Hungary at a glimpse

at a glimpse
Lab meeting - 12.12.2007
Tamas Haidegger
Top 10 facts about Hungary
1. Hungary lies in the heart of Europe
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First Hungarians to settle: AD 895-96
Foundations of the country: 1001
Hungary as a kingdom: 1001-1918
People’s Republic of Hungary: 1949 – 89
Hungary joins the EU: 2004
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Area: 1% of US
Population: 3%
GDP: 1.5%
Life expectancy: 95%
Top 10 facts about Hungary
2. Hungarian is a unique language
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Finno-Ugric language family
Spoken by 15 million world-wide
Unique sounds: “ü, ö, ty, gy, etc. ”
Closest relatives: Finnish, Estonian
Say: “Egészségedre!” or “gyertya”
Top 10 facts about Hungary
3. Hungary has the Great Plain
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Present days’ Hungary is 75% plains
Highest peak: 1014 m (3327 feet)
Good soil for agriculture
Several national parks
Traditional horse riding
Danube and Tisza flow thru
Great fishing lakes
Top 10 facts about Hungary
4. Budapest is probably the most beautiful city of all
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Just in the center of the country
On two sides of the Danube: Pest and Buda
Inhabited since the Roman times (AD 40-50)
3 spots forming part of the World’s Heritage
Top 10 facts about Hungary
5. Hungary is all about the good wine
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22 major wine regions
Most famous: Tokaji Aszú
Great history
Several international recognitions
Top 10 facts about Hungary
6. Hungarian cuisine is delicious
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Unique food and spices
Goulash, fish soup, hortobágyi pancake
Basic ingredients: meat, bacon, onion, garlic, paprika
All kinds of stews, soups, vegetable dishes, cakes
Top 10 facts about Hungary
7. Hungary is the land of spas
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Spa culture inherited from the Turks (enjoying the “climate” for
150 years )
Great geological aptitude – 40 thermal spring areas
Thieving wellness tourism
Top 10 facts about Hungary
8. Lake Balaton is a cool place
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Biggest and warmest lake in Central Europe ( 230 mile2 )
Great summer holiday resort
Summer and winter sport activities
Top 10 facts about Hungary
9. Hungarian contribution to the world of music
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Ferenc Liszt (1811-1866)
Béla Bartók (1881-1941)
Ernö Domhányi (1877-1960)
Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967)
György Ligeti (1923-2006)
Top 10 facts about Hungary
10. Hungarian contribution to the development of technology
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Non-Euclidian Geometry (János Bolyai – 1820-23 )
Safety matches (János Irinyi – 1831 )
Dynamo (Ányos Jedlik – 1852 )
Helicopter (Oszkár Asbóth – 1928 )
Telecom center (Tivadar Puskás – 1873 )
Carburetor (János Csonka – 1893 )
AC electric train (Kálmán Kandó – 1898 )
Ball pen (László Biro – 1931 )
Vitamin C (Albert Szent-Györgyi – 1937)
H-bomb theory (Ede Teller – 1941 )
Comp architecture (John von Neumann – 1945 )
Hologram (Dénes Gábor - 1972)
FDD (Marcell Jánosi – 1974 )
Rubik Cube (Ernö Rubik – 1975 )
Gomboc (world’s first self-righting object) (G. Domonkos, P. Várkonyi – 2007)
Top 10 facts about Hungary
+1 . Hungarians are everywhere
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2.5 million Hungarian living in the neighboring countries
2.5 million all around the world
1 million living in the States
Another 2 million with Hungarian origins just in the U.S.
Out of 13 Hungarian Nobel prize winners, 7 lived and worked in
the USA
The Budapest University of Technology
and Economics (BME)
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Founded in 1782
Third biggest university in Hungary (25.000 students)
8 faculties (all forms of engineering + econ + natural sci)
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BSc – MSc since 2005
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Faculty of Electrical Engineering
and Informatics
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5700 students
1700 first year students every year (dropout rate: 50%)
10 departments
Wide coverage on all fields of engineering
5+5 semesters: one major and one minor field to choose
+ optional courses
PhD: after MSc degree (3 ys)
Biomedical Engineering
graduate school
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BME + Semmelweis Medical University + SZIU
Fac. of Veterinary Science
35 dept are involved + 5 national HC Institutes
First in the region (since 1995)
MsC in biomedical engineering
Entering after 7 semesters, lasts for 3 years
Dept. of Control Eng. and IT –
Laboratory for Bioinformatics
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Director: Prof. Zoltán Benyó
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No. of members: 5 faculty members, 5 PhD students, 10-12
undergrads
Projects: Remote patient monitoring system, advanced insulin
control, identification of biological compartments, biosignal
processing of drivers, PET-CT registration, teleoperation, soft
computing for modeling
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Short bio
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2001-06 MSc in Electrical Engineering at BME
2005-08 MSc in Biomedical Engineering at BME
2006-10 PhD in Electrical Engineering at BME
2007-08 Visiting student at Hopkins with HAESF
scholarship
(Hungarian-American Enterprise
Scholarship Fund)
Research interest
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Control of redundant manipulators (diploma thesis)
Space manipulators
Feasibility of long-distance telesurgery in space
Neurosurgery (under Prof. Kazanzides)
Further readings
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All about Hungary:
http://www.hungary.com/
Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungary
Wine and culture:
http://www.winesofhungary.com/
More about Budapest:
http://www.budapestinfo.hu/en/
BME:
http://portal.bme.hu/langs/en/default.aspx
Biomedical engineering at BME: http://bio.iit.bme.hu
HAESF scholarship:
http://www.haesf.org
Thank you for your attention!
The presentation is available at the
Seminar’s wiki page
Email: haidegger@jhu.edu
Acknowledgement: Special Thanks to Kati Honti for the ideas and materials