Slovak University of Technology

Building a collaborative culture through cooperation with industry

Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava (STU, STUBA) is the largest technology-oriented university in Slovakia. It was founded in 1937, but the roots of engineering education on Slovak territory go back to 1762. Seven schools (faculties) and two university-wide institutes with 1.100 teaching and 300 research staff educate 19,000 students. Almost 70% of the teaching staff as well as graduate students are research-active.

R&D spending represents one third of the total university budget. Industrial cooperation is an integral part of activities and plays a significant role in building a collaborative culture. The university attracted the largest number of FP6 projects in Slovakia.

University is active in various research fields, eg material science, chemistry, industrial biotechnology, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, recycling of waste and oils, as well as architecture and industrial design.

Six specialised research areas have been recently selected as excellent:

Research of Integrated Flood Protection Systems
The departments for Water Supply Management at STU have continuously worked on developing integrated flood protection systems with the support of eco systems in a catchment area. This integrated approach is supported by research in mathematics, geo-informatics and construction geodesy. Some of the research projects are being delivered under the UNESCO international hydrology programme.
Contact: Prof. Peter Dušička, PhD.

Material Analysis (metals and non-metals) – of metal fabrication and machining
Research is oriented on “physical metallurgy”. It includes the changing of a structure and properties of coatings on selected metal materials through modifications in the chemical and phase composition of thin and hard layers and their combinations. A strong cooperation partner is Forschungszentrum Dresden-Rossendorf in Germany dedicated to Cluster Structures and Nano Materials.
Contact: Assoc. Prof. Ľubomír Čaplovič, PhD.

Urban Infrastructure in the knowledge economy – SPECTRA+
SPECTRA+ is a co-ordination core of the Centre for Urban Infrastructure – infrastructure planning and development in relation to globalisation, rise of the knowledge economy along with increasing environmental concerns. For its significant contribution under Framework Programme 5, SPECTRA+ was awarded the status of “Central European Research and Training Centre in Spatial Planning” by the European Commission in Brussels.
Contact: Prof. Maroš Finka, PhD.

Development of Renewable Energy Technologies and Applications
Experts engage in basic and applied research in using biomass, organic polymeric materials, solar and hydro energy for heat and power and production of new materials. This includes anaerobic digestion of organic waste, products derived from the pyrolysis of used tyres, hybrid systems with membranes and solvents based on ionic liquids, kinetic study of radical reactions through methods of electron paramagnetic resonance and thermal analysis and many others.
Contact: Assoc. Prof. Ľudovít Jelemenský, PhD.

Materials Machining and Sizing
This area focuses on the introduction of the new five axis machining solutions previously not considered in Slovakia. Prior to that, researchers gained experience working on projects with three and four axis machining together with the STU’s School of Materials Science & Technology in Trnava and Forschungszentrum Dresden- Rossendorf, a high-profile research institute in Dresden, Germany.
Contact: Prof. Jozef Peterka, PhD.

“SMART” technologies, systems and services
Experts in this area actively cooperate with all key national and international organisations. Among other things, they achieved good results in many fields, eg micro- and nanoelectronics, sensors, photonics (in femtosecond scale), software development, information systems, artificial intelligence, automation, cybernetics, telecommunications and computer science.
Contact: Assoc. Prof. Robert Redhammer, PhD.

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