Panel “Women in Science” (Mileva: Decoding)
The panel titled “Women in Science” is part of the multimedia event “Mileva: Decoding”, which will take place at Čeličana, in Distrikt, and in this way commemorate 150 years since the birth of Mileva Marić Einstein. “Mileva: Decoding” will ceremonially open Čeličana as a new, renovated space in Distrikt, and its multimedia character will once again confirm the UNESCO title that Novi Sad received in 2023 as a city of media arts.
The panel “Women in Science” will be held on December 22 at 5:00 PM.
Entry is free with mandatory registration.
The panel will feature media theorist and professor at Malmö University, PhD Bojana Romić, research associate and coordinator of the Laboratory for Digital Society at the Institute of Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade, Jelena Guga, and the founder and director of the “Umni-no-code AI chatbot” platform for businesses, Elitza Stoilova.
Moderator:
Zoranka Desnica
Machine learning engineer, researcher, and software engineer. PhD candidate at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad (field: stochastic numerical optimization and automatic differentiation), master’s degree in applied mathematics (econometrics and numerical optimization), and bachelor’s degree in mathematics. She works at the intersection of industry and science: at NSigma, she develops end-to-end predictive systems on a cloud platform and designs systems based on large language models. At Bosch, she worked on a demand prediction project (significantly increasing accuracy) and a working group focused on aligning Bosch regulations with the EU AI Act. At Epic Games and 3Lateral, she developed tools for digital human characters, calibration, and numerical optimization algorithms, with industrial mentorship within the Horizon 2020 project. At her home faculty and SANU, she was a research associate and teaching assistant for courses in Probability, Statistics, and Data Processing Software.
She is the author/co-author of multiple papers in the field of functional statistics, published in international journals and leading scientific conferences, with a focus on efficient algorithms for complex graphical and ML problems.
Panel participants:
PhD Bojana Romić
Bojana Romić is a Senior Lecturer in Media and Communication. Her research is situated at the intersection of the aesthetics of technology, the politics of the image, and audience studies. From 2019 to early 2022, she worked on the project The Robot as a Technocultural Icon, funded by Vinnova. As part of this project, Bojana edited the special issue Artificial Creativity for the open-access journal Transformacije. She was also a member of the Danish Council for Ethnic Minorities from 2014 to 2018.
Elica Stoilova
Elitza Stoilova is the co-founder and CEO of Umni, a Bulgarian no-code AI chatbot and live chat platform that helps organizations integrate generative AI into their daily operations without technical skills. She has more than 20 years of international experience in hospitality and tourism, including roles as Marketing Director and General Manager of hotels and a tour operator in Asia-Pacific (Northern Mariana Islands, USA). Building on her background in service-intensive industries, Elitza focuses on practical, human-centered AI – using chatbots, automation and AI search to improve customer experience, employee productivity and access to information. She is internationally recognized speaker, educator and consultant on AI, AI literacy and AI in tourism, creator of the first AI chatbot course in Bulgaria, and a frequent speaker on the future of work and the impact of AI on SMEs. Under her leadership, Umni has been recognized with several international awards, including winning UNWTO global startup competition, being recognized as UNWTO Innovation Champion’23, winning one of the EU Travel Awards’23, and receiving several national innovation awards in Bulgaria like “Special Award for Innovation in Tourism” by the Ministry of tourism of Bulgaria.
Jelena Guga
Jelena Guga is a theorist of new media art and culture. She currently works as a research associate and coordinator of the Laboratory for Digital Society at the Institute of Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade. She was a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Interdisciplinary Activities, Research Center for New Technologies, University of West Bohemia (Plzen, Czech Republic) and a visiting researcher at the SPECS Laboratory, Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona, Spain). She researches questions of identity, embodiment, agency, and perception in technologically mediated interactions and immersive environments through an interdisciplinary approach, combining art theory, (new) media theory, cultural studies, critical posthumanism, philosophy of mind, and dystopian science fiction narratives. She also works on curatorial projects at the intersection of art, science, and technology. She is the author of the book Digital Me: How We Became Binary and numerous scientific papers in international publications.
The event is supported through the UNESCO Participation and Emergency Aid Programme, contributing to the development of sustainable gender equality strategies in creative industries, with the participation of the Creative Europe Desk Serbia, the Support for Participation in EU Programmes project, and the European House Novi Sad.