From 27 to 31 October 2025, the ExcellCity Winter School 2025 was held at the University of Library Studies and Information Technologies (ULSIT) in Sofia, Bulgaria. The event, themed “Big Data, Agentic AI & Microservices for Smart and Secure City Environment,” took place within the framework of the ExcellCity project, bringing together leading researchers and experts from the University of Murcia (Spain) and the University of Messina (Italy).

The Winter School was officially opened by Prof. Georgi Dimitrov, Dean of the Faculty of Information Sciences, and Prof. Dr. Eugenia Kovatcheva, Project Manager of ExcellCity. In their welcoming remarks, they emphasized the importance of academic collaboration and knowledge exchange for the development of smart and secure urban environments.

The distinguished lecturers included:

  • From the University of Murcia: Prof. Dr. Antonio Skarmeta, Prof. Dr. Miguel Zamora, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Juan Martínez, Dr. Aurora González, and PhD candidate Juan Sánchez;

  • From the University of Messina: Prof. Dr. Massimo Villari, Prof. Dr. Maria Fazio, and Prof. Dr. Antonio Celesti.

Throughout five intensive days, participants explored a wide range of topics, including:

  • Agentic AI – agent-based and autonomous systems for managing urban resources;

  • Big Data Analytics – OLAP, Data Warehousing, and Kubernetes in cloud and edge infrastructures;

  • Microservices and FIWARE – IoT integration, security, and interoperability for smart cities;

  • Edge & Cloud Continuum – architectures for efficient distributed data processing.

Hands-on sessions focused on FIWARE, FogFlow, Eclipse Ditto, and Kubernetes, enabling participants to experiment with real-world IoT integrations and create digital twins of urban assets.

The program concluded with a PhD Panel and Research Meetings, encouraging informal discussions and future research collaborations. The closing session, led by Prof. Massimo Villari, showcased practical demonstrations of AI inference models at the Edge.

The event highlighted ULSIT’s role as a regional hub for international research cooperation and innovation in the fields of artificial intelligence, big data, and smart city technologies.