Werner von Siemens Prizes 2024: BUT celebrates success with four award winners

For the third decade, Siemens has been recognizing talented students, inspiring educators, and passionate scientists. The prestigious Werner von Siemens Awards 2024 ceremony took place on Wednesday, March 19, at the Bethlehem Chapel in Prague. This year, Brno University of Technology (BUT) boasts four awardees – educator Jiří Jaroš from FIT, graduates Roman Parák from FME and Jan Koudelka from FEEC, and PhD candidate Michael Foltýn from FME/CEITEC BUT.

The Werner von Siemens Award in the category of Best Educator was awarded to Jiří Jaroš from the Faculty of Information Technology BUT, a recognized expert in supercomputing technologies. The jury acknowledged him for his extraordinary contributions to science, education, innovation, and university development. "When I stand in front of a full lecture hall and see students listening with interest, I feel a bit like a rock star. For me, teaching is not just a job but a lifelong passion," emphasized Jaroš, whose career includes top-tier research, excellent pedagogy, and an active role in academic leadership.

In this year’s edition, awards in the field categories of Industry 4.0 and Smart Infrastructure & Energy were presented separately for master’s and doctoral theses, with BUT experts dominating the doctoral section.

The award for the Best Doctoral Thesis on Industry 4.0 went to the dissertation titled Design of Advanced Methods in Industrial Robotics within the Concept of Industry 4.0, authored by graduate and external lecturer Roman Parák from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering BUT. His work is a prime example of fulfilling Industry 4.0 requirements by integrating physical and digital systems for advanced automation. "I don’t like taking the path of least resistance—quite the opposite. I enjoy challenges that involve complex problems, as long as their solutions have real meaning and impact," Parák described.

His dissertation proposes a versatile robotic workstation with vertical system integration, enabling collaboration and intelligent interconnection of various devices. For the design and optimization of the workstation, he utilized advanced simulations working with virtual models of individual components. This allows the entire workstation, including its optimization, to be prepared in a virtual environment before being implemented in the physical world.

The award for the Best Doctoral Thesis on Smart Infrastructure & Energy was given to Jan Koudelka from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication BUT, for his dissertation Stability in Modern Electrical Grids. "What I enjoyed most was the ability to simulate different possibilities and explore various solutions. The most interesting finding, in my opinion, is that it will be necessary to explore new ways of supporting the grid due to emerging technologies, as the decommissioning of traditional sources will remove useful tools currently used for managing the electrical system," explained Koudelka.

His dissertation focuses on power system dynamic stability, frequency stability, and frequency load shedding. The core of his work lies in calculating the critical time as an indicator of dynamic stability and presenting possibilities for utilizing new technologies, such as electric vehicle charging stations, to support the grid in emergency situations.

3rd place in the Best Master’s Thesis category was awarded to PhD candidate Michael Foltýn, who studied at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering BUT and is now part of the research center CEITEC BUT. His thesis, Plasmonics of Non-Precious Metals, compared the properties of non-precious metals like bismuth, indium, lead, and aluminum with traditional plasmonic metals like gold. He then analyzed the nanostructures in detail and confirmed that bismuth could replace gold in plasmonics, potentially reducing the cost of manufacturing medical tests based on gold nanoparticles.

"The topic of non-precious metals might become trendy, leading to significant investments and accelerating the application of findings. However, it is also possible that this will be a dead-end branch of development, and bismuth will never find a place in practical plasmonics," commented Foltýn. Along with the thesis author, his supervisor Michal Horák from CEITEC BUT was also recognized.

Other BUT representatives ranking in the top 15:

• In the Best Master’s Thesis category: 6th place – Dominik Hrůza from CEITEC BUT, 7th place – Ondřej Štefek from FME, and shared 11th-15th place – Michaela Hošková (FME) and Valentina Hrtoňová (FEEC).
• In the Best Doctoral Thesis category: 8th place – Ondřej Wojewoda from CEITEC BUT.
• Among the top 7 master’s theses on Smart Infrastructure & Energy: shared 2nd place – Jakub Rigby (FME), 5th place – Enas Al Halabi (FEEC), and 7th place – Marek Patočka (FME).
• And among the TOP 10 diploma theses on the topic of Industry 4.0, Michal Rozsíval from FIT took 3rd place.

“I would like to congratulate everyone who ranked in the top tens in this fierce competition. However, we must also appreciate all those who had the courage to participate. Together with the other jury chairs of the Werner von Siemens Awards, we agreed that there was no weak entry, no subpar result—every submission was competitive, making it incredibly difficult to determine the ranking. I am proud of all awardees, finalists, and participants from BUT and thank them for representing our university so well,” commented BUT Rector Ladislav Janíček, who also chaired one of the juries in the Best Master’s Thesis category. “With four awards, BUT secured second place among Czech universities, which fills me with pride for our students, teachers, and researchers who succeeded in this highly competitive and prestigious contest,” he added.

The Werner von Siemens Award has been supporting talented students, scientists, and educators for 27 years, ranking among the most significant independent initiatives of its kind in the Czech Republic. Its goal is not only to motivate young talents toward scientific endeavors but also to highlight the crucial role of educators and strengthen public engagement with science. Independent panels of leading academics and experts decide on the awards, having distributed over CZK 15 million to 450 recipients throughout the award’s history. The Czech branch of Siemens organizes the event in collaboration with universities and the Czech Academy of Sciences.

Congratulations to all the awardees!

Source: Werner von Siemens Awards 2024 Press Release