The National Center for Industry 4.0 in cooperation with FEI VŠB-TUO, ŠKODA AUTO a.s. and Technologická gramotnost platform welcomed nearly two hundred students from Ostrava primary and secondary schools on May 20 as part of an educational event about modern technologies. The all-day program included not only an interactive lecture on the practical use of new technologies, but also a guided tour of the CPIT TL3 Testbed and its Smart Factory Lab and Mobility Lab sections. Here, experts showed the technology to young people in practice, and who knows, maybe some of them will return in a few years as students of one of the faculties. The goal of the event, which has been running in Prague for the third year, was to increase technological literacy, but also to strengthen interest in technical education. Today also in Ostrava for the first time.
Electromobility, artificial intelligence, 5G networks, the Internet of Things or cyber security: these are the topics addressed by the program to increase the technological literacy of secondary and elementary school students. The lecture module was prepared by the Technological Literacy platform directly tailored to pupils and students.
„We keep asking why young people are not attracted to studying technology. But the answer is easy, in short, we don’t present it attractively enough. This debt to the youngest generation, in cooperation with Škoda Auto a.s. and decided to pay back at least partially with the Technological Literacy platform. In Prague, we trained almost 500 pupils and students in 2023, and we are continuing to do so this year as well. We are pleased that, thanks to FEI VŠB-TUO and the CPIT TL3 Testbed, we can show that technology is cool here in Ostrava as well,“ says Robert Keil, director of the National Center for Industry 4.0.
It is the unique environment of industrial testbeds that materializes the potential of technologies in practice. What robots can do, how artificial intelligence is used, for example for autonomous driving or a walk through a factory in virtual reality. Students can try and literally touch everything.
The attractiveness of the test bed is confirmed by prof. Ing. Jan Platoš, Ph.D., dean of FEI VŠB-TUO: „The CPIT-TL3 testbed is visited annually by thousands of students from primary and secondary schools, not only from the Moravian-Silesian region. Entire classes come to us for all-day excursions and project days. We are therefore very happy to connect our exceptional program with the Technological Literacy project.“
Smart Factory Lab is a platform that was built in accordance with the principles of the Industry 4.0 concept and is a complex, top-class equipped laboratory for teaching, demonstration, testing and research of technologies used for the digitization of industry.
The Mobility Lab part is equipped with special equipment for modelling, simulation and testing of car electronic systems. It focuses in particular on advanced assistance systems and systems for autonomous driving of cars and industrial vehicles. It also includes an indoor and outdoor charging station for electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles.
The methodology is provided by the Technological Literacy platform, whose lecturers have helped thousands of students during its existence. So he knows exactly what the alpha or zet generation likes and what to get them excited about.
„I believe that, as the Czech Republic, we have enormous potential in the upcoming generation, which takes technology as a part of their lives. Our role is to guide them in the right direction and show them the enormous potential that awaits them. I’m glad that we can be part of such an initiative that tries to preserve that higher idea,“ says Tadeáš Salaba from Technological Literacy.
„We are glad that Škoda Auto Production and Logistics, with the help of the National Center for Industry 4.0 and VŠB-TUO, can provide free lectures in the environment of the CPIT TL3 Testbed to Ostrava elementary and secondary schools as well. Direct contact with Industry 4.0 technologies and examples of specific projects that find their application in industrial enterprises help pupils and students to better understand the lectured content – here theory becomes practice, information becomes knowledge, interest and motivation to study technical fields increases,“ says Jana Polášek Filová, expert coordinator of digitization and innovation at Škoda Auto.
Information about the progress of Technological Literacy in Ostrava was also provided by Czech Television in the program Studio 6. You can listen to the entire report at 49:40.
You can find more information about the event here.
More information about the CPIT TL3 Testbed can be found here.
