Reports

Jakub Vašek, student of the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Czech Technical University, placed third in the Xella international competition. It was held for twenty-first time and the subject this year was design of the new building of the Moravian Gallery in Brno.

On 20 May, the lock chamber at Hněvkovice near Týn nad Vltavou was opened for the public. It is the last lock chamber on the waterway from the Orlík reservoir to České Budějovice. It will allow boats with a width of up to 6 meters, lengths up to 45 m and displacement of 300 tons to be able to leave the Orlík reservoir for České Budějovice.

The third annual Jan Lewinski Memorial - Student Iron Firefighter of the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering was held on 17 May. About 25 students and 11 students from secondary schools and colleges competed for the title of Iron Firefighter. In the men's category, Jakub Zahradník won the race in less than five minutes and in women´s category it was Denisa Vápeníková, both of them from VŠB-TU Ostrava. Students from FBMI have won three medals.

The XGLU student startup, engaged in the development of a battery-free meter, won the first place in the Czech-Slovak finals of the Microsoft Imagine Cup competition in Bratislava. Marek Novák, Tomáš Pikous and Barbora Suchanová secured their participation in the global finals in Seattle, where they will compete it latter July with top ten university teams from around the world.

On 10 May, the Technical Administration of Roadways of the Capital of Prague (TSK) published conclusions of the diagnostics of the sub-bases and foundation of third pillar of the Libeňský Bridge. This was done by the Klokner Institute of the Czech Technical University in Prague between December 2016 and May 2017. The aim of the study was to verify the actual state of the concrete and sub-base of the pillar and to compare the results with the available archive materials and backgrounds from the already made diagnostic surveys on the main bridge across the river and on the flood bridge of Libeň .

The rector of CTU, prof. Petr Konvalinka, doc. Miloš Polášek, Managing Director of Porsche Engineering Services and Dipl. Ing. Dirk Lappe, Chairman of the Board of Porsche Engineering Services, signed a framework cooperation agreement In the newly opened premises of the CTU - CIIRC building on 3 May. Its main objective is to participate in joint research projects, support of university laboratories and provide professional lectures for students.

The opening ceremony of the new CTU - CIIRC building was held on 2 May. This important event was attended by CTU rector Petr Konvalinka, the director of the Institute, Vladimír Mařík, the President of the Czech Republic, Miloš Zeman, the Prime Minister, Bohuslav Sobotka, HOCHTIEF CZ Board member Tomas Koranda, VCES General Director Zdeněk Pokorný, and also robots used by CTU for scientific and research purposes.

Commencing 26 April, CTU students and employees have the opportunity to use a new information system, the CTU Portal. It was created within the framework of one of the partial aims of CTU information strategy by the Department of Information Systems at the rectorate.

The Hall of the Year Akademik 2017 competition was held on 20 April by the Faculty of Civil Engineering, CTU. The task was to create a model of the building from designated materials and to subject the model to a demanding load test. The victory criterion was the efficiency of the model, the ratio between the bearing capacity and the weight of the model. The design of the winning team, the students of Helena Cuřínová from the Faculty of Architecture and Jan Mládek from the Faculty of Civil Engineering, weighed only 139 grams and carried a load of 42,454 kilograms.

Thanks to the long-term development at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering´s Department of Computer Graphics and Interaction, Naviterier, a unique navigation application for the blind, was created. Its main authors are Zdeněk Míkovec and Jan Balata. The navigation uses the accurately mapped documentation of the ROUTE4ALL project. The blind is informed, for example, about the shapes of the corners of the streets or the slope and width of the pavement. The application will be available for download in the summer of 2017, but can now be pre-ordered on the web. Those who register before the end of April will have Naviterier free for half a year.