The High School of Electrical Engineering in Sarajevo has for years been known as a breeding ground for innovation. We take you behind the doors of one special classroom, where students don’t just learn formulas and diagrams, but turn their ideas into functional patents that win medals around the world – from Zagreb to Taiwan.
A place where knowledge grows into innovation
In Professor Admir Aksamovic’s classroom, automation and electronics are not just school subjects – but a platform for the future. There, projects are created that go beyond the bounds of secondary education and become representatives of the school, the city, and even the state.
“We are proud of the work of our students as representatives of the school, the city, and the country. As a professor of vocational-theoretical instruction and laboratory work at the High School of Electrical Engineering in Sarajevo, I teach students from first to fourth grade where they continuously come up with innovative ideas, put themselves into that work, and want what they make to represent them and the school, and to present ourselves on both the local and international level. We want to show that our students are hardworking, intelligent, and capable of showing their potential. These are ideas that most often become their graduation projects and they want to apply everything they have learned.”
From idea to patent – students as researchers
When Professor Aksamovic speaks about the work of his students, it’s clear that each project carries their personal mark.
“I wouldn’t single out one innovation because each is good in its own way, original, and carries the student’s soul in that work – where they researched, analyzed, and consulted with the professor. Then we might either enhance the task or reduce its difficulty, all with the goal of applying what they’ve learned so that it’s not all theory – chalk and board. I’m proud of their work and enthusiasm, and they even stay after class to work. There was once an occasion when the night guard left and locked the students in, not knowing they were in the classrooms.”
International recognition as proof of quality
When effort and talent combine with school support, the result is international awards, recognition, and titles of the best.
“We have the support of the management, who recognized the quality of our students and their desire to work. What makes us different at international exhibitions is the soul they put into the projects – it’s innovative and unique. Most of those patents and projects could, with a bit of upgrading, become commercial. It’s not just a project – let’s present it and forget about it, but with systematic investment, we could commercialize the product.”
Besides innovation, the school also develops awareness of social responsibility.
“In addition to vocational education, the school has a full range of additional activities, including sports. We received the certificate of a super eco-school where we met the strict standards set by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Kingdom of Sweden, and the European Union (EU) through projects. We met all the requirements.”
Young innovators – the future from Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH)
The students of this school are already shaping the future. Among them is Faruk Hadziabdic, a second-year student, who, together with his team, presented a fully functional machine for painting souvenirs.
“In front of us, you can see a machine for painting various souvenirs that we presented this year at an innovation exhibition in Zagreb. The idea of this innovation is that you place, in this case, an egg in the starting position, and when you press start – the egg moves to the painting platform, it dries there, and the item is ready, and the platform returns to the starting position. The judges in Zagreb were delighted because we presented this as a machine for painting Easter eggs.”
Faruk and the team are already planning new upgrades.
“We’ll add a high-pressure side-painting pump to the same patent, and that’s why we’ve already added an existing chamber. Along with two friends, I participated in the national robotics competition, and with our robot, we won third place and qualified for the European competition in Ljubljana in September.”
And final-year student Latifa Prses directed her innovation toward humanitarian goals:
“In front of you are two projects that are part of an innovation group dealing with humane technologies for the benefit of the people. Here we have smart glasses for the blind. It sounds contradictory, but it has its function – they’re made from sensors that help blind and visually impaired people to orient themselves in space.”
Her second innovation has the potential to save lives.
“We also have a smart bracelet for people with dementia and developmental difficulties. Very often we have searched for elderly people – with this bracelet and this technology, we can track their location, and reduce the search effort and tragic outcomes. From a phone, we send a message to the bracelet and within a few seconds we get its location.”
A school with a vision – a story from Sarajevo with global echoes
Gold medals, functional patents, European robotics championships – none of that begins in a scientific institute but in a classroom of a secondary school in Sarajevo. Guided by the passion of their professor and the dedication of the students, these young innovators show that BiH has a bright future – one they are already creating themselves, Forbes writes.
Photo: Forbes
