Jaguar Land Rover Collaborates with Budapest University of Technology and Economics on Engineer Training and Research

During the BME X Jaguar Land Rover TechDay event, the Rector and Chancellor of Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) signed a collaboration agreement with the CEO of Jaguar Land Rover.

“At BME, research directions are guided by the real needs of our industrial partners. It’s important and honorable that Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has become our strategic partner in research and development,” said Tibor Czigány, the Rector of BME. He added, “Today’s collaboration agreement sets an example as it involves several of our faculties. Alongside the Faculty of Transportation Engineering and Vehicle Engineering, the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics will also contribute to this partnership initiated five years ago. Given JLR’s global reputation, our students and staff stand to gain immensely from this collaboration.”

Zsolt Szalay, the Head of the Department of Automotive Technologies at BME, stated, “Due to BME’s size, traditions, and competencies, it is well-suited to provide tailored, targeted, and flexible training programs for JLR, allowing us to continually update and expand the knowledge of the company’s employees. We consider these training programs as a service, and while we provide, we also learn a great deal. Our goal is to offer outstanding and beneficial training courses for JLR engineers. The significance of this collaboration is heightened by the fact that the company is one of the five original equipment manufacturers present in Hungary.”

The collaboration between the Department of Vehicle Technology at BME and Jaguar Land Rover Hungary Kft. (JLR) dates back nearly five years. “The excellent professional knowledge of engineers trained at BME is well-known. As a former student of this university myself, I have experienced firsthand the quality education it provides and the dedication it demands from its students,” emphasized Ákos Garaba, CEO of JLR Hungary. “We have long-term plans with our employees, so it’s important for us to continuously provide high-quality training locally, and BME is the perfect partner for this. They listen to what competencies need to be taught and understand our needs in terms of further education for engineers. The CEO emphasized, “I consider it very important that our engineers can receive “tailor-made” training,” and added: “The Faculty of Transport Engineering and Vehicle Engineering of BME has also launched the English-language autonomous vehicle engineer course, which covers all the technical fields necessary for the creation of future transport. Automotive cyber security (automotive cyber security) and functional safety (functional safety) are also important areas of training, with the department’s programmes offering courses tailored to our needs.” – stressed Ákos Garaba.

The collaboration between JLR Hungary and BME initially involves three faculties but will expand continuously. The area related to the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering covers injection molding, tooling, and product optimization. The collaboration related to the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics focuses on artificial intelligence in automotive design. Collaboration with the Faculty of Transportation Engineering and Vehicle Engineering will begin on automotive functional safety and cybersecurity. Two engineers from JLR have already started their doctoral research at BME. Currently, the emphasis is on refining the framework for the next phase of partnership. Their goal is multi-level collaboration: from internships to diploma programs, to study competitions. Furthermore, exploring common research areas and jointly applying for research and development projects will also receive significant emphasis in the future.

At the event held at the J Building of BME and its surroundings on May 14, attendees had the opportunity to learn about the latest developments in vehicle engineering. Jaguar Land Rover development engineers delivered exciting presentations on vehicle testing, acoustic modeling, function development, and injection molding. Attendees also had the chance to explore the newest vehicles in the parking lot.