
Technical challenges and visions for future mobility - programme
Summer semester 2024/25 programme
Dear all interested in electromobility and related areas,
the following lectures from different fields are devoted to topics that will affect the future. We are also currently discussing one more topic with a lecturer and are also preparing the programme for the Electromobility Day event at the end of the summer semester.
■Upcoming lectures
Transport aerosols: origins, air, climate and human health impacts and mitigation options | prof. Michal Vojtíšek, M.S., Ph.D. - Czech Technical University in Prague, FME/The Technical University of Liberec | 22.4.2025 |
■Upcoming event
15.5.2025 | Electromobility day |
Current lecture - summer semester 2024/25
■4th meeting: 22rd April 2025
Transport aerosols: origins, air, climate and human health impacts and mitigation options
prof. Michal Vojtíšek, M.S., Ph.D.
Czech Technical University in Prague, FME/The Technical University of Liberec
Lecture outline
Carbon nanoparticles produced by internal combustion engines, nanoparticles from brake friction and other traffic-related particles are one of the most significant sources of outdoor air pollution, accounting for an order of magnitude more premature deaths than traffic accidents, for example. The lecture will focus on how these particles have both positive and negative impacts on the climate, as well as the important influences on particulate emissions not only from technology, vehicle condition, operating conditions or driving mode, but also from mode choice and land use planning. The lecture will also show that no drive is emission-free or a one-size-fits-all solution and that transport needs to be thought of in a broader context.
Date: 22.4.2025, 17:00, classroom SF 1.141, Technická 12, 616 00 Brno
Michal Vojtíšek
graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a M.S. in Energy Resources, got Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at the Technical University of Liberec. He has worked in science and research for nearly 30 years in the areas of renewable energy, the impact of new motor fuels and technologies on emissions, air, environment and human health, and measurement of emissions in traffic. His research interests include fuels and emissions at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the Czech Technical University and the Faculty of Engineering of the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, renewable energy sources and the development of emission measurement instruments at the Technical University of Liberec, brake abrasion at the Technical University of Ostrava, pollutants in the atmosphere and remote emission measurement at the Institute of Chemical Processes Fundamentals of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and the impact of emissions on human health at the Institute of Experimental Medicine of the Czech Academy of Sciences.
■3rd meeting: 15th April 2025
Autonomous robots in agriculture
Milan Pleva
Roboton
Lecture outline
Today's consumers want their food to be much better quality, especially free of pesticide residues, but also affordable. But fewer and fewer people are willing to work in agriculture. This lecture will try to answer how to address these issues through robotics and artificial intelligence.
Roboton is a project whose mission is to offer new technologies to improve people's daily lives in various areas of human life. The lecture will focus on the Roboton Farmer, an autonomous and precision robotic platform that is currently under development and is revolutionizing the field of autonomous farming by using advanced sensors, advanced software and artificial intelligence to make the robot perform most of the cultivation activities by itself, without the need for human power, without chemicals and using renewable energy sources. From soil preparation to sowing, irrigation and weed control. What can the robot do today and what will it do tomorrow? What obstacles are developers stumbling over? Why was the electric vehicle option chosen? What's under the hood of the robot? And has it run over anyone yet?
Date: 15.4.2025, 17:00, classroom SF 1.141, Technická 12, 616 00 Brno
Milan Pleva
In life, he follows the motto: “It is better to do the right thing wrong than to do the wrong thing right.” He is a dreamer, marketer, analyst, statistician, creative and technology lover. Currently, he leads a team of 70 people involved in the direction of the Roboton brand at TERMS a.s. within the BUDEX group. Previously, as a marketing and product manager, he moved the GoMobil, GoSMS, Reago CRM, etc. brands forward.

■2nd meeting: 8th April 2025
Ethical and social aspects of autonomous mobility
Mgr. Juraj Hvorecký, Ph.D.
Institute of Philosophy, the Czech Academy of Sciences
Lecture outline
The ethical and societal issues around autonomous mobility are usually reduced to the area of liability for potential damages and decision-making in collision situations (see the tram dilemma). While these are interesting topics, the lecture will focus on less visible issues, how the massive deployment of autonomous vehicles opens up a wider debate on fair resource sharing, energy and cyber security, the future growth of urban agglomerations or driving habits. By asking these problematic questions, the lecture will also try to counter the techno-optimism that is strongly linked to the topic of autonomous mobility.
Date: 8.4.2025, 17:00, classroom SF 1.141, Technická 12, 616 00 Brno
Juraj Hvorecký
is the head of the Department of Applied Philosophy and Ethics at the Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS). He is interested in cognitive science and technological ethics. He is a member of the Ethics Commission for the assessment of issues related to the operation of automated and autonomous vehicles at the Ministry of Transport of the Czech Republic.
■1st meeting: 4th March 2025
High-voltage safety in electric vehicles
Ing. Michal Fiedler
ŠKODA AUTO a.s.
Lecture outline
High-voltage safety in electric vehicles is a key area that ensures the safe operation of modern electric vehicles. Electric vehicles use advanced technologies and high-voltage systems, the proper understanding and management of which are essential to the smooth operation and longevity of the vehicle. This field focuses on developing innovative safety measures that protect not only the vehicle itself, but also its users and the surrounding infrastructure. A presentation on this topic will provide insight into the latest technologies and methods to ensure the safety of the vehicle user. It will present what happens to a vehicle in the event of a breakdown or during an accident, or how the verification and testing of a safety concept is carried out. It will also dispel several common myths and map out a very complex and interesting field which, although crucial to user safety, is taken for granted or not even known to exist by most users.
Date: 4.3.2025, 17:00, classroom SF 1.141, Technická 12, 616 00 Brno
Ing. Michal Fiedler
has been in the field of electromobility for almost 13 years. He graduated from the Technical University of Liberec with a degree in mechatronics, where he participated in the student project of the electric car Ešus. Since 2016, he has been working at Škoda Auto a.s. as a specialist in high-voltage vehicle safety.
Winter semester 2024/25
Lectures held in the winter semester:
■5th meeting: 19th November 2024
Lithium-ion batteries: technology development and applications
RNDr. Jakub Reiter, Ph.D.
InoBat
Lecture outline
Li-ion battery technology is based on the research and discoveries of the 1970s and 1980s. That is, they are principles and materials that scientists in basic research (with no specific goals for their use on today's scale) explored 40-50 years ago. The breakthroughs were the results of the following professors. Goodenough (physicist, Nobel Prize winner in chemistry, his ideas were successfully commercialised by Sony), Michel Armand and Bruno Scrosati (chemists, first described the "rocking-chair battery"), Stanley Whittingham (materials scientist, discovered new materials for secondary batteries).
It was the successful transfer of R&D results into practice, the successful development of battery technology and production that enabled the worldwide expansion of Li-ion batteries and later helped to realise the idea of electric vehicles and e-mobility in general.
This lecture will focus on how the Li-ion battery works, what are its properties and limits, and how these batteries are produced and used.
Date: 19.11.2024, 17:00, classroom SF 1.141, Technická 12, 616 00 Brno
has been involved in electrochemistry and materials chemistry for Li-ion batteries since 1997. In the early years he focused on polymers and ionic liquids for safer electrolytes, later he worked on the Lithium-Oxygen (Li-O2) battery project and moved into industry, where he developed and is developing batteries for the automotive industry and for electric passenger aircraft.
Jakub Reiter is a chemist, he graduated from the Faculty of Science at Charles University in Prague in 1997-2006, then worked at the CAS and the University of Münster, Germany (2011-2012), BMW (2012-2020) and since 2020 at Inobat, where he now leads the R&D team and develops the chemistry of new Li-ion batteries. He is also co-author of approx. 40 scientific publications and several patents.
■4th meeting: 12th November 2024
The road from passenger to freight electromobility
Ing. Jakub Kott
E.ON, Mobility Services
Lecture outline
Although personal electro-mobility still has many shortcomings in the eyes of the public, the overall ecosystem is now complete and functional. But truck charging is a completely different discipline and presents new challenges. In this talk, we will look at the differences between car and truck charging and present solutions that cover this segment.
Date: 12.11.2024, 17:00, classroom SF 1.141, Technická 12, 616 00 Brno
Jakub Kott
works as Head of Mobility Services at E.ON Energie, a.s., which supplies electromobility solutions from households to bus depots.
■3rd meeting: 29th October 2024
Agrovoltaics: Part of modern agriculture and energy
Ing. Jiří Bím
CTU/Solar Association/Zenergo energy
Lecture outline
Climate change and the transformation of the energy sector have led to increased interest in the concept of agrovoltaics, i.e. the dual use of land. Agrovoltaics, as the concept is now officially called in Czech legislation, brings benefits to the crops grown, creates areas for electricity production and at the same time increases the efficiency of the area. This concept was first described in 1972 by the German professor Goetzberger, however, we are now in the period of development of primarily pilot projects, with large real projects to be built in the coming years. There are many types of agrovoltaic systems, as well as many different business cases, between the farmer and the energy company, in any case there should always be synergy. The lecture will describe agrovoltaics from a technical and agricultural point of view and will also look at the legislative anchoring in EU countries, with emphasis on the final form of the Czech legislation, which is in many ways unique and progressive.
Date: 29.10.2024, 17:00, classroom SF 1.141, Technická 12, 616 00 Brno
Jiří Bím
has been working on the topic of agrovoltaics for more than 3 years. He is studying a PhD program at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, where he also defended his engineering degree in 2020 with a thesis dealing with agrovoltaics. Therefore, he is further interested in the possibilities of development of agrovoltaics in Europe and especially in the Czech Republic. Since 2022, he has been leading the agrovoltaics section of the Solar Association, which is the largest industry association in the field of solar energy in the Czech Republic. He has supplemented his knowledge in the field of agrovoltaics by e.g. many foreign excursions (France, Italy, Holland, Germany, Austria), internships at TU Wien or participation in many European conferences focusing on agrovoltaics. He also presented the Czech story on the development of legislation for agrovoltaics and its interdisciplinary benefits at the NextGen Solar professional conference in San Francisco, USA in 2023. He is trying to kick-start a change in the energy sector towards renewable and sustainable sources, but always with an economic perspective.
■2nd meeting: 15th October 2024
Fine dust from traffic or what you catch when driving in a car
Assoc. prof. Jan Fišer, Ph.D.
Dept. of Thermodynamics and Environmental Engineering, FME, BUT
Lecture outline
Results of fine particle measurements around cars as they move in normal urban traffic and in surrounding areas. Examples of measurements come from Brno and its surroundings, but also from Central Bohemia. What do internal combustion engines in poor technical condition emit? What are other local sources of pollution? What is the situation at specific locations such as tunnels, road constructions, etc.? Do battery drives bring any improvements? How do seasons, weather and measurement methods affect the results? What technology do we need to be able to get at least a basic overview of fine particle concentrations around the vehicle? Were our assumptions about the different locations and sources of pollution correct, or did we encounter unexpected results?
Date: 15.10.2024, 17:00, classroom SF 1.141, Technická 12, 616 00 Brno
Jan Fišer
works at the Dept. of Thermodynamics and Environmental Engineering, FME, Brno University of Technology, where he focuses on research and development in the field of human thermal comfort and technologies for control and management of indoor environments. He specializes in systems for heating, ventilation and air conditioning of vehicle cabins and overall thermal and energy management of electrically powered vehicles. He and his colleague Dr. J. Hejcik have introduced and taught the course Thermal Management of Vehicles at FME since 2016. He is a fan of EV drives, photovoltaics and a daily user of them.
■1st meeting: 8th October 2024
Deployment of battery units on Czech railways
Ing. Radek Šindel
Siemens Mobility
Lecture outline
The electrification rate in the Czech Republic is only around 35% and many lines are not economical to fully electrify, even for these lines it is necessary to look for suitable vehicles, either battery or hydrogen powered. However, the addition of an energy storage to the electric traction unit also means an increase in vehicle weight and price. It must therefore be approached sensitively so that the disadvantages do not overshadow the benefits. The lecture will focus on current trends in rail vehicles, which vehicles are suitable for the given types of lines and how to proceed when selecting vehicles. It will also focus on vehicle ranges, charging options and economic comparison of different types of vehicles.
Date: 8.10.2024, 17:00, classroom SF 1.141, Technická 12, 616 00 Brno
Radek Šindel
graduate in vehicle design at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the Czech Technical University, technical project manager in the field of regional train development at Siemens Mobility, enthusiast of new technologies in the field of energy and mobility as a way to a more sustainable future.