Mario Kovač
Mario Kovač is full professor at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER), University of Zagreb, Croatia and Director of HPC Architectures and Applications Research Center at FER. He received his PhD in computer science and engineering from the same university in 1995.
He was awarded the Fulbright scholar award for Computer Science and Engineering Research that he spent at the University of South Florida, Tampa, USA. His special focus was on efficient chip implementations of architectures for image, video and math computation processing that led to several chips including Jaguar, Ace and others.
He holds several US and international patents in multimedia and architecture domains. His work on architectures and efficient execution was focused over time in several industry domains: high-end general-purpose processors and accelerators, multimedia systems, large national/cross-national health-care systems, electric cars and other.
In 2008, Croatian President awarded him with the Medal of Honor “Order of Danica Hrvatska with the image of Ruđer Bošković” for special merit in science.
His professional activities throughout the years were always intertwined combination of science and industry activities. He has been serving as President/Vice-president of the Board and CxO of several organizations and companies where he has been primarily involved in strategic management and R&D.
Keynote
European Processor Initiative – A Cornerstone of Europe’s Digital and AI Sovereignty
Supercomputing lies at the heart of Europe’s digital and industrial sovereignty. It is a key enabler across sectors, combining traditional modeling and simulation with accelerating advances in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
Given today’s volatile geopolitical landscape, mastering high-end processor technology is no longer optional — it is a strategic imperative. The European Processor Initiative (EPI) is a flagship EU undertaking, driving the development of high-performance computing (HPC) and AI processors and accelerators entirely within Europe. It also lays the foundation for a robust industrial ecosystem and an innovative R&D community.
The EU’s early commitment to EPI has proven visionary. It positions Europe to reduce critical dependencies, strengthen its technological autonomy, and shape its own digital future.
This presentation offers an overview of the initiative’s objectives, key achievements, and its roadmap toward long-term sovereignty in the global digital economy.