In the competition organised by BME and the Hungarian National Bank (MNB) the students of our faculty won two of four categories.
In the second part of the BME Mechanical
Engineering Blog interview series, we talked with Balázs Riskutia, the winner
of the category Platform Economy: AI, robotics and green technologies.
What was your task in the
category?
Balázs Riskutia: My task was to show how platforms and surrounding technologies can boost
the implementation and sustainability of green innovations. It was worth
examining some emerging solutions, like AI, robotics, Big Data and blockchain.
During the analysis, such technical topics could be projected to specific
economic processes. Of course, the discussion of these technological solutions
is only a part of the call. The operation of the current platforms cannot be
analysed thoroughly without the surrounding market mechanisms. These market
aspects include for example the linking of B2C and B2B markets or the network
effects of the bilateral markets. Among others, the point of interest in the
topic lies in its interdisciplinarity. I have to add; this diversity is also a
feature of the other contest topics.
What did you analyse in your
work?
Balázs Riskutia: I aimed to present a comprehensive overview of the
world of platforms, showing how these platforms can provide increasing
incentives for green and innovative aspirations. Moreover, my contribution
could also be considered as a guideline that gathers the most relevant
questions to be researched on the topic of platform-based green innovations
while it also aims to propose future directions for practical implementation.
My work can be divided into three parts.
First, I present the phenomenon of platforms in a
technological as well as in an economic aspect.
The second part is the most exciting one, in my
opinion. Here I present why platforms are essential in the creation of a
sustainable world economy. We can have a look at how platforms foster the
Schumpeterian creative destruction and the birth of innovations. The green
steel and green food platforms will be introduced through which we can get an
insight into how the propagation of these platforms can help their global
spread. One can also recognise the power of their predictability and their
increasing returns.
In the third part, my work shifts to the challenges as
regards technological implementations of the platforms. Here I would like to
highlight two critical aspects. One is the issue of platform governance; for
this, blockchain technology can mean a practical solution. The other one is the
design of the platform interfaces, as these turn out to be the longest-lasting
platform components. The Arrowhead Framework (a holistic Industry 4.0 project
developed in the EU as well as in Hungary) could provide an excellent solution
in designing these crucial interfaces.
What was the biggest challenge in
this project?
Balázs Riskutia: Undoubtedly, the biggest challenge was the research through
the various types of literature. Platform economy as a topic is discussable
from several points of view. I got to the result with the help of legal, technological,
IT, economy and business review articles. To be satisfied by an abstract,
general platform model is definitely tempting. But we can only see the big
picture of the platform economy if we get to know the technological processes
that led to its emergence, if recognise its integration in the
institutionalised society and if we can follow how the platform economy creates
novel business models for companies. On the whole, the challenge was to collect
a set of articles with appropriately diverse approaches from which one can
still construct a unified view for the reader.
And what about the future?
Balázs Riskutia: I would like to participate in projects dealing with
similar topics as the ones above. Soon I am going to start my thesis, where I am
open to include a related subject though remaining primarily in the field of
engineering. I follow the Arrowhead-like industrial
digitalisation-collaboration solutions, smart grids in the energy industry, or the
applications of IoT and AI in the agriculture with enthusiastic interest.
Balázs Riskutia is a third-year
mechatronics engineering undergraduate at BME Faculty of Mechanical
Engineering. He is ready to work at a company with pioneering aspirations in
sustainability. Besides, he would also like to stay close to the academic
sphere, as taking part in research, or later, in education.
László Benesóczky
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