The Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication (FEEC) is one of the oldest and largest parts of Brno University of Technology. With its 3100+ students in the various study programs, the Faculty has evolved into a major influence on the technical education domain within the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Our approach relies on a convenient combination of theory and practice that allows the students to gain dynamic, hands-on knowledge and skills through work in cutting-edge laboratories. The graduates are thus ready for the job market, using their potential in full to draw the attention of leading players in the industry worldwide.

The productive raising of talents, however, is matched by a desire to explore new horizons: We have nurtured the growth of researchers and scientists who fruitfully participate in national and international projects, producing results of notable impact on broad technological progress. Such achievements include, for example, original methods for data transfer monitoring and security in backbone networks, life-saving cellphone applications, and reconnaissance robotic systems to be used in a contaminated environment. Importantly, our efforts in these fields are tightly connected with the mission of regional research centers, the CVVOZE and SIX in particular, and – through another perspective – the Faculty’s history.

The Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication has traditionally been a major constituent of the University, and the histories are thus closely intertwined. The Faculty’s roads to the present, however, were long and winding, with many instances of renaming, merging, splitting, and, above all, moving and relocation. The twists and turns of the past then gradually shaped the profile of the FEEC into its current form, involving, as shown below, diverse events of particular importance during the time.

The University’s origins date back to January 24, 1849, when the Moravian Diet decided to establish a technical school to teach engineering, agriculture, and trade, in Czech and German.

In the following years, the Czech language gradually lost its position as a regular means of instruction, and the resulting imbalance eventually led to the birth of the Imperial-Royal Franz Joseph Czech Technical University in 1899. After World War I, the institution changed its name to Czech Technical University in Brno, only to later become the thriving Dr. Edvard Beneš Technical University, one of Europe’s best providers of engineering and technology education in the late 1930s. But the prosperity soon came to an end with the German occupation and the Second World War: the Czech universities were closed, teaching banned, and most of the buildings seized by the Nazi armed forces. In the post-war months, the Brno technical university‘s staff and students worked together towards restoring the lectures and tutorials, succeeding already in July 1945. Early in the new academic year, the almost a century old German Technical University in Brno, which had remained active during WW II, was incorporated into its Czech counterpart. Yet the turbulent course of history took its toll again, most notably in 1951, when the re-established institution was radically transformed to suit the needs of the Cold War. The university emerged from the process as Military Technical Academy, losing much of its civilian character. This situation, however, did not last very long, largely due to the academy’s limited ability to satisfy the relentless demands of various industry sectors, and the pre-military status was officially restored in 1956. The change then produced not only a fresh name, that of Brno University of Technology, but also development and expansion, thus effectively concluding the decades of frequent renaming and recurrent insecurity.

In basic electrical engineering, the pioneering courses were launched as early as 1905. An area-specific faculty formed in 1956, initially to cover power industry research; the rising number of study programs nevertheless led to reforms, yielding the more broadly based Faculty of Electrical Engineering (FEE). Responding to the technological advancements of the 1990s, the FEE expanded further to teach information science, and its updated name, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, clearly reflected the novel trend. Over time, the branches began to follow their own, separate paths, splitting the FEE in 2001 into two units: the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication (FEEC), and the Faculty of Information Technology (FIT). The process was finalized on January 1, 2002 with Prof. Radimír Vrba‘s and Prof. Tomáš Hruška’s appointment as deans of the FEEC and the FIT, respectively.

The new buildings, inspiring laboratories, and inventive teaching allow the Faculty to educate and train responsively the next generations of electrical engineers, despite the negative demography as well as overall decline of interest in technical studies.

But the scope of activities at the FEEC reaches beyond lecturing and instruction: Our researchers work on a wide range of projects that help shape the present and invite the future, by such means as creating tools to enable early diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, promote network security in cyberspace, or develop the Smart city concept.

All the efforts have found support from the CVVOZE, CEITEC, and SIX regional and excellence centers, which are affiliated with the Faculty.

The purpose of SIX, or the Center of Sensor, Information, and Communication Systems, is to research and develop communication technologies and components to be operated within suitable, promising frequency bands. By contrast, the CVVOZE (Center for Research and Utilization of Renewable Sources of Energy) investigates virtually all fields and subdomains of electrical engineering, bringing together experts in electrochemistry, electrical and electronic technology, power engineering, and many other branches. Some of the center’s specialist groups focus exclusively on topical problems related to renewable sources and their industrial applicability.

We believe that the Faculty will continue pursuing its long-term vision of advanced, flexible, and cooperative education and research for the 21^st century.