicated to the AI Factories initiative, which represents a new impetus for the development of artificial intelligence in Europe and opens up further opportunities for Slovakia – whether in terms of access to computing capacity, support for innovation, or talent development (even though an AI Factory has not yet been established in Slovakia).

We are glad to have actively contributed to the expert discussions and shared our insights and experiences, which can help further strengthen the HPC ecosystem in the region. We see such in-person meetings as extremely valuable for coordination and effective collaboration across the entire EuroCC network.

We thank the organizers for a well-prepared event and look forward to continuing our joint activities that help bring high-performance computing closer to people, businesses, and institutions across Europe.

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What Is Artificial Intelligence Capable of Today? Watch the Recording of the Webinar "Training Machines to Detect Any Object"

What Is Artificial Intelligence Capable of Today? Watch the Recording of the Webinar "Training Machines to Detect Any Object"


On May 13, 2025, a professional webinar titled Teaching Machines to See Any Object was held, organized by RNDr. Andrej Lúčny, PhD., from the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics at Comenius University in Bratislava. The lecture focused on current challenges and solutions in the field of computer vision and artificial intelligence, with particular emphasis on enabling systems to recognize objects without the need for prior categorization.

While traditional artificial intelligence models are trained to recognize objects from predefined categories (such as “dog,” “car,” or “tree”), modern research is shifting toward enabling machines to perceive any object as a distinct entity—even if that object has never appeared in the training data before. This advancement is particularly crucial in the field of robotics, where machines operate in unpredictable environments and must independently identify new and unfamiliar objects.

The lecture introduced several breakthrough technologies that make this advancement possible. The main topics included:

  • the use of the DINO model (2021), which was trained without the need for annotated data and enables a humanoid robot to direct its attention to relevant parts of a scene,
  • the use of the CUTLER model (2023) and the MaskCut method, which operates on the principle of optimizing the image's graph structure (NCut) and enables efficient object segmentation,
  • new approaches to generating precise segmentation masks using neural network learning, which improve the accuracy of object localization and shape within an image.

In addition to the technological overview, the webinar also offered practical demonstrations of how these models are applied within a robotic system. Participants had the opportunity to gain insight into the research process and understand how theoretical knowledge is put into practice—from model training to deployment in real-world environments.

The event was intended for a broad expert audience—researchers, educators, PhD candidates, students, and professionals in the fields of artificial intelligence, robotics, and computer vision. The high attendance and the number of questions during the discussion confirmed that this is a highly relevant and rapidly evolving area of research.

We thank everyone who participated in the webinar and trust that the knowledge gained will contribute to the continued advancement of research and innovation in this field.

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HPC and Artificial Intelligence: Joining Forces for the Future of Technology

HPC and Artificial Intelligence: Joining Forces for the Future of Technology


On Tuesday, May 14, 2025, we attended the PyData Slovakia & Bratislava Meetup #29, which took place in Bratislava. The gathering of the data and technology community focused on current trends in artificial intelligence, with an emphasis on understanding how large language models (LLMs) work—tools that increasingly influence various aspects of our lives, from communication and education to business operations and public administration. The keynote speaker of the evening was Radovan Kavický, President and Principal Data Scientist at the GapData Institute, who delivered an engaging talk titled “Under the Hood of LLM,” offering a compelling look into the inner workings of today’s advanced language models.

Lucia Malíčková, Radovan Kavický, Halyna Hyryavets

Participants gained deeper insights into the technical foundations of transformer architectures, including how these models process input data, generate responses, and why they are both powerful and computationally demanding. A particularly intriguing part of the presentation was the introduction of the Model Context Protocol (MCP), which offers a new approach to handling context and memory within LLM systems. MCP was compared with other methods such as Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and so-called Agent-to-Agent (A2A) protocols. These emerging methodologies highlight the direction in which LLM technologies are evolving and the potential they hold in the development of personalized chatbots, intelligent assistants, and autonomous AI agents.

Lucia Malíčková and Halyna Hyryavets represented the National Supercomputing Center (NSCC) at the event. During the meetup, Lucia Malíčková introduced the mission and activities of the NSCC, as well as the range of services the center provides to both the research community and academic institutions. She also presented the work of the National Competence Center for HPC, which supports Slovak businesses, researchers, and public institutions in transferring knowledge and innovation in the field of high-performance computing into practical use.

During the event, we also officially announced the beginning of a new collaboration aimed at connecting the artificial intelligence community with experts in high-performance computing. We believe this synergy will open up new opportunities for leveraging advanced AI technologies in areas that require significant computational power—such as training large models, running simulations, or processing complex datasets. We look forward to future joint activities and discussions that can help strengthen the link between technological infrastructure, applied research, and innovation.

The event took place in a friendly and open atmosphere, providing space for discussion, networking, and sharing experiences among participants from various fields — including data science, academia, technology companies, and startups. We would like to extend our sincere thanks to the organizers for their professional preparation and for giving us the opportunity to be part of a community that is eager to engage in conversations about the future of technology in an expert yet accessible way.

Our participation confirms that the topics of artificial intelligence and high-performance computing are becoming increasingly relevant—and increasingly interconnected—within Slovakia. We are pleased to have contributed to this important discussion and look forward to future opportunities to showcase the benefits and potential that HPC infrastructure offers for AI development and the digital transformation of society.

Lucia Malíčková