Reports

Bc. Huu Quy Nguyen, Student of Faculty of Information Technology of Czech Technical University in Prague (FIT CTU), focused in his bachelor thesis on creation of a recommender system for optimizing the monitoring of live streams of elephants at the Prague Zoo. This system can help viewers to choose the most suitable camera for tracking elephants and also makes the work of keepers easier by automating the tracking of elephants' position during the day, which they used to do manually. This project was developed in collaboration with Prague Zoo, which had previously approached FIT with the possibility of collaboration. This work earned Huu Quy Nguyen the Dean's Award.

Brain research requires a fundamental change in research approach. A completely new direction was taken by research teams from four Czech research institutes, who joined with French and German scientists and succeeded together in a strong European competition. As a result, a completely unique interdisciplinary centre of excellence, CLARA, the first of its kind in Central and Eastern Europe, will be established in the Czech Republic over the next six years to focus on the development of a new generation of applications using artificial intelligence, computational modelling and quantum computing. The aim is to push the boundaries of research into neurodegenerative diseases, in particular Alzheimer's disease, by processing large-scale multidimensional biological and clinical data using powerful supercomputers and quantum methods. The centre has a total budget of CZK 1.1 billion (€43 million), with the European Union providing more than CZK 380 million (€15 million) under the Horizon Europe Teaming for Excellence programme.

Efforts to make materials and products more sustainable and less demanding of material resources and energy used in production and operation are already being promoted in all sectors of industry. The search for more efficient sources to power vehicles is a major challenge. Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of Czech Technical University in Prague and the University of Chemical Technology in Prague have responded to this challenge by preparing unique study programmes: Sustainable Mobility - Drives and Vehicles (accredited at Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of Czech Technical University in Prague) and Sustainable Mobility - Energy and Materials (accredited at the Institute of Chemical Technology in Prague).

Working in the power industry today requires graduates to have not only classical power engineering knowledge, but also knowledge of industrial ICT. Students of CTU Faculty of Electrical Engineering will be able to try out the most modern devices used in current practice during their regular teaching thanks to the newly opened PRE laboratory.

Martin Ševeček from CTU Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering and his team have successfully tested nuclear fuel coating materials that can provide operators with economic benefits and, in the extreme case, additional time to cope with a nuclear accident. Over the past year, he has been testing different variants of fuel rods at MIT, one of the best engineering schools on the planet.

On Wednesday, 6 November 2024, the faculties and units of Czech Technical University in Prague, together with the charitable organization Recruitment of Heroes and the Czech National Bone Marrow Donor Registry, organized a unique recruitment of bone marrow donors.

To mark the 20th anniversary of our country's accession to the European Union, the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic organised a pub quiz for university students. The CTU round took place at the Betlémská Club on the evening of 4 November; the best two teams to advance to the final round were teams from the MIAS and CTU FEE.

Institutions operating in Prague's Dejvice Campus have agreed to cooperate in ensuring the safety of their students and employees. After the December events at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University, strengthening security became a priority for the management of the universities at Dejvice burough, the National Technical Library, the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and Prague 6 district. Outcome of the concern is the Memorandum on Mutual Cooperation in Dealing with Crisis Events in the Dejvice Campus Environment, which was signed jointly by the statutory representatives of the two institutions on 1 November.

Researchers and representatives of participating institutions gathered to officially launch the CEDMO 2.0 NPO at Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU) project on Wednesday, 23 October 2024. The aim of the project is to increase the resilience of Czech society against disinformation, especially with the help of artificial intelligence tools. It is funded by the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic from the National Recovery Plan. The project leader is CTU and other participants include Charles University, Masaryk University, Palacký University in Olomouc, Czech Press Office and Demagog.cz.

How to plan, monitor and evaluate scientific data more effectively? How can scientists save up to 70% of the necessary administrative work on their projects? CTU Faculty of Information Technology (CTU FIT) is participating as a partner in one of the key parts of the European Open Science Plan-Track-Assess Pathways (OSTrails) project under the Horizon Europe programme in collaboration with 38 partners, which aims to streamline interoperability and machine processability of research planning, tracking and evaluation under the European Open Science Initiative (EOSC).