Károly Conlegner Higher Education Teacher Awards granted for the first time

2022. August 17.

The award is given to BME’s lecturers, who focus on the engineering, technology and economic approach, thus strengthening their students’ economic awareness with their courses.

Tibor Czigány, Rector of Budapest University of Technology and Economics emphasised at the award ceremony: “our goal is to equip young graduates with not only technical, but also economic knowledge and an open-minded approach to innovation. With the newly-established Károly Conlegner Higher Education Teacher Award, we recognise those who help our students in line with this mission. We also thank the MNB for supporting the initiative.”

Barnabás Virág, the MNB’s Deputy Governor stressed in his welcome speech that “we strive to ensure that the successful research programmes of the MNB and BME also have an impact on the academic programmes of Budapest University of Technology and Economics. The Conlegner Award recognises pioneering higher education teachers who are involved in two of the MNB-BME programme’s priority areas, digitalisation and sustainability, using innovative methodologies that combine the business and the engineering approach.”

(bme.hu previously reported on the establishment of this award – Editor’s note)

Károly Conlegner Higher Education Teacher Award

With this award, named after BME’s second rector, Budapest University of Technology and Economics and the National Bank of Hungary (MNB) wish to recognise the work of those teachers who, in their courses, in addition to general knowledge, place great emphasis on the economic links between engineering and natural sciences, and focus on discussing these links and their effects. Broadening students’ horizons in this way helps to strengthen and deepen their economic awareness. This complex approach also contributes indirectly to creating even more competitive engineering developments and innovations in the future.

Calls for applications were launched in two categories by BME and the MNB:

The role of digitalisation and digital transformation in national competitiveness
Sustainability and competitiveness, green finance and green economy development

One lecturer can be awarded a prize of HUF 1 million gross in each category.

18 applications from six BME faculties were submitted, which were then reviewed by a jury consisting of the senior representatives of the MNB and BME, as well as members of the Student Union of the University (EHK), before selecting the awardees. In general, the jury was of the opinion that the mission of the Károly Conlegner Higher Education Teacher Award was present in all the entries.

The awardees with Rector Tibor Czigány and MNB’s Deputy Governor Barnabás Virág in the Rector’s Chamber, under the portrait of Károly Conlegner in the top left corner.

2022 Károly Conlegner Higher Education Teacher Award winners

The role of digitalisation and digital transformation in national competitiveness category

Péter Ekler

associate professor, Department of Automation and Applied Informatics, BME’s Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics (VIK)

Péter Ekler has been consistently ranked in the top 100, within that usually in the top 25 lecturers in the OHV (student feedback) rankings for the past 10 years. Based on regular feedback from hundreds of students, his score is consistently above 5.8.

In 2015 and 2019 he was awarded “BME’s Distinguished University Lecturer”, and he has received the gold grade of the “Faculty’s Distinguished Lecturer” award at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics 7 times.

He developed and delivers the Mobile- and Web-based Software BSc course, the Business Intelligence lecture and Business Intelligence Laboratory within the MSc programme, as well as the Android-based Software Development course. The latter was a pioneering development, the curriculum of which has been adopted by several higher education institutions on the basis of Péter Ekler's notes.

During his courses Péter Ekler presents the latest technologies and future trends that are expected to play a key role in the effective implementation of digital transformation. His course on mobile software development covers a range of financial and healthcare applications; in the business intelligence course, he and his colleagues emphasise the benefits of data science for business decision support. Péter Ekler regularly invites lecturers with industry experience to his classes, and tries to create as many opportunities as possible for students to get involved in the work of a business organisation. Thanks to his involvement, BME is the main venue for Google's annual I/O Extended events.

He also has outstanding achievements in the area of student talent management, encouraging enthusiastic young people to take part in competitions and develop their own ideas.

Sustainability and competitiveness, green finance and green economy development category

Péter Csizmadia

assistant professor, Department of Hydrodynamic Systems, BME’s Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (GPK)

In his educational approach, Péter Csizmadia represents the pillars of responsible engineering in the 21st century, with a focus on energy efficiency, the use of renewable energy sources and operational safety. During his courses he addresses key issues and challenges affecting the sector, such as drinking water supply, treatment of waste water and water as a circular industry. By discussing real research and industrial projects, students also learn about the economy-related aspects of the professional topics covered (e.g. analysis of investment decisions; the work of managers, process control managers, health and safety and environmental managers, etc.)

His student feedback (OHV) score has been consistently above 5.5 since 2018, with his Fluid Flow Systems subject score exceeding 5.5 for the last three semesters. His performance as a professor is regularly ranked in the BME’s top 100. He is also the subject coordinator and lecturer for the course on Fluid Flow Systems; co-lecturer for the courses Renewable Energy Sources and Wind and Hydropower Technologies. In the latter two, he and his co-lecturers introduce young people to the importance of hydropower utilisation; they analyse financial decision-making through efficiency and payback calculations, and discuss the need to take into account mechanical, electrical and civil engineering, environmental and economic aspects in design, construction and operation.

Péter Csizmadia takes an active role in student talent management: in the last 5 years he has been a thesis advisor for about 25 BSc, MSc theses and 6 TDK theses (5 ranked positions, 2 OTDK entries). Another 4 students of his have presented their research results at national and international conferences.

The jury decided to award the following lecturers with a special prize:

Elvira Böcskei

habilitated associate professor, Head of the Department of Finance, BME’s Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences (GTK)

Since 2017, she has been ranked in the top 100 every semester, with a consistent OMI score above 5.75. Her courses attract a large number of participants, well over 100, not only in the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences but also in the engineering faculties.

She delivers accounting-related courses in her specialist fields (e.g. Management Accounting, Financial Statement Analysis, Case Studies in Accounting, Accounting Research, Economic Analyses), during which she analyses the economic position of businesses and possible directions for their future competitiveness. She places great emphasis on the economic implications of sustainable development and the impact of companies as key economic actors on environmental and social processes. For 2 years she has been leading the Green Finances and Green Economy Workshop within the BME-MNB cooperation, in which she and her colleagues from the GTK’s departments carry out joint research.

Mihály Héder

habilitated associate professor, Head of the Department of Philosophy and History of Science, BME’s Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences (GTK)

Mihály Héder has been on the BME 100 OMI list 19 times, with a performance consistently above 5.5. The number of students on his courses exceeds 100. He teaches Artificial Intelligence and Ethics and Technology and Society, the latter in English.

In the former, he discusses with his students a number of economic and social issues that deal with the future of employment, our social and moral biases in developing algorithms, and scenarios for the future our economy and society. In the Technology and Society course, he and his colleagues explore the relationship between technological development and economic prosperity. They review the phenomenon of technological determinism (how technological innovations affect our social and economic processes), the relevance of related sociological determinisms for the uptake of innovations, and the constraints that our institutions generally place on technological development.