Vice-rector Radek Holý hosted the event, representing CTU rector Vojtěch Petráček, who had again taken the fair under his auspices. Vice-rector Holý was also available to meet secondary school teachers in a talk aimed them, after which he answered questions. In two blocks (on Tuesday and on Wednesday morning), the CTU faculties presented themselves to prospective students in the big lecture hall, and there was certainly no shortage of interest in CTU from the secondary school students.
What made the greatest impact on the visitors was of course the exhibition itself in Hall no. 4. Throughout the three days, students from each of the CTU faculties and from the Masaryk Institute of Advanced Studies answered questions from secondary school students and their parents, and introduced the exhibits.
Ludvík the robot was a favourite attraction. He is 140 cm tall, and is made entirely from LEGO bricks, 30 000 of which were used to construct him. He weighs 32 kg, and he is from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering. The Faculty of Mechanical Engineering presented some rockets that visitors could put together and take apart, and a virtual model of an atomic reactor – the Cenelín student project. In addition to Ludvík, the Faculty of Electrical Engineering also presented the literally ‘hair-raising’ Van de Graaff generator and an autonomous racing car. Also on show were the motorbike developed by the CTU Lions student racing team from the Faculty of Transportation Sciences, the water management model of a part of the slalom course for the Tokyo 2021 summer Olympics, which was designed by the Faculty of Civil Engineering, and a hands-on model of the exceptional building that houses the Faculty of Architecture of CTU. Another exhibit presented the basic monitoring and nursing care provided by a high-tech simulator of a new-born child at the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering. Anyone who smiled long enough and broadly enough into a camera was rewarded by artificial intelligence with a candy from the Faculty of Information Technologies. And the Rectorate of CTU again provided a much sought-after opportunity for secondary school students to have a tatoo on their face of motifs linked with the university. In addition, balloons were handed out and free refreshments in the form of a blue-coloured drink.
We have no doubt that CTU has acquired numerous new students from the Prague Gaudeamus fair, and we are now looking forward to Gaudeamus in Brno, which will take place at the end of October and the beginning of November of this year.
