From brewing beer to tech talent: Pilsen transforms itself into innovation hub
Pilsen gave the world its famous lager beer. Today one of the Czech city's old breweries has been transformed into a state-of-the-art technology park.
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00:00This historic brewery in the Czech city of Pilsen has been transformed into a technology
00:06park.
00:07It's in a part of the world that gave us the first pale lager and even the word robot.
00:12And today they're innovating yet again with the European project Tech Tower.
00:18We develop talents and inspire to businesses.
00:24It means we organize around 80 events during the year.
00:28We are teaching students in high school, university, we do like hackathons, festivals
00:34like it's here.
00:38The We Innovate Pilsen festival, which this year took place in early June, is only one
00:43example of what Tech Tower offers to start-ups like CIE, specializing in virtual reality
00:48for education.
00:49The Tech Tower project cost almost 26 million euros, about seven of which come from the European
01:18cohesion policy.
01:20Inside the 10,000 square meters of the building, beside the multifunctional hall where events
01:25happen, there are offices, co-working spaces and other facilities.
01:32Among them a water tank 10 meters deep, the largest in the country, where rescue workers
01:36can test their equipment, such as this water drone.
02:04The main aim of the project is education about new technologies.
02:07The result is that many emerging talents are nurtured here.
02:11We have here some hackers from national team of Czech Republic.
02:15We have here some guys who build their own hydrogen small car.
02:19I'm proud of the guys who work with the spot.
02:23Spot is the name of the two robots from Boston Dynamics the city bought for students to try
02:27out this technology.
02:29Students no older than 16 or even 15, like Samuel.
02:32Me and my friend Martin are planning to create a rover that would help us maybe win some
02:40scholarships or something.
02:42And because of support here, where we have programmed the spot, we get a place to build
02:47the robot and we get the funds.
02:50From brewery to robot programming, Tech Tower and the future of Pilsen couldn't be more
02:54Czech than that.