KISHA is the world’s first smart umbrella. Never lose it, always take it with you when it rains. With KISHA, you’ll never ever worry about getting soaking wet. It’s connected with a mobile app on your iPhone or Android and tells you each morning (or any other time of the day) if it’s going to rain. It also reminds you when you leave it in a pub, bar, restaurant or any other public place. Smart? We’d rather say intelligent! The meaning of KISHA in Croatian is RAIN. Of course, you will get umbrella, not rain 🙂 On the photo Andrija Eolak, getkisha.com
Category: Science
Nikola Tesla Croatian citizen advised the City Hall of Croatia's capital Zagreb in 1892 about electrification
In 1892, Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) has been invited by Milan Amruš, Mayor of the city of Zagreb, to visit the City Hall in order to give advice about future electrification. An interesting article from 1892 has been published in the Zagreb newspapers, which we provide for the first in English translation from Croatian original. We cite the following significant sentence from this 1892 article: Mr. Tesla considers it his duty, as a native son of this country [Croatia] , to assist the Zagreb City Council in this matter offering his advice and helping in every way he can . The country he meant here is without any doubt Croatia. As a Croatian citizen, Nikola Tesla possessed the passport issued in the city of Zagreb in 1883. On the photo Nikola Tesla in 1941 with Fritzie Zivich, known as the Croat Comet, the then welter-weight boxing world champion.
Branko Leskovar 1930-2016 distinguished Croatian-American expert in Electrical Engineering & Electronics
Dr Branko Leskovar, born in Croatia’s capital Zagreb, earned his PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Zagreb. Since 1965 he worked atthe Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. His work in resolution studies of electro-optical devices has had profound benefits on development and manufacturing of new devices with significantly improved characteristics. These methods have been accepted world-wide by government and industrial laboratories. Upon retirement, he served as Scientific Advisor to numerous universities and US government agencies. He was a fellow of IEEE and Sigma Xi societies.
Martin Lazar young Croatian mathematician visiting the Basque Center for Applied Mathematics in Bilbao
In the period of May – June 2015, Dr Martin Lazar, a young Croatian mathematician from the Univeristy of Dubrovnik, visited the Basque Center for Applied Mathematics in Bilbao, Spain, in order to continue already established collaboration with its director, Professor Enrique Zuazua. Professor Zuazua is a distinguished international expert in Control Theory, a branch of Applied Mathematics. Dr Lazar had an opportunity to actively participate in numerous activities at the Center (seminars, courses, workshops, …), to present his previous results, as well as to get acquainted with the recent results and open problems of applied mathematics.
Mate Rimac: How We Build The World's Fastest Electric Car
The Rimac factory near Zagreb is a place where technological magic has happened since 2009 Rimac automobili Greyp bicycles Formated for CROWN by Darko ŽubrinićDistributed by www.Croatia.org . This message is intended…
Marin Soljacic professor at MIT speaking about newest discoveries in nanophotonics and applications
Marin Soljačić, distinguished Croatian-American physicst and professor at MIT, USA, delivered a very interesting talk at the 2015 Tech Day, dealing with newest achievements in nanonphotonics and possible applications. Nanophotonics is a sub-field of nanotechnology that deals with light (photons). Nanophotonic techniques provide ultimate opportunities for tailoring behavior of light, thus offering a potential to enable a wide variety of important applications. This talk highlights recent work in this area, including security applications (for consumers and soldiers), energy conversion, and displays.
Marin Soljacic helps to redesign the light bulb
Humanity started recycling relatively early in its evolution: there are proofs that trash recycling was taking place as early as in the 500 BC. What about light recycling? Consider light bulbs: more than one hundred and thirty years ago Thomas Edison patented the first commercially viable incandescent light bulb, so that “none but the extravagant” would ever “burn tallow candles”, paving the way for more than a century of incandescent lighting. Now, in a study published in Nature Nanotechnology on January 11th 2016 (online), a team of MIT researchers describes another way to recycle light emitted at unwanted infrared wavelengths while optimizing the emission at useful visible wavelengths.
Esther Gitman's interview 2016 about Archbishop Alojzije Stepinac and his role in saving the Jews in Croatia
Dr Esther Gitman analized about 5000 archival documents kept in various Croatian archives. Especially important among them are 500 signed petitions for the rescue of Jews in Croatia during the WW2. Some of these documents contain as many as 150 names, signed by ordinary people, who risked their lifes in order to save the lifes of their endangered Jewish neighbors and friends. Furthermore, according to Dr Girtman, THOSANDS OF ORDINARY PEOPLE signed these petitions, which is a fact totally unknown in historigraphy (not only Croatian). Similar documents in such abundonce, cannot be found in any other European country, said Dr Gitman. We invite you to see and listen to this extremely interesting and important interview, conducted by the Laudato TV in Zagreb, Croatia.
Paul L. Modrich of the Duke University 2015 Nobel Prize for Chemistry is of Croatian descent
Paul Lawrence Modrich, an American biochemist, Professor of Biochemistry at Duke University and Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2015. He is known for his research on DNA mismatch repair. Modrich’s work also has shown that inactivation of this mismatch repair system is the cause of the most common form of hereditary colon cancer, and that repair errors also play an important role in the development of a number of neurodegenerative diseases and 20 to 30 percent of sporadic tumors found in many tissues. Professor Paul Modirch is of Croatian descent: his paternal grandparents immigrated to the United States from Croatia.
Ludmila Rulenkova's book about the SUVAG verbotonal method translated from Russian into Croatian in 2015
Ludmila Ivanovna Rulenkova has published a textbook in Moscow in 2011 dealing with the so-called verbotonal method, developed by academician Petar Guberina in Croatia’s capital Zagreb already since the 1950s. The method has been successfully tested on hundreds of Russian children since the early 1990s. Her book has been translated into Croatian in 2015 at the SUVAG Centre in Zagreb, which is the leading centre in the world for problems of deaf children. The methods developed at SUVAG are in everyday use in more than 70 countries worldwide, in about 600 specialized insitututions.
Silvija Gradecak Croatian scientist at MIT speaking about Nano Structured Materials
Her solar cells could absorb and use more sunlight. Her light bulbs could last longer, and her thermoelectric devices could take heat that would be otherwise lost and turn it into energy. “We’re looking for more efficient, more environmentally friendly, and less expensive technology with new capabilities,” Gradeeak says. Born in Vukovar, Croatia, she studied physics at the University of Zagreb and earned her PhD in Physics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lousanne.
Anthony Grbic distinguished expert in metamaterials visited the University of Zagreb
Anthony Grbic received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, in 2005. In January 2006, he joined the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he is currently an Associate Professor. In January 2010, he was awarded a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. In 2011, he received an Outstanding Young Engineer Award from the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society. He has Croatian roots, and he collaborates among others with a group of Croatian scientists at the University of Zagreb.
Zlata Blazina Tomic & Vesna Blazina and their monograph Expelling the Plague from the city of Dubrovnik
Zlata Blažina Tomić on the photo is a medical historian who worked at McGill University’s Osler Library, Canada. Vesna Blažina is a translator and librarian who worked at the Université de Montréal, Canada. “Studying an extraordinarily rich set of documents in Dubrovnik, the authors Zlata Blažina Tomić and Vesna Blažina bring scholarly attention to an early public health office dedicated to surveillance and containment of plague epidemics. Social and medical historians will find this work very valuable.” Wrote Ann G. Carmichael of the Indiana University, USA.
Book Presentation: Wideband Amplifiers by Peter Staric and Erik Margan
Modern electronics is developing at a staggering pace, with digital electronics leading the exponential expansion in all areas of our life. So it should be reasonable to expect that an 80 year old concept of analog electronic signal amplification, after being through various technological phases, from vacuum thermionic tubes to highly advanced compound semiconductor devices, would these days be considered well known and understood, old fashioned, trivial, almost obsolete. Well, not quite.
Josipa Majic from Croatia's capital Zagreb is founder & CEO of Teddy the Guardian global enterprise
Josipa Majic is the founder and CEO of Teddy the Guardian, Zagreb, Croatia, the first smart teddy bear on the market. During play, the teddy bear seamlessly captures the child’s heart rate, saturation of blood with oxygen and body temperature, and wirelessly sends the data on a mobile app. This creates a truly child friendly experience for hospitals and home care. With specialization in medical technology, Majic’s work places a special emphasis on a more human approach to patients and users. She has previous experience in delivering medical applications and wearable technology solutions. On the photo Josipa Majic and Ana Burica, Zagreb, authors of the idea of Teddy the Guardian.
Vladimir Bubrin & Vinko Grubisic: The Glory and Fame, Croatian Renaissance Reader, NY 2015
Vladimir Bubrin & Vinko Grubisic (on the photo) have prepared an important and extensive book dealing with Croatian Reanaissance literature. It has been published in 2015 by Croatian Academy of America, NY, USA. The book has 589 pages and provides the original Croatian texts from the Renaissance period (14-17th century), their translation into contemprary Croatian langague, as well as into English. Large portions of the book have already been published in the Journal of Croatian Studies, issued by the same Academy. Now, by publishing the book this valuable material has been made available for broad public – for students, experts, as well as to all those interested in Croatian literature. Professors Grubišić and Bubrin live in Canada, employed at the University of Waterloo and the Univeristy of Toronoto, respectively.
Mireo co from a small village of Banjole in Croatia outbid Google in Dubai with their navigational tool
Ivica Siladić, PhD in Math, is a founder of Mireo company in Croatia, in a beutiful village of Banjole on Croatia coast. Mireo’s Genius Maps is a free application that installs on your mobile device. It’s an offline route planning, exploration and navigation app that does not require a mobile internet connection to search and navigate. There are no roaming costs and your battery lasts longer. In 2014 Mireo’s navigational program has been chosen to be used in Dubai. It is amazing that a small Croatian team of 25 employed experts outperformed Google.
Ante Glibota elected vicepresident of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts in Paris since 2015!
Ante Glibota, distinguished Croatian historian of art and architecture, has been elected in June 2015 in Paris, in the Senat of the Republic of France, as the vice-president of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, L’Academie Europeenne des Sciences des Arts et des Lettres; L’AESAL). To be a leading person of this prestigious international institution, which gathers as many as 65 Nobel Prize winners, as well as several hundred outstanding experts in different fields, is not only a great honour for Mr. Ante Glibota, but for Croatia as well. We express our sincere gratitude to Mr. Ante Glibota for his achievements, wishing him good health and fruitful guidance of the Academy.
Hrvojka Mihanovic Salopek and her Stella Maris Croatiae project
Hrvojka Mihanović Salopek, PhD, of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, is the director of important cultural project Stella Maris Croatiae , the aim of which is to present the most important examples of the veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Croatia, including noted Marian shrines and an anthological selection of Marian works from the theological, artistic and musical heritage. Dr. Mihanović Salopek and her team deserve our deep gratitude for her project and for their fantastic achievement, this time concentrated on the Southern Croatian islands and on Slavonian wheat fields.
Artur Bagdasarov and Vinicije Lupis creating a bridge of friendship between Armenia and Croatia
Artur Bagdasarov (Moscow) and Vinicije Lupis (Dubrovnik) are the authors of an important book Armenija – domovina sv. Vlaha (Armenia – Homeland of St Blaise), dealing with the history St. Blaise tradition in the city of Dubrovnik, going back to the 10th century. St. Blaise, known in Croatia as Sveti Vlaho, is an Armenian saint who lived in 3rd and 4th centuries. The monograph provides a detailed account of historical contactcts between Croatians and Armenians. Dr. Artur Bagdasarov is an expert in Croatian linguistics, while Dr. Vinicije Lupis is a distinguished Croatian historian.