The Critical Systems Research Group (ftsrg) at BME VIK MIT celebrated its 30th anniversary on the 4th of July. At the event, attended by more than 100 current and former colleagues, partners, and students, the group's members recalled the group's fundamental research and educational achievements. They provided insights into the latest results in blockchain, trusted data management, model-based system engineering, automatic verification, and graph generation.

The Critical Systems Research Group at the Department of Artificial Intelligence and Systems Engineering (MIT) of BME VIK was founded on 4 July 1994 by Prof. András Pataricza for the teaching and research of fault-tolerant computing under the name of the Fault Tolerant Systems Research Group. The group celebrated its 25th anniversary with a new name, retaining the "ftsrg" brand that has become familiar since its founding. The July event celebrated the research group's anniversary, as well as the birthday of the founding professor (who turns 70 this year).

The current and past members of the research group

The event was opened by Prof. Charaf Hassan, Rector of BME. In his speech, he highlighted the outstanding talent management achievements of the group in the past decades, the numerous TDK and OTDK awards, and wished the members of the group further similar successes. In his welcome speech, Prof. Tamás Dabóczi, Head of the Department, stressed that one of the critical elements of the group's success was that the young members of the group were very quickly given the opportunity and responsibility to participate or even take a leading role in research projects and international collaborations.

In his introduction, Prof. András Pataricza recalled the research group's main professional methods and principles. A central element in the professional activities was the application of modeling and mathematical analysis methods to various industrial and engineering problems. From the group's early years, international experience and cooperation in projects were emphasized. Regarding leadership, he believed in gradually giving way to young people in education and research as they explore new areas.

Dr. István Majzik presented the founding and initial success of the group. The initial period was marked by three international collaborations, which resulted in many joint papers, projects, and visits, and introduced the group members to international academic standards. Prof. Mario Dal Cin at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Prof. Luca Simoncini at the University of Pisa, and Dr. Andrea Bondavalli at the CNR-CNUCE research institute in Pisa have visited researchers several times. Participation in several EU Framework Programmes, starting with the HIDE project in 1998, has been instrumental in the group's professional development. The principle of the so-called hidden formal methods of linking engineering-mathematical models developed in this project is still fundamental today - for example, it was applied in the recent pioneering work of the group in the verification of SysMLv2 system models. The presentation gave an overview of 2005-2015, when more than 10 EU R&D projects refined and further developed the algorithmic and engineering methods that define the group's competencies.

In his welcome speech, Prof. Andrea Bondavalli, Professor at the University of Florence and Honorary Doctor of BME, praised the 30 years of cooperation between the research teams and the friendship with András Pataricza. Several high-impact papers, jointly organized conferences, and visiting professorships result from this successful collaboration, which continues to this day, for example, in the framework of the ADVANCE EU H2020 project.