Students of mechatronics can look forward to the newly renovated and equipped laboratory at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the Brno University of Technology. And they can not only to look forward to – the premises were ceremonially opened on Friday, April 26, in the presence of the Rector of BUT Ladislav Janíček, the Dean of the Faculty Jiří Hlinka and representatives of the Institute and partner companies.

"The machines around us are becoming more and more complex. And so the question arises as to how we will approach this development in terms of education. One of the ways is narrow specialization. The second, on the other hand, is the offer of broad, multidisciplinary education. I don't want to say which of these two ways is better, but have chosen the latter one," says Robert Grepl, Head of the Mechatronics Department.

Mechatronics at BUT was established in 1993 thanks to the then professors Ctirad Kratochvíl and Čestmír Ondrůšek. The field combines mechanics, electrical engineering, programming, and control algorithms.

The laboratory itself was founded in 2009. "From the very beginning, our goal was to provide space for people who are interested in working on interesting projects. We wanted students to be able to try working with learning models and work on their mini-projects. Practical work on real teaching models can arouse a deeper interest in the related theory," adds Grepl.

Interest in the study of mechatronics, about thirty per cent of which is taught by the neighbouring Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication with the rest provided by the Institute of Solid Mechanics, Mechatronics and Biomechanics of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, is gradually growing. While at the time of MechLab's founding, there were thirty students in the first year of the Bachelor's degree in Mechatronics, this year there are already a hundred. This is one of the reasons why the capacity of both the laboratory and the computer room has been increased.

"I believe that the promotion and popularization of mechatronics, which we are systematically working on, also plays a part in this," says Grepl. Maybe you haven't missed the catchy pictures of robots or comics from the lives of mechatronics that MechLab presents. It also spends a lot of energy on live popularization events. "We have completed eight years of Roboti@FSI, the competition for high school students, and now we are preparing for the third year of the successful Summer School of Mechatronics. We try not to miss events such as the Science Festival, Researchers' Night and others," he says.

At the same time as opening the new premises and cutting the cake, MechLab celebrated its fifteenth birthday. The ribbon-cutting ceremony, which symbolically opened the new MechLab, was undertaken by the Rector of BUT, Ladislav Janíček, the Dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Jiří Hlinka, the Director of the Institute of Solid Mechanics, Mechatronics and Biomechanics, Jindřich Petruška, and a collaborative robot controlled by young students of mechatronics. "It is our students and PhD students who breathe life into MechLab," Grepl concludes.