Special Focus on the Development of Electric Aircraft Drive Systems

Reinforced partnership between Siemens and BME opens a new chapter in a cooperation of over 20 years.

“Our cooperation with BME goes back to nearly two decades. During those years, we have supported several student initiatives, among them some degree applications bringing excellent results that our company is particularly proud of,” said Dale A. Martin, CEO of Siemens Zrt.  at the meeting of university and company representatives where the new cooperation agreement was signed. “It is our common interest to have an increasing number of highly trained engineers entering the Hungarian labour market. To achieve this end, we will continue to support BME’s efforts in a wide range of domains,” he added.

The company’s funding – 8m HUF this year – covers a broad range of activities including the organisation of internships, the launching of calls for thesis proposals, providing financial support to the participants of Scientific Student Conferences (TDK), and contributing to the costs of a publication presenting engineering vocations to secondary school students. These initiatives, programmes and grant proposals are promoted through the partnership of Siemens and the Pro Progression Foundation.

The two parties established even closer ties in the field of research and development, thanks to the renewed strategic opportunities provided by the recently set up Felsőoktatási és Ipari Együttműködési Központ (FIEK; Higher Education and Industry Cooperation Center). In the framework of FIEK, the four-year joint research programme by Siemens and BME will focus on the development of drive systems for electric aircrafts.

“The creation of FIEK is an important milestone in the history of our institution as well as in Hungarian research and development. Such partnerships are a key to fostering as much innovation as possible, boosting the competitiveness of Hungarian economy,” said János Józsa, rector of BME, stressing that “thanks to the recent development of the eFusion electric aircraft drive system, Siemens’s Hungarian research team has demonstrated its potential to achieve significant success in the industry. We are looking forward with great pleasure to seeing our team, our researchers and students work together on the development of tomorrow’s electric aircraft driving systems.”

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Photo: János Philip