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Aug 22. 2025
Meet Viera Rozinajová
The Gamechangers series presents the stories of the people who stood at the very beginning of the Kempelen Institute of Intelligent Technologies. Through their vision and determination, they transformed a bold idea into reality – creating a new place for excellent science connected with innovation and talent development in Slovakia. In the interviews, you will learn about the challenges they had to overcome, the values that unite them, and what motivates them to keep pushing the boundaries of research and innovation.
In the second part of the series, we introduce Viera Rozinajová, one of the co-founders of the Kempelen Institute and the leader of the research team focusing on environmental topics. Viera has long been active in the fields of artificial intelligence and data science. Through her work, she helps create an environment for young researchers, encouraging them to think boldly and to push the limits of what’s possible – not only in the area of green energy. She has been part of KInIT for five years, right from its founding in September 2020.
What was it about KInIT that made you say, ‘this is the place where I want to be’?
The Kempelen Institute was a unique concept because nothing like it had existed in Slovakia before. Its founding was also a huge step into the unknown. It was a big challenge, one that required a bit of courage to take on. And I quite like challenges. So these were the factors that led me to join KInIT. I wanted to see what could be achieved here and to contribute to its development.
What was it about environmental topics that grabbed you so much that you found your drive in them?
Environmental topics are close to my heart. We started with energy—that was back when we were still working at the Faculty of Informatics. Green energy, in particular, is very important when it comes to the environment. So I don’t see it just as a cliché that everyone talks about today, but mainly as an opportunity to contribute to solving environmental problems and climate change.
On top of that, it’s a topic young people respond to very well, and they are eager to contribute. That makes me really happy, because we simply find a lot of synergy there. And last but not least, I think we’re very lucky with our team. We have excellent people, and we work together very well.
Collaborations with the industry are very important for the institute. Was it difficult to show companies that our research is relevant and delivers tangible results?
KInIT’s mission is to bring excellent research into business and practice. And we take that very seriously.
I really believe that our effort should be – and indeed is – about building bridges between academia and industry. So in a way, this is encoded in our DNA.
We always follow the principle very strictly that the very first step is to understand what the partner needs. Only then do we design the solution so that it is as useful as possible. At that point, team members are willing to work, let’s say, even on weekends or in the evenings—because they see that it makes sense and that we are bringing real value.
Was there a key moment when you felt, ‘wow, we actually did it’? Or, ‘this works, makes sense, and has value’?
There have been several key moments. One of them is a feeling of pride that we’ve managed to sustain long-term collaborations with industry. These are partnerships that have already lasted more than three or four years. When companies work with us for so long, meet regularly, and tackle different challenges together, it gives us confidence that the collaboration truly makes sense for them as well.
That’s one perspective. Another, very similar one, comes from our Hopero collaborations. Those are more short-term, but several companies came back to us after one project ended, saying they’d like to continue with another topic. That too made us really happy.
From the research perspective, now we have the lorAI project, meaning Low Resource Artificial Intelligence, which KInIT is justifiably very proud of. In our area, this involves collaboration with our Greek partner CERTH. It’s a research institute that is extremely successful in European projects. After a few initial meetings, we realised that we were working on similar topics and producing results at a comparable level. That made me really happy, because it gives me a sense of confidence that our research truly stands on par with that of top European institutions.
And the final question – how do you see the future of KInIT?
We like to say that KInIT is about people and, of course, the results we achieve. But especially the people here are outstanding. I truly support KInIT and its team, and I believe they have a very bright future ahead.
