The 31-year-old student from Széchenyi started his higher education in 2017. After graduating from high school, he supported the family business as a car mechanic but wanted to deepen this knowledge with a degree. When asked why, as a native of Budapest, he chose a provincial university, Biró gave a clear answer:

"I visited several university open days to find the programme I liked the best. My motivation was that before university, I had worked in car repair. I wanted to get a degree in the field and deepen my knowledge, and Széchenyi István University offered the most practice-oriented courses."

István Biró graduated from Széchenyi István University in 2021 with a BSc degree in automotive engineering. (Photo: Bálint Pfandler )

Work experience is a real advantage for a recent engineering graduate

His decision to stay on at Széchenyi István University after his Bachelor's degree and start a Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering is proof of his decision. István stressed that he was so satisfied with the knowledge he had acquired at the University and the opportunities it offered him that it was clear to him that he should continue:

"I found that much of the general knowledge acquired at university can often only be used in industry in part or by supplementing it. Széchenyi István University provided me with many opportunities to participate in various industrial and academic projects, thanks to which I had considerable professional experience after graduation, giving me an advantage over other young engineers. The University offers a lot of opportunities for professional development."

István Biró is consciously building his engineering career and wants to work his way up to a doctorate

(Photo: Marcell Nyers)

And István seized the opportunity. Already during his undergraduate studies, he attracted the attention of his lecturers by taking on a number of extra projects in addition to his study commitments.

He created technical sketches for the University's video lab, worked as a demonstrator in technical illustration and mechanical modelling classes, and created a mobile phone application to improve students' spatial vision skills and help lecturers with their work. With the latter project, he was awarded second place in the Learning and Teaching Methodology and Knowledge Technology section of the 2021 National Conference of Scientific Students (OTDK).

His teachers helped him to achieve these results:

"At the beginning of my studies, I met Mrs Kovács, a lecturer from the course „Technical Illustration I”. She listened to me and mentored me all the way. Thanks to her intervention, I met Flóra Hajdu, a lecturer with whom I won two New National Excellence Programme grants. With their help as consultants, I was awarded second place at the 35th OTDK. And together with Melinda Menyhárt-Baracskai, we published a joint publication."

He also highlighted the motivational power of the student community:

"I can consider myself lucky, because during my years in college I met great fellow students with whom we could solve problems related to our studies. The Hall of Residence community was a great motivating force for learning and of course for recreation. It gave me access to a lot of information."

Talking about former fellow students and life in the Hall of Residence, István fondly recalls his years in Győr:

"The Hall was definitely the most influential for me in terms of community life. I believe that the friendships and relationships I made there are reflected in my achievements. I loved being a student at Széchenyi, and now, as a correspondence student, I look back and miss the active, carefree years of study. There were many times when I would sit down with friends after a long day of exams and go down to the Golden Riverbank (Aranypart) or for a walk in the city."

The application which also won an OTDK award and a foundation scholarship

In his final year, he received a grant from the Széchenyi István University Foundation in recognition of his self-developed app, which aims to improve students' spatial vision skills and help lecturers in their work.

"The app was written in the Flutter development environment, developed by Google. Thanks to this, it can be compiled from a single source code for Android and iOS devices. Initially, the app was used to display 3D models related to technical rendering. Later on, I also implemented quiz-like, multiple-choice exercises. With the intervention of my fellow student Gergő Csiszár, we added augmented reality (AR) features to the toolkit. With the latter, students can walk around the models related to the subject in real space with the help of their phones, thus facilitating their understanding of the 2D representation of 3D objects."

István Biró is currently working as an ADAS systems test engineer at Jaguar Land Rover Hungary Kft. This year he plans to complete his Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering, specialising in Applied Mechanics, but he would also like to pursue a PhD in the future. He envisages his future after that in some kind of research and development position in the automotive field.

In addition, he would also like to work as a lecturer, as he had the opportunity to work as a departmental engineer at Széchenyi István University for a year after his undergraduate studies, when he taught technical drawing and taught thermodynamics and fluid mechanics.

István Biró is currently working as an ADAS systems test engineer at Jaguar Land Rover Hungary Kft.

(Photo: Gergő Csiszár)

"The distance between music and engineering is only apparent"

István Biró is at home not only in the technical world, but also in the musical world. We stumbled across his background as a concert promoter on Facebook, which he told us about:

"Before university I was a concert promoter and I have eight years of classical piano studies behind me. The distance between music and technical disciplines is only apparent. Music is just as much about engineering precision systems, and the engineering world requires the creativity that is essential in music. One of my old teachers often quoted Goethe on this subject: 'He who does not love music is not worthy of the name of man; he who loves it is only half a man, he who makes music himself is a whole man!'"