Among the personalities honoured by the President of the Czech Republic on the occasion of the national holiday on 28 October this year are two graduates of Brno University of Technology. Tomáš Mikolov, a renowned expert in artificial intelligence, and Filip Maleňák, creator of the Záchranka mobile app, received state honors for their outstanding contributions to science, research and technology.
The traditional state decoration ceremony took place on 28 October in the Vladislav Hall at Prague Castle. On this occasion, the President of the Czech Republic honoured individuals who have made significant contributions to the development of society, science, culture and other areas of public life. Among the recipients were two graduates of Brno University of Technology, whose professional careers demonstrate how technological innovations can push the boundaries of scientific knowledge, contribute to the development of society and find practical applications in everyday life.
Technology That Helps Save Lives
Entrepreneur and developer Filip Maleňák, a graduate of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication at BUT, is the creator of the Záchranka mobile app. His project demonstrates how combining information technology with the practical needs of emergency services can provide tangible assistance to people in crisis situations.
The Záchranka app enables users to quickly contact emergency medical services and share their precise location. It also helps in situations where a person is unable to speak and provides rescuers with important information that can facilitate and speed up emergency assistance. In addition, users can locate the nearest automated external defibrillator through the app.
Over time, the app has become an important tool for communication between the public and emergency services. Dozens of people use it to call for help every day, and in numerous cases, it has contributed to faster emergency response times or more effective first aid.
In recognition of his work, he was awarded the Medal of Merit by the President of the Czech Republic for his contributions to the state in the field of technology.
A Pioneer in Artificial Intelligence and Language Models
Scientist Tomáš Mikolov, a graduate of the Faculty of Information Technology at BUT, is an internationally recognised expert in artificial intelligence and machine learning. He is best known for his contributions to the development of natural language processing technologies and as one of the creators of the Word2Vec method, which makes it possible to represent words as mathematical vectors and thus capture relationships between their meanings. This approach has become one of the important foundations for the development of modern language models and technologies that underpin many of today's artificial intelligence tools.
Alongside his scientific work, Mikolov is also involved in entrepreneurship. Through his company BottleCap AI, he focuses on developing more efficient language models. His scientific achievements have earned him several prestigious awards, including the Neuron Award.
In recognition of his work, he was awarded the Medal of Merit by the President of the Czech Republic for his contributions to the state in the field of science.
The recognition of Tomáš Mikolov and Filip Maleňák also highlights the importance of technical education and its connection to practical applications. Although the two graduates have pursued different career paths, they share the ability to transform expertise and innovative ideas into technologies with a real-world impact.
A complete list of all 51 recipients of state honors is available here.