{"id":5045,"date":"2026-04-06T08:09:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T08:09:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sustainability-today.ro\/?p=5045"},"modified":"2026-04-06T08:11:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T08:11:36","slug":"raiffeisen-bank-and-babes-bolyai-university-announce-winners-of-the-third-edition-of-think-tank-lab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sustainability-today.ro\/index.php\/2026\/04\/06\/raiffeisen-bank-and-babes-bolyai-university-announce-winners-of-the-third-edition-of-think-tank-lab\/","title":{"rendered":"Raiffeisen Bank and Babe\u0219\u2013Bolyai University announce winners of the third edition of Think Tank Lab"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Raiffeisen Bank\u00a0and the\u00a0Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science\u00a0at\u00a0Babe\u0219\u2013Bolyai University (UBB)\u00a0in Cluj\u2011Napoca have announced the winners of the third edition of the\u00a0Think Tank Lab\u00a0mentorship program, an initiative dedicated to students passionate about technology and innovation in the financial\u2011banking sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This year,\u00a0100 students\u00a0from the university registered for the program. The selected participants worked in teams and benefited, over several months, from mentorship provided by\u00a0Raiffeisen Bank\u2019s technology experts, developing innovative software solutions for the banking industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Throughout the program, participants had the opportunity to develop their programming skills, apply agile practices with clear objectives and deadlines, and work effectively in teams, all guided by experienced technology mentors from\u00a0Raiffeisen Bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 2026 edition focused on topics such as the development of banking, financial, and insurance products dedicated to students, the concept of the\u00a0banking agency of the future,\u00a0sustainable banking, and the use of innovative technologies with impact in the financial sector, including\u00a0artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the end of the program, the participating teams presented their projects in front of a jury composed of representatives from the\u00a0Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science at UBB\u00a0(Lecturer Dr. Ioan Badarinza and Associate Professor Dr. Dan Mircea Suciu, Vice\u2011Dean of the Faculty) and from\u00a0Raiffeisen Bank\u00a0(Bogdan Popa, Vice President, Operations and IT Division; Carmen Petrean, Retail Zone Director Cluj; and Andrei Pavel, IT Delivery Director).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Each team delivered a\u00a0live demonstration\u00a0of the software product they developed. The projects were evaluated based on\u00a0business value, degree of innovation, and technical implementation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Following the evaluation, the jury selected\u00a0three winning teams:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>1st place\u00a0was awarded to the team\u00a0R\u2011AI\u2011FFEISEN\u00a0with the project\u00a0SmartLeads. The team includes\u00a0Andrei Daniel B\u0103lan (master),\u00a0\u0218tefan C\u0103t\u0103lin Dobrincu (year II),\u00a0Raluca P\u0103\u0219cu\u021b\u0103 (year II), and\u00a0Alexia Cristiana Turcu (year II), mentored by\u00a0Robert Sumaracov, Guild Lead \u2013 Agile Engineering Delivery\u00a0at Raiffeisen Bank.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2nd place\u00a0went to the team\u00a0The Guardians, with the project\u00a0Safety Center, comprising\u00a0Darius\u2011Lucas Balogh (year II),\u00a0Codrin Gabriel Late\u0219 (year II),\u00a0Vasile Ple\u0219 (year II), and\u00a0Andrei Pu\u0219ca\u0219 (year III), mentored by\u00a0Mihaela Voicu, Engineer Coach \u2013 Agile Engineering Delivery.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>3rd place\u00a0was awarded to the team\u00a0Mind Your Decisions, with the project\u00a0Connect &amp; Grow, formed by\u00a0Rare\u0219\u2011Marius Fodorca (year II),\u00a0Sonia Andreea Z\u0103grean (year II),\u00a0Alexia Marchi\u0219 (year II), and\u00a0Beatrice Cre\u021bu (year II), also mentored by\u00a0Mihaela Voicu, Engineer Coach \u2013 Agile Engineering Delivery.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe are pleased by the growing interest of students in the\u00a0Think Tank Lab\u00a0program and by the quality of the projects developed in this edition. The initiative reflects our commitment to supporting education and creating environments where young people can develop innovative solutions with real potential for the financial industry,\u201d said\u00a0Bogdan Popa, Vice President, Operations and IT Division, Raiffeisen Bank Romania.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe\u00a0Think Tank Lab\u00a0program, developed by UBB in partnership with Raiffeisen Bank, has already become a tradition that shows not only the firm commitment of our university to sustainable partnerships with the business environment for the clear benefit of the student community, but also the culture of excellence that we cultivate day by day in our students. We are glad to see increasing interest among students, as well as the steadily higher quality of the ideas and projects they present,\u201d said\u00a0Associate Professor Dr. Christian S\u0103c\u0103rea, Vice Rector of UBB for German\u2011language studies, Non\u2011traditional forms of education, and Relations with Society \u2013 socio\u2011economic component\/fundraising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\u00a0Think Tank Lab\u00a0program is facilitated by\u00a0Raiffeisen Bank\u00a0through the setup of a dedicated collaboration and networking space within the\u00a0Administrative Operations Center in Cluj\u2011Napoca. The\u00a0hub, inaugurated in 2023, is dedicated to education in the field of technology and innovation with applicability in banking and provides students with an environment where they can collaborate, experiment, and develop solutions with real potential for implementation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Raiffeisen Bank\u00a0and the\u00a0Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science\u00a0at\u00a0Babe\u0219\u2013Bolyai University (UBB)\u00a0in Cluj\u2011Napoca have announced the winners of the third edition of the\u00a0Think Tank Lab\u00a0mentorship program, an initiative dedicated to students passionate about technology and innovation in the financial\u2011banking sector. This year,\u00a0100 students\u00a0from the university registered for the program. The selected participants worked in teams and benefited, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5046,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,8],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5045","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"category-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sustainability-today.ro\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sustainability-today.ro\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sustainability-today.ro\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sustainability-today.ro\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sustainability-today.ro\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5045"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sustainability-today.ro\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5049,"href":"https:\/\/www.sustainability-today.ro\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5045\/revisions\/5049"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sustainability-today.ro\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sustainability-today.ro\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sustainability-today.ro\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sustainability-today.ro\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}