Dr. Bjelica is the Functional Safety Instructor at the University of California San Diego, CEO of NIT Institute and the Associate Professor at the FTN Uni Novi Sad. He actively participates in research and innovation activities for various computer-engineering sectors, focusing on consultancy and training in the fields of system safety, functional safety, automotive engineering, and consumer electronics. During his career, he consulted companies in the automotive industry (ZF Germany, TTTech Austria, Qualcomm Automotive USA, Daimler Germany) and also other companies in consumer electronics, industrial machinery, and computing domains. He is a frequent participant and a speaker at major industry events worldwide. Dr. Bjelica holds a Ph.D. degree in computer engineering from the University of Novi Sad, Serbia, as well as an Academic Safety Engineer degree from the FH CampusWien - Vienna Institute for Safety and Systems Engineering (Austria). His professional and research focus is on complex system and software architectures with specific interactions and virtualization. He authored over 100 publications across major journals and scientific conferences and holds 30 patents.

UC San Diego Division of Extended Studies harnesses the power of education to transform lives. Our unique educational formats support lifelong learning and meet the evolving needs of our students, businesses and the larger community. Together with the experienced automotive industry experts, we designed two modern upskill programs in system safety and functional safety for automotive - available as two UCSD certificates. These programs answer the needs of the automotive industry, especially when developing highly automated to fully autonomous vehicles. By immersing their teams in one-of-a-kind training experience in safety, companies can achieve efficient upskill in system safety and functional safety for modern designs and relevant standards. All done in an efficient way, aligned with project work, tailored to meet goals of the specific company with additional expert consultancy offered.