Students need real assignments, responsibility and feedback from people in industry. At Smart Region Forum 2026 on 22 October in Plzeň’s TechTower, I joined Jiří Dobrý from Aimtec to present our teaching cooperation at FAV ZČU. We traced a path from a semester project through AimtecHackathon to graduates working in industry.

In the Internet Technologies course, I develop team projects with colleagues while Aimtec acts as the customer. Jiří Dobrý brings the assignment, takes part in a progress review and the final presentations, and gives students feedback from industry.

Smart Region Forum 2026, held at TechTower in Plzeň, brought together people from companies, research, education and public administration in the Plzeň Region. The programme covered regional innovation, concrete industrial projects and talent development. Our talk was part of the session on people, talent and the region’s future. The conference also included an Experience Zone showcasing technologies and projects, and the Innovation of the Region 2026 awards.

What we talked about

  1. Starting in the classroom. Cooperation between Aimtec and the Department of Cybernetics on project-based teaching in Internet Technologies.
  2. A real customer assignment. Teams build sensors to measure warehouse temperature, humidity and light levels. They collect, process and visualise the data and deliver it to Aimtec.
  3. From soldering to defending the result. IoT Lab supports hardware prototyping and 3D printing. The solution must meet a fixed interface, handle outages and stand up to questions from the customer.
  4. The course evolves with its students. Cybersecurity and rules for AI use become part of the assignment. Students must present the tools they used and understand their solution.
  5. AimtecHackathon. Another opportunity for students, university mentors and companies to work together on challenges faced by people with disabilities.
  6. A graduate’s story. Matěj Sieber took the course, became a hackathon mentor, and now works at Aimtec as an AI ambassador and helps organise the hackathon.

I describe the course in more detail in the article on Internet Technologies and cooperation with Aimtec.

Acknowledgements

I thank Michal Kárník and Jiří Hrabák from Aimtec for the cybersecurity lecture and workshop they contribute to the course. I also thank Jakub Hlaváč for preparing the application for the student projects each year. I thank Martin Bulín for working with me on the Internet Technologies course.

I thank Vlasta Radová and Tomáš Lebeda for their cooperation on the Biometric Systems and Information Protection course (BSOI). I thank Pavel Jindra from IoT Lab at ZČU for supporting hardware prototyping and 3D printing, including helping some students try soldering for the first time.

Conference programme

Smart Region Forum 2026 schedule from morning registration to closing networking, including the joint session with Jiří Dobrý and Jan Švec at 13:20–14:20
Smart Region Forum 2026 programme published by the organiser. Click to open the conference website.
Two speakers holding microphones on stage at TechTower, with a student project photograph and Aimtec, FAV and IoT Lab logos projected behind them
With Jiří Dobrý during our joint talk at Smart Region Forum 2026 in Plzeň’s TechTower.

Links

  • Smart Region Forum 2026 programme: Conference programme including our joint talk in the people, talent and future of the region session.
  • IoT Lab ZČU: University makerspace for electronics, prototyping and 3D printing.
  • Aimtec: Industry partner of the Internet Technologies course.
  • TechTower: The technology park in Plzeň that hosted the conference.
  • KKY/ITE: Internet Technologies course syllabus in the STAG catalogue.
  • KKY/BSOI: Biometric Systems and Information Protection course syllabus in the STAG catalogue.

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