Reports

Martin Schäfer, a graduate of the Department of Physics at the Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering (FJFI) and an employee of the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the CAS, won the second prize of this year's Henri Becquerel Prize for Nuclear Research. Ondřej Novák from the Department of Nuclear Reactors at FJFI was third. The prizes awarded by the French Embassy in the Czech Republic were presented by Jean-Marie Lehn, Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry, Pavel Doleček, Deputy Minister for Higher Education, Science and Research (MŠMT), and French Ambassador Alexis Dutertre.

On Tuesday, 5 October, a ceremony was held at the Old Town Hall to present certificates to new graduates of the prg.ai Minor programme. The aim of the inter-university programme is to educate a new generation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) professionals. The Faculty of Electrical Engineering, the Faculty of Information Technology and the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University are participating in the programme. The event was attended not only by representatives of the prg.ai association and the individual faculties, but also by the Mayor of Prague Zdeněk Hřib and Prague City Councillor Vít Šimral.

Between Libčice nad Vltavou and the village of Tursko, a forgotten wooded area has come to life; students of the Hlaváček - Čeněk studio of the Faculty of Architecture have built three sitting areas. On Sunday, 3 October, they were jointly opened by the mayors of both municipalities and their guest, Věra Kovářová, a member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic. The Bench, the Silo and the Chair will be used by hunters and tourists who will be brought to the landscape by the new structures.

The racing specials of the CTU in Prague student teams have traditionally been presented to the public during exhibition rides as part of the CTU Racing Day at the Dejvice campus. During the dynamic demonstrations, the CTU CarTech combustion formula car from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, the electrically driven formula car controlled by the driver, as well as the autonomous eForce FEE Prague Formula from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and the combustion and electric road racing motorcycles from the CTU Lions team from the Faculty of Transportation Technology were presented.

One of the biggest scientific and popular events in the Czech Republic, the Night of Scientists, took place on Friday 24 September. CTU offered its visitors interesting demonstrations at several of its faculties and university institutes, and the rich programme is still available online.

The Kaplicky Internship 2021 architecture competition has published its results. The jury was won by Valerie Heyworth, a graduate of the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University, with her project Czech House in Taiwan. The winner will spend three months on a fully-funded internship at the leading London studio Amanda Levete Architects.

How to predict the weather with the greatest accuracy just 24 hours in advance? Cooperating with the meteorological company Meteopress, scientists from the Faculty of Information Technology of the Czech Technical University in Prague (FIT CTU) are looking for an answer. They are using the capabilities of artificial intelligence to speed up and refine the forecast. Until now, a huge number of computers have been used for forecasting, which can now be greatly simplified thanks to artificial intelligence. This can also be used for sudden meteorological events, such as the tornado in Moravia.

The final round of the DARPA Subterranean Challenge organized by the US Department of Defense earned the Czech team performing under the CTU-CRAS-NORLAB banner a podium position in the robot battle in a virtual environment - in a robotic simulator. Among the ten best robotic teams in the world, the team took second place, for which it was awarded $500,000. The results were announced by DARPA on Friday 24 September at a ceremony in Louisville, Kentucky, United States.

During the World Speed Canoe Championships in Montemor, Portugal, kayaker Anežka Paloudová finished second in the kilometre race. In the final she was only beaten by Hungary's Emese Kohalmi.

The Faculty of Civil Engineering opened its two largest lecture halls after their complete reconstruction on Tuesday, 21 September. The ribbon cutting ceremony was attended by the Rector of CTU in Prague doc. Vojtěch Petráček, Dean of the Faculty of Civil Engineering prof. Jiří Máca and Director of the Investment Department of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic Ing. Yveta Kurfürstová. The reconstruction started in June 2020 and was completed in March this year. The auditorium can now seat up to 540 students.