Reports

The Faculty of Civil Engineering has finished the complete reconstruction of its two largest auditoriums. The new facade cladding, which in form follows on building modifications carried out on other parts of the faculty building in the past, makes the original abstract plastic stone mosaic by Martin Sladký on the front facade of the auditoriums. The interior itself has undergone a drastic transformation and thanks to the glass side walls transmitting ample of light, it was conceived inside as a black box. The most attractive element of the auditoriums was the highly functional Glasio absorption acoustic cladding, made of black crystal glass, which gives the place a technical form and is a Czech patent from Aveton. The total investment amounted to 85.069 million crowns, the contract was realized by VW Wachal company.

The Uniqway University Carsharing project has merged with the Czech Red Cross and provides cars for the delivery of paramedics from Prague to nearby hospitals. Volunteers are drafted among its users who can get involved and dedicate their time to good things.

The VENT-CONNECT project, which enables remote monitoring of lung ventilators and vital signs monitors, especially in patients with COVID-19 connected to artificial lung ventilation, passed the preclinical phase and received a positive opinion from the ethics committee of the Royal Vinohrady University Hospital (FNKV). The technical solution developed by the team of the Czech Technical University in Prague composed of researchers from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics (CIIRC) and the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering in cooperation with the Department of Anaesthesiology and Resuscitation (KAR) streamlines condition monitoring for patients in the infection zone with remote access to ventilator screens and vital signs monitors. This allows physicians to adjust lung ventilator parameters more accurately during treatment, which of course leads to better patient care. The solution is cheap and easy to deploy in other workplaces, be it COVID-19 or others.

Nuclear power plants can use only about 5% of nuclear fuel. The rest of the material remains in the fuel cells, which are stored in the interim storage facilities of the power plants. The concept of the new device, the so-called TEPLATOR, which can use nuclear waste, was developed by scientists from the Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics of the Czech Technical University and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the UWB in Pilsen. They had the concept patented last year. The authors are now looking for a site for which they could design the first functional prototype. The Czech patent may come into operation as early as 2029.

Ludwig van Beethoven would probably be very surprised to hear his RHPv2 song For Elise. The latest robot from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering plays a composition that belongs to the repertoire of beginning pianists on electronic keyboards, but will soon be able to handle more demanding works on the large piano grand piano in Zenger's lecture hall.

The Research Center for Industrial Heritage of the Faculty of Architecture publishes a book entitled The Search for Universality. Contexts of industrial architecture in Czechoslovakia 1945–1992. The publication describes the processes that brought about the transformation of a modern factory from an individually conceived technical-architectural work into a universal and abstract format, and recalls valuable buildings that disappeared unnoticed.

Is a very specific assignment in architecture something that binds imagination or originality? The answer to this question was sought for the first time by the 13th annual student competition announced by the Central Group. Future architects were to design the appearance of five sections of an apartment building in a new residential area in Prague 6. The winners were Pavla Hanousková and Ondřej Čeliš from the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Czech Technical University, Architecture and Civil Engineering program. The second place was taken by Laura Izabela Lukáčová and Miroslav Slezák from the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University and the third place belongs to Matouš Pluhař and Ondřej Pecháček, also from the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University.

Zuzana Zvěřová and Miroslav Myrončuk, a pair of students from Newton College bring good news for the environmentalists, as they came up with the Drink and Eat concept. For a long time they tried to figure out how to replace a plastic cup with an edible one that would eat instead of a biscuit after drinking coffee. The journey was not easy. For more than a year, they searched the home "laboratory" for a suitable dough recipe and tested Chinese baking equipment. There were still cracks in the cups. Then they turned to experts from the Institute of Process and Processing Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague. The main researcher, Ing. Jaromír Štancl, Ph.D., shared further details about the collaboration.

The new air purifier concept relies on the filter material, which can be sterilized by electric current and reused. An innovative solution, the development of which was worked on last year by the team of doc. Lukáš Vojtěch and Ing. Marek Neruda from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering (FEE), has all the prerequisites to become an effective means of collective protection against viruses such as COVID-19. It can also be used in air conditioning or ventilation systems of buildings or means of passenger and public transport, including cars, ships or planes.

The twenty-third year of the prestigious Werner von Siemens Prize, in which the Czech Siemens awards the best students, teachers and young scientists, took place in the context of a coronavirus pandemic. This did not affect the quality of the submitted works, which was extremely high. Independent juries selected the best works, projects and personalities from the field of technical and scientific disciplines in the categories: the best result of basic research, the best diploma thesis, the best dissertation and the best pedagogical worker.