My portfolio has been building up for some twenty years. During my studies, I received a scholarship from Railway Transport Enterprise Belgrade (ŽTP Beograd) so it was natural to start working in ŽTP Beograd after my bachelor’s degree (2000). At some point, I decided it was time for a change. I became a member of the Serbian Chamber of Engineers in 2008. Six years went by so fast (2007-2013), and I was happy I had a chance to work with and learn from some of the best designers in Serbia. After that, the High Railway School was looking for teachers in the electrical engineering field, so I applied. Teaching to high school students was a challenge.
After that, I worked in Institute of Transportation CIP for two years (2016- 2017), and finally now I hold a teaching position at the Railway School of Vocational Studies Belgrade (now a part of ATAAS).

What are the main challenges and considerations in lecturing about modern railway signaling and telecommunication systems?

At higher level of education the main challenge is an interdisciplinarity of the matter. The signalling engineer must be proficient in many different things, and three essential years of schooling is not enough to go through everything that would help an individual see the whole picture. To be in signalling today you have to go through basic electrical engineering, automation, embedded systems, networking, telecommunication, sensors, but also traffic and transportation, and so much more. It is, I think, an appealing occupation only for curious and driven minds. And let’s be honest, it is a highly responsible profession.
Another challenge is that formal education is widely extinguished in this area and regulations force us to have study programs that are highly similar to study programs in other countries, which is not helping. What I fear the most is the decreasing interest in the formal education of signaling engineers, which did not show a good outcome in other countries. Generic studies could not achieve the needed levels of knowledge for signaling. On the high school level, you have the time to teach students so many things but technicians must build up from basics and sometimes the big picture is lost along the way, and with it sometimes goes the motivation to stay in that field. During this and the previous year several of our students were part of Erasmus+ Mobility during which time they were in a signaling and telecommunication company outside our country (AŽD Praha).

I think that the impressions were great, both on the company’s and students’ side. But most of all the positive attitude was noticed in the following generations of students during several talk panels in school. In my opinion, peer education makes the best choice for promoting signaling among students. More students are interested in this kind of experience, which is promising.
Nevertheless, I have hope for both levels of education since the study programs are updated and dual models of education are entering both schools. One thing that I learned about our students is that they thrive in hands-on projects and are very good at one-on-one learning mechanisms, which could be achieved in dual models. It could give students a much-needed glimpse of the whole picture without scaring them away.

Can you provide an overview of the evolution of railway signaling and telecommunication systems, highlighting vital technological advancements?

When you mention signaling and telecommunication together that is how I see it, inseparable train control systems gave us that. During the previous year, I made a comparison of the most popular systems: ETCS, CBTC, and PTC and I concluded that migration of these is related to technology enhancements in telecommunications including enhanced variants of GPS-based systems, detection (various sensors) and enhanced braking algorithms. After a long period of time train integrity checks could change drastically – and I personally see it as a (r)evolution.

The TCMS (Train Control and Management System) that makes the train a system, not the smart but isolated locomotive and plain cars behind, is about to change. The rolling stock is becoming smarter. BUS varieties are increasing and Drive-by-data system integrations and architecture capture critical and non-critical aspects. All this will be so interesting in freight trains. Radio is changing, and the railway will follow.
But two things, I did not expect, surprised me. First, distributed fiber optic sensors (DFOS) that could be used as acoustic sensors in vast spans between stations, fire detection sensors (temperature, smoke) in tunnels, vibration sensors at bridges and various structures are just some of the possible applications in railway environments. These sensors are a simple and very elegant solution for all sorts of requisites (wheel detectors even). The second surprise is a net-zero challenge, where numerous breakthroughs had been made. Sustainable rubber sleepers with solar panels, small to large-scale energy harvesting projects, etc. could truly change the face of the railway, and thus even signaling and telecommunications. Breaking curves as mathematical models, seem to be far from electrical engineering, but could also be affected by this energy efficiency wave. Their enhancement could save us both time and energy and I am sure they will change.
So, signaling and telecommunications are the tip of the iceberg relying on so many other disciplines in electrical engineering and beyond.

With the increasing integration of digital technologies in railway systems, how do you see the role of artificial intelligence and machine learning in enhancing railway signaling and telecommunication systems? Are there any specific applications or projects you find particularly promising?

This question reminded me of a paper my colleagues and I wrote a few years ago. The first author is a PhD student and his field of research is machine learning. We tried to use an abstract from the signaling maintenance database related to malfunctions and failures to search for correlations and to learn from it, even predict some events. This is the first application that I see – how to learn from mistakes/malfunctions. This could have an enormous impact on maintenance and overall downtime of the systems. The second direction could be maintaining the safety and comfort of the passengers, predicting the need for additional trains or possible hazardous situations. This could seem a bit far but video surveillance, public announcement, infotainment systems, and technical protection systems (fire detection, access control, alarm systems, etc.) are integrated and humans monitoring all of these systems could miss patterns that AI would not.
I hope that AI will be on hold to enter critical points in the system and that its influence, autonomy in decision-making, and independence will be wisely suppressed and restricted to avoid even the slightest unpredictability. Railways were always waiting for complete system features confirmation to implement it with certainty, and I consider it a good practice.

As we move toward the era of high- speed and automated trains, what are critical research areas or developments in railway signaling and telecommunication that your department or students are currently focusing on to meet the evolving needs of the railway industry?

It is not so much the area of development as much as it is the positive attitude about learning in this field. So, the answer is a bit in all I have written. We are changing and updating our study programs, introducing dual models of education, and acting in certain aspects, not as two schools but as one. The schools applied for certain projects in the hope of equipping the cabinets adequately and creating near-real (minus the dangers) experiences for students. All sort of simulators could be useful.
Our subjects (curricula) are changing with an emphasis on inter-subject competencies – as an example a good signalling engineer could not understand vital networks without networking, nor could he understand the safety of the train without the knowledge of the encryption process. I could not pinpoint only one area, we are trying to guide the students thought various selective activities to broaden or deepen the knowledge in the direction they want. You would be surprised how diverse the students’ interest zones are. Evolution of railway could be traced and followed only by the people keen on learning but one aspect I have not mentioned. Teams are crucial in railway industry and it takes time to build a team.

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So, I insist on teamwork among students, hopefully teaching them to share responsibility and workload, as well as to be more flexible. Once more, the dual models will even more accentuate these competencies and skills.
Interesting areas in railway signalling and telecommunication will change but only the ones prepared to adapt will survive in this profession.

Sanja, thank you so much for sharing your insights and expertise. It’s been a pleasure talking with you. Your answers were precious and will undoubtedly contribute to a better understanding of these crucial railway systems.