INNOVATOR

AGH

Scientificachievements

We are proud to present an overview of some of the mostinteresting academic achievements of our outstanding
AGH UST scientists. Although necessarily selective, thispublication demonstrates a collection of the most expansively researched fields and disciplines at our university – not only in the sphere of ideas, studies, anddiscoveries, but also in terms of implementations in industry and economy.
In the world of science, success is marked not only by
the fact of implementing research results, but also by
the launch of projects, facilitated by receiving specific funding or by becoming a member of a team carrying out a particular activity. The money granted by such
prestigious Polish institutions as the National ScienceCentre (NCN), the National Centre for Research and Development (NCBR), the Ministry of Education and Science(MEiN), or the funding from the Initiative for Excellence –Research University (IDUB) programme testify to the potential of the projects originating at the AGH UST.
The specific feature of our university’s profile means thatthe research carried out here must be both theoreticaland practical in nature. Therefore, we have attempted topresent it on a broader scale and to embed its idiosyncrasies and application potential within the surrounding reality. This leads to the conclusion that the research
projects conducted by our employees, doctoral students,and students respond to the multifarious challenges ofthe modern world – from the digitalisation of practically
all aspects of life, through issues related to the exploitation of natural resources and the energy transformation,
to social problems and civilisational diseases.
I hope that this publication and the achievements in materials science, biomedical engineering, or computer science presented herein will be an incentive for scientists
and entrepreneurs who want to establish cooperation
with our university, as well as a source of inspiration foryoung people who wish to enter this fascinating worldof science.
Professor Marek Gorgoń
Vice-Rector for ScienceContents
6 AI to help animals. New generation of intelligent tools for veterinary
diagnostics

40 Saving Achilles. Towards modern diagnostics of tendon diseases
and failures

8 Air purification installation to protect work stations from viruses

42 Senster’s new life. Strategies of preservation and reactivationof interactive pieces of art

10 Amino acids to extend the life of medical implants
12 Artificial brains vs. von Neumann bottlenecks – research on synthetic
intelligence
14 Black glasses as a solution to the problem of high-temperature corrosion
16 Collective intelligence and the electronic republic. The Internet and social
participation
18 Computer science to aid detectives. LINK2 – forensic analysis support
system20 Electronic zero waste? Developing methods for complete photovoltaic
panel recycling
22 Fog as a nature-inspired source of water. New applications
for polymer nanofibres

44 Shall we trust artificial intelligence? AI algorithms in robotics
and virtual reality
46 Shining bright. A system for designing smart lighting
48 Smog, tsunamis, and pandemics. The capabilities of isogeometricsimulations
50 Taking a deep breath in Krakow. Identification of particulate matter
pollutants in the atmosphere
52 Thermal treatment of organic waste as a method for resource acquisition
54 Towards climate-neutral power engineering. Unconventional geothermal
systems
56 Towards sustainable power technologies. Safe hydrogen storage

24 From an anechoic chamber to the opera. Innovation in room acoustics

58 Used coffee grounds – raw material for groundbreaking ceramic materials

26 Gasars – light and resistant materials for innovative applications

60 VRSophy – translating classical philosophical concepts into the languageof the present

28 The importance of a healthy spine. Robotic rehabilitation support
30 Interventional method to reduce particulate matter concentrationsin the smog layer
32 Mixed reality in detecting neurodegenerative diseases
34 New biodegradable Controlled Release Fertilisers – a green alternative
for land cultivation
36 A new lease of life to oil and gas wells. Recovering lithiumfrom produced water
38 Otoimplant – polymeric middle ear prosthesis with bactericidal effect

62 Wastewater-based epidemiology. Innovative methods of biomonitoring
64 Where computer science meets economy. Computational aspectsof social choiceAI to help animals.
New generation of intelligent tools
for veterinary diagnostics
Today, artificial intelligence algorithms findapplications in multiple areas. One of such fields isveterinary medicine. Similarly to people, animals
also suffer from all kinds of inflammations andcancers. It is precisely these afflictions that havebeen targeted by the AI and veterinary experts
from the CyfroVet project.
The chief objective of the project, carried out by the AGH
UST Academic Computer Centre CYFRONET, is to reduce
the time of cytology tests, which are the first step in diagnosing neoplastic lesions in animals. Currently, waiting for results can take from several days to two weeks.
The price of the test is also quite considerable. More­over, sending samples to laboratories comes with additional costs.
There is a possibility of accelerating the moment ofreceiving preliminary results by using an automated system that takes a picture of the sample of cytologicalmaterial and analyses it with the use of artificial intelligence algorithms, making it possible to detect the pathological changes therein. Based on such preliminary tests,
doctors will be able to make initial decisions about further diagnosis and treatment.
Developing a system like this presents quite a challenge. Firstly, and quite significantly, scientists need tocollect a sufficient number of photos of multifarious
samples, which will allow them to train the artificial intelligence algorithms in recognising neoplastic lesions.
In the macroscale, a cytology sample is non-homogeneous: some spots show a higher diagnostic potential than the others. A specialist is able to pre-­identify
and analyse them for changes. A system for cytology diagnosis should be able to carry out such analysis too.
Only selecting specific fragments of the analysed photos, which contain questionable pathologies, will facilitate precise diagnosis.
Another time-consuming process is related to training data labelling, which requires an expert to mark any
pathologies by hand, which are then verified by a certified pathologist. This stage ensures a high quality of
the artificial intelligence system. As part of the project,
the scientists have already created a solution that allows them to classify selected pathological changes

6

using neural networks. They have also developed network architectures, which allow them to precisely detect and semantically segment individual cancer cells,
facilitating a detailed analysis of pathological changes.
This has set the classification accuracy rate at high 96%.
The system works for three selected neoplastic lesions:
mastocytoma, histiocytoma, and lymphoma. Based on
the YOLOv3 detection algorithm, the model developedby the scientists allows them to isolate within the image of the cytology sample the so-called ‘field of interest’. At the same time, scientists are working on a model based on semantic segmentation, which allows themto isolate areas of pathological changes with an accuracy of one pixel.
The team is also investigating ways to develop aholistic veterinary diagnostic system, which will take
into account not only microscope screenings of photographed cytology samples, but also the information collected by the vet during anamnesis. The medical history allows the doctor to evaluate the patient’s condition
by analysing its age, past diseases, location of skin lesions, as well as any additional information the doctor
can obtain from the owner. These constitute categorical
data, which can significantly affect the diagnostic decision made by the veterinarian. Accounting for this datain the artificial intelligence algorithm will allow the scientists to improve its efficiency and generalise the results. In machine learning, this phenomenon is known
as the use of multiple modalities for building models.
The project is carried out by a team of specialists
comprising Prof. Kazimierz Wiatra, b, AGH UST Prof. Paweł
Russeka, b, Dr hab. (Eng.) Maciej Wielgosza, b, Dr (Eng.) Rafał Frączeka, b, Michał Karwatowski, MSc Eng. a, b, Jakub
Caputaa, and Daria Łukasika (a – CYFRONET, b – Facultyof Computer Science, Electronics, and Telecommunications).

CyfroVet project led by
Dr hab. (Eng.) Maciej Wielgosz
Academic Computer Centre
CYFRONET
Laboratory of Acceleration ofComputing and Artificial Intelligence

A histiocytic cell
location [x, y]size [width, height]
detection rate …%

Step-by-step diagnostic
diagram with the use of
CyfroVet project solutions

A histiocytic cell
location [x, y]size [width, height]
detection rate …%

The same diagram supplemented
with categorical data enteredby the doctor

7

Air purification installation
to protect work stations
from viruses
A stream of pure air envelopes the person
standing in a room, removes the exhaled air,and creates a barrier against the outsideair. This is how the prototype installation
works. An installation to protect people
who might be exposed to viruses, including
SARS-CoV-2.
To limit the spread of COVID-19, in addition to the workthat aims to develop effective treatments and vaccines,
we must take appropriate preventive measures. In thiscase, proper ventilation of rooms is crucial. This is because the infectious SARS-CoV-2 virus spreads, for example, through aerosols, that is, a mixture of air, finesolid particles, and liquid droplets that everyone emits
when they breathe and speak, not to mention coughing or sneezing. Such a cloud containing pathogens canmove about and linger in air for extended periods incrowded and poorly-ventilated rooms.
The engineers from the Ventilation and Air-conditioning of Facilities Team at the Faculty of Civil Engineeringand Resource Management have decided to tackle thischallenge innovatively. They are currently working on an
air purification system which, in comparison to those
applied in general ventilation and air-conditioning systems, is intended for a single person.
‘The idea originated as a result of our observations
and the needs of industry, where people have to work inclose contact or where they are confined in small spaces, as in mining, for example. Constructing this type ofventilation will facilitate the minimisation of human exposure to the virus in the aforementioned situations’, explains AGH UST Prof. Marek Borowski, the leader of the
project titled Air purification system for work stations
exposed to the COVID-19 virus.
The tested solution is made of a ventilation fan, an
electrostatic air filter that captures and neutralises microbes, a ventilation installation, and a ceiling diffusermade of an elastic and easily disinfected PET-G material. The diffuser is meant to create a stream of air thatwill remove the exhaled air from the user-occupied zone,
while simultaneously blocking the flow of air from theoutside.
During research work, the AGH UST scientists haveexamined the impact of the plenum box entry on the8velocity profile of the air stream. ‘The plenum box decompresses the air stream and causes a decrease inits velocity before it reaches the fan, where it is profiled accordingly by the arrangement of vanes and other elements. Moreover, when the air velocity decreases, the noise level is also reduced’, explains Prof. Marek
Borowski. ‘This is why research on the shape of the box,
the direction of the air entry, or its velocity is so important and has been carried out for many years. We’re stilltrying to reach the optimal shape, because when you
mount the installation, it’s sometimes impossible to apply an ideal solution.’
The challenge that the designers and producers of
HVAC systems (heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning) face is to provide optimal functionality of their devices, while simultaneously bearing in mind the maximum comfort of the user. The latter factor is influenced
by temperature, humidity, purity, and velocity of the air
flowing from the system. The last parameter is decisive when it comes to feeling unpleasant draughts in
the room. The PIV (Particle Image Velocimetry) and CFD(Computational Fluid Dynamics) analyses have shownthat the way the stub pipe is connected to the box has
a significant impact on the distribution of air from thefan. Although, taking space limits into consideration, theproducers of such devices use side-entry plenum boxes,
the air stream profile in this configuration is less symmetrical than in the case of a top entry. The researchers indicate that a partial solution to this problem might
be the installation of perforated panels inside the box.
However, this can come at the cost of dropping pressure
and increasing the noise level.
The solution developed by the AGH UST researchers
can be redesigned by using a different type of fan, sothat the installation, instead of creating a protective
barrier around a single person, would shield an entire
group of people.

Smoke test used to visualise the propagationof air around the dummy

Team led by AGH UST Professor
Marek Borowski
Faculty of Civil Engineering and Resource
Management
Project funded by a university grantwithin the IDUB programme9

Amino acids to extend the lifeof medical implants
Implant production uses a variety of materials
which, within a specified time, should perform
predetermined functions: have definedmechanical properties (strength, abrasion
resistance, etc.), be biocompatible with thehuman organism, and show corrosion resistance.
The most frequently used materials include
metals and their alloys, such as titanium andstainless steel. Unfortunately, the interaction of
metal implants with bodily fluids causes various
chemical reactions on the metallic surface,leading to their deterioration.
‘As a result, toxic compounds are released into the organism, which can lead to the development of various infections or cancers. On the other hand, replacing damaged
implants is expensive and requires complex and cumbersome medical procedures‘, says Dr Dominika Święch
from the Faculty of Foundry Engineering, leader of the
project titled Spectroscopic studies in micro- and nanoscale of the corrosion process and its inhibition of themodified metallic surfaces applied in implantology, carried out by the consortium comprising the Faculty ofFoundry Engineering, the Academic Centre of Materials
and Nanotechnology (ACMiN), and the Henryk Niewodniczański Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IFJ PAN).
An effective way to hinder corrosion is to modify thesurface of materials used in implantology with inhibitors. The tested materials are modified with gold andcopper nanoparticles, which possess potential anticorrosive and antibacterial properties. Moreover, theystrengthen the spectroscopic signal during the examination of processes occurring on the studied surfaces. The
application of the particles is supervised by Dr Kamila
Kollbek from the ACMiN which provides access to necessary equipment.
The scientists pay special attention to amino acids,
which occur naturally in the human body and perform
numerous biological functions. As previously shown,
they can play the role of corrosion inhibitors; additionally, they are non-toxic and relatively inexpensive. Until now, Dr Święch has been examining tryptophan (Trp).
In our bodies, it constitutes a precursor of various metabolites, including serotonin (a.k.a. ‘the happiness hormone’) and melatonin (in control of the sleep-wake cy-

10cle), influences the health of our skeletal system, and its
residues form peptides that play a vital role in the immune system. To find out whether Trp is also a corrosion
inhibitor, electrochemical studies of stainless steel havebeen conducted. The scientist simulated an adverse environment that influences the process of implant corrosion in the human body (namely, the presence of chloride and phosphate ions). The results indicated that Trp,
in controlled conditions, adsorbs onto the surface of thecorroded stainless steel, resulting in improved corrosion resistance.
‘Research on the inhibition process uses surface-enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA) and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) techniques, which
are useful tools for monitoring the process in the microscale; techniques that combine the advantages ofatomic force microscopy and spectroscopy (e.g. AFM-IR),
which facilitate imaging the process in the nanoscale,are also used. Using primarily the methods of oscillatory spectroscopy in my research, with particular use ofnano-spectroscopic imaging, is a novel approach to theinvestigation of the corrosion process and its inhibition.
Research carried out with the use of these techniques
has multiple advantages, namely, the measurements arefast and the sample remains intact, and it does not require special preparation’, explains Dr Święch.
Using spectroscopic methods facilitates the identification of the products of corrosion and makes it possible to investigate the corrosion inhibition process in-­situ
and ex-situ in micro- and nanoscale (e.g. determining
structural changes occurring as a result of interactions
between potential inhibitors and the metallic surface
with simultaneous surface morphology control).

Tryptophan (C11H12N2O2)

Team led by Dr Dominika Święch
Faculty of Foundry Engineering
Department of Chemistry and Corrosionof Metals
Project implemented within
SONATA 15/NCN

N
C
O
H

corrosion
pits

2h

3 µm

2 h + Trp

3 µm

24 h + Trp

3 µm

corrosion
pits

24 h

3 µm

SEM images (taken with a scanning electron microscope) of the 316L stainlesssteel surface after electrochemical corrosion tests in inflammation conditions(Phosphate-buffered saline [PBS], pH=3, temp.=37°C) with and without Trp
present, in various time exposures

11

Artificial brains vs. von Neumannbottlenecks – research on
synthetic intelligence
An artificial brain instead of a traditional
computer? This can be our future. A team led
by Professor Konrad Szaciłowski is working
on improving memristors that constitutea synthetic equivalent of synapses. Their hugeadvantage is that they combine the propertiesof a memory and a CPU, which considerablyincreases the computing efficiency of the system,
simultaneously reducing its energy requirements.
This opens the path to overcoming the von
Neumann bottleneck, which significantly limits
the capabilities of modern computers.
They are made of a CPU (Central Processing Unit) and amemory, between which data travel. This solution has
one fundamental drawback: the data bandwidth between the two units is limited, which makes the CPU inert before it receives information. This problem does not
apply to the human brain, which can also be viewed as
a computing machine. The reason for that is cells thatcombine the functions of memory and a CPU. Research
has shown that synapses can store information and process them at the same time. It happens because they
memorise the flow of electrons; therefore, they operateon the basis of a local memory, which does not rest onclassic, but on fuzzy or many-valued logic. The questionboils down to how to mimic this clever natural contraption and how to create a new-generation computer thatmimics the nervous system.
A prospect for a leap in computer technology is theso-called ‘memristor’ (a portmanteau of memory resistor), which can be seen as an artificial counterpart of asynapse. Its resistance increases when electrons travel in one direction and decreases when they go the opposite way. Each memristor remembers its state evenwhen the power is off, and retains its most recent resistance without power supply. This makes it a perfectcandidate for a component that can one day serve as abuilding block for a network which will mimic the functioning of the brain.
Building a memristor is quite a challenge. We needinnovative solutions, which are investigated at the AGH
UST Academic Centre of Materials and Nanotechnology.
Using interdisciplinary knowledge, the researchers try tobuild a memory resistor that can operate in home con-12

ditions. They construct systems made of nanoparticles
and light-sensitive post-perovskite materials.
‘A memristor is a non-linear circuit called a sythetic synapse, because you can force it to retain a kind ofprimitive memory – it’ll remember whether an electrical impulse has flown through it or not. Whereas an artificial neuron is the usual name given to an electrochemical cell that generates electrical impulses under
the influence of light. The case is now to merge thesetwo different elements to create a completely synthetic system that will process data analogously to the processing that occurs in a biological nervous system’, theproject leader says. ‘Memristors based on perovskites
have been studied for 6 to 8 years. In this specific case,
we’re talking about the lead perovskites, that is, complex compounds containing lead, iodine, and an organic
cation. These compounds show good electrical conductivity and are commonly applied to solar cells. However,
memristors made of them have one basic flaw: they are
extremely air- and humidity-sensitive. This is why we arelooking for entirely new materials that will have properties similar to those of perovskites, i.e. show the socalled “memristance”, while simultaneously being not as
sensitive to environmental factors. We need memristors
that we can mass produce on a larger scale in the future.’
When scientists manage to develop individual components, they will begin to construct neural networks,
capable of performing specific tasks. ‘We want to makea bucketful of jelly with which we’ll be able to play chess’,jests Professor Szaciłowski. In other words, the goal is
to create a physical synthetic intelligence that could be
used to construct hardware.

Team led byProfessor Konrad Szaciłowski
Academic Centre for Materials andNanotechnology
The Post-perovskite memristive materials
for hardware networks project funded bya university grant within the IDUB
programme

13Black glasses as a solution to
the problem of high-temperature
corrosion
Corrosion is a gradual process of material
degradation stemming from its interaction withthe work environment. The commonly known
phenomenon of metallic element rusting, resulting
from the flow of electric charges between the
degraded material and the electrolyte that
contains aggressive ions – for instance, Cl- or OH- –is an example of electrochemical corrosion.
An example of chemical corrosion might be
the degradation of metallic materials under the
influence of hot, gaseous work environments(more than 400÷500°C).

14

Ethanolalkoxys

T:D = 1:2

Φ = 10 mm
d = 1 mm

ilan

H2O

HCl

electrical conductivity

icon atoms by strong, Si-C covalent bonding, which contributes to a high thermomechanical resistence of thematerial. The other variant is the so-called ‘free carbon
phase’, which occurs when a certain threshold of carbon
content in the glassy matrix is exceeded. This phase isresponsible for electrical conductivity and black colourof the material. After many years of research, Dr Maciej
Bik was able to discover the optimal ratio of both thesephases and develop a process of obtaininig tight and homogeneous black glass-based coatings from “pure” silicon oxycarbide (SiOC) and aluminium cations silicon oxy­carbide (SiAlOC). During high-temperature tests (800°C)
of steel samples dedicated for interconnects and modified with the use of black glass-based coatings, promising results were obtained as the uncontrolled diffusion
processes were impeded, which translated into a significant reduction in material degradation rate with simultaneous maintenance of satisfactory levels of electricalconductivity. This was the first such an attempt in theworld to use silicon oxycarbide-based coatings in thisway, which have a working mechanism completely divergent from the most commonly used layers based on spinel- or perovskite-structured compounds.
One of the greatest advantages of this coating material is the wide scope of possible applications, which include not only metallic substrates (ferritic steels, intermetallic alloys), but also work in various atmospheres(oxidation, reducing). Black glass-based coatings havebeen successfully used on the substrate of TiAl alloy,
intended for low-pressure turbine vanes for aircraft engines (750°C; air and air with steam) as well as substrateof pure chromium (950 and 1050°C; air).

PURPOSEFULSUBSTRATE
ACTIVATION(grindingvs. polishing)„T”

SOL-GEL

resistance to oxidation

The problem of high-temperature corrosion affects
many branches of the economy because higher temperatures often translate into an increase in process efficiency, such as fuel combustion in aircraft engines. It
also affects the energy industry and low-emission SOFC
(Solid Oxide Fuel Cells) technology that requires highoperational temperatures (ca. 800°C). This requirement
results from the need to provide an appropriate level ofion conductivity of the electrolyte made of zirconium
dioxide (ZrO2) stabilised with yttrium oxide (Y2O3). Unfortunately, such high temperatures mean the acceleration of degradation of individual elements of the fuelcell, including the so-called ‘interconnects’ – the “backbone” of the cell that facilitates the connection of individual cells in larger stacks.
A way of counteracting these problems is to use protective coatings. As far as interconnects in SOFC are concerned, the task is even more difficult due to strict material requirements for potential interconnect materials
that encompass not only resistance to oxidation in hightemperatures, but also a high level of electric conductivity. Dr (Eng.) Maciej Bik, who works in a research teamled by Professor Maciej Sitarz from the Faculty of Materials Science and Ceramics, has been trying to solve theproblem. He optimises the process of obtaining protective coatings based on the so-called ‘black glasses’.
Black glasses are materials with the structure ofamorphous silica, which belong to the so-called ‘polymer-derived ceramics’ (PDC). The key element that determines the interesting properties of black glasses is carbon, which can be found in the material in two variants.
The first one constitutes carbon atoms bonded with sil-„D”

ker-li sde ne
lad uioxa
q
ses

il
lys

po

T:D = 1:1

es
HYDROLYSIS(„T/D” = 1/1 vs. 2/1 and Si4+ → Al3+) –chemical composition of precursors

DEPOSITION(dipping and withdrawal speed–
5, 15 and 30 cm/min)

THERMAL
TREATMENTDRYING(temp. 70°C vs. 150°C)
PYROLYSIS(cooling speed –1°C/min vs. 5°C/min)
DIP-COATING
DIP-COATING

T:D = 2:1

T:D = 4:1

increasing free carbon content

Team led by Professor
Maciej Sitarz
Faculty of Materials Science andCeramics
Department of Silicate Chemistry
and Macromolecular Compounds

Tube furnace with argon atmosphere

Experimental plan of production optimisationof black glass-based coatings

Project funded by a university
grant within the IDUB programme15Collective intelligence and theelectronic republic. The Internet
and social participation
Team led by Dr Rafał Olszowski
Faculty of Humanities

In what way can the Internet increase theparticipation of citizens in the public domain?
Will collective intelligence help us implement
a new model of participation in public debates?
A research group for ICT applications (Information
and Communication Technologies) in the publicdomain, established at the Faculty of Humanities,
tries to answer these questions.
In ancient Greece, making decisions affecting the entire community happened during meetings on the agora, where people debated the future of the Greek citystates. In our times, the Internet was to become such aplace: people wished to create a space in which citizens
could talk to one another and collectively decide on thefate of their countries. This idea has been referred toas the electronic republic by the leader of the researchgroup, Dr Rafał Olszowski.
Currently, the most common model of social participation is representative democracy, in which, as
the name suggests, citizens choose their representatives to govern and make decisions about the state intheir name. The less popular model is direct democracy, where citizens themselves make choices by voting,which gives them a significant influence on governing
their country. The latter manifests itself in electronic democracy, which aims to engage all citizens in public matters through the use of information and communication technologies, allowing for Internet referenda.
There is one major general objection against direct democracy, namely that, in reality, it means the mob rule,
whereas the expert rule would be much better. Is thatthe case, though?
Scientists who study collective wisdom analyse thetransfer processes of a considerable amount of data,
which they try to dissect in search of regularities. For instance, organising large-scale Internet traffic and behaviours, they prove that an averaged response of a massof anonymous Internet users is sometimes even better
than an expert opinion. For collective wisdom to occur,
certain conditions must first be met. Initially, cognitive
diversity plays a rather important role. This is a situation
when the mass present differing points of view. Secondly, it is important that the answers are autonomous, i.e.
independent. Thirdly, the structure and quality of argu-

16

ments matter, as well as the model of debate – deliberative or agonistic.
The AGH UST scholars analyse collective intelligencestudying smaller groups first – local and city communities. They also focus on large-scale public debate, especially the one on Twitter. Due to the integration of the
API Twitter software and IT tools prepared in the R language (Piotr Pięta, MSc was responsible for the programming work), massive response collections are gathered
and analysed in terms of group interrelations, sentiment,
polarisation of opinions, and debate balance.
‘Studies have shown that if a group has to make a collective decision, different thinking styles of this community members, that is, the cognitive diversity, translates often to better results. However, it’s best when they
represent some common values and goals, and have asense of group identity’, Dr Olszowski claims. Based on
conclusions from observing social initiatives carried out
online – such as the participatory budget of Krakow –the team describes cognitive processes influencing collective intelligence. The group is also considering which
political model suits best a system in which the citizen takes active part in creating the electronic republic.
‘We are analysing current initiatives and wonder what istheir impact on creating public politics, and the adopted model of citizenship. In other words, we are trying toanswer the question who a citizen is in the electronic republic – is he/she truly a co-creator of the public sphereor rather a consumer, as in the liberal model, where they
get certain services for which they must pay taxes’, explains Dr Olszowski and summarises: ‘Small ICT-aided
communities can be a strong element of the public domain. They should balance government institutions operating on the premises of bureaucracy, as well as large
media corporations which impact the Internet increasingly stronger.’

The Collective intelligence on theInternet: applications in the publicsphere, research methods, andsocial participation models
project implemented within
SONATINA 2/NCN

Creativity

Collective
refining of ideas

Level ofself-organization

Impact ofconflicts

PROBLEMSOLVINGSTRUCTURED MODEL
OF THE PROBLEM

COLLECTED DATA

Ability to scan
environment
Collecting large
amount of data

COLLECTIVESENSINGDECISION
MAKING

Preserving
cognitive diversity
SELECTEDCONTRIBUTIONSACCUMULATEDKNOWLEDGE

Aggregating
oppinionsRemoving
duplicates

Building syntheses

Generating
decisions/voting

COLLECTIVE
MEMORIZATION

Memorizing
experiences

Grouping
memoriesin the blocks

Creating
meta-memory

Constant learning

17

Computer science to aid
detectives. LINK2 – forensic
analysis support system
The process of forensic analysis is complex andoften based on a massive amount of data. The
goal of a forensic scientist is to obtain information
inaccessible at first glance but revealed only after
a detailed investigation of all available data fromvarious angles. Considering the laboriousness ofanalytical processes and the limited perception
capabilities of humans, scientists have come tothe conclusion that the process can be simplified
using computer tools.
Developing and implementing tools to answer the realneeds of state security institutions requires an experienced, interdisciplinary team made up of scientists,
programmers, testers, and analysts, such as the teamfrom the AGH UST Forensic Software Lab that has created the LINK2 environment – a comprehensive IT solution
designed to support the work of criminal analysts. The
software is tailored to the needs of Polish public security services and field experts. It provides a set of tools
for integration, pre-processing, and the visualisation ofdata from various sources.
One of the first steps in data analysis is the preparation thereof. Based on experience and expert opinions,
there is certainly no standard format of data. Therefore,
LINK2 has been equipped with the crucial and extended set of tools supporting data import. It is in the formof a graphic creator that guides the user, step by step,
through the entire process. During data import, the software evaluates its correctness and completeness in thecontext of selected domains.
The objective of the analysis is to put forward andverify hypotheses, which usually occurs through revealing relevant relationships between objects on the basisof large amounts of interconnected data. To aid this process, it is helpful to use multifarious algorithms and heuristics. An example of such tools might be the search of
potential meetings, uncovering and recognising patterns,
or multicriterial filtering and data search. These tools allow the analyst to focus on relevant data (from a specific point of view). The user can also review the statistics that present consolidated information on the datacollections under analysis, for example, a list of objects
that interact with each other most often, their activity,
and time profiles.

18

Another important quality of LINK2 is the methodsof visualisation that allow the analyst to discover andedit data, and prepare final reports intended for further
proceedings. The environment has three graphic editors. The pattern editor provides tools supporting thevisualisation of objects (as graph knots) and relationships between them (as edges of graphs). This allows thesoftware to distribute the graph elements clearly, conditionally mark the elements, and recognise and combine similar knots. The map editor is to improve analyses carried out on the basis of geographical data. In
addition to the possibility of importing it from heterogeneous sources, the scientists developed visualisation
methods of routes, various types of occurrences, address information, or telecommunication facilities. The
editor is also equipped with a tool facilitating the filtering of objects in terms of the time of occurrences
related thereto. The time editor shows the chronological order of events on a timeline and presents relationships between objects (e.g. a meeting, phone call,financial transaction), which proves particularly usefulin event sequence analysis and correlation analysis between events related to different objects (typical in investigating economic crimes).
Due to the cooperation with officers of public security institutions, the scientists have been able to determine specific requirements for the application andimplement a fully functional version, which has been
positively verified in practice (a hundred and several
dozen licence agreements signed with public security
institutions all over Poland; the number of active users
amounts to several thousand). This fact is corroborated
by multiple distinctions awarded by the police and thePolish border guard.

Team led by Professor
Marek Kisiel-Dorohinicki,
Dr (Eng.) Jacek Dajda,
and Dr (Eng.) Kamil Piętak
Faculty of Computer Science,
Electronics, and Telecommunications
Institute of Computer Science
Projects funded by the NCBR

19

Electronic zero waste?
Developing methods for complete
photovoltaic panel recycling
Photovoltaics is becoming a more and more
popular “green” alternative to produce energy,
and its market in EU countries is growing rapidly.
Estimates say that by 2025, in Poland alone, morethan 420,000 tonnes of solar panels will havebeen installed. Considering that their average
life cycle spans 20–30 years, in the coming years,
in Poland alone, people will face the challengeof managing more than 100 tonnes of exploited
photovoltaic installations. What can we do to
make sure it is not just e-waste?
Even now, photovoltaic panels can be used to resource
aluminium, silicon, or glass. However, for now, thesemethods are usually incomplete, inefficient, or expensive. Therefore, the AGH UST launched a project aimed
to develop a technology to almost completely recycle
worn out PV modules, carried out in a consortium withthe research and technology company 2loop Tech. The
partners estimate that the methods of recycling PV panels will not only be fully environmentally friendly, butalso economically effective, facilitating the reclamationof almost 100% of elements necessary to produce suchdevices, including precious metals, such as silver. The
AGH UST will carry out laboratory tests and develop amethod of recycling the panels, whereas the implementation and launch of a prototype technological line will
lie with 2loop Tech.
Devising methods for reclaiming precious metals
and other valuable elements from electronic devices
rests in the hands of a research team led by Dr (Eng.)
Krzysztof Broda from the Faculty of Civil Engineering andResource Management. To do this, the scientists use avariety of separation techniques. Some are simple andknown from chemistry classes – the gravitational method, based on varying densities of materials. The others, however, are more complex and require a laboratory.
This is the case with thermal and chemical separation.
One of the most popular and effective techniques includes the electromagnetic method. ‘In low-intensity
magnetic separators, we can separate iron, and in thestronger ones, copper and aluminium, which show weakmagnetic properties‘, says Prof. Barbara Tora, memberof the research team.
A photovoltaic panel has layers. PV modules are manufactured from individual solar cells that, after being

20

wired to one another, are encapsulated and put into analuminium frame. Therefore, the recycling process must
begin with the separation of individual types of material. What exactly does it look like? Currently, the process starts with thermal treatment and grinding of theworn out equipment. Due to economic and ecologicalreasons, big furnaces are becoming a thing of the pastin favour of the grinding method, which uses machinesthat crush the panels or vibration mills. After that, theproduct is separated on a line during optical sorting or
granulometric separation (sieving). Mechanically separated glass can be later reused to make new panels ortransported to a facility that produces bottles. Copperand aluminium that make up the wiring are also easily
separable and meltable. Whereas silicon from solar cells
can be successfully reclaimed with the use of a fascinating technique developed… more than 100 years ago.
‘It’s the so-called “Czochralski method”, a Polish chemist who invented the method of making cells from silicon.
You can say that these cells are grown – I’m sure everyone learned at school about the method of crystallisation, when you put a string into a glass with dissolved
salt, which then swarms with small crystals. In this case,it’s exactly the same. However, when salt dissolves inwater at room temperature, silicon, in turn, needs a solvent heated to 1414°C‘, explains Prof. Tora.
The recycling process of photovoltaic panels will focus on mono- and polycrystalline silicon cells that wereintroduced into the market first, constituting its largest
percentage, and being the first to become e-waste in amatter of the next five years. The recycling technology
and research thereon will develop to encompass subsequent generations of PV cells when they finally become recyclable.

Team led by
Dr (Eng.) Krzysztof Broda
Faculty of Civil Engineering andResource Management
Department of Environmental
Engineering

A photovoltaic panel prepared for recycling(with crushed glass layer)

EVA encapsulant separated from the panel
using thermal methods (heated up to 60%)

21

Fog as a nature-inspired sourceof water. New applications forpolymer nanofibres
Limited access to drinking water is one of themost serious problems of the 21st century.
Several regions in the world have experienced
this issue, and sourcing water needs more andmore unconventional methods. One of suchcan be harvesting water drops from fog using
meshes made of electrospun polymer nanoand microfibres.
The first commercially available fog water collectors(FWCs) were created in the 1990s. They are made ofmeshes mounted onto metal stands with a specificallydesigned weave, which are used to catch droplets fromthe passing fog and gradually filter down the water toa container. However, existing collectors require modifications to improve their efficiency. The discovery of amethod to more effectively harvest water from fog issomething that researchers around the world are trying to do. A project focusing on this issue is also carriedout by a team led by AGH UST Prof. Urszula Stachewicz
from the Faculty of Metals Engineering and Industrial
Computer Science.
‘We often draw inspiration from nature’, says teammember Dr (Eng.) Joanna Knapczyk-Korczak. ‘Looking
at the world around us, we can find out what ways nature did devise to acquire water in places with limited resources.’ A perfect example is the Stenocara gracilipes
beetle, which lives in desert areas and, therefore, in conditions without access to water from traditional sources.
Its survival strategy is based on collecting water fromthe fog that forms in the early morning. Due to its hardened wings, which combine hydrophilic and hydrophobic properties, it is capable of catching droplets carriedby wind, which then filter down directly into its mouth.
Another inspiration came from spider webs, which, despite their hydrophobic properties, can collect water
drops from rain or fog. It turned out that by copying nature, scientists can create biomimetic meshes capableof collecting water from fog, which not only resemble
spider webs but also combine hydrophobic and hydrophilic properties. These meshes are made of polymer fibres with diameters spanning 100 nm to even 5 µm, andare created in the process of electrospinning. Electrospinning is a modern technique for producing nano- andmicrofibres from polymer solutions exposed to electric

22

fields. ‘In the electric field, a stretched polymer droplet creates a liquid jet that elongates spirally towards agrounded collector, reducing its diameter in the process’,
Dr Knapczyk-Korczak explains. ‘During the process, thesolvent evaporates and the jet solidifies, creating a dry
fibre deposited in the collector.’
Electrospun fibres constitute an alternative to commercially used meshes for the collection of water from
fog, and as a result of their high porosity and extensive surface, they facilitate efficient droplet extraction
even when the fog is thin. ‘Our research has proved thatto create an effective system for droplet collection, youhave to combine hydrophilic and hydrophobic materials’,continues Dr Knapczyk-Korczak. ‘The mechanism basedon this combination facilitates not only the harvesting ofwater drops, but also allows them to quickly filter downfrom the mesh to a container thanks to a special irrigation system. This solution prevents the pores between
the fibres from being obstructed by lingering water, andthe flow of the fog is unimpeded’. The fog flow rate hasa tremendous influence on the amount of water collected. Studies have shown that the use of electrospun polymer nanofibres in commercial meshes for water collection has increasingly improved their efficiency with nowind, when normally their effectiveness was significantly diminished. The method is also quick and inexpensive,and does not require additional chemical modifications.
Electrospun fibres are innovative materials whose
application possibilities are still expanding, and using them to harvest water drops from fog is only oneof them. For example, the introduction of piezoelectric
nanofibres into the currently used structures could facilitate energy generation for powering small electronic devices. Certainly, current research gives hope for the
optimisation and popularisation of the FWC technology,
even for individual household use.

Microscopic image of nano- and microfibres

Electrospun polymer fibre mesh

Team led by AGH UST Professor
Urszula Stachewicz
Faculty of Metals Engineering and Industrial
Computer Science
Department of Physical and Powder Metallurgy
The Bioinspired design of nanofibres network
for water and energy collection project
implemented within SONATA BIS/NCN

Water droplets on the mesh23

From an anechoic chamberto the opera. Innovationin room acoustics
When praising the sound quality in a concert hallor marvelling at the silence in a room, we rarely
wonder what has given these places their special
properties. Meanwhile, these are cutting-edge
solutions resulting from long-lasting research inarchitectural acoustics, sound sources, materials,
acoustical structures, and other acousticalparameters of rooms. Many of such solutions havebeen authored by scientists from the Faculty of
Mechanical Engineering and Robotics.
The Laboratory of Technical Acoustics (LAT) at the Department of Mechanics and Vibroacoustics boasts an
844 m3 anechoic chamber, a 181 m3 echo chamber, labs,
and auxiliary rooms. The LAT has state-of-the-art measuring equipment that allows scientists to carry out comprehensive tests and computational simulations, classes, and industrial projects. The team led by Prof. Tadeusz
Kamisiński, which is currently in charge of the lab, comprises experienced assistant professors: Dr (Eng.) Artur Flach, Dr (Eng.) Łukasz Gorazd, Dr (Eng.) Adam Pilch,
Dr (Eng.) Jarosław Rubacha, and doctoral students: Woj­
ciech Binek, Aleksandra Chojak, Bartłomiej Chojnacki,
Julia Idczak, Klara Juros. The LAT is also supported by
the Architectural Acoustics Student Research Club. The
team’s multi-year work put into the successive modernisation and construction of research stands resulted innumerous scientific papers and implementations (morethan 400 publications and about 30 patents).
In the field of concert and theatre hall acoustics:► Overhead reflective panels integrated with the
Schroeder diffuser, reflecting sound in a wide frequency range, used to achieve the desired acoustic effects on stage and in the audience (patent PL 227198,
implemented by the Varieté Theatre in Krakow);► Installation of a frontal wall of the orchestra pit –a barrier separating the audience – with adjustableblinds, improving sound propagation in the pit, audience, and stage by regulating sound screening andreflection (implemented by the Krakow Opera Hall);► Sound diffusion systems for the orchestra pit, improving sound emission and acoustic comfort of musicians;► Diffusion-sound-absorbing panels intended as an element of the acoustic screen, as the sound-absorbing and soundproofing casing, or as the diffusion

24

structure for acoustic adaptation of rooms (patentapplication P.425769, design EU No. 000977053-001,
implemented by the Lviv National Opera, numerous
Polish concert halls, and other facilities).
As a result of the implementations by concert halls,
an improvement in the sound quality received by the audience has been noticed, which expands the creative capabilities of the artists.
However, the advantages of the innovations created by the LAT team do not end there. A research project carried out in cooperation with the Poznań University of Life Sciences has resulted in the development
and implementation of new honeycomb boards (patents:
PL 229521 B1, 2018; PL 228784 B1, 2018; PL 232942 B1,
2019; PL 235039 B1, 2020). Several other solutions also
increase the sound-absorbing qualities of furniture andthe possibility of applying them to shape the acoustic
parameters of interiors. The application of the research
results by furniture-making companies (BeJot, Nowy
Styl, MARO) allowed them to introduce their products
into competitive world markets in the field of office andschool interiors.
Since 2014, the team has been cooperating with CBKPAN (Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of
Sciences, Poland), MPE (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics , Germany), and UNIPA (Università degli Studi di Palermo, Italy), as part of the ATHENA programme. Athena is a new-generation X-ray telescope
endorsed by the European Space Agency, scheduled to
be placed in orbit in 2028. The task of the LAT team is
to secure the UV filter of the X-ray spectrometer against
the acoustic wave generated during lift-off. To do this,the team performs numerical calculations and laboratory tests using sounds of high-level acoustic intensity (142.5 dB).

A 600 × 115 mm panel was made from PVC andwood dust composite. One side of the panel
was designed as the Schroeder diffuser basedon the prime number 7, the other as three
convex half-cylinders.

Diffusion-sound-absorbing panels in the Lviv National Opera

Team led by AGH UST Professor
Tadeusz Kamisiński
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics
Department of Mechanics and Vibroacoustics

The frontal wall of the orchestra pit in the Krakow Opera – soundscreening and reflection by the elements of the barrier

25

Gasars – light and resistantmaterials for innovative
applications
Ultralight, resistant, sound- and energyabsorbing, mechanical vibration-damping –these are just a portion of the properties ofgasars, highly porous that are created by pumping
gas into a liquid metal (magnesium, for example)
under high temperatures. They can transform
our everyday lives, making them literally
lighter. The benefits abound: reducing weightof everyday objects, e.g. laptops, will makethem more comfortable to use, and lowering
vehicle mass will reduce energy consumption
and, by extension, the harmful impact on theenvironment. Therefore, the AGH UST works
towards developing a technology to produce
these unique materials.
Gasars, lotus-shaped structures, are a new class of porous materials with unique operational properties thatcan positively influence many aspects of our lives. They
are made in special digesters with hydrogen, a gas thatis widely used in electric vehicles. Because of the presence of hydrogen, the process might seem dangerous,
but modern technology and knowledge allow us to do it
perfectly safely, using a mixture of other, less explosive
gases. In this case, hydrogen is not an energy-storinggas, but it plays the role of an element that shapes the
structure of the porous material. Controlling the concentration of hydrogen atoms, temperature, and pressure, we have practically unlimited possibilities of creating structures with a controlled pore distribution.
Therefore, these unique materials, which contain up to
70% hydrogen, are ultralight and possess a set of material properties absent in other porous materials, suchas metal or syntactic foams.
Gasars are perfect for absorbing sound and energy
waves, and they show a high damping capacity; additionally, provided that they contain a ceramic content,
they are good at conducting high temperatures. Moreover, they are perfect in places where mass is the key issue, i.e. in all kinds of machines here on the Earth andin space. This is what virtually all industries are after –starting with automotive, through arms, to space. The
automotive and aviation industries aim to make the materials they use more durable and lighter at the sametime, so that the ratio of durability to density is as high26

as possible. And this is the chief objective of innovationin the entire world industry. Gasars can be applied tolight construction materials, radiation or kinetic energy absorbents, and atomisers/mixers of fuel. Currently, they are used as filters in the chemical industry, insulin filters in medicine, radiators, parts of rockets androcket engines, space equipment elements, or implants
in reconstructive surgery.
The Liquid Metal Engineering Laboratory at the Faculty of Foundry Engineering investigates the phenomena of creating porous structures in the presence of active gases, but also the interactions between materials
used to build digesters. The team of Professor Jerzy Sobczak, in cooperation with the PAN Institute of Metallurgy
and Materials Science together with MeasLine company,
have developed a mobile stand for testing the properties of liquid metals, alloys, glasses, slags, and othersubstances in a wide range of melting points. It allows
the scientists to recreate the conditions of gasar synthesis, which facilitates the understanding of the process of controlled porosity creation. The device allows
the researchers to “take a peak” of places currently unavailable due to pressure and high temperatures inside
the pressure reactor. Further research into gasar synthesis methods, the improvement of process efficiency,
and control over the structure of the material will become more broadly available after the conclusions of
two projects (OPUS16 and OPUS21) funded by the National Science Centre.

Team led by Professor Jerzy J. Sobczak
Faculty of Foundry Engineering
Department of Moulding Materials, Mould
Technologies, and Casting of Non-Ferrous
Metals27

The importance of a healthy spine.
Robotic rehabilitation support
Afflictions of the musculoskeletal system,
especially spine problems, are among the mostcommon health problems in highly developed
countries. Estimates say that pathologicalcurvatures in the coronal plane of the spine affect68% of the population. Therefore, in addition toeffectively diagnosing spinal pain syndromes, weshould also focus on preventive measures forspine diseases and rehabilitation.
Rehabilitation is a long-lasting process that requires
patience, regularity, and involvement of both the patient and the rehabilitator. To be successful, rehabilitation must use a variety of techniques and exercises,
but also reach for specifically designed tools and medical equipment.
To answer these needs, Professor Jerzy Kwaśniewski
and Dr (Eng.) Szymon Molski, from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics, developed a device
for individual rehabilitation in afflictions of the spine,muscles, and nervous system. It is an automated lifting
system for muscle stimulation, protected by patent PL
226008 and patent application P.431381.
Currently, the market offers simple, manually operated devices for exercises in suspension that comprise aframe bearer, lines, slings, and weights to suspend selected parts of the patient’s body. This invention proposes to substitute the weights with mechanical actuators,
the position and operation of which can be controlled
by a computer.
This technological solution allows patients to generate a precise and smooth movement by isolating specific segments of the body, while simultaneously changing the position in three planes – in any configurationfor each pair of actuators. The configurations include:► Twisting movements, lifting and lowering the head,shoulders, and hips (in various amplitudes, movement speeds, frequencies, etc.)► Side movements of the trunk► Extremities movements with the use of a drum motor► Possibility of generating spinal traction and partially or entirely non-weight bearing exercises with orwithout traction
The fact that the actuators are completely automated allows patients to achieve high precision of movement with maximum security and control over the rehabilitation process.

28

Therefore, the device combines the functions of themulti-layer spinal traction with a possibility to performpartially or fully non-weight bearing exercises, creating
numerous potential ways of working with patients suffering from acute and persistent spinal pain syndromes.
This functionality removes the weight off the rehabilitator, who does not have to use their own strength to lift
the patient and rehabilitate them in suspension. This isespecially important in overweight and obese patients.
The device can not only improve and perfect the rehabilitation process, but also increase its availability forbariatric patients.
To make it happen, scientists need to develop specialised software that will tune the device to the individual needs of each patient. The software will contain a library of cases with dedicated exercise sets. It will also
facilitate the visualisation of a spine model and manual control over the respective actuators. The data collected by the device will allow the software to create amodel of vertebrae movements, based on which the optimal rehabilitation methods will be chosen. Rehabilitators will have a possibility to create their own sets of exercises or use ready-made programmes so that they canadjust the device to the needs of their patients. The database will record the frequency of exercises, allowing
the rehabilitators to verify the completion of the rehabilitation plan by their patients, which, in turn, will enable them to assess individual rehabilitation sessions
performed by patients on their own.
The device and its functionalities are currently being
developed as part of a project at the National Centre for
Research and Development, which is intended for industrial research and development and pre-implementation
works carried out at the AGH UST and the Military University of Technology in Warsaw.

Professor Jerzy Kwaśniewski
Dr (Eng.) Szymon Molski
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics
Department of Machinery Engineering and Transport
R&D work carried out within an NCBR project

The formation mechanism of high PM concentration in
the troposphere is well-known. Unfavourable meteorological conditions (no wind and rainfall) and topography (depressions, valleys, basins) hamper the natural
movement of air masses, causing local increases in pollution concentration emitted at low altitudes. What isparticularly relevant for smog formation is thermal inversion (an increase in temperature linked to altitude in
the troposphere) that reduces the vertical movement of
air. This traps the pollution from low emissions in a stable air mass below the layer of warmer air, which rapidly increases the concentration of contamination near
the ground.
A solution to this problem and a temporary reduction
in air pollution levels may be the invention developed by
the team comprised of Prof. Jacek Leszczyński, Prof. Barbara Kubica, Prof. Wojciech Suwała, AGH UST Prof. Marcin
Stobiński, AGH UST Prof. Katarzyna Szarłowicz, Dr (Eng.)
Janusz Zyśk, Dr (Eng.) Filip Jędrzejek, and Dominik Gryboś, MSc Eng. from the Faculty of Energy and Fuels, aswell as Prof. Jerzy Wiciak and Dr (Eng.) Dorota Czopek
from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics. The technology relies on interventional reduction inPM2.5 and PM10 concentration levels due to the destruction of the inversion layer by generating warm shockwaves. They are created in a specialised generator as aresult of ignition of a mixture of flammable gases and air.
By generating a set of several hundreds of such waves inan hour, the device forces a stack effect that transports
cold air with particulate matter above the warmer layer. As a result, the natural convection mechanisms of air
masses are partially restored.
The solution comprises a shockwave generator, mobile measuring equipment, and a special operational al-

30

gorithm. The air quality monitoring system is equippedwith an autonomous drone that collects data on theconcentration of pollution and meteorological conditions. By relaying the data to the central unit, the location and parameters of the inversion layers are determined, as well as the concentration of PM in vertical
distribution. Based on that information, the frequency
and duration of shockwaves are determined.
Two-year tests have shown that the system, as one of
the few available solutions, can contribute to a temporary local improvement in air quality, as during a shortintervention, it can reduce the concentration levels of
PM10 and PM2.5 in the area of 4 km2 by at least 15%, andby 70% at the maximum.
The invention was submitted to the Polish and European Patent Offices and, in 2021, it won a gold medal at
the 48th International Exhibition of Inventions in Geneva.
The creators wish that it be soon used in interventional
actions to reduce the time of human exposure to pollution by counteracting the formation of smog, shortening
the periods of stagnation, and accelerating the processof dispersion. During the implementation phase, the scientists plan to cooperate with selected communes, withwhich they had already signed agreements. The systemshould be widely used, should the need arise, analogously to the response teams for road icing.
The system is still in development, especially interms of the decision-making algorithm that would allow the device to autonomously begin an intervention
based on input data collected via the analysis of meteo­
rological conditions favourable to the formation of theinversion layer. Other research paths include the modification of the generator structure to enhance its capabilities and reduce noise.

Relative altitude

PM pollutants are the cause of a considerable
number of diseases and premature deaths. The air
quality evaluation in Poland for 2020, preparedby the Chief Inspectorate of Environmental
Protection, have shown that in 16 out of 45
zones the PM10 concentration exceeded EU and
Polish norms. Therefore, any action, includinginterventions, is necessary to reduce PM pollution.
This goal can be achieved by accelerating air mass
movements to prevent the formation of smog or todisperse it more dynamically.

Relative altitude

Interventional method to reduce
particulate matter concentrationsin the smog layer

Team led byProfessor Jacek Leszczyński
Faculty of Energy and Fuels
Department of Thermal and Fluid Flow Machines
R&D work carried out within a project fundedby the Ministry of Education and Science31

Mixed reality in detecting
neurodegenerative diseases
MR/VR goggles are devices that make it possible
to accurately mirror the user’s movements
in digital reality using a set of built-in sensors.
Why not then use the processed signals in
medical diagnosis?
Neurodegenerative diseases, which are accompanied
by progressive and irreversible nerve cell degradation,
manifest themselves most often in old age. The problemof aging populations is a dominant trend in developed
countries, resulting in the rising percentage of people
suffering from neurodegenerative disorders. Therefore,
not only the development of an effective treatment
method becomes a burning issue, but so does a method of precise and rapid diagnosis.
The two most fundamental methods to evaluate thecondition of patients with dementia are anamnesis andphysical examination. On their basis, doctors fill out
medical charts which are then used to make a diagnosis on the type of disease and its stage. It is a time-consuming and fallible process because it is based on subjective feelings of the patient and observations of thedoctor. It would be much more reliable to work with hard
data. A helping hand is offered by biomedical engineering, which for a long time has been developing methodsof collecting and processing various signals generated
by the human body.
Developing methods to record signals and process
them in order to diagnose neurodegenerative diseases, such as parkinsonism or Huntington’s disease, is thegoal of the team led by Dr Daria Hemmerling from theFaculty of Electrical Engineering, Automatics, Computer
Science, and Biomedical Engineering. To obtain the signals, the scientists want to use mixed reality (MR) Holo­
Lens 2 goggles.
What is mixed reality and what distinguishes it fromvirtual reality (VR)? The latter is commonly associatedwith video games, where putting special goggles allows
the player not only to see the action on the screen, butalso to become directly involved in it. In the case of
mixed reality, we are dealing with a hybrid of the realworld and the digital objects incorporated therein thatcan be manipulated. It has been increasingly used inprofessional settings. This allows surgeons to performtutorial surgeries on 3D holograms of the patient’s organs, and technicians to plan the installation of various elements of the physical space using their virtual
models.

32

To make such surgeries happen, goggles developed
for this purpose are equipped with precise cameras, microphones, and sensors that track user behaviour. And
this is exactly what the AGH UST engineers want to use
to collect diagnostic data from the patients. Using mixed
reality, patients would be able to see the image of theirdoctor who would be able to ask them to perform one
or several actions at a time, for example, walk a few
steps back and forth, move their arms in a specified way,or say a few words. The system will collect data, suchas posture, movement smoothness, or articulation, andthe rate of speech in real time, which can be essential
in making a diagnosis. It will also track saccades, that is,
involuntary movements of the eyes, which vary between
sick and healty persons.
Using the data collected by MR goggles, the scientists want their solution to achieve an 80% efficiency
rate in making accurate diagnoses. If this is successful, it
will be the first device in the world to facilitate simultaneous registration and analysis of multiple signals thatare crucial in the process of detecting neurodegenerative diseases.
‘We have come up with a prospective idea of having
one device that will produce one examination record.
This will make it possible to evaluate all parameters that
we can measure with it (in the same way for every patient at various moments in time, etc.). The device mightprove very useful for filling out medical charts, an activity that doctors have to do themselves. Now, insteadof doing paperwork, the doctor will be able to focus on
observing the patient because they will be tested by themixed reality system’, says Dr Hemmerling. The scientist
also hopes that the data collected from a considerable
number of patients will allow doctors to discover correlations between particular parameters, deepening ourknowledge on parkinsonism and Huntington’s disease.
To analyse the data, engineers have to design artificial
intelligence algorithms that will be able to find regularities in the signals and correlate them with specific nosological units. The last stage will include the creation ofan app for computers and smartphones, which will allow
doctors to make good use of the new system.

Team led by
Dr (Eng.) Daria Hemmerling
Faculty of Electrical Engineering,
Automatics, Computer Science, andBiomedical Engineering
Project titled The use of mixed
reality to diagnose and evaluate thestage of neurodegenerative diseases
funded within LIDER/NCBR

HoloLens 2 goggles used for tests

33

New biodegradable Controlled
Release Fertilisers – a green
alternative for land cultivation

Structure of the CRF granuleand its decomposition

A growing demand for plant-based products
leads to looking for new ways of boosting
agricultural production. This entails a massive
use of a variety of synthetic fertilisers, which doenhance productivity, but at the same time leadto soil degradation processes. This is practicallyirreversible damage – soil formation depends
on a myriad of complex factors, and the wholeprocess can last even thousands of years.
To increase the concentration of nitrogen, which fosters plant growth, food producers most often use compound mineral fertilisers. These constitute even 56.9%of the nutrient elements (nitrogen and phosphorus) inthe cultivated soil in Poland. The data are alarming because such a robust use of mineral fertilisers can lead toa series of phenomena that are unhealthy for the environment (soil acidification, eutrophication) and climate(no plants on degraded land means no greenhouse gas
absorption). It is also related to the use of considerable amounts of non-renewable materials and fossil fuels. Therefore, it is essential to develop better and more
ecological methods of providing plants with nutrients.
This has become possible due to controlled releasefertilisers (CRFs) made from biodegradable substancesthat will not overburden the environment and will notcause its deterioration. CRFs contain biogenic elements
in a form that a plant cannot absorb immediately. They
are usually coated or encapsulated using materials thatfacilitate controlling the rate, mechanism, and the release time of nutrients.
Research on CRFs is carried out at the AGH UST Faculty of Materials Science and Ceramics at the Departmentof Biomaterials and Composites. There, Dr (Eng.) Piotr
Szatkowski and Katarzyna Suchorowiec, Eng. managed to
optimise the process of producing such fertilisers, andinvestigated and evaluated their properties over time, incomparison to corresponding conventional mineral fertilisers (CRF-AGH and the tested mineral fertilisers had
identical contents of biogenic elements). The tests regarding the effect of the developed fertilisers, composedof a mixture of mineral salts (23%), biopolymer (70%),
and excipients (7%), were conducted in laboratory conditions on crops of various plants, including lacy phacelia, oat, and panicgrass. The crops underwent a simula-

34

tion of rainfall and based on the amount of water thatpenetrated the soil and filtered down to a sealed container, the scientists determined the concentration ofsalt eluted therefrom. As it turned out, the concentration of eluted salts was higher in samples with a commercial fertiliser. Those plants that had received CRFs
exhibited thicker stems and more intense colours. Additionally, they showed an improved ability to accumulate water compared to plants cultivated on other substrates (CRF-AGH accumulated and retained water in thesoil – due to a natural excipient).
CRFs hold promise in terms of their use to fertilise
plants that grow in water, which may also need to besupplemented with biogenic elements. To date, the possibility of fertilising such plants has been significantly
limited due to a sharp increase in the concentrations ofmineral salts in water, which has led to excessive salination and eutrophication. The AGH UST scientists studied the behaviour of their fertilisers in water. Based on
the results, they claim that both in the initial phase andafter long-term exposure, the CRF-AGH releases the accumulated salts gradually and proportionally, whichmeans that the salt concentration increases by thesame value in the same amount of time. The presenceof an inhibitive barrier (several release mechanisms atonce) causes the CRF used in aquatic environments (e.g.,
for aquarium plants) to decompose in a controlled way,
which cannot be achieved with conventional synthetic fertilisers, as they dissolve immediately. For example, precise fertilisation of rice with the CRFs describedabove would result in a far less severe interference withthe environment, both in terms of farmland and the areas surrounding it. A wider use of CRFs would give plant
producers an opportunity to take serious responsibility
for the ecosystems around them.

wool fibre

salts on the surface
fertiliser matrix

Team led by
Dr (Eng.) Piotr Szatkowski
Faculty of Materials Science
and Ceramics
Department of Biomaterials
and Composites

salts on the fibres

Surface of the CRF granulesurface 	 insidesurface 	 insidesurface 	 insidebiopolymer

CO2 + H2O
		

wool

salts

CO2 + humus

biogenic
elements35

A new lease of life to oil andgas wells. Recovering lithiumfrom produced water
The process of extracting oil and gas involves
large quantities of brine, which may constitutea source of economically valuable elements. Oneof such is luthium, in demand by the automotive
industry, where it is used to produce batteries
to power electric and hybrid vehicles.
Hydrocarbons are not the main product extracted fromoil and gas reservoirs. Rough estimates say that for 1 m3
of petroleum, there is 3 m3 of brine. As the extraction
process continues, the ratio of water used to produce oilor gas increases steadily to the point where it is practically the only product. At best, brine is pumped backto the well, where it is used to displace oil or gas to thesurface. However, this process cannot continue forever,and the hydrocarbon extraction business, sooner or later, ceases to be profitable. Simultaneously, the produced
water itself can be the source of industrially valuable elements, if only we can manage it properly. The world isturning away from fossil fuels in favour of low-emission
energy sources, which might give the old wells a newlease of life. This is the goal of engineers from the Faculty of Drilling, Oil, and Gas, who carry out the Comp­
Lithium project – a comprehensive technology of recovering lithium and sweet water from produced water.
Lithium does not occur naturally in an elemental
form but in the form of lithium salts. In a warm climate,
the element is extracted from brines concentrated inlarge ground pools by solar evaporation, using various
precipitation techniques. If these methods fail, nanofiltration membranes and sorbents are used. ‘Sorbents
described in the literature to date occur in the form of
powders that are difficult to use on large scales’, says
Dr (Eng.) Ewa Knapik, the project leader. ‘Our sorbents
will be prepared using 3D printing so that we can createhigh-porosity spatial mouldings. They could be regularly placed in adsorption columns through which the brinepasses continually.’
The adsorption columns are part of a comprehensive apparatus that could be installed in oil and gas
production sites. The machinery would simultaneously recover lithium and sweet water from the brine. The
recovered water could then be used to irrigate neighbouring crops or to produce steam at the production
plant. To desalinate brine, the scientists intend to use
crown-ether-modified nanofiltration membranes, which

36

will allow them to capture residual lithium that had notbeen previously recovered in adsorption columns. The
currently used installations can recover either lithiumor sweet water from brine, but cannot perform these
two functions simultaneously. Merging them into one
process will constitute an innovation. ‘In the first phase,the installation will perform the initial treatment, i.e. coagulation and filtration’, explains Dr Knapik. ‘The brine
extracted from the reservoir contains petroleum derivatives, particulates, and dissolved gases. All contaminants must be removed so that they don’t damage ouradsorption module or the membranes. The second stage
involves adsorption columns directly intended for lithium recovery. These columns work always in a dual system – when one captures lithium, the other gets regenerated – this means that the element is being eluted fromit. The next phase is desalination using membranes. As
a result, we always get two streams: sweet water andconcentrated brine. In our technology, the latter will bepumped back to the reservoir.’
For the apparatus to be economically profitable, formation waters must contain adequately high concentrations of lithium (at least 10 mg/1 L of water). Therefore,
another important goal of the project is to investigate
Polish brines in terms of their concentration. ‘We’ve received first signals that there are a few prospective loci.
Lots of such reservoirs are on the Polish Lowland, where
the waters show high mineralisation. If they containmany different salts, there is a chance that lithium salts
are among them,’ Dr Knapik says.
The scientists want to create a useful application thatwill allow its users to determine whether lithium recovery in a given area is profitable for a prospective investor. Apart from showing the concentration of the element itself, the application will consider the amount of
extracted water, the pressure in a particular reservoir,or the presence of other ions. With a few modifications,
it will later be used to choose the most magnesium- or
potassium-rich brines.

Team led by Dr (Eng.) Ewa Knapik
Faculty of Drilling, Oil, and Gas
Department of Petroleum Engineering
The CompLithium project carried out within
a LIDER/NCBR projectStarting materials

reservoir brine

sorbent in the formof a moulding

Final configuration of the installation
Lithium sorption

Back pumping ofconcentrated brine

Desalination in membrane module37

Otoimplant – polymeric
middle ear prosthesis withbactericidal effectMiddle ear infection, one of the most common
otolaryngological ailments, can lead to
conductive hearing loss due to the degenerationof bone structures within the middle ear space.
The chief aim of modern ear microsurgery is torestore the function of the sound conduction
apparatus. In situations of very extensive
damage to the auditory ossicular chain, the useof prostheses is recommended. The applicationof new middle ear implants not only restoresthe continuity and function of bone structure
in patients, but also reduces the risk ofcomplications from bacterial infections.
These are exactly the features of the innovative prosthesis, in terms of shape and function, called Otoimplant,
created by AGH UST Prof. Magdalena Ziąbka as part ofher research conducted at the AGH UST Faculty of Materials Science and Ceramics. The research work included designing the prototype, its shape, structure, form,and chemical composition. It resulted in the creation of
two implants: An Otoimplant made of polymeric material and the innovative Otoimplant containing nanoparticles of silver.
The implant’s material can trigger various post-surgical responses. Modifying the composition, as it was donein this case, creates the possibility of changing the mechanical and biological parameters of the functionalities of the prosthesis. Tests have shown that the implant,
made of composites, biostable thermoplastic polymers,
and silver nanoparticles, is safe to use, is compatible
with commonly applied surgical procedures, and can beused successfully in patients. It also shows two additional effects: it is bactericidal and super light, which
eliminated the need to administer antibiotics after surgery and reduced the recovery period; furthermore, patients reported greater hearing improvement than in
the case of patients with other types of reconstructions.
Otoimplants have been tested in terms of their physicochemical properties, such as mechanical strength,
Young’s modulus, or hardness. The distribution of nano­particles in implants and their durability were investigated using ultrasound. The scientists performed structural tests, assessing the microstructure, conducting
X-ray diffraction tests, and carrying out thermal tests,

38

which were followed by biological in vitro studies. The
bactericidal efficiency against Gram+ and Gram– strainsof bacteria was assessed, which are the most frequently
occurring bacteria in the middle ear. The volume of silver
ions released to the biological environment during incubation was investigated to determine safe levels of thiselement in the organism. Studies were conducted on thecytotoxic effect and the life span of human cells after interaction with the implant. The scientists used humanosteoblast and fibroblast cells to do this. The next stage
included in vivo experiments on animals, which were implanted with both types of devices to check the reaction
to the foreign body and to confirm the biocompatibilityof both prostheses. Ex vivo tests of tissue components
and CT scans were then performed to check the durability of the implants. The final phase entailed obtaining necessary approvals and permits from the Bioethics
Committee and the President of the Office for Registration of Medicinal Products, Medical Devices, and Biocidal Products for clinical trials with patients. 6 patients
received innovative Otoimplants and underwent observations after 7, 30, 90, 180, and 360 days. All tests weresuccessful and patients’ hearing had improved.
With the implementation of all stages of development, the implant can be successfully introduced intomodern otolaryngology in patients with damaged ossicular chain resulting from inflammation, trauma, congenital defects, and otosclerosis. The Otoimplant solves
the problem of hearing loss that causes social exclusion and gives patients an opportunity to resume normal functioning.

eardrum

implant

stapesTeam led by AGH UST Professor
Magdalena Ziąbka
Faculty of Materials Science and Ceramics
Department of Ceramics and Refractories
R&D work carried out within
a LIDER/NCBR project39

Saving Achilles. Towards modern
diagnostics of tendon diseases
and failures
Tendons are tissues that are particularly
vulnerable to mechanical injuries resulting fromoverloading them during physical activity. They
remain relatively under-researched, especially inthe context of pathological changes and therapy
planning. Connective tissue studies in terms of theinfluence of structural and biochemical changes
on its functioning are interdisciplinary by nature,
which, coupled with the fascinating hierarchicaland multiscale tendon structure, motivated the
AGH UST scientists to attempt to describe thebiomechanics of these pivotal tissues.
To respond to the need for a deeper understanding of
the pathomechanisms of tendon failure and to correlate this knowledge with clinical and diagnostic images
from USGs and MRIs, the AGH UST Team for Tissue Bio­mechanics has been researching the issue for years. The
National Science Centre (NCN) projects, including theElectro-chemo-mechanics of tendon failure – the roleof interfascicular matrix, calcium and phosphate ions in
tendon biomechanics project, resulted not only in practical knowledge useful for diagnosticians and orthopaedists, but also in a series of valuable publications.
The interfascicular matrix, as described by the scientists, is responsible for the viscoelasticity of the tendon and controls the biomechanics of the fibres during
overloads. It is mostly exposed to transverse deformations caused by the sliding of discontinuous subcomponents of the Achilles tendon. The team’s work facilitated the early diagnosis of tendon enthesopathy causedby transverse deformation, leading to serious failures.
For the first time in the literature, the scientists characterised the tendon subcomponents linking the calcaneus with various muscles (SOL, GM, and GL) in terms ofviscoelastic properties stemming from structural andfunctional differences. In conjunction with demonstrating the correlation between the viscoelastic properties
and the blood plasma diffusion phenomenon observedin MRI scans, this allowed the scientists to evaluate thecondition of the interfascicular matrix, responsible forcarrying axial stresses and the stability of the entire
structure. To obtain these results, they had to devise a
new system for building 3D tendon models, crucial in inverse analysis and material characterisation, as well as
use 3D DIC analyses.

40

Thanks to the work of the AGH UST scientists, orthopaedists and diagnosticians have received a set of new
diagnostic clues and new therapeutic goals. The team’s
research led to:► Describing the differences between the biomechanical properties of the tendon subcomponents fromvarious calf muscles, which facilitated the interpretation of differences observed during ultrasound elastography, and helps making more precise diagnoses► Describing the deformation and strain in the matrix, occurring during tendon overload; explaining
the mechanism of longitudinal tendon enthesopathy, which allowed orthopaedists to diagnose earlystages of tendon failure and to treat it without surgical intervention► Proving that the permeability and viscoplasticity of
the interfascicular matrix is responsible for the bio­mechanics of the tendon, and demonstrating thepossibility of diagnosing its condition, thus providing new possibilities for interpreting MRI and USG
scan results. Another goal was to improve current
diagnostic methods, so that orthopaedists could
precisely assess the state of the matrix based on
the available imaging methods. The matrix’s elasto-­
visco-plastic properties change, for example, in theinitial stage of tendon calcification or in the eventof an electrolyte imbalance of the organism. These
clues are invaluable when choosing diagnostic methods and treatment strategies.
The results have been put into practice, for example,
in the Krakow medical centre “ULTRAGEN” that diagnoses and treats athletes designated by the Polish Olympic Committee and the Polish National Football Team.

Images of Achilles tendon samples under a scanning electron microscope:a) ultrastructure of the tendon after tendon enthesopathy caused by excessive loading,b) control sample

Team led by AGH UST Professor Andrzej Młyniec
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics
Department of Robotics and Mechatronics
Project carried out within OPUS/NCN

The Achilles tendon divided into three subtendons (GM, GL, and SOL)
and an anterior view of the GM subtendon

41

Senster’s new life. Strategies ofpreservation and reactivationof interactive pieces of art
It was more than 5 metres tall and looked like anunidentifiable animal. Although made of steel, its
movements were nimble due to the synchronised
work of eight actuators. The change of position
was navigated by a computer program. “Senster”
reacted to nearby sounds and movements,
reading signals collected by microphones andDoppler radars. It ceased moving in the mid-1970s.
However, the efforts of a team of scientists anddesigners brought it back to life in 2018.
RE:Senster – this is the name of the endeavour to reconstruct one of classical media art pieces – a largescale kinetic installation “Senster”, created towards theend of the 1960s by Edward Ihnatowicz. Designing “Senster”, Ihnatowicz made allusions to the experiences ofcontemporary robotics and artificial intelligence experiments. His work, counted among the canon of digitalart and constantly revisited in studies dedicated to theinterface of science, technology, and fine arts, has forlong been considered lost. Its remnants were rediscovered and “reanimated” due to the efforts of a team established at the AGH UST Faculty of Humanities.
The project brought together specialists with multifarious research competencies, from the humanities –
cultural studies on technology and media art, throughpreservation and curator efforts, to mechanical engineering, robotics, and automatics. The creation of thisinterdisciplinary team was necessary to develop a holistic strategy to reactivate the work, carry out an extensive source query, and find suitable technologicalsolutions. As a result, RE:Senster, together with accom­
panying events, carries the torch of transferring themodern humanities into the domain of science andtechnology. The scientific activities of the team revolved
around developing a strategy to restore technologicaltreasures and maintain the continuity of modern pieces of art. The project contributed to the development ofpreservation procedures and rules of exhibiting largescale art pieces that use advanced technological solutions, characteristic of creations from the second halfof the 20th century.
The RE:Senster Lab – a laboratory for media art established during the restoration work – integrates thecommunity of specialists and offers technical and conceptual support, indispensable for a performative (mov-42

ing object) presentation of new media art in museums
and art galleries.
Only two years after the work had been concluded,
the project was spotted by art curators and aficionados in Poland and abroad. “Senster” was exhibited during the jubilee edition of the WRO Media Art Biennale(2019), in the Zachęta – National Gallery of Art in Warsaw(2020/2021), during the Sapporo International Art Festival in Japan (SIAF 2020 – online edition), and during the
UNSOUND, Patchlab, and Audio Art festivals.
Fostering media art and, in a broader sense, digital culture required competencies that go beyond theknowledge acquired within universities, museums, or
technological companies. The RE:Senster project contributed to the expansion of the cultural capital by consolidating the technical sphere with social circulation:
educating young researchers and designers, provoking
discussions in the field of art criticism, and popularising discourses of modern humanities outside the wallsof academia.
The originator and curator of the project was Dr Anna
Olszewska. The reactivation of the installation was carried out in cooperation with the Faculty of MechanicalEngineering and Robotics (mechanics: Dr (Eng.) Je­rzy
Stojek, Kamil Sikora, MA), the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Automatics, Computer Science, and Biomedical Engineering (control: Dr (Eng.) Marek Długosz, Rafał
Bieszczad), and the Faculty of Computer Science, Electronics, and Telecommunications (radars: AGH UST Prof.
Kamil Staszek, Prof. Sławomir Gruszczyński). The project
was carried out in collaboration with the Academy ofFine Arts in Krakow (consultations, bringing the installation to Krakow, sound interaction system, documentation). The interuniversity cooperation was coordinatedby AGH UST Prof. Anna Siwik.

Team led by
Dr Anna Olszewska
Faculty of Humanities
Department of Culture andDigital Age Studies
RE:Senster project43

Shall we trust artificial
intelligence? AI algorithms inrobotics and virtual reality
With the increasing use of robots in many
aspects of human life, from simple utility robots
to complex humanoid machines that are toassist us in a variety of situations, it is crucial todevelop solutions that facilitate robots to interact
in the most natural way with humans. We needto combine computer and cognitive sciences
to ensure that a robot’s behaviour is adequate
for the information communicated by humans
through gestures or facial expressions andevokes human trust.
This is exactly what the scientists from the AGH UST Institute of Computer Science have been doing for years.
They have investigated convolutional neural networks
for the interpretation of data from robot sensors andorganised workshops devoted to the evaluation of human-robot interactions. The goal was to develop novel
solutions for advanced perception mechanisms, including emotion recognition, question identification, andgaze estimation. A success in this field was the Gaze4HRI
project implemented in cooperation with the Middle
East Technical University (Turkey). The project resulted
in the development of a gaze-mediated framework for
multimodal human–robot interactions, supporting thecreation of applications that interact with humans using
eye tracking and emotion recognition. The implementation of the framework makes it possible to launch it ona variety of hardwares and softwares, including robots,
virtual reality avatars, and mobile device avatars.
Initially, the scientists wanted to experimentally detect regularities related to the point of gaze during conversations in human–human and human–robot pairs.
Particularly, they paid attention to eye contact or a lackthereof in the context of data related to utterances. The
experiments collected data on gaze and audio. Basedon these, the scientists created a computing environment for multimodal human–robot interactions and developed simple behaviours that detect situations when
the user begins or stops speaking, which triggers predefined responses. Based on the framework, appropriate modules were implemented that allow the robot andavatar to interact with humans intuitively and naturally.
The next step included more complex activities, such asquestion detection and responding to the point of gaze

44of the interlocutor. The scientists have also studied thepossibility of emotion detection in humans based on
the analysis of microexpressions and voice signal processing.
The usefulness of the software has been tested in experiments carried out with the use of the humanoid robot Pepper and on mobile/VR platforms. The form mimicked a job interview, but more complex scenarios werealso tested. Another example might be the workshops
organised as part of the work on perception algorithms
for social robots, carried out in cooperation with the
Jagiellonian University Institute of Philosophy. The aim
was to observe human–robot interactions and identify aspects that significantly influence the trust we give
robots. The workshops were held in nursery schools in
Poland and Japan, providing different cultural contexts.
The events had an important educational value, so crucial at this stage of development. The Pepper robot usedduring the workshops had its software extended by thedeveloped perception mechanisms. The scientists observed children’s expectations for the robot and theirevolution with the increasing awareness of the robot’s
capabilities.
The results confirmed the optimal functioning of theenvironment and its considerable flexibility. It facilitates the definition of considerably varied and multimodal scenarios. Controlling robot or avatar’s behaviours can occur with the use of multiple modalities, thesignals of which are analysed by complex classification
algorithms (e.g. convolutional networks). Due to its architecture, the capabilities of the software can be extended by additional hardware platforms, new modalities, and signal analysis methods.

Team led by AGH UST Professor
Bartłomiej Śnieżyński
Faculty of Computer Science,
Electronics, and Telecommunications
Institute of Computer Science
Project titled A gaze-mediatedframework for multimodal Human
Robot interaction Gaze4HRI
funded by the NCBR

45

Shining bright. A system fordesigning smart lighting
Old and badly designed lighting is not only
expensive, but also unecological – startingwith significant energy consumption linked toconsiderable CO2 emissions and ending up withharmful light pollution. Designing modern lighting
for urban spaces, in accordance with current
norms, is a difficult task. Fortunately, artificial
intelligence is there to aid us, as is the solution
developed by the AGH UST scientists.
The design of outdoor lighting must consider a compromise between the energy costs of street lighting andthe safety of road users. Optimal computer-based design is difficult due to the inability to analyse all cases:
for a single street, several dozen parameters with manydegrees of freedom must be analysed. As a result of interdisciplinary research at the AGH UST, a multi-agent
artificial intelligence system has been created, facilitating a reduction of the number of analysed design variants of the lighting system using parallel graph transformations. The results guarantee at least 70% electricity
savings when replacing the lighting with LEDs (hand-designed – only 50% savings). This results in reductions
in CO2 emissions, lighting replacement costs, and light
pollution. The team led by Prof. Leszek Kotulski included Prof. Andrzej Bielecki, AGH UST Prof. Adam Sędziwy,
AGH UST Prof. Igor Wojnicki, Dr (Eng.) Artur Basiura, andDr (Eng.) Sebastian Ernst. The theoretical work was commercialised as PhoCa (as part of an NCBR project) by an
AGH UST spin-off company – GRADIS Sp. z o.o. The company’s solutions have been successfully implemented
in Poland and abroad – in total, more than 100 projects
have been completed for cities, energy providers, andinternational lighting companies.
In the case of individual owners of lighting installations, the application of PhoCa translated into profits resulting from a better design of a new LED-based
system – statistically, 20% profit on energy expenditure and about 5% reduction in replacement costs compared to man-made projects. However, there are more
important large-scale effects. Despite the fact that replacing lighting sources is the most effective method ofsaving energy, relatively few cities make the decision
to do so. The reason is that these are long-term investments (13 years with 40% exchange efficiency, slightly
over 10 years with 50% exchange efficiency). Therefore,
20% increase in exchange efficiency offered by PhoCa

46

is a breakthrough solution because it reduces this time
to 7.5 years.
Moreover, PhoCa offers exceptional speed and scalability of calculations (at least several thousand times
faster than a human). As a result, we can make variant
designs to optimise the decisions we make. The larger
the area of design/analysis, the clearer the advantages of using PhoCa. For projects implemented in Tbilisi,
Georgia (91,000 points) and Washington, USA (56,000
points), the system calculated a single project variant
within 24 hours. In Krakow, in the case of 4,000 points,
designers, without using the system, needed 6 weeks tocomplete the task, while the first version of PhoCa prepared the design in 8 hours.
The possibility of analysing multiple design variants
is even more important in the context of ESCO projects,
where the company takes over the lighting tasks fromthe city for a fixed price. In this case, the number of variants analysed increases because they include the investment price and the profit from operating costs.
The solution is particularly useful in dynamic lighting control. The EU EN13201 Standard, which provides
the guidelines for road lighting in Poland, makes it possible to lower the lighting requirements, e.g. when traffic intensity drops. The problem, however, is that the reduction is not expressed as a percentage, e.g. reduction
by 10% or 20%, but by one or two lighting classes, andfor these lower classes more projects have to be prepared. The dynamic control system, compliant with theEN13201 standard, has been in operation in Krakow forseveral years (Krasińskiego Avenue and Mickiewicza Avenue) and it generates 47% savings compared to a static
system based on LEDs. The solution has also been successfully implemented in other cities in Poland. For instance, due to the application of the control system in
Zgorzelec, electricity consumption dropped by 81% andin Polkowice by 68%.

Team led byProfessor Leszek Kotulski
Faculty of Electrical Engineering,
Automatics, Computer Science, andBiomedical Engineering
Department of Applied Computer Science
The PhoCa system

The scope of the dynamic lighting control system (the map shows the northwest
bypass of the Krakow city centre) and a fragment of the control graph thatmanages the data from sensors with dimming parameters of lamps

47

Smog, tsunamis, and pandemics.
The capabilities of isogeometricsimulations
Today, it is next to impossible to imagine a scienceor an industry that does not use computer
simulations. Simulations of time-dependent
phenomena are extremely difficult to carry out;
moreover, they are usually unstable and produce
faulty results. In a nutshell, it stems from the factthat mathematical theory simulations are basedon functions in abstract mathematical spaces, notnecessarily in the ones-and-zeros computer world.
AGH UST scholars are working hard to solve thisproblem.
Professor Maciej Paszyński’s team from the Faculty ofComputer Science, Electronics, and Telecommunications
have developed the Isogeometric Residual Minimisation
Method (iGRM) – a way of running simulations that combines the advantages of the DPG method (stabilisation),modern solvers with alternating directions preconditioners (for ultra-fast simulations, even on a laptop), anda modern isogeometric finite element method (for running smooth simulations, integrated with the CAD/CAE
systems, for time-dependent problems).
What is behind the isogeometric analysis methods invented in 2010 by Professor Tom Hughes from the University of Texas? ‘Let’s imagine that in the space aroundus we stretch an invisible sheet of fabric and, using it, wewant to zoom in on certain physical quantities in a given area‘, says Prof. Paszyński. ‘In January 2022, an asteroid about 1 km in diameter flew close to the Earth at a
distance of 1 million km. This is five times the distancefrom the Earth to the Moon. Using isogeometric analysis,
we can run simulations of what would have happened ifthat asteroid had fallen into the Baltic Sea. In our simulations, we included a slightly smaller asteroid and used
two sheets of isogeometric fabric, one to cover the topography of the coast and the sea bed, and the otherto represent the sea level. Then, knowing the appropriate mathematical formulas and differential equations
that control this phenomenon, we hung invisible “clips”
in space to stretch over the sheet and then moved the“clips” so that the sheet could simulate tsunami waves
and the changes of the sea level.’Prof. Paszyński explains the mechanism of simulations: ‘From a mathematical point of view, these virtu-

48

al fabrics used to mirror physical phenomena are linear combinations of thin basis spline functions. Of course,
the simulations run over time, so we have a timeline andwe divide it into sections – time steps, and we simulatethese frames like in a film showing how the state of oursystem changes in individual time steps.’
Virtual isogeometric fabrics can be spread in the air
to mirror the concentration of pollution. Then, using appropriate formulas and methods, scientists can simulate the propagation of pollution in the air. ‘We’ve beenworking on the following simulation: over the area of the
Małopolska Province, a cloud of pollution approaches
from the north, and the wind blows towards the southeast‘, Prof. Paszyński continues. ‘Our simulator can predict how this cloud of pollution can spread and how theconcentration of pollutants will change over time in different places.’
Applying virtual fabrics to geological layers, where
they will represent pressure, facilitates the simulationof oil extraction processes using hydraulic fracturing or
the process of underground CO2 storage. We can also
use these virtual sheets to model the concentration ofpathogens (e.g. COVID-19) in the space around us andthen simulate the propagation thereof through coughing. It is also possible to use these virtual isogeometric sheets inside the human body – they can simulate,for example, the development of tumors. In such cases,
one sheet will represent the density of tumors, anotherwill determine the concentration of angiogenic enzymes
produced by the tumor, yet another – the concentrationof oxygen delivered by blood vessels, and another one
will model the degradation of healthy tissues.

A simulation of a tsunami wave in the Baltic Sea
after the impact of an asteroid(project funded by a university grantwithin the IDUB programme)

Team led by Professor Maciej Paszyński
Faculty of Computer Science, Electronics,
and Telecommunications
Institute of Computer Science
Project titled New computational paradigm of the
Isogeometric Residual Minimization method (iGRM)
and its application (…) carried out within
HARMONIA 9/NCN

49

Taking a deep breath in Krakow.
Identification of particulate matter
pollutants in the atmosphere

₃
Concentration [ug/m ]Aleja Krasińskiego Station

50

07_2018

₃
Concentration [ug/m ]11_2018

12_2018

01_2019

02_2019

01_2019

02_2019

Złoty Róg Station

Project titled Sources of particulatematter air pollution in Krakow
100
in 201850
006_2018

07_2018

11_2018

12_2018

Unidentified

Transport

Inorganic secondary aerosols

Soil

Road dust, Industry, Construction work

Fossil fuel combustion

₃
Concentration [ug/m ]Aleja Krasińskiego Station
Sources of PM10

100
50
0

06_2018

07_2018

11_2018

12_2018

01_2019

02_2019

01_2019

02_2019

Złoty Róg Station
₃
Concentration [ug/m ]the remaining ions at about 16%, metals 6–7%, and unidentified compounds – 12%. The isotopic composition
tests have shown that the main ingredients of the carbon fraction include carbon from hard coal combustion,
fuel combustion in vehicles, and biogenic carbon fraction (natural emissions and biomass combustion).
2. Sources of PM10 | The results of the PMF modelof the sources of particulate matter showed that in thewinter, the dominant PM sources are combustion of solid fuels and inorganic secondary aerosols. The following PM10 sources were identified and their percentage
determined: solid fuel combustion: winter 10% (AK) and
36% (ZR); summer undetected (AK) and 8% (ZR); inorganic secondary aerosols: winter 28% (AK) and 29% (ZR);
summer 5% (AK) and 16% (ZR); motor transport: winter 24% (AK) and summer 48% (AK); soil dust: winter 7%(AK) and 7% (ZR); summer 9% (AK) and 8% (ZR); other
PM sources (resuspension of PM from road transport, PMfrom industrial processes and construction sites): winter24% (AK) and 8% (ZR); summer 32% (AK) and 48% (ZR);
unidentified PM sources: winter 8% (AK) and 4% (ZR);
summer 5% (AK) and 19% (ZR).
The conclusion was that in summer, the percentages of PM10 from resuspension or construction sites andindustrial processes increase for higher concentrations.
For lower concentrations, the inorganic secondary aerosols had higher percentages at the ZR station, and frommotor transport at the AK station. In winter, there wasan increase in PM from solid fuel combustion for higher PM concentrations at the ZR station and a considerable increase in the percentage of inorganic secondary
aerosols for higher PM concentrations at the AK station.
In both cases, with an increase in overall PM concentration, the percentage of soil dust decreases.
The results were taken into account in the development of the Air Protection Programme for the Małopolska Province in September 2020.

50

Team led by AGH UST Professor
Lucyna Samek
0
Faculty of Physics and Applied
06_2018
Computer Science
Department of Medical Physics andBiophysics

When fighting smog, we must first get to know
the type of pollution and its sources. Advanced
interdisciplinary research carried out at the AGH
UST allowed scientists to assess the influenceof selected emission sources on air quality
and helped them fine-tune the air protection
programme not only for Krakow, but also forneighbouring communes.
A team made of AGH UST Prof. Lucyna Samek, Prof. Kazimierz Różański, AGH UST Prof. Zdzisław Stęgowski, AGH
UST Prof. Katarzyna Styszko, AGH UST Prof. Mirosław Zimnoch, Dr (Eng.) Zbigniew Gorczyca, and Alicja Skiba, MSc
Eng. has thoroughly diagnosed the condition of Krakow’s
air as part of a project initiated by Krakowski Holding Komunalny S.A. in Krakow, with the support of the Provincial and Chief Inspectorates of Environmental Protection (WIOŚ/GIOŚ).
The underlying goal of the research was to determine
the type and percentage of individual sources of atmospheric aerosol emission in immisions recorded at selected WIOŚ air quality monitoring stations in Krakow, related to road transport (Aleja Krasińskiego station [AK])and residential areas (Złoty Róg station [ZR]). The objective was achieved through a comprehensive physicochemical and isotopic profiling of PM10, supported by
Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) receptor modelling
and the modelling of selected aspects of pollution distribution in the atmosphere.
It was shown that within a decade (2010–2019), PM10
concentration decreased by about 50% at both monitoring stations. The concentration of NO2, which is thetransport indicator, decreased by about 30% at the AK
station. Among other factors, the reasons for the improvement of air quality can be linked to the replacement of old city buses with new electric or hybrid vehicles, the expansion of the heating network, and theintroduction of a ban on fossil fuel combustion for heating buildings in 2019.
1. The composition of PM10 | The mean concentration of PM10 at the AK station was 76 µg/m3 in winterand 35 µg/m3 in summer; at the ZR station – 55 µg/m3 inwinter and 26 µg/m3 in summer. Physicochemical testsof PM10 showed that, on average, the carbon fraction
makes up 40%, about 25% – inorganic secondary aerosols (sulphate ions, nitrate ions, and ammonium) with

100

100
50
0

06_2018

07_2018

11_2018

12_2018

Unidentified

Transport

Inorganic secondary aerosols

Soil

Road dust, Industry, Construction work

Fossil fuel combustion

51

Thermal treatment of organic
waste as a method forresource acquisition

biomass

52

pute the efficiency of pyrolysis products with changing
process conditions, that is, temperature, type of carrier gas, or its flow rate. Małgorzata Sieradzka analyses
the composition of pyrolysis gas using gas chromatography. ‘Gas chromatography is an instrumental method used to analyse the composition of particular chemical compounds in mixtures. To put it briefly, we have acertain gaseous mixture – pyrolysis gas, for instance –and we analyse it in terms of the content and concentration of, e.g. hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, or hydrocarbons. To analyse particular compounds
that make up our gaseous mixture, they are carried bya neutral carrier gas (He) to a chromatographic column,
where they are separated on the basis of the so-called“time of retention”. The column is chosen specifically forthe substances analysed. As a result, we receive a chromatogram that shows peaks for particular compounds
against the retention time. These results are then compared with chromatograms obtained during analyses ofcalibration gases of known composition and concentration’, Prof. Magdziarz explains.
Organic waste can be reused in a number of ways.
Another method of recycling it is to transform it into
RDF (Refuse Derived Fuel). This is the name of alternative fuels obtained from selected waste materials withhigh thermal value (14–19 MJ/kg). Such energy sources can be a good alternative to conventional fossil fuels – coal, oil, or natural gas. Furthermore, biowaste isalso a valuable source of chemical compounds that canbe successfully used to produce cosmetics. An example
of such a biowaste material comes from the brewing industry, namely, the so-called ‘draff’. It is a lignocellulosic material that contains bioactive compounds, including phenols, which attract a great deal of attention fromthe scientific community given their wide scope of application.

Tetra Pak packaging
polyethylene
polyethylene
Al foilpolyethylene
paperboard
polyethylene

A considerable percentage of all refuse in Poland
is organic waste. How can we use it so that it
doesn’t heap up in landfills? One method to dothat is thermal conversion processes – suchas torrefaction, hydrothermal carbonisation,
pyrolysis, or gasification – which can help us
recycle biowaste to resource valuable products
and transform them into an alternative fuel.
Research in this field subscribes to the idea of circular
economy, which implies the minimisation of raw material extraction in favour of reusing the same products.
This is a way to manage the problem of insufficient resources on Earth, but also to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions.
The investigation on thermal conversion of organic waste, which can be reclaimed as materials for thechemical industry or as a biofuel, is the focus of the research team led by AGH UST Prof. Aneta Magdziarz fromthe Faculty of Metals Engineering and Industrial Computer Science, which carries out a project titled Multicriterial analysis of pyrolysis of agricultural waste biomass,biodegradable wastes, and RDF fuels.
Pyrolysis (from Greek pyr – fire, lysis – disintegration)
is a process of thermal decomposition of complex chemical compounds into simple ones, which occurs at hightemperatures in an inert atmosphere (N2, Ar). The research carried out at the AGH UST is related to the pyrolysis of agricultural and wood-type waste. During the
research phase of the project, a detailed analysis of thephysicochemical parameters of the substrates and pyrolysis products of the studied wastes was carried out
with the use of a wide spectrum of advanced instrumental methods. Furthermore, the scientists investigated
the influence of a catalyst on the efficiency of the process and the quality of particular products. In cooperation with Xi’an Jiaotong University, they have also studied the so-called ‘co-pyrolysis’ of wood waste biomass
and rubber waste during the catalytic cracking process.
As a result, a decrease in the concentration of phenol inpyrolysis oil and a reduction in the water content in the
products of pyrolysis were achieved.
The project includes several sub-studies carriedout by doctoral students. Artur Bieniek uses numerical methods in computational fluid dynamics to com-

MDF

Materials studied
waste sample

T1

TS

oil

gas
dehydration
unit

Tedlarbagwater cooler

flow
regulator

thermocouples
temperature
meter

gas
chromatograph

ZSM-5 or Zeolite Y
biomass

bio-gas

char
coke
major
& trace elements

Conversion productsTeam led by
AGH UST Professor Aneta Magdziarz
Faculty of Metals Engineering andIndustrial Computer Science
Project funded by a university grantwithin the IDUB programmeMagnified biochar structure

53

Towards climate-neutral powerengineering. Unconventional
geothermal systems

Geothermal
power plant

CO2 extraction

54

petrogeothermal
reservoir
CO2 storage

ÅRE FORMATION

CO2 storage

Trondheim

AY

Fault zone

RW

in the field of using geothermal energy and geologicalstorage of carbon dioxide. The actions taken aim to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and palliate human-induced climate changes, while simultaneously satisfying
the energy needs of societies.
The EnerGizerS project comprises six components,
which focus on research aimed at identifying and characterising geological structures appropriate for the installation of CO2-EGS systems in Poland and Norway.
The completion of the first stage has resulted in thedetermination of relevant parameters for the locationof such systems on land (Poland) and on sea (Norway),
as well as the identification of prospective geologicalstructures: Mogilno–Łódź Trough and the area around
Gorzów in Poland, as well as the Åre formation on the
Norwegian Sea. Comprehensive laboratory tests of coresamples from selected geological formations were performed, which facilitated the petrophysical, thermal,
and mechanical profiling of the rocks. The results oflaboratory tests were used for advanced mathematicalmodelling, including structural modelling of the geological reservoir, modelling of the fracturing process of solid rocks and 3D modelling for multi-variant simulationsof CO2 injection and exploitation with forecasts of reservoir behaviour over time. As part of an experimental
campaign aimed to determine the properties and behaviour of working fluids in the CO2-EGS systems, a doctoral student from the AGH UST Department of Energy
Resources went on a research visit to SINTEF (Norway).
Currently, the scientists work on models of undergroundand surface systems. The final results will be presented
at the end of 2023.

overburden rocks

NO

The reasons for this interest stem from the possibility ofgeological storage of CO2 during the geothermal energy conversion process. The CO2-EGS technology contributes to the protection of the climate by providing puregeothermal energy, while simultaneously eliminating CO2
emissions from fossil fuel combustion. The investigation has also shown significant advantages of using CO2
as the working fluid, including beneficial thermodynamic and transport properties and low chemical activity.
The research focused on the analysis of EGS efficiency, using carbon dioxide as the supercritical fluid, is carried out by a Polish-Norwegian consortium led by AGH
UST Professor Anna Sowiżdżał from the Department ofEnergy Resources at the Faculty of Geology, Geophysics,
and Environmental Protection. The consortium led by
the AGH UST consists of: Mineral and Energy Economy
Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences in
Krakow, SINTEF Energi AS (Trondheim, Norway), the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Trondheim,
Norway), and EXERGON Spółka z o.o. (Gliwice, Poland).
Since October 2020, the consortium members have been
carrying out a project titled CO2-Enhanced Geothermal
Systems for Climate Neutral Energy Supply, EnerGizerSin short. It received funding as part of the Polish-Norwegian POLNOR 2019 research project financed by the
Norway Grants through the National Centre for Researchand Development.
The chief objectives of the project include the development of enhanced geothermal systems using supercritical carbon dioxide as the medium, but also theintensification of cooperation between Polish and Norwegian partners, as well as the exchange of experience

EGS-CO2 installation

CO2

In many places, traditional exploitation ofgeothermal energy reservoirs, primarily
associated with the use of hot water, is restrictedby hydrogeological conditions. The alternative
might be systems using the potential of energy
trapped in hot dry rocks. Heat absorption in such
systems occurs by injecting fluids under highpressure, which circulate through the hot rocks.
Around the world, the Enhanced Geothermal
Systems (EGSs) are attracting more and more
attention, because, instead of water, they use
carbon dioxide as their working fluid.

extraction holeCO2

injection hole

MOGILNO–ŁÓDŹTROUGHTeam led by AGH UST Professor
Anna Sowiżdżał
Faculty of Geology, Geophysics, andEnvironmental Protection
Department of Energy Resources
R&D work carried out within
the EnerGizerS/NCBR projectGORZÓWZONEP O L A ND
Gliwice01000 kmKraków

Prospective geological structures for the EGS-CO2
indicated in the EnerGizerS project55

Towards sustainable power
technologies. Safe hydrogenstorage
Energy storage and conversion are two hugechallenges of the 21st century. Safe hydrogenstorage is the key segment of power systems
based on this element. Currently, hydrogenis stored widely in its gas form under highpressures, reaching 700 bars, or in its liquid form
at extremely low temperatures (20 K). However,for many applications, neither solution is
optimal due to the high costs these technologies
entail. Therefore, scientists have been working
on technologies to store large amounts ofhydrogen in smaller volumes without the needto maintain high pressures or extremely low
temperatures.
At the Faculty of Physics and Applied Computer Science,scientists have developed the concept of imaging andquantitative analysis of hydrogen storage containers(during loading or unloading), which was a novelty on a
global scale. They showed that the assumptions underlying the construction of hydrogen reservoirs had been
erroneous.
Metal hydride formation is a highly exothermic reaction; therefore, it is crucial to manage the heat flow,
while simultaneously ensuring a possibility of the expansion of the material volume during hydrogenation.
The investigation indicated how hydrogen tanks should
be designed to achieve the desired efficiency. It was
shown that nanostructuring of the active material withgraphite, which is a heat-transporting matrix, facilitateda significant increase in the effectiveness of reservoirs.
Making composites prevents the release of nanoparticles that, while travelling with hydrogen through installations, can damage moving parts, e.g. valves.
The Team for Magnetic, Electrical, and Structural Research at the Department of Solid State Physics developed an in situ neutron imaging technology to monitor
containers for solid hydrogen storage bound in metal
hydrides. The investigation was carried out in cooperation with Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, where a neutron
beam from the BERII reactor was used. Professor Łukasz
Gondek, Dr Joanna Czub, and Anna Zarzecka, MSc Eng. –implemented a neutron imaging technology for studying the behaviour of hydrogen-penetrating metallic ma-

56

terials, where it can be stored under low pressure at aroom temperature. This technique allows scientists toobserve the processes that occur in the hydrogen container in real time. This, in turn, facilitates the optimisation of the container’s structure and an increase inefficiency. The main limiting factors were shown to include the rate of heat absorption and changes in thevolume of the metallic material. After the material absorbs hydrogen, its volume can increase by more than
15%. The research showed that efficiency can be significantly improved by using composites that contain an
active material (e.g. TiMn2) and a heat-transporting matrix (e.g. graphite).
Storing hydrogen in metallic compounds finds application in stationary hydrogen storage facilities, railbound and maritime transport. With the Bozon Student
Research Club, the team designed and built a power supply system for the prototype of a fuel cell-powered boat.
The project showed that hydrogen containers are stableand do not cause problems during operation.
In addition to hydrogen storage, this technique isalso useful in nickel–metal hydride battery (Ni-MH) investigations to verify the functioning of the electrodeinto which hydrogen diffuses.
The results of the team’s research translate into commercial applications. Several European companies in thefield of materials and storage systems related to hydrogen technologies are currently using their solutions(GKN Hydrogen, MCPhy, SGL Carbon, GfE).

Team led by
AGH UST Professor Łukasz Gondek
Faculty of Physics and Applied Computer Science
Department of Solid State Physics

Power supply system for the hydrogen boat
In a single 20 cm-long container, there is 2 litresof hydrogen stored in a metallic nanocomposite.
The system can power the boat for morethan 1 hour.

R&D work implemented due to the Nanomaterials
for hydrogen storage project within the Polish–
Norwegian Research Programme

H2
TiMn2

30 s

Accumulation of hydrogen

60 s

0

10 min

0,5

1,0

1,5

Hydrogen absorption by metalsa) Illustrative image (H2 molecule dissociation and its absorption by the TiMn2 metal)b) The process captured by neutron imaging

57

Used coffee grounds –raw material for groundbreaking
ceramic materials
Each year, the world produces about 10 million
tonnes of whole bean coffee. If we ground theentire year’s harvest and made coffee from it,
we would be left with an equal mass of coffee
grounds, with an additional volume of unfilteredwater. This waste is not environmentally neutral,
because when deposited in landfills, it emits
methane, which belongs to the group of gases that
contribute to global warming. Little wonder thatscientists are investigating ways of repurposing it.
After adequate preparation, it can be used as a fertiliser, a biodegradable material for industrial production,or as a biofuel. Dr (Eng.) Ewelina Kłosek-Wawrzyn fromthe Faculty of Materials Science and Ceramics, is working on using coffee grounds as an eco-friendly material to produce porous ceramic materials. Such materials
show lower thermal conductivity than solids, and thisproperty makes them useful in construction industry to
improve thermal insulation of buildings.
Pores in ceramic materials are obtained as a result ofstoving clay mixed with additives. The latter simply burnout during the production process, leaving microspaces filled with gas. In traditional construction ceramics,
the additive used to obtain the porous structure is usually cellulose pulp or sawdust. Replacing those with coffee grounds of considerably higher calorific value makes
it possible to conserve the fuel used to produce heat.
‘Furthermore, wet coffee grounds collected from coffee
shops contain between 55 and 60 percent of water. Usually, when producing construction materials with the useof clay, we have to add water to make them plastic. Here,however, if we can organise the entire production process appropriately, adding water won’t be necessary atall’, says Dr Kłosek-Wawrzyn. In her research, she uses
a mixture of coffee grounds from two chains of coffee
shops. Although they come from different sources, theonly difference between them is the content of water,whereas they are identical in terms of granularity andvery similar in terms of calorific value.
The idea of using ground coffee waste as a clay additive in the production of porous ceramic materials is
not new. The challenge for engineers is to optimise thisprocess to obtain a material with desired thermal parameters, while simultaneously meeting the norms of58

mechanical resistence. The materials used in construction must remain rigid under various stresses, and adding too much of easily burning-out materials to clay reduces its resistance.
‘Construction materials manufactured today have, in
my opinion, too high strength parameters, which translates into higher thermal conductivity. In our material,
we want to find a balance between thermal conductivity and strength. However, we’re not aiming at high constructions, one- or two-storey is enough, where material strength doesn’t have to be that high, which makes it
possible to increase the porosity and, consequently, lower thermal conductivity. ‘Due to the fact that we havecompletely modified the production process, we can put
much more used coffee grounds into the material thanhas been described in the literature to date, and obtainsignificantly better thermal parameters of about 0.15–
0.25 watts per meter-kelvin’, says Dr Kłosek-Wawrzyn.
Dr Kłosek-Wawrzyn conducts her research together with her colleagues from the Department of Building Materials Technology. She prepares samples of ceramic materials, altering the proportions of used coffee
grounds, and analyses them thoroughly. ‘Above all, westudy the efficiency of the heat transfer coefficient using a stationary heat flow meter’, says the scientist. ‘We
test its compressive strength because construction materials are exposed to various mechanical forces. We analyse its density and porosity, but we also apply othertechniques, including scanning electron microscopy, tofind out what the material under investigation looks likein microstructure, that is, what its distribution of poresis and whether there are cracks. As a result, we can regulate the production process and shape the direction of
future research projects.’

A stationary heat flow meter to study theefficiency of the heat transfer coefficient ofmaterials made of clay and used coffee within
the range between 0,1 W/(m·K) and 10 W/(m·K)

Team led by
Dr (Eng.) Ewelina Kłosek-Wawrzyn
Faculty of Materials Science andCeramics
Department of Building Materials
Technology

Used coffee grounds and a ceramicmaterial made thereof

Project funded by a university
grant within the IDUB programme59

VRSophy – translating classicalphilosophical concepts into
the language of the present
What do we see when we think of philosophy?
Dusted volumes, abstract notions, and intricate
academic discussions? Only a handful ofenthusiasts try to convince us that it is truly about
issues that matter to us all, and the seemingly
dry philosophical discourse actually reveals
a powerful emotional load, speaking about truth,
breaking from the illusion, and the sense of
everyday existence.
What if we showed philosophy from a completely different perspective? If we invited people to play a game instead of reading a text? A game that engages body andmind at the same time? A survival game, anyone? Thisis the idea behind the VRSophy project, carried out by
the EduVRLab at the AGH UST Faculty of Humanities incooperation with the Film School in Lodz. The projectis coordinated by AGH UST Prof. Jowita Guja and AdamŻądło from the Department of Information Technology
and Media Studies. The project, a series of applications,
opens up with the VR Cave – an adaptation of the classical Plato’s text embedded in virtual reality.
The text is a fragment of the Republic, in which Plato
presents a vivid metaphor of human life. Let’s imagine
a cave, he writes, and inside this cave – prisoners, theireyes always on the wall facing away from the entrance,
which displays shadows of people and objects moving
far in the distance. The prisoners have no idea that they
are imprisoned. They are convinced that the true reality
is the shadow theatre, and their cave – the whole world.
We are these prisoners, Plato claims, and whatever we
accept as the truth is, in fact, an illusion. There is a wayof breaking out of the prison and turning to the true reality. However, it is a difficult task and would require us
to abandon everything that we know and consider safe.
The conviction that the surrounding world is a lie that
we have to pierce through is a momentous cultural paradigm, which lays foundations for philosophical and religious systems, as well as works of pop culture, such as
The Matrix and The Truman Show. The core of the caveallegory is the disruption of obviousness: what we know
and collectively respect proves fake. Waking up from theillusion is only the tip of the iceberg of a long-lastingand difficult process depicted by Plato as breaking outof the shackles, tedious climbing, being blinded by thelight. Plato places the cave narrative in the context of60

his own ontology. However, the metaphor itself is universal. Being uprooted from the familiar and safe is always precarious, regardless of the cave in which we are
imprisoned. It can be an ideological, religious, or political system. A cave can also be the “inside” of a VR headset, although it can be treated as a metaphor inside a
metaphor. A contemporary reading of the cave metaphor also generates questions: what if the cave is limitless? What if it is like the matryoshka doll – a cave inside a cave inside a cave to no end?
‘By transplanting a philosophical text to VR, we wantto provoke these questions’, says Prof. Guja. ‘Simultaneously telling its receiver to physically break out of thechains, climb, and swim (our cave is filled with water), we
ask them about the relationship between the thought
and the body. We assume that “serious” philosophisingmeans something more than a quiet read in a lectureroom. Delivering a multimedia experience that requires
an intellectual and physical effort, we want to emphasise the experiential nature of philosophy.’
The VR Cave can be experienced at many levels – itcan be an existential phenomenon, a foundation for aphilosophical debate, or simply entertainment. It reveals its subsequent layers depending on the user’s attitude and situation: the immersant can receive a proper
background during a philosophy seminar or explore thecave individually as one of the games they can downloadfrom Steam or Oculus Store.
The VR Cave is an experimental project that initiates
a series of VR adaptations of classical philosophical concepts. ‘They can serve as reference points for philosophical debates, complementing a traditional reading of texts.
However, we’d like those experiences to function also
outside the academic discourse: to speak with its own
unique language going beyond the boundaries of film,
video game, or philosophical treatise’, Prof. Guja adds.

Team led by
AGH UST Professor Jowita Guja
Faculty of Humanities
EduVRLab – interdepartmental
Virtual Reality Laboratory
The VRSophy project
implemented within the nvLab
programme and an MKiDN grant61

Wastewater-based epidemiology.
Innovative methods of
biomonitoring
Xenobiotics are a group of biologically active
chemical compounds found in human bodies,
which are neither produced by them nor foundin nature. The group contains medicines, butalso a number of harmful substances artificiallyintroduced into the environment. For example,
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Someof them show carcinogenic or mutagenic activity,
causing DNA mutations, leukaemia, or lung cancer.
How can we measure the extent to which the
population is exposed to these compounds?
PAHs constitute an ingredient of particulate matter air
pollution, and their primary source is the incomplete
combustion of organic materials. Given that they arepart of the small PM1 and PM2.5 fraction, they can easily penetrate our respiratory and cardiovascular systems.
The highest concentrations occur in highly urbanised areas. However, PAHs can penetrate the organism not only
from the air. ‘They can come from contaminated water.
High exposure to these toxic substances can also result
from smoking cigarettes, diet, or job,’ explains AGH UST
Professor Katarzyna Styszko, the leader of the projectfocusing on developing innovative methods of wastewater analysis for epidemiological purposes.
To determine the degree of exposure to those compounds, it might be helpful to combine measurementsin the city with biomonitoring of humans with respect
to PAHs and their metabolites that are a result of chemical transformations occurring in the body. To do this, it
is possible to take advantage of an innovative method
based on a chemical analysis of specific products of human metabolism found in sewage works, that is, wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE). In contemporary biomonitoring studies, a very precise correlation has beenshown between population exposure to PAHs and finding their biomarkers in urine.
‘Classic epidemiology is based mainly on surveys or
blood and urine tests of patients or volunteers who participate in such activities. This usually represents a narrow spectrum of the population; moreover, such studies are very expensive, require a lot of work, and you
have to wait a long time before you get the results. In
the case of WBE, we can practically assess the exposureof a specific population to selected substances in realtime. We usually count it in mg/24h per 1,000 citizens’,62

says Prof. Styszko. WBE provides objective data on aggregate exposure to PAH xenobiotics of citizens from a
specified area, which, after penetrating the human body,are metabolised quickly and after a few days leave thebody in the form of hydroxy derivatives. This method
was used by our engineers, who, during their comprehensive tests, not only thoroughly analysed the PM, butalso made precise measurements of wastewater, while
establishing fruitful cooperation with the largest sewage works in Krakow.
The researchers organised two wastewater measurement campaigns – a summer edition (2020) and a winter edition (2021) to determine seasonal changes in thecompounds. The samples collected at the sewage works
were transported to a laboratory, where, after appropriate treatment, they were analysed with the use of a gas
chromatography–mass spectrometry method. ‘Chromatography is an analytical technique aimed at separatinga particular fraction within a sample, while the application of mass spectrometry is to determine the substances contained in the sample and to indicate their concentrations’, explains Prof. Styszko. To assess the degree of
exposure to PAHs, it was necessary to know the processes of PAH metabolism and adequate back-calculations.
The initial results showed a significant seasonal correlation of the exposure of Krakow citizens to PAHs. The
positive effects of the research will allow scientists to
expand wastewater analyses to other cities – not only in
Poland, but also in Europe. The study will also facilitaterisk assessment related to the penetration of PAH hydroxylic derivatives into water environments, which – as
it turns out – are not completely filtered out in sewage
works and, according to the researchers, can be evenmore toxic than the initial compounds.

2

1

4
3

Team led by AGH UST Professor
Katarzyna Styszko
Faculty of Energy and Fuels
Department of Coal Chemistry andEnvironmental Sciences
Project funded by a university grantwithin the IDUB programme

The procedure:
1. Sample collection in sewage works
2. Filtration
3. Solid-phase extraction
4. Gas chromatography with mass
spectrometry analysis (GC-MS)

63

Where computer science meets
economy. Computational aspectsof social choice
Team led byProfessor Piotr Faliszewski
Faculty of Computer Science, Electronics,
and Telecommunications
Instytut Informatyki

Where is the link between searching forinteresting films to watch in the evening, putting
together a participatory budget to make our cities
better, and hiring new employees to elevate ourbusinesses? Each activity can be presented as acollective decision-making process that involves
specific conditions and problems.
On the one hand, there are candidates, that is, all thefilms available in the database, ideas to improve thecity’s environment and a group of potentially suitable
employees; on the other, a set of evaluations of thosecandidates. The evaluations include opinions of people
who had already seen the film and shared their thoughts
online, the votes of residents of a given city, and the assessment of recruiters evaluating potential employees(some might look at technical and others at interpersonal skills). Based on these assessments – or, more formally, the votes cast – we want to select the winning group:
good films to watch, city projects to fund, and a shortlist of prospective employees.
Such decision-making processes are considered ineconomics, political sciences, philosophy, and operational research. However, these considerations have recently entered the domain of computer science. It turns
out that surprisingly many electoral problems are difficult to compute and require nontrivial algorithmic solutions, especially as in the aforementioned situations
when we want to select a group of winners, and not
one candidate. For example, for numerous natural generalisations of the D’Hondt method, which allows voters to express their opinion on individual candidates,
the problem of finding out the winner is NP-Hard. Thismeans that calculating the results of elections could
theoretically take decades. Luckily, there are a numberof ideas to avoid this scenario.
As part of the PRAGMA project, Prof. Piotr Faliszewski and his team from the Faculty of Computer Science,
Electronics, and Telecommunications focus on analysing
the theoretical side of the problem of choice, simultaneously transposing mathematical results into practice.
The scientists aim to develop algorithms to bypass computational difficulties that could be easily implemented
in practice. ‘In particular, we’ll be looking for effective
algorithms that will allow voters to make their choic-

64

es fairly and in an informed way as to which candidates,
contestants, or citizen projects they should choose’, Prof.
Faliszewski sums up.
One of the most important issues that the PRAGMA
project touches upon is the analysis of electoral data.
It turns out that, although many problems can be theoretically difficult to compute, practice shows that they
are scarce. Therefore, Professor Faliszewski’s team havebeen developing novel methods for comparing electoral data, which allows them to select the choice models that are possible to implement in practice. To date,the team’s research has allowed it to indicate a natural
metric of elections and pinpoint the areas in which suchelections occur in practice, as well as show the areas inwhich, depending on the parameters, the elections generated on the basis of standard randomised models arelocated (an example of such a map of elections is depicted in the figure). This makes it possible to generate
any amount of electoral data, which can then be used todesign and analyse algorithms. For instance, if we knowthat in certain elections we can expect data distributed
in a specific way (with a margin of approximation), thenthe electoral data generated from this distribution willallow the scientists to predict the behaviour of the tested algorithm.
The PRAGMA project (Pragmatics of Multiwinner Voting: Algorithms and Preference Data Analysis) thrives
due to the prestigious ERC Consolidator grant that Prof.
Faliszewski has received. The research results related tothe project were published in renowned academic journals and as conference materials devoted to artificial intelligence, such as Artificial Intelligence or the AAAI andIJCAI conference publications, as well as economic journals, such as Social Choice and Welfare. The results will
surely find application in multiple areas of life related
to voting and decision-making – in communities and institutions, sport, culture, and business.

The PRAGMA project funded by
an ERC grantgroup-separable(caterpillar model)

single-peaked(Conitzer model)
Euclidean model(1D)
single-crossing

group-separable(balanced model)

urn model

sphere model

uniform distribution
Euclidean model(2D and 3D)

single-peaked(Walsh model)

Mallows model

Map of elections obtained in the PRAGMA project
Each dot is a single election, i.e. a pair (C,V) where C is a set of candidates and V is a collection of
voters whose votes are represented as linear orders over C. The votes are generated using a number
of well-known statistical models, such as the Mallows model.
The map also contains four characteristic points, namely:• UN (uniformity; the votes are maximally diverse),• ID (identity; all votes are identical),• AN (antagonism; half of the voters have opposite preferences to the other half),• ST (stratification; half of the candidates are preferred to the other half by all the voters).

65

AGH UST Innovator 2022. Scientific achievements
Copyright by
AGH University of Scienceand Technology in Krakow
ISBN 978-83-66727-97-7
Krakow 2022
PUBLISHER
Centre for Communication and Marketing
AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow
EDITING AND TYPESETTING
Marianna Cielecka
translation AND PROOFREADING
Cezary PolakILLUSTRATIONSThis publication uses images and photos primarily from theprivate archives of the authors of the projects described. The
figure on page 11 and the photographs on pages 33 (a person
in VR goggles) and 51 have been retrieved from Dreamstime.
Photographs on pages 9, 33 (HoloLens 2), and 59 have beentaken by Marianna Cielecka; the photograph on page 13 by
Michał Ciesielka, and the photograph on page 43 by Maciej
Talar / AGH UST Krakow Student Photo Agency. The figure on
page 49 has been authored by Paweł Maczuga, MSc Eng.
PRODUCTION
NBI Media

agh.edu.pl