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Academia Meets Industry comprises a series of seminars meticulously crafted to cultivate substantive dialogues between academia and industry pioneers. Our overarching objective is to facilitate the alignment of academic research trajectories with the pressing needs and dynamic challenges of the industrial landscape.
Academia Meets Industry Seminar #3
March 1, 2024
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On the 1st of March, 2024, the FrontSeat Industry Council for Cybernetics met at the third “Academia Meets Industry” seminar at STUBA’s Faculty of Materials Science and Technology in Trnava.
The seminar aimed to facilitate collaboration between industry partners and academia, primarily by presenting company profiles and proposing research topics for final theses to university students.
The presentations were given, in order of appearance, by Ing. Rudolf Trautenberger (Spolchemie), Ing. Hynek Procházka, PhD. (Prosystemy), Ing. Michal Kopček, PhD. (SKARTEK), Ing. Pavol Buček, PhD. (ŽP VVC), Ing. Marián Šrámek (Micro-Epsilon Inspection), Ing. Marián Filka (Siemens), Ing. Richard Janáč (SOVA Digital), Ing. Peter Beňo, PhD. (Photoneo), Ing. František Jantoška (SCHUNK Intec), Ing. Zuzana Kovaríková (VUEZ), and Ing. Jaroslav Filo (S-D-A). The proposed topics of final theses were collected and are now distributed to six institutes at four faculties of STUBA, where they are to be offered to interested supervisors and students themselves.
Subsequently, a discussion was led by Prof. Miroslav Fikar and Prof. František Duchoň to explore ways to enhance dialogue between academia and industry, addressing challenges in making fields like cybernetics and technical education more appealing. Both parties emphasized the importance of engaging youth early, fostering international experience, and teaching professional communication and soft skills. Ideas were also exchanged on sustaining the academia-industry collaboration beyond the project's conclusion.
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Scope: This 5-day course aims to provide the participants with theoretical background and hands-on knowledge on advanced methods and tools for optimization-based control systems. The course will cover selected state-of-the-art approaches to the formulation and practical solution of optimal control problems, including numerical optimization as a basis, design of model predictive controllers, moving horizon estimation methods, as well as data-driven modeling techniques with traditional system identification approaches and machine learning methods. All lecture topics will be accompanied by dedicated workshops with computer exercises. Participants will then work on an application problem (self-chosen or assigned) by exploiting the various methods and algorithms discussed. By the end of the course, they will present the obtained results.
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More information regarding the event schedule, logistics, and details pertinent to attendees can be found on our website. You can also download the event poster here.
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FrontSeat at the Horizon Europe Event – Closer to You
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Assoc. Prof. Radoslav Paulen (STUBA) showcased the EU project FrontSeat during the “Horizon Europe – Closer to You” event held on November 21-22, 2023. The event was organized by the Center for Scientific and Technical Information of the Slovak Republic, serving as the National Contact Point for Horizon Europe projects.
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FrontSeat at the 1st International Conference for Project Managers and Administrators
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Viltarė Platzner, the FrontSeat project manager, took the floor at the 1st International Conference for Project Managers and Administrators hosted by the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava on March, 5-6.
She presented the strategic objectives of the project FrontSeat, discussed how the Twinning project is connected to raising excellence of project management, and what a great collaboration we made between the project officers of STU and the University of Pisa, Italy. Viltare highlighted in her talk the synergies and mutual benefits derived from this international cooperation.
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The Research Seminar on Smart Cybernetics is held as a discussion seminar among the students and researchers from the research groups of the FrontSeat project partners, their networks, and the general public.
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The following are some of the presenters and the seminars they held since October 2023:
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We are pleased to announce our initiative, which is designed to extend the reach of our accomplishments in the fields of science and education to a broader audience. Through the orchestration of a range of Open Doors Day activities, we aim to provide insight into the depth and breadth of our contributions in these areas. These events offer visitors the opportunity to engage with our faculty, researchers, and students, fostering a deeper understanding of our STUBA's commitment to excellence.
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One of the core activities of the project is to promote excellence in research through scientific publications regarding automatic control methods and applications oriented to smart industries. In compliance with the EU open-access/open-research policies, all publications arising from the project are available on the Zenodo repository.
During the first half of the project, 36 publications (9 journal papers and 27 conference papers), and 7 posters arose. Publication venues include a mixture of theory- and application-oriented top-quality journals, and the most important conferences in the field of automatic control, such as the IFAC World Congress 2023 held in Yokohama, Japan. Several other conference papers have been accepted for the upcoming conferences this year, such as ADCHEM2024 and NMPC2024.
Major topics covered in these publications are:
- Real-time optimization: theory and applications
- Model predictive control (MPC): theory and efficient/embedded implementation
- Research- and education-oriented hardware and software for control engineering
- Machine learning methods for optimization-based control system design and monitoring
- Data-driven modeling and control systems design
- Experimental validation of control systems
- Inferential/Soft-sensors and their industrial application
- Cyber-secure process control systems
Six publications are here selected to showcase the importance of the investigated topics and testify to the fruitful cooperation among the various FrontSeat partners.
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FrontSeat, along with our project colleagues, has been featured in various Slovak media articles and podcasts. Here's a list of these features with accompanying links.
- The student magazine Radikal recently published an interesting interview (in Slovak) with Prof. Miroslav Fikar.
- In a two-part series, (Part 1, Part 2) the ATP Journal explored the contributions of Slovak technical universities to industry, youth, and international partnerships with insights from two experts: Prof. František Duchoň from STUBA and Prof. Aleš Janota from the University of Žilina.
- A prominent Slovak weekly magazine .týždeň interviewed Martin Klaučo about optimizing industrial processes.
- Since 2022, the prominent platform for disseminating knowledge and insights, SPEKTRUM STU, has published several articles in Slovak about Project FrontSeat and its related activities.
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Date: July 14-17, 2024
Location: Toronto, Canada
Workshop organized by: STUBA
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Workshop title: Application of Machine Learning in Accelerating MPC for Chemical Processes
Speakers: Martin Klaučo, Patrik Valábek
Scope: The aim of this workshop is to provide hands-on experience for applications of machine learning tools in connection with control theory. It will introduce several possibilities as to how the MPC can be accelerated. The workshop is primarily intended for graduate students and early-stage researchers, as well as for all community members interested in hands-on applications of machine learning tools in process control.
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14th IFAC Symposium on Dynamics and Control of Process Systems, including Biosystems (DYCOPS) 2025 in Bratislava, Slovakia
Date: June 24-27, 2025
Location: Bratislava, Slovakia
Organized by: STUBA
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More info will be available soon. Stay tuned!
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Follow FrontSeat on LinkedIn for regular updates on our progress, publications, and discussions. We appreciate your support and look forward to connecting with you.
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FrontSeat publications are accessible to everyone.
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You can access all of our research resources and scientific publications on: Zenodo.
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Follow us on social media
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