Created: 2026.01.05. 15:16
Bence Novák, a BSc in Vehicle Engineering student at Széchenyi István University, achieved second place at the International STEAM Azerbaijan Festival (SAF), recently held at the Baku Expo Center. The prestigious event brought together more than 5,000 participants from 26 countries, competing in 16 professional categories.
The International STEAM Azerbaijan Festival was organised for the fifth time this year with the support of the Ministry of Science and Education of Azerbaijan. The three-day event is one of the region’s largest STEAM-based education and innovation programmes, aiming to strengthen the integrated approach of science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics (STEAM) among young people. The initiative seeks to provide competition and presentation opportunities for various age groups – from primary school pupils to university students – and to introduce as many students as possible to the potential of this approach.
The thematic diversity of the competitions reflects the broad professional scope of the festival: participants could compete in numerous categories, ranging from robotics and drone technology to renewable energy sources and creative engineering solutions. Out of more than 5,000 competitors, 1,415 advanced to the final in Baku, including 212 participants from 22 foreign countries.
In this strong international field, Széchenyi István University was represented by Bence Novák, who competed in the “Innovation and Business Development” category. In his presentation, he focused on the development processes of the electric vehicles built by the SZEnergy Team student group, their engineering and business aspects, as well as the learning and research opportunities available at the University. During the competition, the professional jury evaluated the technical content of the solutions presented, the applied innovations and the business potential of the projects.
The festival offered not only competition opportunities but also valuable international networking. “My short visit to Baku was extremely successful: I had the opportunity to meet the Deputy Minister of Education of Uzbekistan and the organiser of the event. I am very pleased that I ultimately secured second place in my category,” said Bence Novák.
The result achieved in Baku also confirms the many years of consistent development work carried out by the SZEnergy Team. The team’s innovations have been successfully competing year after year at Europe’s most prestigious energy-efficient vehicle competition, the Shell Eco-marathon, which they won for the fourth time this year with a world record.
