Twenty-second annual Students’ Research Conference takes place.
The Faculty of Metallurgy at the Technical University of Košice continues the tradition that it has built up in the development and presentation of student research work in national and international competitions. On Wednesday 20 April 2016 under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport it organized the twenty-second annual Student Research Conference, Metallurgy 2016. This event, which was supported by U. S. Steel Košice and subsidiary RMS, a.s., Košice, was attended, as has already become a tradition, not only by local students studying for Bakalár and Inžinier degrees, as well as students from Žilina, Bratislava and twinned universities in Poland and the Czech Republic. This time there were also students from vocational secondary schools, who took advantage of the opportunity offered by the Open Day at the Faculty of Metallurgy to find out what preparation for independent scientific professional activity is like.
The conference, which had a competitive character, took place in five specialized sections in which the jury evaluated research into the metallurgy of iron and steel, the metallurgy of nonferrous metals, casting, bio-metallurgy, materials engineering, forming metals, thermal energy, transport and use of gas, technology of non-metallic materials, processing and recycling of waste, environmental analysis and integrated management systems. The jury included Košice steelmakers, namely Metallography and Failure Analysis Director Alica Mašlejová and specialist Martin Černík, both from the department of GM Research and Development USSE, and Innovation and Energy Strategy Director Ladislav Horváth, and in assessing the students' work they considered its content and presentation, the performance of competitors in discussion, the ability of students to defend their work and the standard of graphical presentations.
In the afternoon, there was an official assessment of the conference attended by representatives of academia, including the Vice Rector of the Technical University of Košice for innovation and technology transfer Anton Čižmár, and other guests from partner organizations and representatives of the industrial sector.
The winners in each of the sections were congratulated and awards were presented by USSK General Manager Recruitment and Human Resources Development Milan Polča. The section of metallurgy of ferrous metals was won by Dávid Mahút, incidentally a participant in last summer’s internships at U. S. Steel Košice, who addressed the simulation of specific casting of ductile iron. The best in the materials section as selected by the jury was the work by Adam Gryc on microstructure and properties of sintered Mg-Gd-10 5Y-Zr matrix composite supplemented with BN particles. First place for energy engineering and industrial ceramics was won by Maryna Kyslytsyna, who studied reactive materials with adjustable hydraulic resistance for PRB technology. The environmental section was won by Zuzana Stolárová, who tackled the issue of applying liquid extracts of metals in processing industrial waste solutions. The winner of the integrated management systems section was Marek Ružička with his applications for BPM and DMS systems in an organization's quality management system.
“This year's conference confirmed that we can continue to build on the quality of study and professional preparedness of our students,” said Iveta Vasková, Dean of the Faculty of Metallurgy at the Technical University, in her final speech. “This would not be possible without the link between the theoretical basis at school and practical experience within the commercial and manufacturing sphere. Nor would it have any meaning. The work in individual sections was challenging not only for the students but also for members of the assessment committees and the organizers. And I believe that it was also motivating for the audience. All the more reason to maintain the quality of the conference and its level,” she concluded.
