The future of vehicle design is built in Budapest – the collaboration between Mercedes-Benz and MOME has been running for 20 years

Date: 2022.05.25
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the collaboration between Mercedes-Benz and the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (MOME), to be celebrated by the university with a grand series of events. The graduation ceremony in July will feature chief design officer of the luxury brand Gorden Wagener, who will deliver a speech, as well as inaugurate the Mobility Design Lab, the university’s new designer workshop exploring the future of transportation, together with the President of MOME Foundation.

Over the past two decades of collaboration between Mercedes-Benz and MOME, the university’s vehicle design programme has risen to the forefront globally. MOME’s students and teachers have been actively involved in the design programmes of the car brand, with a number of students first interning, and then working full-time at the design department of the company. The partnership has given outstanding specialists not only to Hungary, but the whole world: students graduating from here went on to excel at the designer teams of major automobile manufacturers such as Audi, KIA, BMW and Volvo. 

In the next 20 years, MOME will be engaged in researching and shaping the future of broader mobility, by designing drones, ships, bikes and other means of transportation in addition to cars, as well as the related user experience. The goal is to train designers with a diverse mindset and skilled in the latest technologies who can meet market needs and respond to changing social and environmental expectations.  

The Mobility Design Lab, MOME’s newly developed vehicle design studio with state-of-the-art equipment, will be opened by chief design officer of Mercedes-Benz Gorden Wagener and Chairman of MOME Foundation Gergely Böszörményi-Nagy on 1 July 2022.  

MOME’s vehicle design programme will make its debut at the AMTS (Automobile and Tuning Show), Hungary’s top car event. On the opening day of the event on 27 May 2022, head of MOME Design Institute Péter Molnár will talk about the collaboration with Mercedes-Benz as part of the exhibition Hungarians in the International Automotive Industry, while MOME’s stall will feature spectacular physical models as well as virtual representations of the latest works by students. 

MOME is changing its operational model 

Since August 2020, the 142-year-old Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (MOME), has been operating in a foundation model. As part of the model change, MOME has developed a long-term strategy, reinvented its research and development activity, launched the digitalisation of its internal processes, and proceeded to modernise training. In addition to providing a traditionally high level art and design education, the university will introduce entrepreneurial training for all of its BA students, and launch its first English-language MAs from 2022. In 2021, MOME's budget nearly quadrupled, and the foundation also decided to grant the most substantial pay rise to teachers in the history of Hungarian higher education.   

More about the AMTS’s Hungarians in the International Automotive Industry programme: https://www.amts.hu/hu/programok/magyarok-a-vilag-jarmugyartasaban-87

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A vehicle developed jointly by MOME and the John von Neumann University can revolutionise urban freight delivery: Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (MOME) unveiled a hydrogen and solar-powered vehicle at the climate summit in Dubai. The prototype of three-wheeled, multifunctional transport vehicle, developed through the collaboration of the two universities, was first showcased to the public on 1 December at the UN COP28 climate summit, and was sent to Dubai straight from the developers’ workshop.

What and how can we study at MOME in ten or even twenty years? How can the university stay up-to-date and provide answers to the pressing challenges of the century, and the needs of the future? The Foundation for the Moholy-Nagy University of Arts and Design asked the university community to develop a 21st century education model, the "University of the Future 2025-2045", in line with the international ambitions of the institution, as part of the model change. At the MOME Senate meeting in early December, the programme was approved by the Senate of the University without abstention or dissenting votes, with a 100% approval rate - a reform with such a high level of support has never been seen before in the history of the institution.

The 17th Moholy-Nagy Award was presented by József Fülöp to film director, screenwriter, and professor emeritus of the Department of Film, Television and Digital Media of the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), and art director of the Sundance Filmmakers Lab Gyula Gazdag.
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