How did you take this honour?
Attila Csobán: I became delighted. I am very proud of it. I was having a look at my mailbox, and my eyes fell on a mail sent by Zsombor Pollák, who was the president of the student council at the time, telling me, that I gained this award. It was a warm, pleasant feeling. When lecturers leave academic life without transferring their complete knowledge, it is my most tremendous heartache. It is an honour itself that I can teach.
Besides, this award frightened me. Although I do the same during online lectures, my courses cannot be the same as before, since we cannot analyse the practical side of the problem in details.
What do you think why students adore you so much, as a lecturer?
Perhaps, because I teach what I like, with a drive, moreover, there I can shed light on the practices as well, because – it is not a secret –, beside my academic job, I work in the industry as well. I am the Engineering Director of our family business, I also work as a professional expert, and I am a lead researcher of a consortium. Although the university is my number one, the one which I love the most.
Some often say that I rather focus on what students know, and not that what they do not. Well, it is partly true, besides, that I believe in the power of finding motivation. If at an exam, the student is creative, diligent, and I see, that he is going to be a good engineer, instead I ask the question again, giving him another chance and a plus boost. What makes me happy when I can see the aha-feeling on the face of a student. I enjoyed this period very much with my elder daughter, Edina, but I’m also looking forward to giving more knowledge to my younger daughter, Lívia.
Everyone can have bad days. How can you leave your daily problems outside the classroom?
Of course, I also have some days when I feel overwhelmed. A deadline for an industrial project can be a severe stress factor. So these times, I get an extra load of patience from my beloved ones, special thanks to my wife, Edit. But sometimes, it affects my capacity for focusing, but I always tell this to my students. Although, when I start the lesson, I close the door beyond my challenges as well.
You have registered multiple patents as well. What kind of patents are these?
They are connected with traction technology: gearboxes, planetary gears, synchronisers.
At the 2000 Genius Expo, my clutch without obstacle was exhibited. My fourth patent is about to be manufactured.
I made my first patent as a 12-year old. I had some strange empathy with the machine, while we were assembling a motorbike. I saw the hotspots, where there was an obstacle in the device, or it was getting spoiled. I almost felt where the machine ’hurts’. I even did not know some particle names, but only got to know that during my studies at BME. Still, I was already looking for a solution.
My father, who was a turner, later a maritime engineer, had a book of technical drawings. Even as a young adolescent, when the others were chasing girls, I was busy with this book. Around my birth, my father quitted his job as a seaman and started a plastic injection moulding business. Summertime I was also helping him, but usually, I threw naughty flies into the tool, making decorative imprints on the product, becoming a scrap. Of course, now I am not proud of this at all, neither because of my father, nor the flies. Nowadays, we are saving and raising rhinoceros beetle larvae with my daughter, giving a different meaning to entomology.
As a researcher, industry professionals contact me when encountering a problem, even from abroad. For instance, developing the electric drive train engine did not only receive the Invention of the Year prize in 2018. But with 8000 revs, I managed to reach such a low decibel level at the ship’s cogwheel engine, that the noise of the dashboard’s fan covers the engine noise. It is a result of my academic work, which I test in the industry if I have the opportunity.
What do you love the most in your job, and what is the greatest challenge?
In my job, the best things are solving problems, and creating something from ground zero. The challenge, which is getting actual nowadays, to produce creative input with short deadlines reliably, and take responsibility for our decisions. If I invent something, I am there at the assembly, the delivery, and the installation, so I handle my inventions and machines almost as my children.
I am a passionate angler, a fan of fish, and an enthusiastic promoter of fish consumption. Besides, I also do practical shooting (IPSC).
Why did you choose mechanical engineering?
On one side, it was my dream to work as a scientist. My parents, my aunt, and his husband, Miklós Pollák, were always supporting me. I also have fond memories of my elementary school teacher, whom we called Ms Judith, and who saw my engineering talent from the beginning. My high school physics teacher, Gyula Annár, or József Ruszinyák, who is working with cogwheel production, and manufactured my first invention. At BME, Dr Mihály Kozma, who is also my mentor.
But if I would look for a more concrete reason, why I chose to be a mechanical engineer, these were the motorbike designers of GDR. When I was 14, with some of my classmates, who are still friends of mine, Tibor Galambos, and Sándor Boros, we were already riding motorbikes. Once, during a clutch repair, we took down the lid of the engine block. We could just say, ’Look at that, it’s magnificent!’ In the lights of the sunset, the oil was running down the clutch sprockets and main axis-cogwheel connection. I kept this love in my heart, lit at that particular moment. That was the time I decided to study mechanical engineering.
Before my high-school final exam, I could not solve a specific engineering problem, but this inspired me, and I decided to specialise on this topic.
What would you suggest to our future students?
Keep your interest, do not let short-term demand stress let you down. Keep your child-like curiosity! Find that specific topic, which you would like to work with, and research happily!
László Benesóczky
Dr Attila Csobán was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1982, graduated as a mechanical engineer in BME in 2007, graduated on PhD level in 2010. Since then, he is a senior lecturer of BME Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Machine and Product Design, and the head of the engineering department of their family business.
Since 2014, he is the science and engineering director of ATAKOMB Kft.
He is the member of the Alliance of Talent Support Organisations, Intellectual Property Committee since 2008, the Foundation for Researching Students, Board of Entrepreneurs, since 2006, the Researching Students’ National Alliance between 2000 and 2001, the Hungarian Inventors’ Association since 2000.
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