Until 12 years ago, there were over 20 small research teams working in the field of artificial intelligence at CTU. „This is because we all expected the coming of the artificial intelligence era and we knew that the Czech Republic had to be ready for it,“ says its founder and scientific director Vladimír Mařík.

„I have to say that we have met all the indicators we set at the beginning. Or rather ‚overfulfilled‘. Today, over 300 researchers work at the CIIRC. We have big European projects, but what is quite interesting is that we are self-sustainable. This means that we are able to support ourselves without much institutional government support,“ the scientist stresses.

The institute draws only 5% of the budget of the CTU, under which it is affiliated, because it is largely fed by research projects commissioned by large industrial corporations.

„On the one hand, this is good, because the big research that a large corporation can buy anywhere in the world is bought here. On the other hand, I am a bit sorry that the share of funds from the Czech environment is very small, disproportionately smaller. So we are not serving the Czech industry as much as we wished at the beginning,“ admits Vladimír Mařík.

How is Industry 4.0 in the Czech Republic and how does the expert on AI and industrial systems management imagine the future of CIIRC? You will not only hear the answers to these questions in Tatiana Čabáková’s talks, listen to more.

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Author:
Tatiana Čabáková