CUNI MFF opened new pavilion IMPAKT

"The preparation works took a very long time and were held back by several administration complications," said in his opening speech the Dean of the Faculty Prof. Jan Kratochvíl. He also thanked the former management of the Faculty, the emeritus dean Prof. Zdeněk Němeček and his collegium for transforming the whole purpose into a complete architectonic design. "I supposed," continued Prof. Kratochvíl, "that the IMPAKT pavilion would open at the end of my first tenure. Now I am glad we managed to finish the construction at the end of the second one."

There were many VIP guests present at the opening ceremony such as the top management of Charles University, its emeritus rectors, representatives of the Ministry of Education Youth, and Sports as well as the representatives of the realization companies. The acting rector of Charles University Prof. Tomáš Zima, who expressed in his speech his delight with the new building, cut the tape. A symbolic bridge between the Roman and Baroque style at the 25 Lesser Town square and the new pavilion of the architecture of the 21^st century has been created.

The responsible person for the organization of entire building construction was the Vice-Dean for Development Prof. Ladislav Skrbek. He noted that there were some interesting technical details such as a perfect sound absorption and special acoustic construction which enable to give lectures for 250 students without a microphone. There is also a wide range of modern technologies, computer network as well as audiovisual technology for presentations. "26,000 tons of soil were driven away after the excavation works. The technologies are connected by approximately 170 km of cables, which would be enough to connect Plzeň and Hradec Králové, the two most distant faculties of Charles University," said Prof. Skrbek.

The name IMPAKT evokes the expected future research success but it is actually an abbreviation coming from Czech words for computer science and mathematics lecture rooms, auditorium, library and Troja. The prepared scientific program was summarized by Prof. Jiří Sgall, the Vice-Dean for Computer Science, and Prof. Jan Hajič from the Institute of Formal and Applied Linguistics.

As a part of the opening ceremony there was a practical presentation of all the presentation technologies and tools that the big auditorium offers. A physics experiment, using interactivity, displaying results in a real time or by a thermal camera, was for sure a demonstrative proof of the potential of a new pavilion. The experiment was prepared by Dr. Peter Žilavý and Dr. Jitka Houfková from the Department of Physics Education.

On the top of all there were silver commemorative medals of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics given to honour extraordinary work and involvement in the IMPAKT pavilion building. The honoured were the architect Ing. Jan Jaroš, the Head of Administration Ing. Antonín Líska, the Head of Department of Building Maintenance Pavel Michálek, Dr. David Obdržálek from the Department of Theoretical Computer Science and Mathematical Logic, Dr. Peter Žilavý from the Department of Physics Education, and the Vice-Dean for Development Prof. Ladislav Skrbek. The other contributors were given a special engraving by Zdeněk Netopil, academic artist.

The new pavilion will be the main seat of the School of Computer Science now. However, the ten multifunctional lecture rooms and the big auditorium will be used by students of all departments of the Faculty. Conferences, workshops and other gatherings will take place there as well. The faculty library takes up the whole first floor of the building. The complete project cost 325 million CZK. 50 million were paid by the faculty itself and the rest was paid by the Ministry of Education Youth, and Sports.

OPMK
Photo: Tomáš Princ, Viktor Mácha