After acquiring Novi Sad-based company 3Lateral in January, Epic Games continues to invest in one of Serbia’s strongest IT cities. As recently announced, a science-education center will be built in Novi Sad, modeled on similar projects by Google or Facebook in Silicon Valley.
The aim of the center will be to bring industry and science together around topics that are widely known as the 3Lateral‘s specialty—creating digital people and their diverse uses (virtual communication, interactive entertainment, film industry, biometrics, robotics, AI, machine learning, medicine, forensics, etc.). Within the center, the two companies intend to provide “access to the most advanced technology R&D infrastructure and the world’s leading experts in the field relevant to digitizing human form,” as well as to continuously foster interaction with the local ecosystem and community.
Regarding the expansion of Epic Games presence, Vladimir Mastilović, founder and CEO of 3Lateral stated:
We plan to support the education and educational infrastructure in Novi Sad with a series of investments. In order to exchange knowledge and experience between science and industry, increase the number of highly educated staff and distinguish Novi Sad as one of the worldwide recognized centers for the development of advanced technologies, we are planning to build a scientific and educational center modeled after similar projects in Silicon Valley.
At the moment, it is not known what these series of investments will cover, but the company stresses that, in addition to supporting scientific work, they wish to pass on their expertise and knowledge to younger generations. In this sense, the 3Lateral campus is designed to help bridge the gap between conventional education and industry knowledge through lectures and workshops held in some of the planned amphitheaters, classrooms, and laboratories.
