* Professor, as we speak, you have been rector for two months. You are not a newcomer to CTU, but still – ideas never fully correspond to reality. In what areas have you had to reconsider them?
I have not had to reconsider anything strategically yet. The biggest surprise for me, however, is how much the work is based on building interpersonal relationships and communication. And the larger the organization, the more communication there is. I find that I have very little time left for anything else. One has to be able to keep one’s work in balance so that one has time to think, to read, to write. And time for communication – and for me, that is 100% communication so far.
What is good: I was worried whether I would be able to create a good team in this role. And it turned out that yes, the team is great. And one more interesting thing. At CTU, the relationship between the rector and the deans of individual faculties has traditionally been bad. I can't confirm this from my own experience, so far, so good, we have a good relationship and I'm happy about it.
* In business, you're used to the fact that if something needs to be changed, you do it. The university environment is probably not as flexible...
You just have to be able to get by. I'm not complaining that you don't have the executive drive here as you do in business. They have different values, different environments, and each has its advantages and disadvantages. Academics have to explain things to each other more. So the disadvantage of the university environment is that it takes time, it slows things down. But at the same time, it must be said that after that longer period of time, due to the higher transparency and participation, a better decision is made.
* Have you ever come across something that you would know how to change, but it's not possible yet?
Everything takes time. People expect miracles to happen here overnight, and I understand the complexity better and better and I know that I won't be able to deliver miracles overnight. A typical thing that worries me is automation, the introduction of artificial intelligence into teaching, into science, into processes. Society's expectations are massive and in this, unfortunately, the university is a corporation like any other, where IT is the backbone of its functioning. So this is a big project for us, how to change this infrastructure so that the school can function better.
* Universities often talk about expertise, about quality. Business is focused on performance. Where do these two languages not understand each other so much that it hinders real cooperation?
It's not about quality, it's about the horizon. The university has a horizon of decades, it wants to create innovation that goes beyond us, to solve problems that are not obvious today and will be important in five, ten years. There is a different paradigm of what innovation is. Industry needs this innovation right away, immediately, to solve a specific, current problem. And the school is not qualified for that. Not that it doesn't want to do it, but corporations or industry are simply more qualified in the immediate solution.
* Is it still the case today that business is interested in universities as partners? Or is it already following its own path and is only interested in graduates?
If a company asks for a graduate, it is not ready to cooperate with a university. The more sophisticated the business, the better it understands that it must innovate in a way other than simply hiring a graduate, i.e. a product. It is more strongly aware that it needs someone who has knowledge, skills and can see "around the corner" in a way that the company itself cannot even see around the corner.
* How do you recognize a person who has real potential to change things and is not just an excellent student?
By really changing things. By challenging the status quo in a constructive way. A student who passively aggressively complains is probably not the same. After all, every Czech can complain, right? But the one who comes up with a solution after the challenge is the student of the future.
* We often touch on AI in our conversation. Is higher education today ready to accept the responsibility that comes with it?
There are more responsibilities there. I think that one responsibility is that the university accepts it and uses AI to accelerate its work. Because if it doesn't, it is acting irresponsibly towards the future. And we don't have this responsibility or ability at university yet, it's a difficult thing. The Czech Republic is not a champion in this regard. There is also a responsibility if there can be any negative consequences. It can. We have to be careful, but the much greater danger is not to do it. This FOMO, the danger of missing out, is simply massive here. And that is the first thing that schools should address today. I am a big supporter of AI security and AI safety and AI regulation. So in other fields I say: measure twice, cut once. But since every university is so conservative in itself, here I say on the contrary: be brave, try everything, innovate, use AI.
* At CTU, thanks to tradition in the development of AI, there is a specific situation, but in general, what should a university look like today that takes AI seriously in its complexity?
The more processes it automates, the more responsible it behaves, in this it is no different from other companies. But then it has its own business, which is teaching. Setting the right strategy for using AI in teaching is important. Rules, investments, technologies, best practices, i.e. sharing experiences. And then using AI in science. No one can do that today, it's an unplowed field - whoever learns it first wins.
* By using AI in science, do you mean shortening long-term experiments?
Yes, exactly, dependence on wet labs, i.e. laboratories, on engineering fixtures. AI can significantly shorten longer-term processes, and when you have a choice between two projects, where one will last three years and the other three months, the choice is clear.
* Is there something that you would stop teaching immediately, and on the contrary, something that you would give more space to?
I probably wouldn't cut anything. But I would say that we should immediately innovate the way we teach programming. The current way of teaching is no longer relevant today. Precisely because programming is done in a different way, using AI agents and AI models. And CTU should be able to teach how programming is done today, but especially how programming will be done in a year. It's a difficult paper, but I don't think anyone can do it, the work is changing under their hands.
* You're talking about the fact that we're at a point where universities are deciding whether to retain their relevance. What makes the situation so complicated?
The external technological world is changing, the geopolitical world is transforming very quickly. Competition between schools is growing significantly. Today, there are already specific comparative metrics, or even ways to compete, and the competition is ruthless. For schools like CTU, the solution is to get into the European research area. To be as integrated into Europe as possible, so that we are in the first group of European countries.
* But the European area is probably not ideal for that development, the Americans have wider opportunities thanks to the free capital market...
One thing is science and the other is the development of technologies. We really don't have such opportunities for the development of startups, the USA is unified, we are not even that integrated within the European Union, they have a certain advantage in that. But in science, Europe is a superpower, we have the largest research program in the world, Horizon Europe, which is being applied for by scientists from Canada, Japan, and Israel. We have better conditions for supporting science, especially today, when science has been deprioritized in the States and fewer funds are being spent on its support.
* What will a university that took the right path at that crossroads look like in ten years?
It will still exist, have its importance, and play an important role in society. It will be the school of first choice for the best students from the entire region. There will be famous science, based on the effective use of AI, and 20 startups will emerge from CTU every year. I would consider that a success.