Ivan Lupic, Ericsson Mobility World manager at Ericsson Croatia, in Zagreb, says that the cooperation has been organized in the form of summer camps, which, conducted in cooperation with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing at the University of Zagreb, have taken place at Ericsson’s R&D center in Zagreb.

The students, typically doing their last or second last year at the faculty, spend most of July and August at the center, working in teams and projects, supervised by mentors from Ericsson and the university. They study modern telecommunication technologies and solutions including such topics as Next Generation Networks (NGN) and IMS. 

Lupic says that nowadays the students already acquire basic knowledge of NGN and IMS at the university, for instance through the Ericsson’s Service Development Studio (SDS), which is available to them in their lab environment. 

“The students are very positive about the camps,” Lupic says. “They really appreciate this opportunity to work in a ‘real’ environment, getting to know Ericsson, and the latest telecommunication technology. And at the same time the camps give Ericsson an excellent opportunity to identify suitable future employees.” 


Students, mentors from Ericsson and Saša Dešic, Ericsson Croatia Research director, in the front.

This summer, Lupic says, the camp welcomed 38 students. This was almost twice as many as in previous years, because students from University of Split were also invited. Some of the camp students already hold scholarships from Ericsson for their university studies. But not all; most are accepted after being recommended by their professors.

Lupic says many of the students end up working for Ericsson. “We have employed a handful of the students from last year’s summer camp since the beginning of September,” he says. “And many of them are now working with IMS applications. 

“When employing engineers, it’s very valuable if they already know Ericsson, our ways of working, our technology, and some of our key staff.”

Read more about SDS
Read more about IMS 
Read more about University of Zagreb

By Benny Ritzén