“The University of Warsaw is a great place to develop yourself. If it had not been good, I would not have done my Bachelor and Master’s studies here. I liked it so much that I decided to stay. Now, I am a doctoral student at the Faculty of Economic Sciences at UW,” says Kristóf Gyódi who also works in the Digital Economy Lab of UW (DELab).

He grew up in a Hungarian city called Kaposvár. His mother is Polish and father Hungarian. After high school, he decided to improve his Polish and get to know the country of his mother’s origin. “I have received an opportunity to study in Poland. Thanks to the Polish Government Scholarship, which is dedicated to young people with Polish origins, I could apply for studies at UW and come to Warsaw,” explains Kristóf Gyódi. He graduated International Economics at the Faculty of Economic Sciences. Conducting research was very important to him that is why he decided to do his doctoral studies at the Department of Macroeconomics and International Trade. Kristóf Gyódi’s PhD thesis is about the impact of digitalisation on the economy and new models of value creation. “The core of my thesis is related to the new kind of services provided by online platforms. I am doing theoretical work on how these platforms work, as well as empirical studies on Airbnb – an accommodation-sharing website which became a strong player in the tourism industry. What I am mostly interested in is to see what the potential of Airbnb is, how it affects cities, whether it is complementing the traditional hotel offers or it is a direct competition for them,” underlines the doctoral student. Read more about the project >>

Analytical work in DELab

DELab UW is a transdisciplinary research institute established in 2014 with the support of Google. Kristóf Gyódi joined the Digital Economy Lab of UW in 2015. As a researcher, he is engaged in problems related to sharing economy, Industry 4.0 and e-commerce, also from a Central European perspective.“When I started my work in DELab, we were mostly working on projects related to Polish institutions and Polish business. Now, we are much more engaged in the European networks,” stresses the researcher.

Since October 2017, DELab, together with NESTA (a British think tank) and EURECAT (a technological centre in Catalonia), has been involved in the project called EU ENGINEROOM which is part of the Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative. EU ENGINEROOM has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. NGI is a European Commission programme focused on creating a more ethical, human-centred Internet by 2025. “Together with two other partners, we are developing the methodology to identify which technologies have the greatest impact on the society and which have the greatest potential to transform the internet in the next few years. Our methodology, based on Big Data analysis and web-scraping (collecting data from websites), allows us to capture early signals of emerging technologies. We create a map of technologies, presenting their relationship with social issues, and advise the European Commission on areas where they should direct greater funds for further research. We also point out the research areas where Europe is relatively strong, e.g. the field of quantum computing. As an example, according to our results, artificial intelligence has been the most trending area in popular science articles, which is related to social issues such as unemployment or hate speech,” says Kristóf Gyódi. Read more about the project >>

The researcher is engaged in another project called shareON, financed by the EU COSME programme, which aims at enhancing the cooperation with start-ups and SMEs in the field of the sharing economy. “DELab is the research arm in the project. We are now working on a survey for start-ups and small companies for gathering data about their activities and potential needs. Based on the results, we will design a plan of supporting them, together with technology parks,” adds Kristóf Gyódi.

Life in Warsaw

Before he started his studies in Warsaw he had taken a summer course run by “Polonicum” – the Centre of Polish Language and Culture for Foreigners. “Thanks to the course I had an easier start. I could improve my Polish and learn about Warsaw. It was a definite advantage. The University of Warsaw is a great place to develop yourself. It offers numerous very good language courses for international students,” explains Kristóf Gyódi.

Asked about the time at UW, the researcher said: “If it had not been good, I would not have done my Bachelor and Master’s studies here. I liked it so much that I decided to stay. Now, I am a doctoral student at the Faculty of Economic Sciences at UW. Doctoral students can apply for grants, support for conference visits, we can realise our research interests. Of course, we need to put a lot of work and effort into it, but we have many opportunities.”

The capital of Poland is an attractive place for people from abroad. “If it comes to the city itself, you can find everything here. It is a very nice place to live, with the rich cultural programme. I often go to concerts with my friends, especially British bands. We also like electronic music and here are great places as well. It is a definitely a good place for Erasmus students, too,” says Kristóf Gyódi.