Reports

Scientists and representatives of companies and organizations involved in the development of artificial intelligence met on November 1 in Prague's Vzlet during the presentation of the Czech AI Awards. The awards, presented by prg.ai, Brno.AI and CzechInvest, were awarded in five main categories. The winner in the Research and Development category was Josef Šivic from Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics at Czech Technical University in Prague. His long-term cutting-edge scientific work was underlined this year by winning a prestigious ERC Advanced grant in the field of intelligent computer systems capable of learning in a dynamically changing world.

Faculty of Electrical Engineering of CTU (FEL) inaugurated the Reference Laboratory for Correlation Microscopy, which will be used for research purposes and teaching. The new laboratory, worth CZK 20 million, combines technologies and instruments whose configuration is unique not only in the Czech Republic but also in the European Union. Its capabilities will benefit both researchers from the Department of Physics at FEL CTU, as well as doctoral, master's and bachelor's degree students.

Under the auspices of CIPS and the ELSA Centre, the "Let's Connect" event was held at Cafe Prostoru at the end of October, which aimed to introduce a total of 44 registered students of bachelor's and master's degree programmes from CTU and ICT.

Projects in the pipeline and under implementation, such as recruitment applications for the army or the implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) in the environment of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and Capital city of Prague - this and more was discussed today by participants of the specialized workshop "AI for public administration", which was organized at the CTU by the prg.ai association, the European Centre for Digital Innovation EDIH CTU and the Digital and Information Agency (DIA) as part of the "AI Days". Nearly a hundred representatives of ministries, authorities, regions, municipalities, as well as other public administration units and state-owned enterprises met at CTU. They discussed what areas and how best to introduce artificial intelligence and new digital technologies.

The CTU management clearly distances itself from the lecture by Slovak conspirator Peter Stanek. It took place last week in the CIIRC building (Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics), where the CTU Rector's Office is located. The management of the CTU emphatically declares that it has nothing to do with the content of this lecture or the provision of space for this event. The rental of the CIIRC building to external parties is purely the responsibility of the Institute.

On October 28th, marking the state holiday, representatives of the Czech universities, as they do every year, honoured the memory of the founding father of the Czechoslovak Republic, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk.

A one-day course on the development of pedagogical, didactic and socio-psychological skills for doctoral students at CTU was held at the Masaryk Institute of Advanced Studies, within the framework of the cycle of Doctoral Student Days, which is organised by the Study Support department of the Central Library of CTU.

The support organisations established by the Rector's Office of the Czech Technical University in Prague - the Career Centre and the ELSA Centre for the Support of Students with Specific Needs - received special recognition in the National Career Counselling Award 2023 competition. This recognition was awarded literally for the "holistic approach to students with specific needs at CTU".

Ing. Petr Kasalický, a PhD student at FIT CTU, won the award for Best Student Paper at the Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDD 2023), held in Los Angeles on August 6-10, 2023. Petr presented his research at the EvalRS workshop focused on evaluation of recommender systems, which he addressed in his master's thesis and continues to explore in his PhD studies.

Experts from the Masaryk Institute of Advanced Studies conducted a course entitled Transfer of Experience in Urban Development and Renewal Planning to Moldova at Alecu Russo State University in Bălți, Moldova, from 25 to 29 September, was financially supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic and the Czech Development Agency.