Gemma Lab

Last week, EUROGI (European Umbrella Organisation for Geographic Information) held its General Assembly and High-Level Experts Round Table at the GISTAM 2026 Conference in Benidorm, bringing together representatives of the European geospatial community to discuss how expanding spatial capabilities can be translated into trusted public infrastructure.

We are proud to share that during the General Assembly, Prof. Dr. Domen Mongus was elected to the EUROGI Executive Committee. This appointment recognises his contribution to the European geospatial community and strengthens GeMMA's role in shaping policy, standards, and research priorities at the European level.

At the accompanying Round Table, Prof. Mongus also joined a cross-sector panel moderated by EUROGI President Alejandro Guinea de Salas, together with Emilio López Romero, Zilmil Bordoloi, and Richard Lucas.

Last weekend, members of GeMMA Lab participated in the 1st Hackathon Geo Slovenija in Ljubljana.
👨‍💻 Over 48 hours, 7 teams tackled real-world challenges in geospatial technology, from AI-powered land analysis and air quality monitoring to 3D terrain visualization and LLM-supported GIS tools.

Our lab contributed on multiple fronts:
- Prof. Dr. Domen Mongus served on the jury, evaluating the teams' innovative solutions.
- Štefan Horvat and Aljaž Žel supported teams as mentors throughout the event.

And we're proud to share that the team mentored by Štefan Horvat claimed 🥉 3rd place!

Congratulations to all participants for the energy and creativity they brought to the table. Events like these show just how much potential geospatial technologies hold and we're already looking forward to the next one.

Pridružite se Dnevu odprtih vrat SLAIF v okviru 49. konvencije MIPRO 2026!

🗓️ 28. maj 2026
🕘 9.00–13.30
📍 Camelia 1, Grand Hotel Adriatic, Opatija

Spoznajte Slovensko tovarno umetne inteligence (SLAIF), njene storitve, izobraževanja, infrastrukturo in praktične primere uporabe umetne inteligence za raziskave, industrijo in javni sektor.

• Predstavitve strokovnjakov s področja UI
• Primeri uporabe iz prakse
• Usposabljanja in izobraževanja
• Povezovanje raziskovalnega in industrijskega okolja

Udeležba je brezplačna, potrebna pa je registracija.
Več informacij: mipro.hr/MIPRO2026.SLAIF/ELink.aspx

Ne zamudite tudi Economic AI & HPC Forum - STEP-AI Foruma, ki bo dan prej, v sredo, 27. maja 2026 in bo posvečen industrijskim aplikacijam umetne inteligence, financiranju, regulativi in superračunalništvu. Med govorci bo tudi Anders Dam Jensen, direktor skupnega podjetja EuroHPC. Slovenska tovarna umetne inteligence (SLAIF) bo zastopana skupaj z več evropskimi tovarnami UI in njihovimi antenami.

Za udeležbo je potrebna registracija s plačilom kotizacije.
Več informacij mipro.hr/_Events_/tabid/110/language/en-US/Default.aspx?event=MIPRO2026.Step-AIForum
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Join the SLAIF Open Day at the 49th Convention MIPRO 2026!

🗓️ 28 May 2026
🕘 9:00 AM – 1:30 PM
📍 Camelia 1 Hall, Grand Hotel Adriatic, Opatija

Discover the Slovenian AI Factory (SLAIF), its services, training programmes, infrastructure, and practical AI applications for research, industry, and the public sector.

• Expert presentations
• Real-world AI use cases
• Training and educational opportunities
• Connecting research and industry

Participation is free of charge; registration is required.
More information: mipro.hr/MIPRO2026.SLAIF/ELink.aspx

Also join the Economic AI & HPC Forum - STEP-AI Forum one day earlier, on 27 May 2026, will address industrial AI applications, funding opportunities, regulatory frameworks, and supercomputing. The forum will also feature Anders Dam Jensen, Director of the EuroHPC JU. The Slovenian AI Factory (SLAIF) will be represented alongside several European AI factories and their AI antennas.
Participation in the forum requires registration and payment of the participation fee. More information: mipro.hr/_Events_/tabid/110/language/en-US/Default.aspx?event=MIPRO2026.Step-AIForum

🌍 SPHERE Project Kickoff - We're officially off to a start!
On April 24th, we held the kickoff meeting for SPHERE (Estimating Environmental Phenomena with Informed Deep Learning over Earth Observation Data) at UM FERI in Maribor.

SPHERE is a 3-year core research project funded by ARIS, bringing together two strong partners:
🏛️ University of Maribor - GeMMA Lab (coordinator)
📐 Geodetski inštitut Slovenije / Geodetic Institute of Slovenia (partner)
At the meeting, we outlined the project's goals and pilots, and mapped out our approach for the months ahead.

At its core, SPHERE explores how physical laws and domain knowledge can be embedded directly into deep learning models trained on Earth Observation data - bridging the accuracy of environmental simulations with the efficiency of modern AI.

Exciting science lies ahead. Stay tuned! 🛰️

🌍 European security research in action — and GeMMA Lab was there.

Dr. David Jesenko attended the 7th General Assembly of the Horizon Europe ARIEN Project in Rome (21–22 April 2026), hosted by the Polizia di Stato.

ARIEN is developing next-generation AI-based tools to help law enforcement agencies detect, investigate, and disrupt illegal drug supply chains across Europe. With partners from across the EU working on everything from AI analytics to operational pilots, the project represents exactly the kind of cross-border collaboration that drives real impact.

The assembly marked a pivotal moment: the launch of the 3rd and final round of pilots — putting cutting-edge innovation directly into the hands of practitioners in mission-critical environments.

Exchanges like these remind us why international collaboration is at the heart of meaningful security research. We're proud to stay connected with this community and follow the project through to its conclusion.

Congratulations to Dr. Domen Kavran on successfully defending his PhD thesis titled "Method for spatiotemporal semantic segmentation of land use on satellite imagery using graph neural networks"!

The entire GeMMA Laboratory team is proud of your outstanding achievement. Your dedication and hard work have truly paid off, and we look forward to seeing the impactful contributions you will continue to make in your field.

Well done, Dr. Kavran! 🎓

Our GeMMA laboratory members actively contributed to the Praectice Project Partners Meeting (25–26 March 2026) in Entebbe, Uganda 🇺🇬

During the meeting, our team presented key advancements within the project. Prof. Dr. Domen Mongus presented live demo: decision support tool for farmers and advisors, showcasing practical solutions for supporting farmers and advisors in decision-making.

Štefan Horvat presented T6.5 - Satellite based data collection and processing and T6.6 - Set-up of a database platform to collect and process all data from the three living labs. Gregor Horvat presented WP7, T7.1 - Validation of decision support tool in living labs, focusing on real-world validation.

The meeting was a great opportunity to exchange knowledge, align project activities, and strengthen collaboration with partners from around the world 🌍.

We’re pleased to share that projects from the GeMMA laboratory are featured in the new issue of UMniverzum magazine, highlighting our work on advanced solutions for green and digital transformation. 🌱

👉 Read more: https://prenos.um.si/umniverzum/25/

Proud news from GeMMA! 🎉
Congratulations to Luka Lukač on receiving the Perlach Award at the University of Maribor’s Rector’s Day Ceremony 2026. Well deserved recognition of his research work at UM FERI. 👏