Mlakar holding summer semester lab sessions at FOI

This summer semester saw Josip Mlakar hold lab sessions for several student groups at the Faculty of Organization and Informatics (FOI). He worked with both graduates and undergrads, mainly focusing on practical examples and complex tasks for his groups to work on.

Smart contracts on Ethereum

The bulk of the lab was programming in Solidity, the language used to create smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain. Students learned how to create different types of contracts - from simple ones that store data on the blockchain, to more advanced ones that can send and receive cryptocurrency. A couple of sessions also covered XML data, from creating XML files to structuring an XML schema. All the work was done using professional developer tools like Remix for writing and testing Solidity, and Visual Studio for working with XML.

“What’s the point in learning XML, when there are more modern formats for data exchange,” students asked. Mlakar said that more systems than you might think still use XML, so understanding it is a valuable skill in tech. He backed this up with his own experience, giving examples of modern software applications that use XML.

A first-time teaching assistant

He held lab sessions twice a week, as an external associate. The feedback was positive, with Mlakar creating a relaxed atmosphere and offering numerous practical examples. It was his first time working as a teaching assistant. He describes the experience as both interesting and rewarding. 

- I would say it was an intensive practice of communication and presentation skills. Leading the group while encouraging open discussion is valuable experience for anyone in a leadership role. I also got to do some programming, which always makes me happy. And I met some really interesting students whom I can see as future EFD employees, he said.

If you have ever held a session for students in your life, you know it is far from easy. And doing an entire semester is a whole new level. For Mlakar, it meant getting to FOI twice per week, after his usual busy day at work. He would stay there for several hours to do the lab work, which  is very different from his day job as Head of Development at Emil Frey Digital. All of the preparation for sessions was done over weekends and he made sure he was available to students outside of class time via email. All in all, it was a huge amount of additional work outside his already demanding role, but Mlakar says the effort was rewarding, as the experience was a real passion project of his.

You have to hand it to him - balancing everything was undoubtedly a significant challenge, so congratulations and recognition are well-deserved. And if you wondered how he ended up in this role in the first place, the answer is actually very simple. When he heard that they were looking for an external associate, he didn’t think twice: he simply applied.