On 26 June 2026, the COSA project — Collaborative Framework for Smart Agriculture — held its closing event under the banner of the Agri Innovation Summit, hosted at Dru Primera in Tăuții-Măgherăuș (Strada 3 nr. 40, 437345). The day brought together experts, researchers, doctoral candidates, business leaders and representatives of the local administration to take stock of the project's results and to discuss the future of technology and innovation in the Maramureș region.
Agenda
09:00 – 09:15 · Opening — A Global Vision
Welcome & opening by the organisers and short addresses from local officials and university representatives. Keynote opening by Prof. Dr. Jose Barata de Oliveira (project director) — a global vision of where smart agriculture is going.
09:15 – 10:15 · Panel 1 — Maramureș 5.0: Technology, Business and Sustainability
In partnership with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Maramureș. Moderated discussion with local business leaders, IT experts and public administration officials on regional digitalisation, IoT and economic development directions.
Moderators: Florentin Tuș (Honorary Consul of the Republic of Moldova in Baia Mare, President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Maramureș) and Prof. Dr. Habil. Eng. Oliviu Matei (COSA operational lead).
10:15 – 10:30 · Coffee Break & Networking
10:30 – 11:30 · Panel 2 — Applied Research & Innovation in the Region
Moderators: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Cosmin Sabo and Laura Andreica.
Featured project presentations:
- Rudolf Erdei — COSA: The Collaborative Framework for Smart Agriculture (technical overview of project results)
- Marius Ardelean — Combatant Digital / VESTA, integrated tactical equipment with environmental sensors and anti-drone protection (Soluții 24 / Holisun)
- Oana Chiorean — Digital-Hub: connecting education, innovation and civic engagement across borders
- Conf. Dr. Habil. Eng. Coman Mirela Ana — Research on the transfer of heavy metal pollutants (Pb and Cd) from soil to fruit in plants of the genus Prunus
- Tudor Faragau — Agroinfinity
- Dan Micu — additional presentation
- Parcurile — Zoicas
11:30 – 11:45 · Coffee Break & Networking
11:45 – 12:45 · Panel 3 — Pitch Your PhD
In partnership with the Asociația Întreprinzătorilor Maramureș (Maramureș Entrepreneurs' Association). A pitch competition where doctoral candidates presented their research in 5-minute talks accessible to a general audience.
Co-moderator: Prof. Dr. Petrică Pop-Sitar.
Jury: Ionuț Roatiș (President of the Maramureș Entrepreneurs' Association, founder of Group GeneralID), Flavia Zah, Sorin Orzac.
Doctoral candidates and pitches:
- Emil Pașca — LLM-assisted application security
- Bianca Cristina (Pop) Borgyos — Intellectual property in agricultural innovation
- Pascan Cristian Octavian — New strategies and methods for improving recommendation systems
- Laura Andreica — Smart specialization of Romanian regions
- M. Ungureanu — pitch presentation
- Radu-Ionuț Costin (radu.costin@campus.utcluj.ro) — DermSpectra: AI skin insight from a single photo
- Ramonca Costin — pitch presentation
- Chiuzbăian Rareș — AgriGuard (instant crop disease identification) and DeepNeura (facial videos for neurodegenerative diagnosis)
- Dr. Inf. Bogdan Cioruță — My Soil Protection App, a mobile application dedicated to soil protection
- Drd. Biol. Maria Șevera — Coexistence between modern utilities and traditional mountain agriculture
12:45 – 13:00 · Conclusions and Closing Remarks
13:00 – 14:30 · Lunch Break
Project context
The Agri Innovation Summit marks the closing of the COSA project (Collaborative Framework for Smart Agriculture, 2023–2026) — a 36-month research project at the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, North University Center of Baia Mare, funded under Romania's National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR-III-C9-2022-I8, Contract 760070/23.05.2023). With a total budget of 7,091,752.82 RON, the project produced 30+ publications (including 6 in Q1 journals), three public platforms (Land Bonitation GIS, AEGIS Smart Specialization, Local Producer Marketplace) and a team of 20 researchers including 8 postdoctoral researchers and 7 PhD students.
Detailed articles for each presentation of the day are published separately in this News section.
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