The Faculty of Informatics in Brno opened facilities worth half a billion

Brno - The new facilities costing more than half a billion crowns have been serving the Faculty of Informatics and the Institute of Computer Science at Masaryk University since the beginning of the semester. The building, primarily financed by European Union funds, took two years to complete. The school hopes for better integration of theory with practice from the Center for Education, Research, and Innovations in Informatics (CERIT), which was mentioned at yesterday's grand opening.
    "These days we are celebrating 20 years since the establishment of the faculty and during this time, both the number of employees and the number of students have increased significantly," said Dean Michal Kozubek. According to him, the faculty now has sufficient support, but in the next programming period, he wants to invest in reserves for the future. The CERIT project also includes a supercomputer center and a new science and technology park where innovative companies are settling.
    In the prominent five-story building on Botanická Street, there are lecture halls, offices, a library, and a modern data center. It also houses 17 laboratories focused on research and development in computer science.
    For example, the staff of the Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory can create virtual reality for computer games. They also collaborate with geographers on various options for map presentation. "We also have equipment that allows one to virtually touch a non-existent object in such a way that it provides feedback in the form of pressure. We are developing our own programs thanks to it, but for example, doctors use something similar when practicing surgeries," described laboratory head Jiří Sochor.
    The Advanced Network Technologies Laboratory is focused on transmitting large amounts of data over long distances. The scientists want to solve, for example, the problem of communication delays, noticeable on television when connecting the studio with a reporter in the field. There are situations where experts cannot afford delays. "In remote surgeries with the help of robotic systems, the transmission must be very precise. We are looking for ways to achieve this precision," said laboratory worker Pavel Šiler.
    The CERIT project has three parts. The teaching and research facilities cost approximately 260 million crowns, the supercomputer center required 130 million. The school spent an additional 110 million on the science and technology park.