The Minister of Education and the Mayor of Brno congratulated FIT on its 20th anniversary at a gala evening

On Wednesday evening, the Faculty of Information Technology celebrated the 20th anniversary of its foundation on 1 January. At the gala evening organised in the Brno City Theatre, the Dean of FIT Pavel Zemčík presented the FIT gold and silver medals. The Faculty was also congratulated on its anniversary by the Minister of Education Petr Gazdík, the Mayor of Brno Markéta Vaňková and the new Rector of BUT Ladislav Janíček.

The 1st of January 2022 marked twenty years since the establishment of the BUT Faculty of Information Technology. The anniversary was celebrated at a gala evening attended by staff, students and invited guests. "At the very beginning, there was an effort to give room to a dynamically developing field, which was then beginning to have a growing social impact. In twenty years, the Faculty has become an integral part of education and research in the Czech Republic and I am happy that we have made a name for ourselves in Europe and the world. FIT has grown considerably in that time and I am glad that we have managed to preserve the values with which we founded it," said Pavel Zemčík, Dean of the BUT Faculty of Information Technology.

Over the past 20 years, information technology has become one of the driving engines of Brno's economy. "And the Faculty of Information Technology has also played a part in this. It cultivates cutting-edge research and knowledge it can pass on to students. This is extremely important for the whole of society," said Minister of Education Petr Gazdík.

Minister of Education, Youth and Sports Petr Gazdík.

Markéta Vaňková, the Mayor of Brno, also congratulated the Faculty on its 20th anniversary at the gala evening. "The Faculty has helped to change Brno since its founding. Also thanks to FIT, South Moravia is turning into a knowledge-economy region. By building its unique campus, it has helped to change and beautify the face of Královo Pole," said Markéta Vaňková.

Ladislav Janíček attended the ceremony as the first official event in his new role as Rector of BUT. "The Faculty not only educates top engineering graduates, but it is one of the most efficient at BUT in terms of obtaining international research grants, as well as national funding. It performs very well in contract research and collaboration with the industry, including knowledge transfer and the establishment of spin-off and start-up companies. I wish the Faculty many excellent applicants, students, employees and graduates in the decades to come and at least equally successful and even better results in research, including in collaboration with the industry," said Rector of BUT Ladislav Janíček.

The Faculty was also congratulated on its anniversary by the Mayor of Brno Markéta Vaňková and the Rector of BUT Ladislav Janíček.

The Dean of FIT presented gold and silver medals at the ceremony. The celebrations will culminate on Saturday 30 April, when the FIT Festival will take place on the campus of the Faculty of Information Technology in Božetěchova street. For more information, visit www.fitslavi20.cz.

Veronika Lacinová, granddaughter of Zdeňka Rábová, receives the gold medal from the Dean of FIT.

List of awardees:

Gold medals

• prof. RNDr. Milan Češka, CSc. - for outstanding work in the field of theoretical computer science and merits for the development of the Faculty
• prof. Ing. Václav Dvořák, DrSc. - for merit for the establishment and development of the faculty and outstanding work in the field of computer hardware
• doc. Ing. Zdeňka Rábová, CSc. (in memoriam) - for her lifelong contribution to the Faculty and her work on modelling and simulation methods
• doc. Ing. František Zbořil, CSc. - for outstanding work in the field of intelligent systems and merits for the development and operation of the Faculty

Silver medals

• Ing. Rudolf Čejka - for merits for the operation of computer technology at the Faculty and its development
• doc. Dr. Ing. Otto Fučík - for excellent work in the field of programmable hardware and embedded systems
• doc. Mgr. Lukáš Holík, Ph.D. - for outstanding work and achievements in the field of theoretical computer science and verification
• Ing. Radek Kočí, Ph.D. - for representing the Faculty and BUT in the Council of Higher Education Institutions and for his work in the Academic Senate
• doc. Ing. Ondřej Ryšavý, Ph.D. - for his excellent work in research on cybersecurity of computer networks
• Ing. Aleš Smrčka, Ph.D. - for merit in education and research on reliability and security of computers and systems

Performance at the Brno City Theatre on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Faculty.

PHOTO: Majda Slámová