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The Czech AI Factory project, the Czech node of the European AI Factories network being built as part of the EuroHPC JU initiative, was officially launched in Ostrava on Tuesday, May 12. The project combines the new KarolAIna supercomputer with a comprehensive portfolio of services for the development and deployment of artificial intelligence in the Czech Republic. The resulting infrastructure is intended to serve companies, startups, public administration, and research organizations, helping them utilize AI without the need to build their own extensive computing infrastructure. It will offer users access to computing capacities optimized for AI, expert support, data services, AI solution testing, and educational programs. The total project budget amounts to nearly 1 billion Czech crowns, with half of the funding provided by the European EuroHPC JU partnership and the other half by the Czech Republic through the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports.

The consortium led by VŠB – Technical University of Ostrava and the IT4Innovations center includes six leading Czech institutions, including Brno University of Technology, whose participation is coordinated by Prof. Jan Černocký from the Faculty of Information Technology. “The Czech AI Factory represents a crucial step for the development of artificial intelligence in the Czech Republic. By combining cutting-edge computing infrastructure, excellent research, and close collaboration with industry, an environment is being created that will accelerate the transfer of AI research results from the laboratory to practical application. For BUT, participation in the project is an opportunity to actively shape the future of European AI, support new talent, and assist companies and startups, as well as public institutions,” said Černocký, commenting on the significance of the project’s launch.

On Tuesday in Ostrava, Černocký presented one of the first concrete solutions that IT4Innovations and BUT are jointly developing for the Fire and Rescue Service of the Czech Republic. This involves the development of an AI voicebot for the 112 emergency hotline. FIT VUT is one of the project’s key technical pillars: it is involved in the development of AI services (in the fields of speech technologies and cybersecurity), as well as educational activities and the translation of laboratory prototypes into practical applications.

The Czech AI Factory project will focus, among other things, on industry, healthcare, energy, public administration, cybersecurity, and transportation, and aims to strengthen the Czech Republic’s position in the European ecosystem of trustworthy and practically applicable artificial intelligence.

For more information, see the official press release.

We previously wrote about the CZ AI Factory project last fall.

Tuesday, May 5, after lunch, FIT VUT, third-floor hallway of Building L. For a moment, it felt like an RC model race. In fact, it was the practical component of the IPZ (Peripheral Devices) course. The course is led by Dr. Marcela Zachariášová. This bachelor’s-level course focuses on the principles of design, control, and communication of modern peripheral devices with computers, including hands-on work with their interfaces on robotic devices. Students learn about interfaces and their specifications, which is useful knowledge not only for creating embedded devices from existing components but also for hardware development, where knowledge of these interfaces is highly valuable. The robot competition itself was intended to bridge the gap between theory and practical experiments—it wasn’t just a way to liven up a demanding course. After all, explaining various types of interfaces and peripherals theoretically over the course of 12 lectures without the opportunity to connect and test them doesn’t make much sense. “That’s why my colleague Michal Bidl and I planned as many as eight lab exercises from the start. Students work with the same platform, a ‘robot,’ continuously connecting various sensors to a Raspberry Pi 4 device, and in this way gradually build the target application,” comments Dr. Zachariášová on the purpose of the robot competition.

The IPZ course recently underwent significant innovation and was first offered in its new form last academic year. Part of the transformation included the assignment of two bachelor’s theses to expand the curriculum: one on the topic of USB (Jakub Polák); the other on RFID and Bluetooth wireless identification technologies—which was undertaken by Lukáš Houzar. The robot competition was the result of Houzar’s bachelor’s thesis. Its author, of course, couldn’t miss the competition: “I was surprised by how well and smoothly the entire ecosystem functioned in real-world operation,” Lukáš said of the outcome. You can read in our report exactly what the competition tested and how both the course supervisor and the project creator perceive it.

On May 5, 2026, the Faculty of Information Technology hosted the twelfth edition of the popular Excel@FIT student project competition. The event focuses on innovation and new solutions in the field of information technology as seen through the eyes of the next generation of professionals. This year, 88 student projects were submitted to the conference, of which expert panels selected 76 for the final round. From these, experts, visitors to the showcase, representatives of 19 partner technology companies, and, for the first time this year, high school students chose their favorites.

Tuesday morning began with a panel discussion on the topic “Not All IT Pros Are Created Equal.” Successful graduates of the faculty—Gabriela Nečasová, Dominik Harmim, and Svetozár and Matúš Noskovi—explained to the packed auditorium what an IT degree qualifies one for today and how diverse career paths it can launch. Then came the main event of the Excel@FIT conference: students presented their research in the form of posters in the faculty hallways. Many of the booths addressed socially significant topics, including, for example, the detection of deepfake content flooding today’s online world. Several projects focused on public transportation or applications of machine learning in image and audio processing.

During the awards ceremony, praise was repeatedly heaped on the quality of this year’s student projects. Associate Professor Milan Češka, a member of the Excel program committee, highlighted the diversity of the evaluated projects: “The expert committees recognized 16 entries this year. This year, there was an increased emphasis on the effective use of AI in applications. In addition to applied results, the committee recognized several theoretical works with research potential, including innovative uses of language models for designing efficient hardware, new methods for processing 3D scans, and improved detection of deepfakes. High-quality works in the field of secure artificial intelligence were also presented for the first time.”

The IT world is extremely dynamic—Excel@FIT is an opportunity to stay on top of it. You can find the press release for this year’s event HERE. The photo gallery is available HERE.