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Innovations in Polish Railways with the participation of AGH UST scientists. Start of long-term cooperation to improve transport

A modern train hurtling along the tracks, passing by a train station.

Photo: source: facebook.com/europesrail/

Innovations in Polish Railways with the participation of AGH UST scientists. Start of long-term cooperation to improve transport

The AGH UST has officially begun cooperation with PKP S.A. within the Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking partnership. The goal of ERJU is to accelerate the development and boost technological innovation and operational solutions in the rail industry. This is the effect of two-year efforts that, in December 2022, resulted in the conclusion of an agreement on a research and development ecosystem, as well as agreements on the creation of several international consortia. Four research and development projects will be carried out within them, and the AGH UST is a member of three.

The projects in which the AGH UST participates include:

  • FP1 – MOTIONAL – Mobility Management Multimodal Environment and Digital Enablers
  • FP3 – IAM4RAIL – Holistic and Integrated Asset Management for Europe’s RAIL System
  • FP4 – Rail4Earth – Sustainable and green rail systems.

On the part of the AGH UST, the projects rest in the hands of Rector’s Proxies for Cooperation within Europe’s Rail Partnership: Dr hab. Eng. Jerzy Baranowski, Associate Professor at the AGH UST (FP1 and FP3) and Dr hab. Eng. Tomasz Owerko, Associate Professor at the AGH UST (FP4).

Teams coordinated by the AGH UST scientists will focus on developing decision-support systems regarding passenger traffic, as well as train station management, application of digital twins technology (that is, virtual copies of processes, machines, or objects that perfectly mimic its physical counterparts), and various solutions for hydrogen fuelling of railway engines.

Five AGH UST faculties will be involved:

  • Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Automatics, Computer Science, and Biomedical Engineering
  • Faculty of Geo-Data Science, Geodesy, and Environmental Engineering
  • Faculty of Civil Engineering and Resource Management
  • Faculty of Management
  • Faculty of Energy and Fuels.

The entire endeavour brings in 17 entities from Poland. These include: Łukasiewicz Research Network (and its institutes), Centralny Port Komunikacyjny Sp. z o.o., PKP Energetyka S.A., and Łódzka Kolej Aglomeracyjna Sp. z o.o.

On January 18, 2023 in Warsaw, an inaugural meeting establising the partnership took place. The following figures participated therein: Maciej Małecki – Secretary of State in the Ministry of State Assets, Wojciech Murdzek – Secretary of State in the Ministry of Education and Science, Krzysztof Mamiński, President of the Board of PKP S.A., and delegations of all entities of the ecosystem.

The AGH UST was represented by:

  • Professor Ryszard Hejmanowski, Dean of the Faculty of Geo-Data Science, Geodesy, and Environmental Engineering;
  • Dr hab. Eng. Edyta Kucharska, Associate Professor at the AGH UST and Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Automatics, Computer Science, and Biomedical Engineering;
  • Dr hab. Łukasz Ortyl, Associate Professor at the AGH UST and Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Geo-Data Science, Geodesy, and Environmental Engineering;
  • Dr hab. Eng. Jerzy Baranowski, Associate Professor at the AGH UST (Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Automatics, Computer Science, and Biomedical Engineering);
  • Dr hab. Eng. Tomasz Owerko, Associate Professor at the AGH UST, (Faculty of Geo-Data Science, Geodesy, and Environmental Engineering);
  • Dr hab. Eng. Magdalena Dudek, Associate Professor at the AGH UST (Faculty of Energy and Fuels);
  • Dr hab. Eng. Robert Ranosz, Associate Professor at the AGH UST (Faculty of Civil Engineering and Resource Management);
  • Dr Eng. Waldemar Bauer (Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Automatics, Computer Science, and Biomedical Engineering);
  • Dr Eng. Katarzyna Gdowska (Faculty of Management);
  • Hubert Szolc, MSc Eng. (Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Automatics, Computer Science, and Biomedical Engineering);
  • Karolina Tomaszkiewicz, MSc Eng. (Faculty of Geo-Data Science, Geodesy, and Environmental Engineering).

On behalf of the AGH UST, Dr. Jerzy Baranowski signed a commemorative board symbolising the launch of cooperation.

‘This is a huge undertaking for the AGH UST and other partners and a prospective cooperation for the next decade. In addition to Poland, the Europe’s Rail JU Partnership includes 25 other ecosystems from multiple countries, gathered around entities such as Deutsche Bahn, Hitachi Rail, and Alstom Transport. After the completion of the ongoing projects, five more are scheduled to be announced as competitions in 2026 and 2029. The teams from all AGH UST faculties participating in this project are ready to overcome all the technological challenges related to modern digital train stations and multimodal mobility management, as well as to implement these solutions in the future in Poland and in our partner countries in Europe’, said Dr Jerzy Baranowski about the project.

Stopka