Alshar – The First Macedonian Robot DJ that Put Ohrid on the Global Innovation Map
On the night when North Macedonia celebrated 33 years of independence, a different kind of “birth” took place in an Ohrid nightclub. Exactly at midnight on 8 September 2024, at club Rebel in Ohrid, Sefidanis Research & Development unveiled Alshar, the first Macedonian humanoid robot DJ – a full-scale robotic performer capable of composing and mixing music in real time using artificial intelligence.Иновативност+1
Designed and led by Prof. Anis Sefidanis, founder of Sefidanis and professor at the Faculty of Machine Intelligence and Robotics at UIST “St. Paul the Apostle” in Ohrid, Alshar is conceived as far more than a technological curiosity. Local media described how the robot, built with human-like proportions and movements, can autonomously generate original musical tracks and transform existing Macedonian works into new electronic styles tailored for younger audiences. At its debut, Alshar performed a progressive techno piece titled “Lorandit”, produced entirely with AI on an Nvidia DGX supercomputer that Sefidanis operates in the region, weaving in verses from the song “Zavetna” by Bojana Skenderovski and mixing it with contemporary Macedonian electronic tracks such as “Ajde da letame” by PMG Collective.Иновативност+2Reporter.mk+2
The name “Alshar” itself is a tribute to the Alshar mine in North Macedonia, where the rare mineral lorandite was first identified – a symbolic bridge between the country’s geological uniqueness and its digital future. As Sefidanis and his team explained to Macedonian technology outlet Inovativnost and culture portal Reporter.mk, the core idea behind the project is “digital humanity”: using advanced AI to preserve and reinterpret local art and cultural heritage while creating entirely new experiences in entertainment and live performance.Reporter.mk+1
Technically, Alshar is the result of a sophisticated fusion of open- and closed-source technologies. The mechatronic platform combines Arduino and Raspberry Pi controllers with a cluster of embedded and external computers dedicated to motor control, coordination and high-level AI “brain” functions. The upper body, head and arms are based on the renowned open-source InMoov design by French sculptor Gaël Langevin, while the distinctive robotic wings were custom-made by Macedonian designer Zoran Kardula. The clothing – described as the first Macedonian fashion collection “for humans and robots” – was created by fashion designer Ana Mitreska.Reporter.mk
Behind Alshar stands a broad, interdisciplinary team spanning engineering, design, media and education. Coverage by Reporter.mk notes that the project brought together professionals in electronics, software, audio production and visual arts, as well as students from UIST, pupils from the “St. Clement of Ohrid” gymnasium and Erasmus+ students from France, Malta, Ukraine, Latvia, Romania, Poland and other countries. This collaborative model reflects the broader mission of Sefidanis as a company: to connect deep-tech research, creative industries and higher education into shared innovation platforms.Reporter.mk+1
The robot’s intelligence relies on a powerful AI stack. Macedonian reports describe how the logical layer uses TensorFlow, Meta-developed models and generative AI libraries, combining supervised and unsupervised machine learning so that Alshar can “sense” audience preferences and emotional responses through music. According to Inovativnost, the system is designed to learn from patterns in listeners’ reactions and adjust playlists, tempo and style in order to enhance the club experience and offer a futuristic, adaptive interaction between human crowd and robotic performer.Reporter.mk+1
International media quickly picked up the story. The Albanian-language daily Koha, reprinting a BBC feature, highlighted Alshar as the first robot DJ in the Balkans and stressed that while the robot does not “feel” emotions, it can analyse the faces and movements of the crowd to infer mood, engagement and demographic structure, including approximate age and gender ratios and even language distribution. This capability, powered by computer vision and AI-based perception, allows Alshar to change genres or even generate new compositions to match the atmosphere in the venue.KOHA.net+1
Telegrafi, a major regional portal, further detailed the internal architecture: multiple computers housed inside the robot and additional external machines coordinate the left and right sides of the body, motor control and high-level logic. The article emphasises that the hardware was built around advanced AI infrastructure, including high-performance Nvidia GPUs, enabling Alshar to process and generate complex audio in real time. Readers also learned that it took around half a year of intensive training for the robot to perform DJ sets convincingly enough that club guests would test it by secretly changing mixer levels to see if the robot would react on its own.Telegrafi+1
Diaspora media such as the Australian Macedonian outlet Mactel presented Alshar as a point of pride for Macedonians abroad, describing the humanoid DJ as a unique robot built “with the latest advances in artificial intelligence” and the first of its kind in the wider region. Mactel also reported on growing interest from international DJs keen to share the booth with Alshar in future duo performances, underscoring how an experiment born in Ohrid’s innovation ecosystem has started to resonate within the global electronic music community.Mactel Australian Macedonian News
By early 2025 the momentum had become unmistakable. In a dedicated “Inovativnost Insights” special, Inovativnost.mk featured Alshar as a guest and described the robot as a fully Macedonian product that had already sparked attention in foreign countries. The feature emphasised Sefidanis’ broader concept of digital humanity and noted that Alshar was designed primarily as a DJ, equipped with integrated AI that can recognise the audience, assess what kind of music is appropriate and decide whether there is a need to compose original tracks on the spot. The same piece hinted that further news about Alshar’s international journey and future development stages would follow soon.Иновативност
Within this wider narrative, Alshar fits into a growing portfolio of Sefidanis projects in culture-tech and experiential AI. Previous initiatives by Prof. Sefidanis — including the Smart Monument of Grigor Prlichev and the Totem of the Future — have also used advanced technologies to reinterpret cultural memory and create new kinds of public interaction. In that sense, the robot DJ is not just an eye-catching performer, but part of a sustained strategy to position Ohrid and North Macedonia as a place where deep-tech, creativity and education meet, and where the future of human–AI collaboration is tested live, on stage, in front of a dancing crowd.Reporter.mk+1
References and original publication dates
Reference 1: “Првиот македонски робот „Алшар” на професорот Сефиданис предизвика огромен интерес во светот,” Inovativnost Insights, Inovativnost.mk, 28 February 2025.Иновативност
Reference 2: “Првиот македонски робот диџеј вчера „настапи“ во охридски клуб!,” Inovativnost.mk, 9 September 2024.Иновативност
Reference 3: “Во Охрид промовиран „Алшар”, првиот робот диџеј,” Reporter.mk, 9 September 2024.Reporter.mk
Reference 4: “Meet ‘Dj Allshar’, the robot made in Macedonia, which makes music through artificial intelligence,” Telegrafi.com, 30 September 2024.Telegrafi
Reference 5: “DJ robot Alshar created in Macedonia,” Mactel Australian Macedonian News, 1 October 2024.Mactel Australian Macedonian News
Reference 6: “Alshari, the first robot DJ in the Balkans,” Koha.net (feature taken from BBC, translated by Koha), 26 September 2024.
Reference 7: “The first robot DJ Alshar,” University of Information Science and Technology “St. Paul the Apostle” (UIST), Ohrid, listed in the UIST news and events archive as posted on 25 September (year not specified on page).uist.edu.mk
