Reports

The Czech Republic belongs to the elite club of world manufacturers of turboprop engines. The history began in the 1970s, when the M601 turboprop engine flew for the first time on the wings of the legendary L-410 aircraft. Now, the history continues. The Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the Czech Technical University in Prague has begun the trial operation of its new, state-of-the-art propeller testing station for aircraft engines located in Hradec Králové. On 9 April, the test turboprop engine was launched for the first time, and on 10 April, the engine's idle speed was reached, a key milestone in reviving the test room. CTU plans to launch a full-scale testing within the joint research of turboprop engines with GE Aviation Czech in May.

During a working visit to the Czech Republic, the Omani Minister of Foreign Affairs visited the CTU Rectorate on 16 April, where the results of the work of the CTU University Center for Energy Efficient Buildings and other scientific and research activities were presented.

The system, which allows family houses to use more than 80 percent of the required energy from renewable sources, was jointly developed by scientists from the University Center for Energy Efficient Buildings at CTU in Prague and Regulus heating experts. The system for supplying the building with heat, cold and electricity combines a heat pump, photovoltaic panels and a seasonal accumulator located under the foundations of the house.

Faculty of Biomedical Engineering of the Czech Technical University in cooperation with the Society for Radiobiology and Crisis Planning of the Czech Medical Association of Jan Evangelista Purkyně organized an expert conference ‘Current Possibilities of Medical Facilities in Solving Extraordinary Events and Crisis Situations’ on 12 April. There were 19 lectures that were attended by the participants with great interest as they got acquainted with the current situation in the given issues in Prague's major hospitals (General Teaching Hospital, Central Military Hospital - Military University Hospital, Institute of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, The Faculty Hospital Motol, Traumatology Hospital Brno).

Students of the Faculty of Architecture created a model of possible habitation cells on Mars. The collaborative robot (cobot) borrowed from Universal Robots helped them with building them. The model is made up of a series of panels that the cobot weaved from hemp and jute fibers. The faculty collaborated with the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands. Visitors can see a two meter high model in the faculty atrium. Its spherical shape consists of composite panels woven from natural fibers. The hemp fiber is four millimeters thick, the jute cord is two millimeters in diameter. The fibers were impregnated with a glue solution to cure them.

Jiří Zemánek, the researcher, educator and popularizer of playful science, who works at the Department of Control Engineering at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, received the prestigious Fulbright-Masaryk scholarship. He will attempt to contribute to the research of digital materials, a revolutionary concept designed to build complex devices from small identical components at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the 2019/2020 academic year. Zemánek was invited to the project by American scientists because of his cutting-edge research results on distributed manipulation. The scholarship committee also took into account its public activities, for example in the academic senate or as the director of the Maker Faire Prague festival.

After more than two years of preparation and chellening multi-round evaluation, the Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics (CIIRC) acquired the European project RICAIP (Research and Innovation Center on Advanced Industrial Production). Thanks to RICAIP, a European Center of Excellence for Industrial Robotics and Artificial Intelligence is being created at CIIRC ČVUT with almost 50 million euros as startup support.

Prof. Miroslav Vlček, long-time vice-president of our university, head of the Department of Applied Mathematics, Faculty of Transportation Technology left us on 28 March. We will take part with Professor Miroslav Vlček on Friday, 5 April 2019 at 10.00 in the large ceremonial hall of the crematorium in Prague - Strašnice.

As usual in March each year, the Association of Architectural students announced past year´s best architectural and design projects from the Faculty of Architecture of CTU. This year's gala evening was held at the Center of urban planning and architecture (CAMP) of the Prague Institute of Planning and Development on 21 March. Expert juries have traditionally announced the best project and the best studio in the categories Architecture and Design. The winner of the Design category was the Kiton hanger by Vít Bednář from the Jaroš-Bednář studio.

The 1st Regular Plenary Meeting of AICZECHIA - National Initiative for Artificial Intelligence, which was established on 16 January, 2019, was held in Prague on 21March. Its aim is to become a respected national platform for cooperation of Czech laboratories and teams working in the field of artificial intelligence brush away boundaries of scientific disciplines and develop artificial intelligence and thus help fulfill the National Innovation Strategy.