Abstracts of Submitted Papers 2013

Budapest Startups - A new tech hub after Silicon Valley and Silicon Roundabout?

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
During the last 6 to 8 years, several successful Hungarian tech companies have sprung up in Budapest. Exactly what is spurring this growth? Why is there a hustling and bustling startup scene emerging in Budapest despite of the economic crisis?
This presentation will highlight parallel phenomena in the development of the Silicon Valley in the US, the Silicon Roundabout in the UK and the Budapest startup scene. It will showcase some of the most prominent companies of this new generation: Prezi, LogMeIn, UStream, Antavo. We are going to examine the links that tie these companies and places together.
Finally we will try to connect the dots and answer the question: Could Budapest be the newest tech hub in Europe or in the world?



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Tamás Gémes is a project manager and lead programmer in Information Technology at Catholic Health System, Buffalo, NY.
He graduated from Obuda University in Computer Engineering and Budapest Corvinus University in Entrepreneurship, and later finished his Master of Business Administration (MBA) studies at Niagara University, NY in 2011. He has worked for Nokia Siemens Networks, a telecommunication backbone supplier, where he developed the newest 4th generation mobile networks as a Software Engineer.
He is also a long time volunteer in the CTP Youth Business Program that teaches entrepreneurship, business and presentation skills to high school students around the Carpathian basin.
His main interests are Hungarian and international high-growth high-tech companies, their opportunities and challenges.

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The Story of Theodore von Kármán - Pioneer in Aviation and Pathfinder in Space

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
Szőlőskislaki Kármán Tódor (1881-1963) was a Hungarian American aerospace engineer and physicist, who was active in aeronautics, astronautics and mechanics of fluids and solids.
He is responsible for many key advances in aerodynamics with focus on supersonics and hypersonic air flow. He studied mechanical engineering at the Royal Joseph Technical University (today Műegyetem). After graduation in 1902, he joined Ludwig Prandtl at the University of Göttingen, receiving his doctorate there in 1908. He taught first at Göttingen, and later at Aachen. He interrupted his teaching with service in the Austro-Hungarian army (1915-1918).
Apprehensive about developments in Europe, in 1930 he accepted the directorship of GALCIT in Pasadena, CA and emigrated to the US. In 1936 he helped found the Aerojet Company to manufacture rocket motors. Today, Aerojet is the largest rocket company in the world. In 1944 he and others from GALCIT founded the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which today is a NASA laboratory whose main mission is robotic exploration of our solar system. Kármán officially left GALCIT in 1945, and became a consultant to the US military, with the rank of general. At age 81 von Kármán was the recipient of the first National Medal of Science, bestowed in a White House ceremony by President John F. Kennedy. He has authored six books, hundreds of scientific papers and received more than 30 honorary doctor degrees.




Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Dr. John P. Gyekenyesi is presently the Structures and Materials Division Engineer at the NASA Glenn Research Center and Adjunct Professor of Mechanics at Cleveland State University. He holds a bachelor and a master degree in Mechanical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University and a Ph.D. in Mechanics from Michigan State University. He authored and coauthored more than 80 scientific publications. He lectured widely in the USA, Europe and the Far East, mainly on durability and structural integrity of aircraft and spacecraft using advanced materials. For 20 years, he was manager of one of NASA’s largest mechanics research departments, focused on propulsion and power systems.

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The Market and Its Space. The Spatial Representation of Capital Investment in Debrecen

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
In the focus of this presentation is the development of modern capitalist market relations and how these appeared in different forms and levels in Debrecen’s traditional yet changing economy during the first half of the long nineteenth century. The spatial aspects of these processes will also be examined. There will be an analysis of the shift from the traditional structures of mercantile privileges given to royal camarilla, to landlords, and royal free cities over to capitalist competition. The spatial evolution with their impact on fairs, the rise and decline of peddler trade, the varieties of trade over a distance, crafts, the bifurcation of retail and wholesale trade, and the increase of urban commercial practices represented by stores and facilities such as restaurants and hotels will be examined.

Piac és tere – a kapitalizálódás térszerkezeti reprezentációi Debrecenben
Az előadás fókuszában az áll, hogy a kapitalizáció (a modern tőkés piaci viszonyok kialakulása) hogyan, milyen szinteken és formákban jelent meg Debrecen tradicionális gazdálkodásának gyakorlatában és térbeli reprezentációiban a 19. század „hosszú első felében”, 1870-ig.
A kiváltságrendszerre (királyi-kamarai, földesúri és szabad királyi városi) valamint a tradicionális árutermelés logikája épült városi térszerkezet konkrét ( geográfiai) értelmezése mögött a városi tér használatában és reprezentációjában a kiváltságrendszer és a hagyományos gazdálkodás intézményesüléseként létrejött telekszervezet mint deriváló és meghatározó struktúra működött. A telekszervezet hatását a városi tér szerkezetének értelmezésére és gyakorlati használatára merevségében a 19. század elejétől folyamatosan oldotta a piaci viszonyok átalakulása, az áruforgalom, hitelviszonyok fejlődése, a kiváltságrendszer keretei között is egyre jobban érvényesülő verseny a többszintű (interregionális, regionális, kistérségi, lokális) piacközponti szerepet is betöltő város gazdálkodásában. A kapitalizálódás a város gazdasági életében, a térhasználat gyakorlatában változó alakzatokban jelent meg: vásárok átalakulása, házaló kereskedelem felfutása és hanyatlása, a távolsági közvetítő kereskedelem differenciálódása, a kézműves termelés és árusítás illetve a kiskereskedelem és nagykereskedés szétválása, az urbánus kereskedelmi formák - bolt, üzlet, vendéglátás - gyarapodása.
Mindezek a városi térhasználat gyakorlatában és reprezentációjában a tradicionális alakzatok lassú átalakulását és marginalizálódását, az új formák megjelenését és elterjedését hozták magukkal. Ezt a folyamatot vázolja az előadás Debrecen esetében, különös figyelmet fordítva a folyamat eredményének egy időpontban (1870) rögzült térbeli rögzülésének elemzésére.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
János Mazsu is Professor of Social and Economic History at Debrecen University Faculty of Economics and Business Administration), Debrecen, Hungary. He is an expert in Social and Intellectual History, he served as Ránki György Chair (Indiana University) and has been active in the Jean Monnet program. Selected publications: "The Social History of the Hungarian Intelligentsia, 825–1914". Atlantic Research and Publications, Boulder. Atlantic Studies on Society in Change 89. New York, Columbia University Press, 1997. 292.p. G. Szabó-Módi-Mazsu. "Debrecen, a cívis város" (Debrecen, the civis city). Hungarian, English, German). Budapest, 2003. 320.p. "A jó polgár" (The good citizen) with Setényi János. Debrecen, 1996. "Iparosodás és modernizáció" (Industrializations and modernization) ed. and co-author, Debrecen, 1991. "Tanulmányok a magyar értelmiség társadalomtörténetéhez". Gondolat.Budapest, 2012.

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Antipolitics in Hungary

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
Political extremism is a form of rejection of the political institutions of a community. In some cases it may be both a form of “internal” dissidence within one’s own political community and at the same time anti-cosmopolitan. My analysis addresses two opposing forms of “internal” dissidence in the last three decades of Hungarian political history: pro-democratic anti-Soviet opposition and the present extreme right-wing opposition. The pro-democratic, anti-Soviet antipolitical opposition as conceived by György Konrád in 1982 did not propose indifference toward politics but rather the alternative of an autonomous civil society functioning parallel to the official political power. As such it was cosmopolitan and anti-essentialist advocating the joint pursuit of political agreement through deliberation instead of one group claiming to represent one single truth. In contrast, the “apolitics” of the extreme Right is anti-cosmopolitan by advocating one single truth of a particular national community and by rejecting the joint pursuit of consensus through deliberation. My thesis is that whereas pro-democratic antipolitics is dissident in its critical stance toward political power, extremist apolitics is dissident toward any deliberative society.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Dr. Mihály Szilágyi-Gál (1971) is assistant professor at the Institute for Art Theory and Media Studies, ELTE University of Sciences in Budapest. Szilágyi-Gál studied philosophy and political science in Budapest, Debrecen, and Tübingen. His area of research is focused on topics in aesthetics and modern political philosophy. Some of his most important publications are „The disinterested Authonomy of Judging. Kant’s, Schiller’s and Arendt’s Shared Conception of Freedom”. (Az ítélés érdekmentes autonómiája. Kant, Schiller és Arendt közös szabadságfelfogása) in: Fogódzó nélkül. Hannah Arendt Olvasókönyv (Suportless. A Hannah Arendt Reader). Bratislava. Kalligram, 2008; „Thomas Hobbes’ Criticism of the Public Sphere” in: Berliner Vorträge der Deutsch-Ungarischen Gesellschaft für Philosophie.

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The Role of Hungarian Diplomacy in Preserving and Promoting Hungarian Culture and Business Relations

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
Hungary and the United States recently celebrated 90 years of diplomatic relations. Until the 1990's Hungarian representation was limited to the East Coast, to Washington DC, New York and Chicago. In 20 years our consular network has expanded nationwide to 2 career and 16 honorary consulates, in addition to the Embassy. The Hungarian Consulate General in Los Angeles opened in March 1992. At the same time I was asked to establish the first Honorary Consulate in San Francisco, and was appointed after accreditation by the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the US Department of State in 1993. I have followed this expansion as an observer and as a participant and have been assisting Northern Californians with Hungarian Consular matters. I wish to present a brief historical and personal perspective and discuss the role of Hungarian diplomacy in preserving and promoting Hungarian culture, arts, trade and business.



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Éva E.Voisin, Esq. is the Honorary Consul General of Hungary for Northern California since1993. In that capacity, she represents all diplomatic, business and commercial interest of Hungary in her jurisdiction. She is the President & CEO of Voisin & Associates, an AV rated Law Firm, providing legal solutions in establishing a US presence to a global clientele in the high tech, biotech and cleantech areas. She also advises an extensive clientele in International Estate Planning and is the VP & Director of Business Development for SOV Interactive Media, LLC. She founded the Hungarian American Chamber of Commerce, in the US. Inc., in 1991 and serves as Chairman of the Board. She is active in all Hungarian American organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. She belongs to numerous professional organizations and serves on several corporate and non-profit boards nationwide. Éva E.Voisin was educated at the University of California in Los Angeles, Middlebury College and the Sorbonne and holds a JD degree. She speaks Hungarian, French, German and Spanish.

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