Velvet Innovation Meetup at BUT: audience award for robot developers from FEEC

The 33rd edition of the Velvet Innovation Meetup (VIM) was hosted by the rectorate of Brno University of Technology on the evening of April 16. This popular informal event, organized every third Thursday of the month by the innovation agency JIC, aims to connect the innovation and startup community of the Brno region. In addition to networking and meetings with investors, the program also featured a competition of two-minute presentations of innovative projects. The winner was Jan Toman from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication BUT, who introduced the educational robot Krabicák to the audience.

Jan Toman a jeho vítězný „elevator pitch“ zaměřený na robotiku. | Author: David Pařík, JIC

Visitors were welcomed by Josef Sláma from the BUT Knowledge Transfer Office, who noted that just last year, seven new entities labeled Start-up BUT or Spin-off BUT were established at the university. He also highlighted the creation of new venture funds within the entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem in South Moravia.

The competition kicked off with a brisk introduction of Wired magazine, which was a partner of the event. The popular technology and society magazine, which has celebrated 33 years, has also been published in Czech since 2024.

Velvet Innovation Meetup na VUT. | Author: David Pařík, JIC

This was followed by a presentation by Jan Toman, a student of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication at BUT (FEEC), which won first place in the audience vote. Jan has been building robots and promoting technology since high school. During his presentation, he described his journey from a humanoid to a robot named Krabicák. He is developing the programmable educational robot as a commercial product and is currently offering it to primary and secondary schools for testing. At the Meetup, Krabicák, with the face of a seal, greeted the audience and offered to measure heart rate.

Another participant in the presentation competition was Petr Mareš from the BUT spin-off Beam Shape, which focuses on electron beam 3D printing of metals. The development team from FEEC and the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (FME) can use an electron beam to melt even the most demanding materials, such as tungsten for the interiors of tokamaks used in nuclear fusion or the heat-resistant alloy Inconel for rotors of combat drones.

Stanislav Věchet from the FME BUT also focuses on robotics and introduced the bipedal robot PAWO to the audience. This robot, standing 70 centimeters tall and weighing 6 kilograms, was inspired by the BDX droid from the Star Wars film series and was successfully presented at an industrial fair. The project was created using commonly available components and 3D printing, making it a unique educational platform. The creators are currently seeking partners to expand the project into schools.

Petr Mareš představil Spin-off VUT Beam Shape. | Author: David Pařík, JIC

Stanislav Věchet z FSI VUT představil robota PAWO. | Author: David Pařík, JIC

Other competition presentations:

Zdeněk Hanzal from the Regional Development Agency of South Bohemia spoke about the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs program,
Nemanja Pajović from AdvaScope presented an internationally successful project developing detectors for electron microscopes,
the technology company Raynet, which develops customer relationship management software, was introduced by Viktor Bližňák,
Marie Zezůlková presented the innovation ecosystem BVV Living Lab, which offers infrastructure at the Brno Exhibition Centre for testing products and technologies,
this was followed by the presentation “5G Communication for Innovation”, which introduced the operation of a private mobile network within the BVV Living Lab,
finally, Radka Novák from JIC invited visitors to a meeting of Brno microscopy specialists.