The BME Alumni Meetup Munich – Mobility & Innovation, held at the Consulate General of Hungary in Munich on 3 November, attracted more than 90 registrations. At BME’s first international alumni gathering, Dr. Zsolt Szalay, Head of the Department of Automotive Technologies, delivered a keynote on the role of live digital twins in cooperative mobility, highlighting the results and potential applications of the department’s M1–M7 Smart Road project.

The event brought together former BME students currently working or pursuing further studies in Germany, particularly in Bavaria, alongside representatives of Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME), the Technical University of Munich (TUM), and industry partners. With around 50 BME alumni attending, the meeting provided an opportunity to strengthen personal connections between the university and its international alumni community, while laying the groundwork for new professional collaborations.

The event was opened by László Gurza, Science and Technology Attaché at the Consulate General of Hungary in Munich. András Nemeslaki, BME Vice-Rector for International Affairs, spoke about the university’s international community and the importance of alumni relations. The programme also featured a presentation by Milán Boros, a student at BME’s Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, who introduced the university’s student competition teams, their projects and opportunities for professional collaboration.

Live Digital Twins for Cooperative Mobility

The keynote address was delivered by Dr. Zsolt Szalay under the title Live Digital Twins: Redefining Cooperative Mobility. His presentation explored how real-time digital representations of vehicles and transport infrastructure can create new opportunities for cooperative mobility.

A substantial part of the presentation focused on the M1–M7 Smart Road development, implemented through a collaboration between the Department of Automotive Technologies and Magyar Közút, the Hungarian road management company. One of the project’s key objectives is to create a continuously updated digital twin of traffic along a sensor-equipped road section. By integrating data from cameras, LiDAR and RADAR sensors, the system enables a continuous and detailed digital representation of the traffic environment.

This infrastructure-based approach to environmental perception opens up new perspectives for the development and testing of automated vehicles. Information from a vehicle’s own sensors can be complemented by data provided by the infrastructure, allowing road users to receive information about events beyond their immediate field of view. The real-time digital twin also supports traffic situation analysis, technology validation and the evaluation of cooperative mobility solutions.

The project illustrates how vehicle technology, environmental perception, digital twin modelling and automated driving come together in the department’s research activities.

International Connections and Exchange of Ideas

The keynote presentations were followed by a networking reception, providing participants with an opportunity to exchange academic and industry experience, strengthen personal connections and explore new areas of professional collaboration.

The Munich gathering also marked an important milestone in BME’s university-wide alumni engagement programme, launched in 2025. The initiative aims to build an international network that strengthens long-term cooperation between the university, its former students and academic and industry partners in Hungary and abroad.

The event demonstrated that the international alumni community plays an important role not only in maintaining former university connections, but also in fostering knowledge exchange, industrial and research collaboration, and BME’s international professional presence.