Reports

Robot does not automatically equate to “robota” (a word for work); in fact, it can be associated with lightness, playfulness and ease. This is how the researchers from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of CTU approached the making of their Christmas video to wish everyone a happy and merry Christmas, and also to celebrate the successful year 2021 in style. The year that marks a centennial since the word robot was first used in Karel Čapek's play R.U.R., to become probably the world's most used Czech word in the following decades.

Czech Technical University in Prague awarded its best students with the Stanislav Hanzl Prize on the occasion of the International Student Day on 17 November. The award was presented on 23 November 2021 in the Bethlehem Chapel during the gala concert of the Czech Academy of Engineering by Rector of Czech Technical University in Prague, doc. RNDr. Vojtěch Petráček, CSc., and doc. Ing. Antonín Pokorný, CSc., Chairman of the Board of the CTU Stanislav Hanzl Endowment Fund.

Junior Star projects subsidized by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic aim to support the best budding scientists up to 8 years after obtaining their Ph.D. The financial support will help them pursue their own scientific projects, as well as start their own research group and promote excellence. In this year's call, only 16 projects in all scientific fields across the Czech Republic were chosen for funding out of a total of 315 submitted proposals. Of these, two projects from CTU in Prague were supported, namely from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and the Faculty of Transport.

The team of faculties, units and the Rector's Office of CTU, representing our university at the XXVII European Fair of Post-Secondary and Lifelong Learning Gaudeamus Brno 2021, which was held from 23 to 26 November 2021, won 1st place in the competition for the best exposition of the fair.

In the week from 13 to 20 November 2021, CTU in cooperation with University of Chemistry and Technologyorganized a total of 11 intensive courses within the Athens program, which were attended by 206 foreign students from leading European technical universities.

On Saturday, 20 November 2021, the 68th running race and the 58th Academic Cross Country Run Championships were held at the Hvězda Park. The race was organized by the Institute of Physical Education and Sport of CTU and it was held under the auspices of Rector of CTU in Prague, doc. Vojtěch Petráček.

The "Josef, Marie and Zdeňka Hlávkas Talent Award" is intended for talented students who have demonstrated exceptional ability and creative thinking in their field of study, up to the age of 33. Together with the award, the laureates receive a foundation contribution of 25 thousand crowns. The students received their 2021 awards on 16 November 2021 at the Lužany Castle, which is part of the endowment of the oldest Czech foundation established in 1904. The proposal for the award is sent to the Foundation's Board of Directors by the rectors of the Czech universities in Prague and the Brno University of Technology. Young talented employees of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic were also awarded.

On Tuesday 23 November, during a gala evening in the Bethlehem Chapel in Prague, the Engineering Academy of the Czech Republic (IA CR) presented the award for an outstanding technical project for the twenty-fourth time. The 2020 award went to the team of the Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics (CIIRC) of CTU in Prague for the RP95-3D protective half-mask. The ceremony also saw the appointment of an honorary foreign member of the IA CR, Prof. Wolfgang Wahlster, one of the founders of Industry 4.0 of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, DFKI. The ceremony took place under the auspices of Rector of CTU in Prague, doc. RNDr. Vojtěch Petráček, CSc., and Dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of CTU in Prague, prof. Ing. Michael Valášek, DrSc.

From 19 to 21 November 2021, nearly 200 Czech and international hackers competed at the Institute of Clinical and Experimental Medicine (IKEM) in Prague at the European Health Hackathon 2021. The aim of the event, which was also partly held online, was to create innovations in healthcare within 48 hours. The winner of the weekend marathon was the UrineMeter project by students of the Faculty of Information Technology of the Czech Technical University, which enables automatic and accurate measurement of urine released by patients. Thanks to the device, the time of healthcare professionals is saved, and there is no need to disturb the patient during the measurement. The winning team, called Bit Beasts, was presented with a cheque for EUR 3,000 by Health Minister Adam Vojtěch.

Professor Ondřej Přibyl, Head of the Department of Applied Mathematics, was elected as a candidate for the position of Dean of the Faculty of Transport at the meeting of the Academic Senate of the Faculty of Transport on 16 November. After his appointment as Rector, he will succeed Associate Professor Pavel Hrubeš as Dean of the Faculty from February 2022.