At IRNAS, we collaborate with our clients and partners worldwide, but this does not mean we are any less active in our hometown Maribor. We collaborate with University of Maribor on joint research projects as well as with local high schools, giving their students opportunity to learn about the latest technologies. Also, we organize and sponsor tech events, contributing to building a vibrant tech and science community and offer scholarships to prospective students of electronic and mechanical engineering that would join our team after finishing their studies and help IRNAS grow.
Remember Gabi and her exceptional work on cultivation of medicinal mushrooms and analysis of their anti-microbial and antioxidative effects, for which she received the Krka research prize? Gabi is now already deep into her studies at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich while the doors of our bio-lab remain open. Boštjan continues to offer support and mentorship to new young talents. This year, Nuša Brdnik from The Second Gymnasium Maribor developed a simple analytical set-up to determine the diffusion coefficient of glucose in biocompatible hydrogels. Her design allows fast and easy analysis and provides valuable insight into formulation and scaffold design for tissue engineering, as well as controlled, long-term drug delivery in complex pharmacological capsules. For her work, she received the Gold prize at the Youth for the progress of Maribor competition in the category Biotechnology. Tinkara Drstvenšek from First Grammar School Maribor, who also spent hours in our lab researching the materials suitable for additive manufacturing of solid tissues in regenerative medicine, was at the same competition awarded the Silver prize in the category Medicine. Congratulations to both!
Together with The Second Gymnasium Maribor we also collaborate on organizing workshops for their students, where we teach them about 3D modelling, digital fabrication as well as 3D bio printing and give them the opportunity to have a hands-on experience in our lab.
This year we helped initiate another great project – Maribor Hardware Meetup, which IRNAS also happily sponsors. The goal of this series of events is to create the space for tech enthusiasts to meet and discuss their ideas, learn from each other and possibly initiate some new collaborations.
Finally, last year we successful organised a first edition of The Things Conference on Tour Maribor, with 150 participants from 74 organizations and from 11 countries joining us to explore the latest trends from IoT sector and get empowered for effective use of the LoRaWAN and The Things Network technologies. We are ready to make the biggest LoRaWAN conference in the region even greater this year. We invite you to subscribe to receive the news and to join us in autumn.
