Darko Mesaroš is a Solutions Architect working for AWS in Berlin, Germany. As a SA within AWS, he helps shape the strategy and enable the broad use of Amazon’s utility computing web services by directly working with customers. Darko owns the technical engagement and defining implementation architectures, developing deep expertise in the AWS technologies as well as broad know-how about how applications and services are constructed using the AWS platform. Darko is an avid collector of old Computers and Video Games. He comes from Subotica, Serbia.

Abstract of talks
– Workshop: Putting reinforcment learning into hands of Developers with AWS DeepRacer
–  AWS DeepRacer is the fastest way to get rolling with reinforcment machine learning, literally.
Get hands-on with a fully autonomous 1/18th scale race car driven by reinforcement learning, 3D racing simulator, and global racing league. In this workshop you will learn how to work with AWS DeepRacer, write a reward function, and train your model.

– Working Backwards from the Customer
– Innovation starts with the working backwards from the customer. In this session, we will share how this approach plus culture and other mechanisms can enable everyone to be an innovator. Hear about how your company can build an effective system and an environment that will foster and support human creativity and drive technological progress.

– INAT Spirit:
– During the early years of my carreer, I had a comfy, government, job. Which I could keep and have an easy going IT career for the rest of my life. But, out of INAT, I have decided to one-up everyone who commented on my cushy position, by working twice as hard and changing my
career into what it is now. Doing the 10-year challenge (2009-2019) feels so satisfying now.

Born in Venice, Franco graduated at the Faculty of Chemistry. After ten years in Pharmaceutical Industries as chemical engineer, Franco moved to Information Technology business.

In 1997 Franco founded MHT, an ERP & CRM global system integration company he directed until 2017. Now he is supporting digital and economic transformation in evolving organisations.

Franco is now involved in BIM [Building Information Management] in a DBA Group SpA project, supporting the digitalization of Infrastructure Lifecycle Management and taking part in global development and improvement of OpenBIM interoperability data Standard (IFC) with BSI.

Franco’s achievements in digital transformation include:

• Since 1997 Franco was heavenly involved in global initiatives with Confindustria, in Italy and Serbia, and other ecosystems aimed to develop, defend and diffuse human culture and business through digital, according to a post-digital approach, i.e.  The state of being in which you assume the digital instead of marveling at it (F.Speirs).
• As CEO of a primary global Microsoft partner, member of the Global Management Board of a global ICT a company based in Hong Kong, and through founding, developing and managing international branches, Fracno developed a wide experience on IT technology global providing.
• In 2018 Franco designed and put in motion with Confindustria Serbia the DIGINDEC initiative, to bridge the Republic of Serbia and Italy in a win-win initiative to boost digital transformation in both countries.
• Franco has been involved in many digital transformation projects in highly regulated environments (construction, pharma, aerospace, healthcare, etc.). Thus, he has deeply studied the impacts of regulatory compliance and international laws on digital evolution.
• This allowed him to develop a huge experience about the pros and the cons of digitalization issues related to social and business environments, and of the impacts of law and regulatory requirements

Franco’s business attitude and personal interests in his own words:

”My global business made me work in many countries, but Belgrade has been the place where I founded my most successful international initiative in 2011, now named Engineering Balkan. But the best achievement of my Serbian experience has been to know and love this country and its people.”

”I’m a skier and a hiker and I love mountain wilderness, but the most I like to connect with people all around the world, and I’m keen on everything can help global cooperation and good relations, especially in Europe I consider our common country.”

How did INAT spirit / Innovation attitude spirit help you in your personal life or professional career?

Digital has been the innovative media I used to share my attitude to achieve more from our time, our business, our life.

My business and cultural proposition has been focused on interaction and integration of digital, humans and organisations in a global world. In doing this I’ve been perseverant enough to go live in 100% of digital transformation projects I managed with my team, rebel enough to overwhelm people was saying we can’t do it, I had the endurance to run a group of sometime wild race horses I called my company for 20 years and I got stamina enough to continue in innovative adventures with new companies in new businesses.

Michelle E. Messina is CEO of the global direction and strategy consulting firm, Explora International LLC based in Silicon Valley, California. Explora International trains startups, mentors, and angel networks using the best practices of Silicon Valley in master classes and bootcamps. She has worked in more than 65 countries around the world and functions as a strategic advisor to international governments on their startup innovation ecosystems. Michelle co-authored the best-selling book “Decoding Silicon Valley:  The Insider’s Guide” and is Chair of the Impact Hub Belgrade and an advisor to their Venture Grow fund.

Michael is a serial entrepreneur and a visionary whose goal is to transform Jerusalem into one of the leading 20 cities in the world for startups and entrepreneurs. He helps fulfil this goal as a member of the board of the nonprofit organization MadeInJLM and Director of the Startup accelerator AtoBe, which operates as part of the Azrieli College of Engineering. MadeInJLM identifies future innovators and provides them the platform to contribute, connect, mentor and create. What is unique about AtoBe is that its main and only focus is engineering and technology. It provides innovators with state of the art equipment that enables them to work wonders.

Mr Mizrahi is also one of the driving forces behind three programs that are funded by the EU Tempus and Erasmus Plus programs.

Startup Nation and The story of AtoBe Startup Accelerator
Entrepreneurs need more than just their good idea. They need guidance, knowledge, and support in bringing their idea from conception to a real thriving business. They require the physical space and resources to research develop and get their product ready for the real world. In AtoBe Startup Accelerator, We embrace our best and brightest toward realizing dreams of students, graduates and entrepreneurs from all over Jerusalem. The Accelerator cultivates entrepreneurs, providing the training and tools to facilitate innovation by connecting technological know-how with the entrepreneurial spirit, thus connecting the dots in the process to propel entrepreneurs forward, bringing their ideas to actual fruition. It enables Jerusalem’s prosperity, growing the number of startups launching from Jerusalem and positioning the city as a hub of technology and excellence.
The goal of the seminar is to examine a case study of how innovation thinking, engineering and entrepreneurship can make a difference and impact a city like Jerusalem and help cope with the challenges of the future.