BME and Knorr-Bremse sign new five-year agreement

The cooperation between Knorr-Bremse Budapest engineers and BME researchers has reached an important milestone: the parties have signed a five-year agreement to jointly seek innovative answers to the digitalisation challenges of rail transport.

A relationship of almost 30 years

Knorr-Bremse Vasúti Jármű Rendszerek Hungária Kft. and BME have enjoyed a close professional relationship since the company was founded in 1996. Within the cooperation, the parties encourage knowledge sharing between researchers and students of the leading Hungarian institution of engineering education and experts from the company, a market leader in the design and manufacturing of railway braking systems. In 2020, in response to the rise of digitalisation in the transport industry, the company has signed an agreement with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics to support each other's research and development activities, in addition to the long-standing cooperation with the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.

The joint R&D and grant programme has led to a number of projects in recent years that address 21st century challenges in the design and development of braking systems. The partnership focused on cybersecurity, the application of artificial intelligence, safety-critical systems and in-vehicle network design, real-time operating systems, and advanced programming and test engineering solutions. The company also awarded eight research fellowships and 34 students from the faculty were able to spend their internships at its Budapest site. Ten of them have since gone on to work for Knorr-Bremse.

"A significant number of our engineers graduated from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. One of the keys to our development and growth in the future is to be able to ensure a high-quality supply of new talent, i.e. to recruit talented young engineers who are committed to their profession and who are just starting out, alongside engineers with decades of professional experience," said Mr István Erdős, Director of Electronics Development at Knorr-Bremse, at the signing of the new cooperation agreement.

Mr Charaf Hassan, Rector of the BME, said that the projects between the university and Knorr-Bremse Budapest actively involved students and doctoral students, in addition to university faculty, to promote practice-oriented knowledge building and the training of future engineers.

“For the renewed University of Technology, close industrial cooperation that strengthens practice-oriented training is of paramount importance,

of which the relationship we have established with Knorr-Bremse Budapest is an outstanding example,” he added.

Hassan Charaf and László Veres

"We believe that by working together we can learn from each other and work on technological breakthroughs that can bring real change to the transport industry. The greatest asset for Knorr-Bremse Budapest is our competitively skilled, trained and committed employees," said Mr László Veres, Managing Director of Knorr-Bremse Budapest.

“The application of artificial intelligence has been the focus of several projects, with a special focus on the automation of the software development and testing lifecycle.

The cooperation has been accompanied by several consulting and training activities, thus facilitating knowledge transfer between industry and academia,” said Mr Sándor Imre, Dean of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics, while pointing out that the faculty is working on the launch of a Master's degree in artificial intelligence in cooperation with several institutions.

Rector's Office, Communications Directorate