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Minister of Science praised MU’s dynamism and future plans

During his visit to MU on Monday, Marek Ženíšek, the Czech Minister of Science, Research and Innovation, toured the unique facilities of the Simulation Centre (SIMU) on the Bohunice University Campus and the Cybernetic Proving Ground (KYPO) at the Faculty of Informatics.

Minister Marek Ženíšek and Rector Martin Bareš at SIMU, looking at the most realistic manikin.

The Simulation Centre, which serves future doctors and other healthcare professionals was presented to the Minister by Martin Repko, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine. SIMU will be the most modern and largest simulation centre in Europe, with a planned 360,000 hours of training per year.

“We have transformed the campus and our approach to education. We were the only university to take a loan from the European Investment Bank with the firm belief we’ll repay it ourselves. And we will repay it in 2026,” said Martin Bareš, Rector of Masaryk University, referring to the beginning of the story, the construction of the campus and later the Simulation Centre. The Simulation Centre also owes its existence to EU funding. It houses an emergency reception area, debriefing rooms where instructors and students review their medical interventions, basic skills classrooms with simulators, operating theatres, intensive care units, standard rooms and a virtual autopsy room, as well as a rooftop helipad where students can practise taking over a patient. One floor of the building is dedicated to dentistry and contains 70 dental simulators (which look like human heads). Some of them can even be used to practice working with a microscope, which will be very important in the future, especially for root canal treatment.

Dental simulators at SIMU.

“I think everybody would like to study dentistry here in Brno,” said Minister Marek Ženíšek during a tour of the dental section.

Students try out surgical procedures first on simulators and then on a manikin. In the operating theatre they learn how to operate on the brain and abdomen, try out procedures on blood vessels and insert catheters. Rector Martin Bareš came up with the idea for the simulation centre when he was head of the Faculty of Medicine, after observing similar centres during his internship in the USA. “At first it didn’t look like we would be able to get SIMU through, but with Dean Repko we were able to realise the vision four years ago. Then, during the Covid-19 pandemic, SIMU helped us keep on teaching. Our dream came true,” said Rector Martin Bareš.

A view of the instructors’ control room, from where they observe the students’ actions in the ER.

“I am really excited by what I’ve seen,” said Minister Marek Ženíšek after his visit to SIMU. “Every room I have visited demonstrates the value of investing in such innovations, because – as I have been told, and it certainly makes sense – if students were to train on live patients, it would be neither comfortable for them nor optimal for the future of medicine,” said the Minister for Science, Research and Innovation, who also praised the architectural design of the building. “With big projects like this, you often have to cut corners somewhere because the money is limited. But if you get a building that is both fit for purpose and visually attractive, it is a beautiful example of how it should be done, and also a great demonstration to the public, who will get an idea of what EU funds are spent on, and that the result can be very positive,” he added.

Minister Marek Ženíšek also had plenty to praise during his second visit at Masaryk University. The MU Faculty of Informatics, where the Cybernetic Proving Ground (KYPO) project for security research was established in 2012, recently celebrated its thirtieth anniversary. “When it was founded, our faculty was the first computer science school in the Czech Republic. Today we have ten years of cooperation with the commercial sector behind us,” said Jiří Barnat, Dean of the Faculty of Informatics.

“The Cybernetic Proving Ground helps us address the issue of cyber security and study cyber attacks, with the associated training thanks to the facilities in the server rooms,” said Pavel Čeleda Department of Computer Systems and Communications. The first project involving a digital twin of the real world was created at KYPO. “We prepare technical exercises in which we create scenarios for real people using real examples. We can simulate what a cyber attack on a power plant looks like, and we also monitor network traffic. Today, we can simulate an entire organisation with everything running in the cloud,” explained Pavel Čeleda.

Cybernetic Proving Ground at the MU Faculty of Informatics.

Together with the Faculty of Law, experts from the Faculty of Informatics also contributed to the drafting of the Cybersecurity Act and helped establish the National Cyber and Information Security Agency (NÚKIB), which, not coincidentally, is based in Brno.

“The cybersecurity programme connects people, technology and processes. By bringing together lawyers and computer scientists, we have become the first state in the European Union to adopt a special law on cybersecurity, and we have also introduced a new course called Legal Informatics, which is based on cybersecurity research,” said Radim Polčák, Vice-rector for Development, Legal & Information Technologies.

“KYPO’s activities are a good example of how this type of research is by definition multidisciplinary and, if all goes well, can produce excellent results. I was pleased to learn that KYPO also plays the role of a training centre for civil servants and NÚKIB, which is very important for us,” said Minister Ženíšek, stressing the need to raise awareness of the fact that the Czech Republic is a leader in cybersecurity in order to attract new talent.

Martin Bareš and Marek Ženíšek listening to the experts at KYPO.

At the end of his visit, the Minister praised Masaryk University’s future plans. “I regularly receive reports and data, so I am familiar with Masaryk University and know of its high standing, but a personal meeting is always the best and helps you get a much more complete picture. What I personally see as very positive is the courage that Masaryk University is showing in many projects, not just relying on its name and reputation, but planning for the future and having a clear vision of what it wants to accomplish. The problem with some Czech universities is that they are content to just live off their name. Masaryk University is dynamic and its plans for the future are to its advantage,” he concluded.

Minister Marek Ženíšek was accompanied by Jan Konvalinka, Director of the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and Masaryk University was represented by Šárka Pospíšilová, Vice-Rector for Research and Doctoral Studies, Pavel Plevka, Director of CEITEC, and Lukáš Palko, Director of the Research Office.