Ákos Gyenge
In the first part of the BME Mechanical Engineering Blog interview series, we talked with Ákos Gyenge, and Donát Takács, students of our faculty, as a team won the big gold of the competition with their work in the category ’Smart cities and sustainable lifestyle’. Interview.
What was your task?
Ákos Gyenge: The call was about the smart cities in the future. Being native citizen of Budapest, I used to travel a lot in the city, hence the topic made me very enthusiastic. I also enjoyed the opportunity of dealing with great and complex systems, which made me excited. We had to consider that the city of the future should be sustainable and liveable (both environmentally and economically). Neither of us is an expert of urban planning. Yet, it was an exciting task, as it required the complex point of view, which, I believe is a strength of the BME Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.
What did you analyse in your work?
Ákos Gyenge: As an engineer,
I consider it important to constantly be aware of our surroundings, and to
always look for solutions when encountering any problem. In our work, we
selected five specific topics and wrote suggestions to solve them – some of
them were based on literature, and some were our ideas. We already had some
ideas beforehand, but a few came to our mind only while working on the paper.
In my opinion, a great strength of our work was that we gave solutions to
problems that are seen by everybody on a daily basis.
Donát Takács: With Ákos Gyenge, we decided to give a general overview of the current conditions of five loosely defined urban development fields (Transport/Logistics, Citizen Relations/Digital Wellbeing, Environmental Protection, Social Systems and General Infrastructure) from the viewpoint of smart cities. Then, we suggested several solutions that could make citizens’ lives more sustainable: these included solutions already present in the relevant literature, as well as several novel ideas proposed by us. We also focused on the protection of personal data and privacy. Our attitude is that these often less prioritised aspects are significant parts of the socially sustainable usage of technology.
What was the biggest challenge in this project?
Ákos Gyenge: Luckily, we were
not under pressure; thus, we could handle problems well. Perhaps, I would say
that it was a challenge, that how can we form these several ideas to a coherent
work with a clear structure. Probably it was the first time during our studies,
that we had to focus on the text, instead of the quantitative results. This
task required some changes in our attitude, which felt unusual, but overall, I
think, we could adapt well.
Donát Takács: The whole work was a great professional challenge: although I attended a few university lectures regarding urbanism, I have never delved into the topic this deeply before. However, the most challenging aspect was something else: considering the economic and social effects in the long term of novel, exciting solutions. The results of the current, rapid technological development are undoubtedly impressive, but the last decades have proven that these developments can have unexpected yet significant social and ecological consequences. Moreover, the development of a city has a much larger inertia, than e.g. the smartphone market does: urban developments are hard to reverse and usually have long-term effects.
And what about the future?
Ákos Gyenge: From September, I am going to study in France, with a dual degree programme (between BME and ENSAM – the Ed.). I hope that I can learn there a lot which I can use later in Hungary. I would be happy if I could work in an international environment later on.
Donát Takács: Currently, I am a student of the English-language mechanical engineering masters study programme, my priority is to finish the programme. In the longer term, I would like to get a job in an RTD field requiring engineering skills: the relevant areas of the space industry especially interest me. Generally, I enjoy using my skills in solving complex problems: mostly, this was the key factor that attracted me to this urbanism-related work. I would be most satisfied if my work would once have a tangible societal value as well.
Ákos Gyenge and Donát
Takács are both first-year mechanical engineering modelling MSc students of BME
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, both graduated as mechatronics engineers on
BSc level in January 2020.
Ákos Gyenge is working on
the Hungarian National Space Strategy at a consultancy firm. He spent his
internship period at a satellite developer company and prefers to stay in the
space industry either in Hungary or abroad.
Donát Takács currently works on
the Department of Analysis at the eCon Engineering Hungarian engineering firm
as an engineer intern.
László Benesóczky
Photo: Ákos Gyenge
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