Second-year graduate students in Computing, Lucia Jović and Nika Bažon, alongside their mentor Prof. Miroslav Joler, participated in the IEEE MTT-S Broadening Participation Workshop 2026, Bridging Innovation: Microwave Technologies in Southeast Europe, held in Zagreb. The students won 2nd and 3rd place in the student competition featuring three-minute, single-slide technical presentations (per competition rules). The workshop took place on October 14 and 15, 2026, at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER) in Zagreb, and was organized by the IEEE Microwave Theory and Technology Society (MTT-S).
Lucia Jović was awarded 2nd place for her presentation titled “Keeping Drones Connected: Routing Protocols For Highly Mobile FANET,” which addressed routing protocol selection to optimize connectivity among cooperating drones, finishing just one point behind the winner, a doctoral student from FER.
Nika Bažon took 3rd place with her presentation “When Obstacles Get in the Way,” focusing on path loss modeling for inter-drone communications.
Additionally, in a separate speed technical proposal writing competition, Lucia Jović, who teamed up with Raul Blečić, a young researcher from Končar, won another 2nd place, concluding the workshop with two second-place finishes.
At the beginning of this academic year, Lucia and Nika selected their project to be within the Mobile Communications course lectured by Prof. Joler, with plans to expand their research into Master’s theses in the summer semester. Their initial meeting regarding Master’s thesis coincided with the call for participation, leading their mentor to encourage them to take part in the competition. Notably, they had only three days to prepare their presentations from the moment the opportunity came up. However, their mentor recognized it as a valuable opportunity for professional networking and hands-on experience, serving as a strong foundation for their upcoming research, with travel and accommodation expenses covered by IEEE. Ultimately, their efforts proved successful, earning them recognition, symbolic prizes, and applause!
