On October 16, 2015, in the presence of the rector of the Osijek University, deans of the Osijek Faculty of Electrical Engineering (ETF) and the Faculty of Technical Sciences (FTN) Novi Sad, representatives of local authorities, and ETF professors and students, RT-RK officially opened its department in Osijek.
Welcoming the guests, the dean of the Osijek ETF Prof. Drago Zagar stressed the tradition and reputation of his faculty in in the field of IT industry, and qualified the cooperation between ETF and RT-RK as one of the mutually beneficial projects between universities and industry – the direction of development of the Osijek faculty in terms of modernization of curriculum and schooling of future engineers in accordance with the needs of the industry. Citing the examples of Siemens and Microsoft that had opened their centers in Osijek earlier, the rector of the Osijek University Prof. Željko Turkalj welcomed the cooperation, pointing out that RT-RK had selected the city and university with excellent reputation in Croatia, thanks primarily to ETF Osijek.
The representative of the local authorities and a former student of ETF Osijek, Dragan Vulin, said that this and similar projects and cooperation had absolute support of the local Osijek-Baranja County government.
The gathering was also addressed by the dean of FTN Novi Sad Prof. Rade Doroslovacki, who spoke about tradition which links industry and FTN, and about University of Novi Sad, the biggest source of IT specialists in Serbia.
In his speech, CEO RT-RK Nikola Teslic presented the company and informed about plans for the Osijek department in the areas of software for the automotive industry and development of software tools for embedded systems. RT-RK has provided the infrastructure, equipped laboratories and started providing scholarships for students in Osijek. Prof. Teslic estimated increase of the team in Osijek, currently counting 20 to 100-150 engineers in the near future. He also emphasized that the opening of the RT-RK department in Osijek completed the plan of the company’s regional expansion. With four RT-RK centers: the headquarter in Novi Sad, department in Belgrade, and Banja Luka and Osijek centers which operate in conjunction with the local faculties of Electrical Engineering, Prof. Teslic expressed a company’s goal of growth in engineering staff to 1000 total by the 2018.
At the end of the ceremony, head of the RT-RK Osijek department Mr. Zvonimir Kaprocki thanked the dean, ETF professors, the entire academic community, and others involved, for their help in establishing what aims to be a new successful R&D regional center.