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650 years ago, on August 13, 1375, Margrave John Henry of the House of Luxembourg issued the founding charter of the Carthusian monastery "Cella Trinitatis". This marked the birth of a complex that is now a historical landmark in the Královo Pole district of Brno. It is also a place where history meets state-of-the-art information technology.

The monastery was originally founded for a prior and 12 monks, so it included 12 cells for Carthusian fathers. The strict rules of coexistence of the monks of the Carthusian order, inspired by hermit ideals, were also reflected in the architectural elements. The individual cells were accessible from separate monastic gardens, towards which the windows of the cells also faced, thus preventing contact between the monks.

The monastery was repeatedly affected by war events. It was damaged during the Hussite and Czech-Hungarian wars, and suffered particularly during the Thirty Years' War. Nevertheless, it experienced a period of economic growth after the mid-18th century. Subsequently, however, it fell victim to the reforms of Joseph II, like many other church buildings in our country. The complex was turned into barracks. The military use of the complex continued until 1964, when the Czechoslovak People's Army handed it over to the Czech Technical University. Paradoxically, it was precisely the military use that helped to preserve the building and its historical value. That is why we now have before us a valuable example of a typical medieval charterhouse with subsequent Baroque modifications. The complex was given a new lease of life by renovations begun at the start of the 21st century based on a design by architect Vladislav Vrána.

Let us appreciate the places and legacies that we can pass through every day. More information about the history of the monastery and a gallery of historical images can be found HERE.

Would you like to learn more about the quality of your sleep, mental health, or nutritional balance? The Cognitive and Neural Engineering Research Group (CANE) is looking for volunteers to test a new AI platform.

The group, led by Prof. Aamir Saeed Malik, is starting to collect data as part of the "Assessment & Tracking of Human Emotions" project. Our emotions can be recognized based on a number of parameters, such as speech, text, handwriting, facial expressions, physiological signals (e.g., heart rate, breathing rate), or brain signals. The purpose of collecting this data from mobile devices, smart watches, and EEG devices is to obtain relevant information for subsequent testing and improvement of algorithms for emotion recognition and monitoring over time.

As part of the data collection for the project, volunteers are currently being sought who would like to participate in the research under the following conditions:
a) During each test day, the group can welcome up to 4 participants per test session;
b) Before the experiment, it is necessary not to eat, drink (except water), or smoke for 3 hours;
c) Testing takes place at our faculty in room Q301;
d) Light refreshments will be available during testing.

And most importantly: Each participant will receive a free personalized lifestyle and wellness assessment, including insights into mental wellbeing, sleep quality, physical condition, and nutrition.

If you are interested in booking a date, please email Prof. Malik directly.

What will agriculture look like in the future? How will we feed large cities, where an increasing proportion of the world's population is concentrated, in the coming decades? It is time to think differently about agriculture and choose new approaches. A large four-year European project called Hungry Ecocities, coordinated by the Faculty of Information Technology at Brno University of Technology, is seeking innovative answers to these questions.

The goal of the international consortium of eight research institutions, including FIT BUT and the Faculty of Agronomic Sciences at MENDELU, is to create more sustainable food systems using data, artificial intelligence, and interdisciplinary cooperation. As part of the research, growers and agricultural experts are working closely with artists, designers, and scientists in the fields of information technology, food science, and biotechnology. Together, they are coming up with new ideas for the future of the food system.

One of the current outputs of the European initiative is the Acoustic Agriculture project, a collaboration between new media artist Helena Nikonole and experts from Mendel University. Nikonole is exploring the fascinating question of how sounds affect plants, their growth and production – in other words, how urban noise pollution can modify agricultural production itself. The research is being carried out on an urban hydroponic farm. The aim is to understand the relationship between sounds and plant growth and, using artificial intelligence, to create optimal sound sequences that could increase production and help small farmers. FIT BUT, represented by doc. Pavel Smrž, is responsible for technological coordination in the Hungry Ecocities project.

"Collaboration between art and science is nothing new, but now these interactions are being shaped by a powerful new element: artificial intelligence. AI is becoming a tool that creative people can use to deliver results that were not possible before," says Pavel Smrž.

You can find out more about Helena Nikonole's research and other outputs of the Hungry EcoCities project (including AI-generated marketing outputs for small European farmers) in the original article in Horizon magazine.