The 35th ICTCT conference was held in Catania, Italy, with participants from more than 30 countries, including researchers and academics from Széchenyi István University. The international professional organisation focuses on road safety, with a strong emphasis on accident prevention. Since the 1980s, the association has been pioneering the use of conflict techniques and measurable indicators of conflict, with the help of the best in the business, to address near-accident situations rather than accidents. Its main activity is the organisation of conferences and related training courses and workshops throughout Europe and beyond.

The Associate Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Transport Sciences of Széchenyi István University was elected to the governing body of the prestigious professional organisation (Photo: Csaba József Májer)

Dr. Attila Borsos, Associate Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Transport Sciences of Széchenyi István University, was elected to the seven-member governing body of this prestigious organisation. The board is responsible for running the ICTCT, selecting conference venues, inviting organisers and providing day-to-day support to the institutions hosting the conferences. In addition, the panel determines the main directions and current research areas that will be the topics of the conferences, which is why the presence of an associate professor from Széchenyi István University is of paramount importance. The organisation also aims to disseminate its work and the theories of road safety to the professional community in as many countries as possible.

"Our closer cooperation started last year, when Széchenyi István University hosted the ICTCT European Conference - the first time this has happened in Hungary since 1998. This is how I got involved in the work of the governing body, and I was enthusiastically involved in the development of a guide for conference organisation and in the work of the supervisory board, among other things," said the Associate Dean. At this year's renewal meeting, Dr Attila Borsos received the most votes of the four candidates, and Széchenyi University is now represented on the governing body of the international society.

"We had a good number of representatives from our university at the conference, and our aim was to have our doctoral students present their results. This year, we were present with three doctoral topics" - underlined Dr. Attila Borsos. One of the PhD students present was Amira Hammami, who presented the first validation study of a cycling simulator developed in collaboration with her computer scientist colleague Pál Sándor Ágoston over the past year, which aims to test different infrastructure designs and traffic situations under controlled and safe conditions. Also present were PhD students Symbat Zhanguzinova and Ziyad Aldoski.

Dr. Attila Borsos, Associate Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, Civil and Transport Sciences, PhD student Amira Hammami and Dr. Csaba Koren, professor emeritus at the ICTCT conference.

At the conference, Dr. Attila Borsos' presentation won the best oral presentation award, which was awarded for the first time in the history of ICTCT conferences. The topic of the winning presentation was related to a European Union directive on the safety prioritisation of the road network. This helps to identify dangerous and less dangerous sections within a network.

"At the moment, there is no detailed guide for this methodology in our country, but colleagues at the University of Catania already have one. Our basic idea was to test its usability in Hungary. An Italian student came to the Széchenyi University on an Erasmus scholarship and a student from our institution also worked on the topic, resulting in two theses. We took this further, using it and adding our research to the presentation, which was a great success," said the award-winning speaker.