Honeywell and VUT: A Partnership Shaping the Future of Aviation Technology
Throughout the year, representatives of major companies meet with VUT representatives, and thematic workshops have also become regular occurrences. One such workshop focused on systems engineering, attended by representatives from faculties, VZLU AEROSPACE, Thermo Fisher Scientific, and Honeywell. Among the key participants was Michal Závišek, Vice President of Technology Solutions for the EMEA region at Honeywell, which underscores the significance of the signed memorandum of cooperation in STEM fields.The Brno branch of Honeywell employs approximately 1,000 people, including 800 highly qualified engineers, and holds a unique position - among other things, it is the only facility within Honeywell that develops so-called black boxes for aircraft, devices crucial for aviation safety. In the following interview with Michal Závišek, graduate of Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication (FEEC), you will learn about the collaboration between this high-tech company and the academic environment, about challenges in the changing world of aviation technology, and about preparing the next generation of engineers.
Michal Závišek, Vice President of Technology Solutions for the EMEA region at Honeywell. | Author: Honeywell
- Can you introduce us to the Brno branch of Honeywell and the areas you focus on?
At Honeywell, I lead the engineering division. The largest part of the team is based in Brno, but we also have teams in Krakow, Italy, France, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom – our organization covers all of Europe. Brno is Honeywell's largest research and innovation center in the EMEA region.
The areas we focus on in Brno are primarily aerospace technologies. We also have a smaller engineering team that works on industrial automation. However, the majority of our team is in the aviation division.
One of our key areas is "Flight controls." This name can be misleading in Czech – it's not about an institution that controls aircraft in the sky, but about systems that enable direct control of a given aircraft. The process starts with the control stick, continues to a computer that evaluates data from the pilot about the aircraft's position and speed, and then the information goes to control surfaces where actuators move these surfaces. Our engineers primarily design the control computer software and now also actuators – essentially, we design the complete system covering all these functions. However, this team represents only about one-eighth of the total 800 people.
- Honeywell is one of the most significant suppliers of black boxes. Are these designed for the entire Honeywell only in Brno?
Yes, this is one of the products whose complete design was transferred here to Brno. We are fully responsible for developing this product for the entire Honeywell. A large portion of Boeings and many Airbuses fly with our black boxes. The critical property of black boxes is that they must survive all conditions in an accident, enable timely recovery, and ensure reliable data retrieval. This product was standardized long ago, but new requirements continue to emerge. For example, flights are getting longer, so the black box must be able to record information for much longer periods. We now supply a new recorder that addresses this requirement.
Another part of innovation concerns better access to data. In aviation, situations have occurred where the recorder was never found. This happened, for example, when the Malaysian flight disappeared over the Indian Ocean, or when it took quite a long time to find the black box in the Air France flight accident from South America to Paris. These accidents led to the search for ways to ensure even better access to data. We already have ideas on how to implement this.
- Your career at Honeywell is impressive – you've worked your way up from systems engineer to vice president of the EMEA region. At the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication (FEEC), you studied biomedical engineering, which seems quite distant from the aviation industry.
Overall, my educational path was more winding (laughs). Against my parents' wishes, I went to a vocational program where I trained as a car mechanic. However, when I started working, I realized it wasn't what I had imagined. So I returned to the second year of an automotive technical school and completed my high school diploma. During my studies, I discovered I wanted to continue studying further. It was ultimately the right lesson my parents allowed me to learn.
After high school, I aspired to study computer science at VUT. In the system at that time, all students started at FEKT and after the first semester were divided into two specializations based on their academic results. I didn't get into computer science, and I think that was good again, because during further studies at FEKT, I discovered the field of medical imaging systems. This corresponded exactly with my long-term interest in imaging technologies like infrared cameras or X-rays. In the ABC magazine of that time, I studied these topics with enthusiasm. At home, I then experimented with connecting various devices and systems. I felt close to biomedicine; it interested me. Subsequently, I completed all available courses focused on medical imaging systems under the guidance of Associate Professor Aleš Drastich.
As part of my biomedical studies, I completed signal processing courses led by Professor Jiří Jan, where we worked mainly in Simulink, an extension of the MATLAB environment. This area suited me very well. When I decided to continue in doctoral studies under Associate Professor Drastich's guidance and further develop my MATLAB Simulink knowledge, I imagined I would join a company manufacturing medical imaging devices.
However, in the Czech Republic at that time, there was only one real possibility to join as an application engineer, which primarily involved installing these systems. This didn't correspond to my professional aspirations. The turning point came when a colleague who had joined Honeywell told me about his work with Simulink. At that moment, I knew I had found the ideal direction. I told myself that this was exactly the area I mastered and that also interested me.
Moreover, I discovered that work at Honeywell involved developing complex systems, which was exactly what I wanted to focus on. After joining the company, I gradually deepened my knowledge of aviation technologies and, to better understand the entire context, I obtained a pilot's license.
- I understand that the transition from biomedical engineering to aviation was smooth for you. Wasn't studying a seemingly completely different field an obstacle?
For me, the bridge was precisely the tools we used – primarily Simulink, which I knew thoroughly from FEEC. For most school projects, we used MATLAB or Simulink. Medical and aviation systems are similar in many respects – both are incredibly complex and work with sophisticated physics. At VUT, we encountered tomography or magnetic resonance imaging, for example, and tried to understand their principles. In aviation, there are redundancy systems that are similarly complex.
Honeywell is well aware that retraining for aviation is quite demanding and expensive. I practically went to the USA for two months immediately after joining. I was given three mentors who worked with me daily and showed me how everything works. That's also where I got my pilot's license. There were many people on the team who were aviation enthusiasts and active pilots. It's an attractive field that easily draws you in. It was enough to just stimulate curiosity a little, and I was happy to learn those new things.
After three to four years at the company, Honeywell launched a special training program that I participated in. It was the Applications Academy, which I went through for three years. It's basically a systems engineering academy. Each year, three people from each Honeywell branch were sent to Phoenix, where the Aerospace division headquarters is located. There we had four hours of instruction each morning on some part of systems engineering, and in the afternoons we worked on real projects. That was truly something that advanced me professionally the most.
I still draw from this experience today. One understood the entire breadth of aviation technology there; we were directly at the place where the main aviation testing center is located, we spent a lot of time in the hangar and in aircraft. Moreover, we met with all the senior-level people who participate in design. From them, we heard firsthand how things are done and why they're done that way – this experience was absolutely irreplaceable.
You can read the full interview here.
| Responsible person | Ing. Zdeňka Koubová |
|---|---|
| Date of publication |