E.LACIĆ

Curriculum vitae

Emanuel Lacić leads Team AI Research at Infobip, an R&D team working on applied AI for communication at global scale, with a current focus on generative AI and the practical impact of large language models. He previously led the Fair-AI division at the Know-Center, Austria's research centre for data-driven business, and holds a PhD with distinction from Graz University of Technology. He is a former Marshall Plan fellow and visiting researcher at UCLA, and special issue editor of Frontiers in Big Data — Recommender Systems. His research concerns recommender systems and information retrieval, with a focus on algorithmic accuracy, real-time performance, privacy, fairness and bias.

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01 Experience

  • InfobipZagreb

    2023 —
    • 2023 —Principal EngineerTeam AI Research. Focus on generative AI and the impact of LLMs.

  • Know-CenterGraz

    2016—2023
    • 2021—23Operations Area Manager, Fair-AILed the research division on applied recommender systems, fairness and social network analysis.
    • 2016—20Senior Researcher & Recommender Systems ArchitectManagement, lead development and consulting on industry recommender system projects.

  • Graz University of TechnologyGraz

    2013—2016
    • 2013—16University & Project AssistantKnowledge extraction and social network data on the EU FP7 project Learning Layers.

  • 1&1 Internet AGKarlsruhe

    2013
    • 2013Junior Software DeveloperRuby, data-centre management and monitoring tooling.

  • FZI Forschungszentrum InformatikKarlsruhe

    2012
    • 2012Java DeveloperEU FP7 project Mirror.

  • InfobipZagreb

    2011—2012
    • 2011—12Software EngineerMobile cloud services — SMS, HLR, USSD.

  • EricssonZagreb

    2010
    • 2010Java DeveloperInformation system for primary healthcare.

02 Education

  • 2022PhD, Computer Sciencewith distinctionGraz University of Technology · Grazthesisdefence slides2018Visiting researcher, UCLA Computer SciencevisitingMarshall Plan Fellowship — session-based recommendation.
  • 2012M.Sc., Software Engineering & Information SystemsUniversity of Zagreb, FER · final year at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
  • 2010B.Sc., Software Engineering & Information SystemsUniversity of Zagreb, FER · Zagreb

03 Funding & fellowships

  • 2024IPCEI-CIS€35Mproject grantNext-Generation Communication Platform · author of the AI Research Strategy for the EU programme
  • 2022–26DDIA€3.7MCOMET moduleData Driven Immersive Analytics in Digital Industries · €350k for FAIR-AI, Know-Center · key researcher for “Personalized Immersive Learning Support”
  • 2022–25Radreisen4All€150,000project grantFFG Femtech · for Fair-AI, Know-Center · key researcher
  • 2020–23DDAI€3.7MCOMET moduleExplainable, Verifiable and Privacy-Preserving Data-Driven AI · €700k for Social Computing, Know-Center · key researcher for “Explainable AI for Users”
  • 2020JOLIOO€120,000project grantFFG Basisantrag · for Social Computing, Know-Center · researcher
  • 2020–23COGSTEPS€130,000project grantErasmus+ · for Know-Center and ISDS@TU Graz · researcher
  • 2020–22TRUSTS€730,000project grantH2020 · for Know-Center (€138k for Social Computing) · task leader
  • 2019–22TRIPLE€377,000project grantH2020 · for Know-Center (€120k for Social Computing) · researcher
  • 2018Marshall Plan FellowshipfellowshipIndividual research grant for a visiting stay at UCLA, Los Angeles
  • 2015Data Market Austria€286,000project grantIKT der Zukunft · secured for Know-Center as technology contributor for the recommender-based brokerage platform

04 Awards & honours

  • 2022Mind-the-gap gender and diversity awardGraz University of Technology, for research on fairness in AI and bias in recommender systems.
  • 2018Marshall Plan FellowshipVisiting scholar fellowship at the University of California, Los Angeles.
  • 2016Travel grant27th ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media (HT'16), Halifax, Canada.
  • 2015Best demo honourable mention15th International Conference on Knowledge Technologies and Data-Driven Business (i-KNOW'15), Graz.
  • 2014Best poster award25th ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media (HT'14), Santiago, Chile.
  • 2012Erasmus scholarshipFinal master year at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

05 Supervisionall service →

  • 2015Master thesis co-supervisorDuricic, T. (2015) Real-time recommendations based on social trust. Master thesis, University of Zagreb, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, in cooperation with the Know-Center in Graz, Austria.
  • 2017Master thesis co-supervisorFadljevic, L. (2017) Analysis and Prediction of Movie Preferences. Master thesis, University of Zagreb, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, in cooperation with the Know-Center in Graz, Austria.
  • 2020Master thesis co-supervisorReiter-Haas, M. (2020) Evaluation of Job Recommendations for the Studo Jobs Platform. Master thesis, Graz University of Technology.

06 Output

07 Languages

  • Croatian native
  • English C1
  • German C1
  • Russian A1