University of Primorska
Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies
From 3 to 7 August, the Department of Information Sciences and Technologies at UP FAMNIT is welcoming Prof. Dr. Mehdi Elahi from the University of Bergen in Norway. He is visiting at the invitation of Prof. Dr. Marko Tkalčič, continuing their successful research partnership. The goal of this visit is to build on their collaboration, share knowledge, and plan new research together in personalization, recommender systems, and artificial intelligence.
During his visit, we asked Prof. Elahi about the purpose of his stay, his collaboration with Prof. Dr. Marko Tkalčič, and his impressions of Slovenia and Koper.
What was the purpose of your visit here?
Thank you very much for inviting me. We have been thinking about making this visit for quite some time.
Prof. Tkalčič kindly visited us in Norway, and this was a great opportunity to visit your university and faculty in return and to explore possibilities for future collaboration. We have been collaborating for several years, and some excellent research outcomes have resulted from it. I am looking forward to continuing our collaboration and seeing what we can achieve together in the future.
How was the collaboration with Prof. Tkalčič?
We have known each other through previous projects, and they have all been successful. We thought it would be a good idea to strengthen this collaboration further and expand it to include our institutions as well. We are both working on topics related to personalization, recommender systems, and AI, which is becoming increasingly important across many fields.
We had some great meetings and got to know colleagues who are interested in and will hopefully be involved in this type of research. Overall, it has been a great collaboration and a very enjoyable visit so far.
Do you see any future collaborations?
Absolutely. This collaboration has been very successful, and I believe there are many opportunities ahead, including writing joint publications, closer supervision of PhD and Master’s students, and other collaborative projects. We have already done some of this in the past, and I am looking forward to continuing and expanding our cooperation.
What was your first impression of Koper?
It is an amazing city, and it exceeded my expectations. It is a beautiful place with wonderful people and an excellent educational institution. I am really impressed.
Prof. Dr. Mehdi Elahi’s visit is an important step in building stronger ties between UP FAMNIT and international research institutions. These exchanges help develop joint research projects, open up new opportunities for researchers and students to work together, and raise the faculty’s profile around the world.
