How do you make rail infrastructure more resilient to weather changes, extreme natural events and even terrorist attacks? This was one of the main questions of the RISEN project, thanks to which researchers from the Tribology Group at the Institute of Machine and Industrial Design of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (FME) at BUT were able to travel to Japan and China and exchange the latest knowledge and experience in this area with both private institutions and other universities. Although the project was interrupted by the pandemic, it was possible to take advantage of the established cooperation and turn it into further joint research projects.

Exhibits from BUT will also be on display in the Czech pavilion at the Expo 2020 World Exhibition. Experts from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering have sent a robot to Dubai to demonstrate 3D printing from an innovative biopolymer, 3D printed blocks for a green wall and a project to present an easy way to clean seas and oceans from plastics. There will also be a robotic rescuer from the Faculty of Information Technology who can find a person in a landslide or under an avalanche. Expo 2020 starts in the United Arab Emirates with a one-year delay on October 1 and will last until March 31 next year.

Today at the Brno University of Technology, the last elements of the parkour playground dedicated by Stavební spořitelna of Česká spořitelna (Buřinka) to the City District of Prague 11 were printed on a frame 3D printer. 12.5 t of a special concrete mixture from Master Builders Solutions CZ was needed for the printing, which took place in the Laboratory of Construction 3D Printing at the AdMaS Centre of the Faculty of Civil Engineering and lasted 10 hours of clean time. The printed obstacles are poured with recycled rebetong concrete for reinforcement. As another step to support innovation, Buřinka became one of the founding members of the Association of Innovative Technologies and 3D Printing in Construction.

The symbiosis of fish farming and vegetable growing in a closed system, the so-called aquaponics, is on the rise in the Czech Republic. In order for business to be not only profitable, but also maximally ecological, it is necessary to balance a delicate balance in the system, which would suit both fish and plants. The researchers from the Brno University of Technology and the Institute of Global Change Research of the ASCR (CzechGlobe for short) have now come up with a solution. Together with Flenexa, they mapped the nutrient flow in the aquaponic farm, designed a model to predict the behaviour of the system and, according to the first laboratory tests, selected algae that should help make high-tech farming more efficient.

From the sand dunes in the Sahara Desert to the freezing Svalbard, an international team of researchers from the University of Hawaii and the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the Brno University of Technology watched total solar eclipses everywhere for fourteen years. They recently summarized their latest findings in an article for the prestigious Astrophysical Journal Letters, and NASA notes the article on its website. Thanks to their measurements, experts determined the sources of different solar wind currents in the solar corona.

A small drone adapted for monitoring the presence of invasive plant species. This is one of the results of long-term cooperation between the Brno University of Technology and the Botanical Institute of the Academy of Sciences in Průhonice. While a functional sample of an improved aircraft is being created at the Institute of Aviation of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, botanists are tuning algorithms to automatically detect non-native plants in the obtained data. The system is intended to facilitate and reduce the cost of monitoring non-native species, such as the dangerous Heracleum.

An inconspicuous sensor on the rail, which detects any vibrations and excitements, sends a signal and artificial intelligence evaluates the potential risk. According to experts from FME, this could be a recipe for increasing safety on the railway.

If the respirator does not seal well, its effectiveness decreases and it protects less from the spread of infection. Face shields capture only large droplets, but not the aerosol. Why is it important to ventilate? Can air purifiers help? Questions related to the aerosol effects on the spread of coronavirus are answered in detail in a document by German experts. Their colleagues from the Brno University of Technology, the Institute of Chemical Processes of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and the Czech Metrology Institute under the auspices of the Czech Aerosol Society translated it and offered it to the public.

A small catheter with a nozzle at the end that applies highly concentrated chemotherapeutics in the form of a spray exactly where they are needed. Last year, David Hoskovec, the head of the 1st Surgical Clinic of the General Hospital in Prague, came up with such a vision. He asked the Czech manufacturer of medical and rescue aids, the company SKALA-Medica, which took over the development. Specialized measurements were then supplemented by experts in fluid mechanics from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Brno University of Technology.

It can be folded into a wheelchair, hitched to a car and taken anywhere. This is one of the advantages of the MoLiS system, a mobile airport lighting system developed by TRANSCON ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS in cooperation with the Aviation Institute of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at BUT. MoLiS could replace obsolete systems at small airports, which are dying in many places. However, it can also be used as a backup system for large airports, or in the event that it is necessary to prepare a runway in a place that does not normally serve as an airport.

Brno scientists came up with new technology for water purification using low-temperature plasma. The device can remove chemical residues from water, such as oestrogens from contraception, and also kill pathogenic microorganisms such as cyanobacteria and bacteria.

The image of the solar corona, which was seen during last year's total solar eclipse over South America, is today's NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD).