53rd Prof. Dr. Vratislav Bedjanič Prize Award

On Tuesday, 12 December 2023, the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the University of Ljubljana presented the 53rd Prof. Dr. Vratislav Bedjanič Prize.

The Memorial to Prof. Vratislav Bedjanič, founder and director of the first Iskra Tela factory in Ljubljana, is a well-established and renowned award among technical experts. The prizes for outstanding academic work in the fields of electrical power engineering and automation, which were established to preserve the image of the university teacher and businessman, while also encouraging graduates, master's students and doctoral candidates in application-oriented research in the field of automation, have been awarded since 1970. Over the fifty-three years of its existence, the Award has gained a prestigious recognition linked to the names of Iskra, the Universities of Ljubljana and Maribor, and the Slovenian Association of Electrical Engineers CIGRÉ-CIRED. Most of the winners today are renowned researchers, university professors, businessmen and experts with international reputations in European and global professional associations.

Outstanding doctoral dissertation

The Prize Committee of Prof. Dr. Vratislav Bedjanič has awarded a prize for a doctoral dissertation and two prizes for a Master's degree for the year 2023. The Doctoral Dissertation Prize was awarded to Dr Nataša Prosen, under the supervision of Prof. Dr Miro Milanović, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Informatics, University of Maribor, for her thesis entitled Wireless power transmission with double DD winding.

Master's degree prizes also awarded

The award for the Master's degree went to Jan Močnik, mag. Eng. el, from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Ljubljana, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Miloš Pantoš for his thesis entitled Short-term forecasting of solar power plant production, and Jaka Rober, M.Sc. Eng. el, from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Informatics, University of Maribor, under the mentorship of Prof. Dr. Miloš Beković and co-supervision of Leon Maruš for the thesis entitled Determination of flexibility potential of distribution network users.

Prof. Bedjanič graduated from the Faculty of Technology in Ljubljana in 1929 and was subsequently appointed assistant professor at the University of Ljubljana in 1940. As an extremely astute expert in the field of electrical engineering, he was involved in the establishment and organisation of the Slovenian electrical industry as early as 1945, including Iskra in Kranj, Elma in Črnuče and Elektrokovina in Maribor. On the basis of the needs of the time and his own insights into the importance of mastering the production of equipment for the automation of power installations, he personally initiated and led the establishment of the Electrical Apparatus Factory-TELA in Ljubljana. From its foundation on 29 June 1949, he led it as its commercial and professional director for a full decade until his untimely death, which befell him on his way to work. On 15 December 1999, on the occasion of the 29th award ceremony and the 40th anniversary of his death, a bust of him was unveiled in the park of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Ljubljana.