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.

The current project portfolio of the research group

At the end of the first block, Dr. Zoltán Micskei, who has been the leader of the research group since 2019, outlined the group's current educational and research directions. The research group currently has 29 members, 11 of whom hold PhD degrees, and 14 PhD students representing the next generation. Research group members teach systems modeling and trusted systems design in more than 15 subjects, from BSc to PhD. Since its inception, talent management has been a vital priority of the group, mentoring more than 150 TDK students over the decades who have achieved more than 50 OTDK awards with their work. Research topics started as students have resulted in more than 30 doctoral degrees. The group's research portfolio covers a broad spectrum from basic research (e.g., Amazon Research Award, EU Horizon projects), applied research (e.g., EU Digital or ITEA projects), and targeted industrial collaborations.

To commemorate almost five decades of a successful academic career, members of the research team presented the founding professor with a montage of titles of articles written over the years.

The montage of the research paper titles from Prof. András Pataricza András 

In the second block of the event, the members of the group presented the latest and future research directions. Dr. Imre Kocsis presented design and analysis methods for applying blockchains and distributed ledger technologies in critical systems. Dr. László Gönczy overviewed the possibilities of reliable data analysis and data-driven engineering. Dr. Vince Molnár showcased the latest methodologies and modeling languages for model-based system design, highlighting the research group's involvement in standardization. Dr. András Vörös presented the automatic algorithms and tools developed by the group to support safety analysis, testing, and formal verification. Dr. Oszkár Semeráth highlighted advanced graph-based inference methods that can be used, for example, to verify artificial intelligence-based systems.