Reports

Fly4Future, the official spin out of CTU, in cooperation with the Multirobotic Systems Group from CTU Faculty of Electrical Engineering (hereafter referred to as MRS FEL CTU) has advanced to the final of the SPRIND Funke Fully Autonomous Flight competition. From 16 to 20 September 2024 at the Erding Air Base in Germany, the Czech team will compete against eight other teams from all over the world. The challenge is to develop a drone that is able to fly fully autonomously and without the use of GPS to a given location, pick up an object and carry it to safety in challenging conditions.

CTU Faculty of Mechanical Engineering graduate, a systems engineer, became the first Federal Minister of the Environment. As an avid lover of nature, he dedicated himself to ecology and sustainability, which he emphasized as one of the first politicians and thinkers in our country. He was also valued as a university educator. In 1995, an avalanche in the Western Tatras ended his life.

The course "Transfer of experience in development and reconstruction planning for cities of Ukraine" was held at the National University of Polis in Zhytomyr in August. The trip was organized by experts from the Masaryk Institute of Advanced Studies of the Czech Technical University in Prague, who have long been involved in assisting with the planning of the country's post-war reconstruction.

The CEDMO 2.0 NPO project, funded by the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic from the National Recovery Plan, brings together leading Czech universities and selected partners to increase the resilience of Czech society against disinformation. The amount of CZK 175 million will support the development and use of artificial intelligence tools to detect manipulative claims in public space or to increase digital and media literacy. The principal reserarch is Czech Technical University in Prague, and AI experts from the Departments of Cybernetics and Computers at Faculty of Electrical Engineering and the Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics (CIIRC) will participate in the project.

AI Tinkers is the umbrella name for the concept of regular gatherings of professionals who work with artificial intelligence, as well as enthusiasts from the ranks of tinkerers and DIY´s. The initiative was founded in 2023 in Seattle as a community of technical experts who develop applications based on machine learning, such as large-scale language models (LLM) and generative AI. It quickly spread across Silicon Valley throughout the US and the rest of the world. Regular gatherings of these experts are intended to encourage experimentation, knowledge sharing, and build further innovation in AI. A Czech offshoot has now been established in Prague by prg.ai in collaboration with Insane Business Ideas and the LIMESS lab at the Department of Economics, Management and Humanities at Faculty of Electrical Engineering, CTU.

Scientists from Faculty of Electrical Engineering of Czech Technical University (CTU FEL) have joined the national project Czech Journey to Space, which aims to strengthen the Czech Republic's involvement in global space activities and to support domestic science and industry in the field of space technology. Scientists and students from the Department of Telecommunications Technology, the Department of Computer Graphics and Interaction and the Department of Physics are cooperating on behalf of CTU FEL. FEL also participates in an event that will kick off on 6 September at the Little Moon City (LMCP) at CTU Dejvice - a simulated PROMISE mission to the Moon with Major Aleš Svoboda, a combat pilot and backup astronaut of the European Space Agency.

University Primary School Lvíčata (Lion Cubs) focuses on the education of children who are interested in science and technology. It has a capacity of 78 pupils from Grade 1 to Grade 5, with 49 pre-schoolers applying for this year's first class. Fifteen first graders started school today. All schoolchildren were welcomed by the school's headmistress Ilona Ali Bláhová and, as usual, by the rector of the CTU Vojtěch Petráček.

On the basis of cooperation between the Czech Health Technology Institute, z.s. (CHTI) and CTU FBME, a delegation of 25 students from the technical university Hallyim Polytechnic University (HTU), Dept. of Health Sciences from South Korea visited CTU FBME in Kladno on 9 August 2024 as part of their European tour.

The team of the Department of Control Engineering from Faculty of Electrical Engineering experienced a successful summer. After local students won first place by a wide margin in the Autonomously Driven Vehicle Competition, which took place from 10 to 12 July 2024 at the American Control Conference in Toronto, the decision was made to establish a new intensive training course with international participation at the faculty.

Berislav Vekić, Ambassador of the Republic of Serbia to the Czech Republic, Jan Korseska, Mayor of Prague 2 and Vojtěch Petráček, Rector of Czech Technical University in Prague, signed a memorandum expressing their will to cooperate in the long term to promote cultural and historical heritage and develop mutual relations.