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The Department of Power Systems and Electric Drives was established in the academic year 1955/56 as the Department of
Electric Traction and Energetics with the Railway University in Prague.
Prof. Dr. Ing. František Jansa, DrSc. was the head of the Department since
its establishment up till 1974 followed by Prof. Ing. Karel Horák, DrSc.
since 1974 till 1984, Prof. Ing. Imrich Solík, DrSc., since 1985 till 1992,
and Doc. Ing. Juraj Altus, PhD. being the head of the Department since 1992
till now.
The Department is a part of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology
and one of its three profile departments since 1992. The Department has an
accreditation for MSc. degree diploma study in Electric Traction and
Energetics. The graduates were formerly trained mainly for Czech and Slovak
Railways, for industrial plants producing electric traction equipment (Škoda
Plzeň, ČKD Trakce Praha, ŽOS Nymburk, ŽOS Vrútky), for both urban and
industrial transport and for the scientific and research laboratories in the
electrotechnical industry.
The highly important period for the Department
had been during years 1991 - 1994. In those years, a TEMPUS project JEP -
1939/91 - 94 had been accepted and realised. The project titled "Improvement
of Educational Activities in Power Electronics and its Applications"
substantially affected the next movement of the Department. The aims of the
project were: the creation of a new curricula for Power Electronics,
Electric Drives and Electrical Machines, setting up new laboratories,
purchase of computation and measuring hardware, mobility of students and the
staff. The universities in Catania, Roma, London and Helsinki cooperated in
this project. Results of the project pushed the Department forward in its
effort to become a modern department with a high level educational programme.
The Department participated in the two-years lasted TEMPUS project
JEN-01939SQ-94 since 1.1.1995 till 31.12.1996 representing a logical
continuation of the project mentioned above.
After all these changes in last
years, educational and research activities of the Department became more
widely and professionally oriented and covers many fields within the
electrical power engineering branch. Today's departmental graduates are well
accepted by many different enterprises, ranging from computer firms over the
various electric hardware producers up to electric energy and transport
companies. The same range of enterprises as well as Slovak and foreign
universities and research institutes cooperate with the staff and students
of the Department today.
In the academic year 1998/99, the Department
started an inter-disciplinary MSc. degree course in "Information Systems in
Energetics" in cooperation with the Department of Information and Safety
Systems. The aim of the course is the preparation of graduates focused to
the informatics and modern data control, transmission and processing in
energetics.
According to the general orientation, Department requested for
accreditation for new field of: “Power electronics systems”. After
successfully accreditation the Department has followed accredited
specializations within the frame of this fields of:
-
Electroenergetics
-
Power
electronics
-
Electric Drives
-
Electric Traction Since
1997 the Department has
an accreditation for PhD. degree study in "Power Electrotechnics" with the
following branches:
The appointed chairman of the Slovak committee
for PhD. degree study in Power Electrotechnics at EF ŽU is Ján Vittek, Dpt.
member.
The Department had collaborated intensively with the ABB Company. In
2000, Laboratory of Electric Substations was built up with the help of ABB.
It is equipped by the technology produced by the ABB plants in Czech
Republic, Germany, Finland and Italy.
The Department of Electric Traction
and Energetic had been educating a lot of specialists for all areas of
national economy during these last forty-seven years of its existence. Scope
of study requirements and customers demands to our graduates had been
changing in elapsed years. Requirements of practice put a pressure on
changes in our curriculum that would make our graduates more competitive at
the job market. Scope of study, pedagogues, name and the department
structure showed needs of adaptations for new time requirements. Hence the
Dpt. name was changed onto Dpt. of Power Electrotechnical Systems in 2003.
We hope that the Department will continue in successful education of
Bachelors, Masters of Sciences and Doctoral-graduates like before.
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