The NMHH donated an infocommunications lab to the University of Győr
The Authority’s first infocommunications lab was conferred by Monika Karas, President of the National Media and Infocommunications Authority (NMHH), at the Széchenyi István University on 16 May, on the occasion of the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day. As part of the world day celebrations, this year’s Dr. Endre Magyari Prize was awarded to spectrum management expert László Pados for his efforts in the introduction of digital broadcasting in Hungary and for his work as the country’s representative in international affairs.
The first infocommunications lab of the NMHH opened in Győr
The infocommunications lab launched at the Széchenyi István University marks the beginning of a new phase in the NMHH’s university sponsorship programme: the Telecommunications Faculty of the University now features a state-of-the-art infocommunications lab made available from the HUF 12.3 million grant of the Authority. When designing the workshop, special attention was paid to the needs of students, the majority of whom voted for space communications and satellite technologies. Featuring a 3-metre satellite dish, an antenna head, a recorder, an antenna rotating engine, a transmitter-receiver unit and the corresponding office furniture, the lab allows students to expand the facility’s capabilities via software development, thereby helping students in a number of experimental, learning and measurement tasks and effectively supporting students in obtaining up-to-date professional skills.
At the opening ceremony President of the NMHH Monika Karas said that she was pleased with the choice of students as the telecommunications applications of satellites is gaining ground, while telecommunications and navigation play a crucial role in the global aerospace industry and the Hungarian space strategy. She added that the lab is an integral part of the Authority’s infocommunications talent management programme, which has, since September, resulted in the launch of infocommunications scholarship programmes in cooperation with a number of universities. Since 2012, the National Media and Infocommunications Authority has donated media workshops to eleven universities across the country, where media students can perform tasks using state-of-the-art computer and software. With the opening of the first infocommunications lab in Győr, this year the Authority began to support Infocommunications Departments as well.
In his appreciation speech, Rector of the University Péter Földesi emphasized that support from the Authority means a lot to the university as technology is a costly industry. The Rector explained that the new facility will play a key role in research and technical development, and he hopes that they can prove that technical development can be environment-friendly, and thus serve the common good.
László Pados received this year’s Dr. Endre Magyari Award
On the occasion of the World Day celebrated in Győr, President of the NMHH Monika Karas also presented the Dr. Endre Magyari Prize, an award granted since 2015 to dedicated professionals in recognition of their decades of outstanding work in the Hungarian infocommunications sector. This year’s recipient is László Pados, who played an active role in the development of the STIR spectrum management software system, overseen the licensing procedure when digital broadcasting was introduced in Hungary, and effectively represented the country’s interests in various international telecommunications organisations.
The award was named after Dr. Endre Magyari (1900-1968), one of the founders of Hungarian Radio broadcasting, who was the first to design a high-powered radio telephone transmitter and is also known for coining the Hungarian term for telecommunications. In 2015 István Bartolits and Károly Fiala, in 2016 László Győrbíró and András Somogyi, in 2017 Imre Bölcskei and József Bugyi, and in 2018 Erika Madarász and Zoltán Bánhidi were recognized for their professional excellence.
NMHH lectures at the University Symposium
After the opening ceremony, two lectures were delivered on behalf of the NMHH as part of the professional Symposium held at the University: Director-General Dr. Janka Börcs provided an overview of the past fifty years of spectrum management starting with the foundation of the Spectrum Management Unit of the Technical Directorate of Radio Post in 1969 all the way up to 2010, when the National Media and Infocommunications Authority began operations in its current form. In addition, chief technology analyst István Bartolits summarized the imminent technological singularity and the infocommunications trends of the future. At the event, a short film compiled from interviews recorded by the NMHH fellows of the University was presented, in which decisive figures of the past fifty years of spectrum management talked about the past and present of the field.
The World Telecommunication and Information Society Day has been celebrated for fifty years since 1969, commemorating the foundation of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) on 17 May 1865. Hungary is a founding member of the ITU.