Hi, we are team Serbia!

We are thrilled to participate in this year’s FIRST Global challenge and feel very fortunate to have this opportunity. We hope to learn a lot and gain precious experience that will be useful in the future. We must discover all we can know about what that world will be like in the future, and try to guide our policies and educational efforts from that. Our team is trying to work interdisciplinary, involving new kinds of collaboration. Members of our team are hoping that STEM education is going to be core learning and learning to learn which will prepare students for the unknown.

It’s our pleasure to represent Serbia in this worldwide competition, but also to work in a multicultural team. We are eager to interact with students from all around the globe and to make new friends with similar interests.

Each of our team members strives to achieve a common vision: be engaged and networked in communities of practice. Encouraging the practice of science among students is important for our team leader.

We are coming to Dubai, hoping that the FIRST Global contest highlights values such as fair-play, solidarity, knowledge sharing and creativity, through technical skills and project management. See you all there and good luck!

Jelena Tomašević – Student
Jelena is a third year student at the Gymnasium Kreativno pero in Belgrade, Serbia. She became interested in robotics when she saw demonstration at science camp of how robots are used for medical purposes. In the future, Jelena would like to work as an environmental scientist or a surgeon. One of the things she wants to do is combining life sciences and technical sciences for solving the world’s biggest problems. She is one of the organizers of climate strikes in Belgrade. She has also won over 50 different awards and diplomas in local competitions such as mathematics, chemistry, history, Serbian literature etc.

Mina Matić – Student
Mina is a fourth year student at the Gymnasium Kreativno pero in Belgrade, Serbia. She finished primary music school for piano, too. Her hobbies are solving Rubik’s cube and reading books. She is always ready for new challenges and adventures. Mina became interested in robotics when she was a child, watching cartoons such as Transformers and being amazed by their abilities. In the future, she would like to have a career in genetic engineering or bio informatics. She won a lot of awards and diplomas at local competitions in biology, maths and chemistry.

Sara Jašović – Student
Sara is a second year student at the Gymnasium Kreativno pero in Belgrade, Serbia. She was introduced to robotics a couple of years back, when the very first FIRST Global Challenge was held in Washington, DC. Sara is very good at driving a robot, because of the skills she has on a gamepad. She gained that skills at her early childhood, while playing video games. When talking about future plans, Sara is not sure what exactly she is going to do, maybe pharmacy or architecture. She is looking forward to this new experience and she hopes that this competition will help her with her career choice!

Jelena Zdravković – Student
Jelena is a third year student in the field of Information Technology at the Electrical Engineering School Mija Stanimirović in Nis, Serbia.

So far, Jelena has participated in the following competitions:

• Basics of Electrical Engineering 1: won the second place at the Regional Competition. At the State Competition she won the first prize.
• Basics of Electrical Engineering 2: In the Regional Competition she won the first place. At the State Competition she won the third prize.
• At the State Contest “Galaxy Cup” (programming of Arduina), she won a gold medal.
• At the State Competition in Programming (C ++) she participated in the team that won the bronze medal.

She’s leading a Robotics section at her school and she has also started her YouTube channel (Programming Cpp) to help her peers in mastering programming (C++).

Tara Malović – Student
Tara is a student of a third grade at Nikola Tesla Gymnasium in Budapest, Hungary. She got interested in robotics in the first year of high school when she noticed so many details and interesting facts about robot functions while she was watching science TV channel and reading books and magazines about it. About her plans for the future – she would like to study astrophysics. She doesn’t really have any actual experience or competition in robotics category but she has done some research and space robots are very interesting for her. Every day she finds out something new and what she wants is to use that knowledge.

Aleksandra Nedeljković – Manager of the Team
Aleksandra Nedeljkovic is the Founder and School Board President of Educational System Kreativno pero. Her vision is to create a school that sets a balance between education and knowledge gaining traditional values and spirit of the time, fostering awareness of belonging to the community and responsibility towards others. A school that will be recognized by its pupils, who joyfully and trustfully gain new and applicable knowledge together with their teachers.

She holds a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in Banking and International Finance from Cass Business School University of London. Before founding ES Kreativno pero with her sister in 2007 she worked in auditing firms in Cyprus, as well as financial controller in Mobtel and Telenor in Serbia.

Vuk Vujović – Technical Mentor
Master of electrical engineering and Master of business administration. I am currently working at Gymnasium Kreativno pero in Belgrade on position Professor of Computer Science, and also working at the Faculty of Information Technologies at Alfa BK University in Belgrade on position Assistant Professor for two courses: Programming and Software Engineering. Other fields of my education: in the process of finishing PhD thesis: “Contribution to the development of information systems aimed at improving business in construction companies in Serbia”; twelve published scientific papers about information systems and educational software. More than 15 years of experience in private business companies at highest managerial positions.