Students of the FAI Achieve Great Success at the RoboVision Hackathon 2025 Competition
23. April 2025ABB, SmartView and Keyence hosted the RoboVision Hackathon, which provided a unique opportunity for students to experience real-world industrial robotics applications and explore the possibilities of combining them with generative artificial intelligence and advanced vision systems.
Participants in the 24-hour competition, which took place on the ABB premises in Mošnov between 13 and 14 March, had to tackle challenging technological tasks. The RoboVision Hackathon was not only a technological challenge, but also an exceptional opportunity for personal and professional growth. It allowed participants to learn new skills, deepen teamwork and test their own abilities in an environment where time pressure and high demands on creativity played an important role. The event provided a space to collaborate on a meaningful project and strengthened the links between industry and academia.
“The RoboVision Hackathon showed that industrial robotics isn’t just about technology, but rather about the people who know how to use it. The connection between academia and industry is the key to further innovations that will change the way we work in the coming years,” said Ing. Václav Mach, Ph.D.
During the Hackathon competition, participants worked in teams of three and faced nine complex tasks in a 24-hour continuous marathon that tested their knowledge of robotics, machine vision and industrial automation. The tasks were divided into three thematic categories – robots, cameras and lighting – and combined both theoretical and practical aspects of real industrial production. The teams were free to choose the order and timing of the tasks, and each task was scored according to its difficulty. The results were then judged by a panel of experts from ABB, SmartView and Keyence.
Among the six competing teams were representatives from the Faculty of Applied Informatics of Tomas Bata University in Zlín. Both teams were made up of students from the Department of Automation and Control Engineering, who had the opportunity to apply their theoretical knowledge in a real industrial automation environment and gain valuable experience from interdisciplinary cooperation.
The team of 3rd year students of Intelligent Systems with Robots – Jakub Mikula, Lukáš Menšík and Filip Klapetek dominated the competition and won the 1st prize. “We were the youngest participants in the Hackathon competition, but we showed that we have mastered the theory in practice perfectly. It is not all about calculations, but it is important to apply theoretical knowledge in practice, as we are taught at the FAI,” says Jakub Mikula. “I still can’t believe that we won against such strong competition. You can see that robotics is on the rise at the Faculty of Applied Informatics,” says Lukáš Menšík.
The second team made up of students of the follow-up Master’s programme in Automatic Control and Informatics in Industry 4.0 – Vojtěch Birgus, Štěpán Danzmajer and Radim Měrka narrowly failed to place in the top three. “We missed the top three spots by a few points. We made a strategic mistake at night and lost a lot of time,” explained Vojtěch Birgus. “What matters is that we had a great time and were able to be part of this special event,” adds Štěpán Danzmajer.
Thanks to the organisers for a unique event that can inspire other companies to support students in technical disciplines. “It is important to create a fertile ground for new technical talents who want to step out of their comfort zone and enjoy technical challenges,” concludes doc. Ing. Aleš Mizera, Ph.D.
