UNIPU - News

Orientation Day for First-Year Undergraduate Students

Diego Sušanj — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 14:53:07 GMT

Orientation Day for first-year undergraduate students of the Faculty of Engineering in Pula will begin with an introductory lecture on Monday, 5 October 2026 at 10:00, in room 323.

To find room 323, enter the building through the main entrance and take the corridor to the left until you reach the stairs. Go up to the second floor; room 323 is in the corridor on the left-hand side.

Signs for the Faculty of Engineering (TFPU) rooms have also been put up in the building's corridors, so you can follow them when you arrive.

Start of Classes in the Winter Semester 2026/2027

Diego Sušanj — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 14:52:49 GMT

Winter semester classes for the 2026/2027 academic year begin on Tuesday, 6 October 2026 for undergraduate programmes. First-year undergraduate students will have an introductory lecture on Monday, 5 October 2026. Classes for graduate programmes begin on Monday, 12 October 2026. Timetables for all study programmes for the 2026/2027 winter semester are available at the link.

Assoc. Prof. Diego Sušanj, PhD, Is the New Dean of the Faculty of Engineering in Pula

Diego Sušanj — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 14:52:26 GMT

Diego Sušanj is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Engineering, Juraj Dobrila University of Pula, where he has worked since 2024. He received his PhD in computing in 2021 from the Faculty of Engineering, University of Rijeka, where he had also earned his earlier degrees in computer engineering. He built his career at the Faculty of Engineering in Rijeka, working first as a teaching assistant (2015–2021) and then as a senior teaching assistant (2021–2024), before taking up his current position in Pula.

Key points of his programme:

Developing and restructuring study programmes: moving the mechanical engineering programme from a professional to a university undergraduate programme, with possible specialisations in interdisciplinary engineering systems, automation and robotics. This also covers preparing a new electrical engineering programme and keeping the curriculum in line with labour-market needs.
Strengthening cooperation with industry and the public sector: building systematic links with industry through joint projects, student internships and applied research.
Engaging with secondary schools and the local community: promoting the Faculty among secondary-school students through school visits and open days.
Strengthening research and project activity: raising research output and success in applying for national and European projects, strengthening research groups, and encouraging interdisciplinary collaboration.
Improving student standards: a better class timetable, a coordinated schedule of midterm exams, and teaching staff who are easier to reach.

Participation in the International Conference ERK 2026

Diego Sušanj — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 14:50:58 GMT

Diego Sušanj, a member of the BioPatchNet project team, took part in the 35th International Electrotechnical and Computer Science Conference (ERK 2026), held on 24–25 September 2026 at the Bernardin Congress Centre in Portorož, Slovenia. The conference is organised by the IEEE Slovenia Section together with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Ljubljana, and other Slovenian professional societies. It brings together researchers in electronics, telecommunications, computer science, pattern recognition, biomedical engineering and related fields.

At the conference, Diego Sušanj presented the paper Amortized Sensor Placement with a Graph Neural Network, by Marina Banov, Erik Otović, Karlo Griparić and Diego Sušanj. It was given as an oral presentation in the Spatial & Environmental Vision session.

Taking part in ERK 2026 made the project's research more visible and opened up chances for further collaboration with researchers from the region in machine learning and pattern recognition. Participation was funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU through projects IIP_UNIPU_010153 and IIP_UNIPU_010148.

Participation in the International Conference IJCB 2026

Diego Sušanj — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 14:50:17 GMT

BioPatchNet project team members Diego Sušanj and Marina Banov took part in the International Joint Conference on Biometrics (IJCB 2026), held in Rome from 1 to 4 September 2026. IJCB is the world's leading biometrics conference. It brings together IEEE and IAPR researchers and is a central venue for sharing the latest scientific advances in the field.

Earlier, the project had organised and run an international competition, The Unconstrained Ear Recognition Challenge 2026. Team members prepared the challenge: they defined the evaluation protocol, prepared the data, and collected and evaluated solutions from participants around the world. The competition and the analysis of its results led to the paper presented at the conference.

At the conference, Diego Sušanj presented the paper The Unconstrained Ear Recognition Challenge 2026 – Size Matters: Ear Biometrics on Edge. It was given as an oral presentation in the competition session and also shown at the poster session, which allowed more detailed discussion with other participants and biometrics experts.

Taking part in IJCB 2026 made the project's research more visible and opened up chances for future international collaboration in biometric recognition.

Participation was funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU through project IIP_UNIPU_010148.

Participation in the DeepLearn 2026 Summer School

Diego Sušanj — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 14:49:46 GMT

Karlo Griparić, Erik Otović and Diego Sušanj took part in the 13th International Summer School on Deep Learning (DeepLearn 2026), held from 20 to 24 July 2026 in Orléans, France.

The summer school was organised by the University of Orléans and the IRDTA institute. It brought together deep learning researchers and students through lectures and workshops. Our researchers' participation helps them share knowledge and build skills in machine learning, in line with the project's research activities.

Participation was funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU through projects IIP_UNIPU_010153 and IIP_UNIPU_010148.