European Congress of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises with the participation of Silesian University of Technology
The 15th edition of the European Congress of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, the largest event dedicated to the SME sector in Europe, has come to an end at the International Congress Centre in Katowice. As every year, scientists from the Silesian University of Technology took part in the panels and discussions.
This year’s jubilee edition of the Congress was held under the motto: “HERE & NOW” to encourage business, local governments, and science communities to make bold decisions here and now.
– Silesian University of Technology is an important player at this Congress, we present our achievements, technologies and research to entrepreneurs, and they can use them in the future, it is a time when we establish contacts with partners from industry – said Dr Hab. Eng. Marcin Staniek, Prof. SUT, Vice Rector for Collaboration with Civic and Economic Environment of the Silesian University of Technology – We exchange experiences between such entities as universities, business representatives, public self-government units. This is primarily to develop common positions that will help to better support small and medium-sized enterprises, - added the Vice-Rector, who took part in the panel on mobility and logistics in the cities of the future.
The topics discussed by experts in numerous discussions and panels concerned the most current economic problems and the greatest challenges of the present day. The experts discussed, among others, demography in the context of the labour market, building international business relations, clean energy, air quality, or mediation in dispute resolution. As part of the “International Talks” band, Prof. Marek Pawełczyk, the Rector of the Silesian University of Technology, took part online in the panel on internationalization.
The discussion on the future of education and competence in the age of AI was very popular among the public. Experts, including Prof. Marek Gzik, Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education, and Dr Hab. Eng. Paweł Kasprowski, Prof. SUT from the Faculty of Automatic Control, Electronics and Computer Science talked about how artificial intelligence changes education, how it facilitates it and what threats it brings.
- We use artificial intelligence more and more often, but we use models that are mostly found in the United States, China, or Japan, we don’t actually use mechanisms that are available in Poland - said Prof. Kasprowski. – Polish servers are used in 15 percent because there are no proper mechanisms that would allow them to be used. At the Silesian University of Technology, we are building such infrastructure and we are trying to do it in such a way that it is accessible to entrepreneurs or other universities, so that it is an open structure, not something closed, which no one is able to use in a practical way – said Professor Kasprowski referring to the Centre for Technology and Computational Sciences.
The topics discussed during the Congress also covered issues related to cybersecurity, which concern both individuals, local governments, and large organizations from all sectors of the economy. The discussion on cybersecurity in the era of universal digitization was led by Dr Eng. Adrian Kapczyński from the Faculty of Applied Mathematics.
- It is important to pay attention to cyber threats, their landscape is evolving, there are spectacular attacks forcing ransom, but also those sophisticated ones, which we also need to be able to identify, model properly, conduct risk analyses and finally implement appropriate methods and measures of protection, - said Dr Eng. Adrian Kapczyński. - As a university, we provide excellent education in this area, our research fits into the needs of the socio-economic environment and what we can offer it, is the expertise of our academic teachers, our potential in implementing new methods and techniques of protection, - the scientist added.
The 15th European Congress of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises was organized by the Regional Chamber of Commerce in Katowice under the patronage of ministries of: Finance, Funds and Regional Policy, Infrastructure, and Ministry of Family, Labour, and Social Policy. The Silesian University of Technology was a substantive partner of the event.
