It has been more than 10 years since BETAMONT actively cooperates with the public academic sector, specifically the University of Žilina in Žilina. The Department of Control and Information Systems at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering is professionally focused on intelligent transport and process control, not only in rail and road transport. This institution and faculty have educated many skilled and successful BETAMONT employees, including its founder Ondrej Maciak, and we believe that further mutual cooperation will foster many more new young professionals for our company.
A very important and successful cooperation project was the further education of current BETAMONT employees. A dedicated year was created for external bachelor’s and later master’s studies for company employees within the accredited study program Automation – Safe Process Control, marking a new chapter in cooperation with practical application. Employees embraced this opportunity very responsibly and successfully completed their university studies, earning the respective degrees.
To involve full-time master’s students in the company’s activities, a research and development laboratory was established at the University of Žilina in 2006. With investment support from BETAMONT, it was equipped with the most modern type of station interlocking system – the ESB-1 electronic interlocking. Experts and students from KRIS practically verified diagnostic procedures, performed software verification for the electronic interlocking, and checked the implementation of its safety-critical components on this complex of equipment, verifying the functional safety of the system before commissioning. Together with specialists from the cooperating organization, tasks involving the security analysis of complex computer structures were also addressed, focusing on the technical and software security of systems used for traffic process control. The workplace also provided an ideal environment for solving practical automation tasks, annual projects, and diploma theses, especially for students of information and security systems and automation, within the safe process control study program.
The company also offered and continues to offer final-year master’s students mentorship for their diploma theses, which were thematically integrated into practical work carried out at BETAMONT. An interesting topic addressed by two diploma students was traffic management on mountain passes during winter operation. One approached it from a transport engineering perspective, and the other from the perspective of available technological equipment and subsequent monitoring and control. One of them is currently an employee of the company. Another diploma thesis topic, supervised by BETAMONT, was the work ‘Risk Analysis of Road Tunnels,’ where the student also became a successful employee of the company.
Diploma thesis assignments also stemmed from joint research and development projects supported by EU funds. The first such project was contracted in 2010 for a duration of 5 years, titled ‘New Methods for Measuring Physical Dynamic Parameters and Interactions of Motor Vehicles, Traffic Flow, and Road Surface.’ BETAMONT participated in solving three activities, and the University of Žilina in two out of five activities. The industrial research project aimed to create new rules for dynamic traffic management and to modify existing rules so that they are not dependent on a specific basic quantity but also consider influences caused by traffic. These influences are represented by measurable physical parameters, which are measured within this project using new methods in dynamic mode, i.e., the movement of traffic flow and the vehicles themselves. The measurement process itself is carried out without any restriction on traffic flow or the vehicle and its driver.
The joint project united research teams consisting of professors, associate professors, doctors, doctoral students, and BETAMONT employees. Further cooperation opportunities were sought, as there were plenty of hot research topics in the field of transport. Therefore, in 2012, another cooperation opportunity arose, and a project supported by EU funds, ‘Research Center for Transport Telematics Systems,’ was contracted. The goal was to establish and build a research center for applied research in this area, with a center/branch at the University of Žilina.
It is essential to mention several names that played important roles during the past years of cooperation. The Head of the Department, Prof. Ing. Juraj Spalek, PhD., Prof. Ing. Ales Janota, PhD, Prof. Ing. Karol Rástočný, PhD., Prof. Ing. Mária Franeková, PhD., and others who significantly contributed to maintaining close cooperation through joint projects.
The University of Žilina also became the professional guarantor of the international conference on railway signaling and safety technology organized by BETAMONT, which was held for the ‘nth’ time in 2018 and is also sponsored by the Ministry of Transport, Construction and Regional Development and the Railways of the Slovak Republic.
Cooperation continues in the currently ongoing research and development project ‘Measuring System with Optical Sensor for Weight in Motion Systems.’ This applied research project focuses on the design, optimization, and creation of parts of a measuring device that allows determining the weight of a vehicle (axle) while driving, spanning from 2016 to 2020.
Further extensive and long-term cooperation is also anticipated in the planned project ‘Universal Virtual Intelligent Space for Transport Systems,’ which is expected to run from 2020 to 2023.
