We are proud that our programming and software development internship students have successfully been accepted in the featured scientific research sessions at the 24th IEEE International Symposium on Intelligent Systems and Informatics. SISY 2026 conference was held in Pula, Croatia and was organized by Óbuda University, Budapest, Hungary, Subotica Tech, Serbia, University North, Croatia, Juraj Dobrila University of Pula, Croatia and IEEE SMC Technical Committee on Computational Cybernetics.
Students from Babes Bolyai University Cluj Napoca, Sapientia EMTE Targu Mures and Codespring Mentoring Program presented five papers this year, in front of an international audience formed of university professors, peer students an industry experts.
How did it start?
What we love about students who choose to enter in the Codespring Mentorig Program at Softech, is their desire to learn and to see their initial idea grow during a well-coordinated software development internship. Even if for the first month they have few practical knowledge, coming mainly from a theoretical background from the university, what always impresses us, is that they bring along sparkling imagination and creativity which is not something frequently met in their field of study. Another stong point for these internship students is that thei have the drive to implement their ideas and by the end of the summer they manage to present a well-built project.
The journey begins in the middle of summer, when they must submit the papers for evaluation by an international body of academic researchers and of applied science experts. Only a few papers get to be selected for the IEEE publication and the conference, therefore we are especially proud of the five project teams and the original papers who made it to the final.
The Challenge of Presenting to an International Audience
Presenting to an international audience challenges the student to organize, explain and transmit their findings in such a way, that every non-native English speaker from across Europe, with diverse backgrounds, understands what they intend to share. The difficulty resides in the attempt to convey innovative concepts, complex findings and the process of building the software applications.
From our experience the peak of supporting your research paper is the moment when the questions and answers sessions starts. Often seasoned experts address difficult questions in order to evaluate the teams’ level of understanding, their capacity of simplifying the explanatory process and the depth of their research and analysis. Argumentation, debate and critical thinking are the major skills that these elite students manage to practice and polish during these international scientific dialogues.
“One of the most valuable aspects of SISY is that participants gain insight into the work of other researchers and encounter perspectives from entirely different fields,” declares Hunor, one of the mentors, in his post-conference reflections.
The Applied Research Addressed to Everyday Problems
The projects completed within the Codespring Mentoring Program addressed a wide range of everyday challenges. The subjects included: AI-powered online learning tool, digitalized medical treatment schedule for the entire family, fuel price forecasting systems and a beekeeper-oriented application.
The beauty of the internship program relies on the fact that students focus on solving problems that genuinely interested them: making sure that grandmother takes her pills in time, helping the family with their beekeeping business, supporting the drivers in monitoring fuel prices and imagining potential online learning solutions. With guidance from their mentors, experienced software developers from our team, they designed and implemented practical solutions.
The result was five projects that approached the challenges that our developers face every day: solving real-world problems, creating user-friendly experiences, integrating external services, handling personal data in compliance with GDPR rules, preparing for scaling systems, and embracing a mindset that values understanding the actual needs of target users, and not only programming.
On top of everything, SISY 2026 offered another equally valuable opportunity: the chance to be published as an author in an internationally recognized publication. Tas, one of our software engineers and an experienced mentor in the program, highlighted this rare chance for students to write and publish research papers capable of earning international recognition.
Beyond the academical and professional value of their participation, presenting at the conference also helps students improve their soft skills: build confidence, professional tech English usage, and grasping the backstage work of academic research and scientific publishing.
Beyond the Conference: Team-building
Yes, the official purpose of the trip was to attend the conference, but we cannot oversee the many experiences that enriched the team-building perspective of the delegations, for both mentors and our future colleagues.
Traveling together, exploring new places, and spending several days as a group naturally created opportunities for conversations that rarely happen in an office or classroom environment.
Authentic experiences lived together as a group, always makes it easier to connect and to better know your team. Our colleague, Hunor emphasized that team building was at least as important as the conference itself. Informal evening gatherings gave students the opportunity to dive in the local history and legendarium of the company, learn about quirky moments that have become part of our shared memory, and feel like members of a community rather than simply participants in a program.
A Standout Destination
This year’s conference took place once again in Pula, Croatia, a historical city on the Adriatic coast. The seaside setting offered a vibrant nautical atmosphere, completely from the event’s traditional location in Subotica, Serbia.
Open to explore a new location, the group enjoyed local cuisine with its fresh seafood and regional specialties, like pljeskavica, the iconic coast side by bike and went for a late-summer swimming session in the sea. Between presentations, they also explored the fortress and the local architecture, and made the most of their time in Croatia.
The mentors highlighted that the scenery, excursions, and shared meals significantly enriched the overall experience. With the conference in the central focus, the destination provided the perfect context to building team spirit and making SISY 2026 memorable.
The journey from Internship to a Full-stack Software Developer
Perhaps the most important outcome of the mentoring program is the relationship that develops between students and the company.
Throughout the program, our mentors do much more than assist with technical backround to the progress of the interns. They observe how they think, how they approach problems, how they react to feedback, and how they handle tough moments.
For students, the mentoring program eases the transition from student life to a professional career. During their internship they become familiar with the company’s values, long before a formal job interview, and they have the opportunity to show their abilities, work ethic, and potential for growth.
SISY 2026 brought together a unique combination of experiences that are rarely available in one place. Students strengthened both their technical knowledge and their self-confidence, practiced professional communication, gained insight into the academic world, and built valuable professional relationships.
The time spent together reminded everyone that professional development does not happen only in offices. Sometimes it takes place while presenting a project to an international audience. Sometimes it emerges from a conversation with a researcher working in a completely different field. And sometimes it happens over dinner with teammates in a seaside city hundreds of kilometers from home.
That is why SISY is more than just a professional event. It is a milestone in the journey from intern to full-stack software developer.
