Between late October and late November, Cluj-Napoca hosts three technology events that are worth separating, because they serve different people: a research conference for authors, a developer conference, and a business forum. Running alongside them is a building project, the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca’s new AI research institute, whose opening date depends on whom you ask.
22–24 October: IEEE ICCP, the research conference
The IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Computer Communication and Processing reaches its 22nd edition this year. It runs from 22 to 24 October at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Cluj – City Plaza on Sindicatelor Street. The organisers listed on the conference site are the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca (UTCN), through its Computer Science Department, together with the IEEE Romania Section and the IEEE Computer Society, with the Romanian Artificial Intelligence Hub and the Academy of Technical Sciences of Romania also named.
This is an academic meeting. Its tracks cover intelligent systems, deep learning, computer vision, perception, and distributed computing, and accepted papers are submitted for possible inclusion in IEEE Xplore. The call for papers has closed, so it is mainly of interest to authors and registered participants. The two keynotes are Prof. Mihai Surdeanu, on neuro-symbolic approaches to language understanding, and Dr Victor Pankratius, on what the conference calls the AI-defined vehicle. Surdeanu, of the University of Arizona, is also spending September to December 2026 at UTCN as a Fulbright U.S. Scholar, according to the AI institute’s website.
11–12 November: IT Days, for developers
Between the two AI-specific events sits IT Days, the developer conference run by Today Software Magazine. Its 2026 edition, the 14th, takes place on 11 and 12 November. The site describes two days, four stages and more than 60 presentations. It is the broadest of the three and the one most aimed at people who write software for a living.
18–19 November: the AI Technologies & Research Forum
The AI Technologies & Research Forum is new. It is organised by Amprenta Advertising at the Grand Hotel Italia on Vasile Conta Street, with UTCN named as academic partner. Its audience is explicitly business and public-sector: the forum site addresses CEOs, investors and government. Day one deals with AI and strategic decision-making; day two with AI in cybersecurity. Sessions are in Romanian and English with simultaneous translation. A two-day pass costs EUR 180 plus VAT; the early-bird rate ended on 15 September.
One detail on the forum’s partner list is worth noting. Under a heading that reads “Official Inauguration”, it shows the logo of AIRi, UTCN’s AI research institute. Neither the forum nor the institute publishes a programme explaining how the two are connected.
AIRi@UTCN: what the institute is
AIRi@UTCN is the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute of the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca. Its website describes it as a hub for collaborative AI research across the university, working on interdisciplinary research, AI literacy and partnerships with business and the public sector. Its address is 2 Observatorului Street, on the university campus.
The departments page lists research departments in autonomous systems, cybersecurity and space, microelectronics, robotics and IoT, robotics for healthcare, and trustworthy AI, plus support units including a Center for AI Measurement, a Data Labelling Center and HPC-AI services. The university rector, Vasile Țopa, is named as the institute’s president and Prof. Adrian Groza as general director; the advisory committee includes Daniela Rus of MIT. Recent news items mention work with the Bosch plant in Cluj on integrated-circuit testing and a partnership with Transilvania IT Cluster on two upcoming projects, RO AI Factory and TEDIHT 2.0.
The numbers come mostly from the local press. In May 2024 Actual de Cluj reported that construction had started under a contract worth about 105.1 million lei including VAT, to be covered from the university’s own revenues, with completion planned for November 2025. A month later, Tribuna Învățământului described a building of about 14,000 square metres with 33 laboratories and room for roughly 300 researchers and students.
Equipment is being funded separately. In September 2026 Actual de Cluj reported that UTCN had signed a contract for a project called AI4INO, worth 61.19 million lei in total, with up to 58.38 million lei in non-repayable funding, to equip the institute with computing hardware and software. The project brings in 17 partner companies and runs until the end of 2029. The report did not name the funding programme.
When does it open?
The answer depends on the source, and we present both as reported.
The same September article said the building’s updated value had risen to about 141.8 million lei, that the original November 2025 deadline and a later March 2026 deadline had both been missed, and that government information indicated around seven months of work remaining, which would put completion in spring 2027.
On 8 October, Actual de Cluj reported that Adrian Groza, UTCN’s vice-rector for IT infrastructure and digitalisation, had said the institute would be inaugurated on 18 November. The institute’s own homepage now also shows “Inauguration 18 November 2026”. Groza also spoke, according to the same report, of joint laboratories with companies in telecommunications, semiconductors and automotive.
An inauguration and a finished building are not necessarily the same thing, and we have not seen an official statement that construction is complete. If the 18 November date holds, it falls on the first day of the AI Forum. We will update the Cluj-Napoca events page once there is an official programme.
For more on how the city got here, see our profile of Cluj-Napoca’s urban renewal.