Brno University of Technology (BUT) was established in 1899 as the Austrian Emperor and Hungarian King Franz Joseph 1 signed a decree bringing into existence a Czech technical university in Brno – the first Czech higher education institution in Moravia. At the time of opening, the university had four professors and forty-seven students. In the course of more than 110 years is has matured into an internationally recognized institution offering a cutting-edge education based on the latest scientific and professional knowledge delivered at eight faculties and Institute of Forensic Engineering covering a broad spectrum of fields ranging from technical and scientific disciplines through economics to the arts. Electrotechnical disciplines were first taught at the university in 1905. Currently, they are covered by the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication (FEEC) with the around 4,000 students altogether.

As a major higher-education institution in the Czech Republic, Brno University of Technology makes every effort to be an excellent university, particularly in the main mission areas, that is, education, research, cooperation with the practicalsphere, and in social sphere.

The Center of Sensor, Information and Communication Systems (SIX) was established in 2010 as a joint initiative of FEEC departments to support the innovation potential of companies which actively exploit communication, information and sensor technologies in different areas of life. Supporting the quality of life of the aging population (sensing life functions and wireless transmission of information), reducing the danger of terroristic attacks (sensing marks of dangerous substances and wireless warning), controlling traffic using the concept of an intelligent highway (mutual communication among cars and stationary units) or timely diagnosis of nervous diseases using the analysis of speech signals can be given as examples.

The SIX Research Center exploits the background of the university to obtain new knowledge and to create novel solutions by its own fundamental research. New knowledge is subsequently applied to novel products and novel services of partner companies. For example, we researched probabilistic artificial neural networks revealing areas of very strong electromagnetic fields in airplanes which are manufactured from composite materials (the fundamental research was supported by the Czech Science Foundation, and the consequent applied research was performed in the frame of a common project with Evektor Ltd. supported by the Ministry of Industry and Trade).

The SIX Research Center performs the research of technologies to be applied in communication, information and sensor systems in a near future. Hence, The Sixth Sense for Communication Systems of the Future is the motto of the SIX Center.