From 12 to 16 February 2018, Riga Technical University opened its doors for a seminar week for students and teachers from the Erasmus+ project EPIC – Improving Employability through Internationalisation and Collaboration. In a five day long seminar, students and teachers participated in workshops on e.g. problem-based learning, transnational collaboration and agile software development.
The participation in EPIC gives students and teachers an opportunity to work in differently sized groups with colleagues and fellow students from various academic and cultural backgrounds.
EPIC started in 2017 with 24 students from seven universities, who met for the first time in Riga and got to know each other. During the next months the students will work in small groups on seven projects with specific questions from the industry. The focus of the week in Riga was set on the projects on which the students will work on during their current semester. Their topics are E-Commerce, Smart Logistics, platforms for malware and energy consumption, digital solutions for Facility Management, Internet of Things (IoT) and mobile application development. Groups of at least two students from two different participating universities will work on the topics.
Each project was initiated by a company. That way, EPIC can assure concrete practical relevance and the actual usage of the results. The students receive support from the professors of their university and from the companies that provide the projects. The meeting in Riga was the kick-off event for the cooperation. One of the most important outcomes of the week was to get to know each other and experience the value of cultural differences.
As a project partner of EPIC, aconium GmbH supports the students and professors with its experience in project work for the industry and with a wide practical relevance. The joint project will especially illustrate the perspective of the companies for the students and takes the concerns of the universities, students and industry into account for the implementation of EPIC. During the five days in Riga, they were able to take first steps: together they identified possible problems, raised ideas, defined responsibilities and set milestones. During the next months, aconium will closely collaborate with those students to ensure agile software development.
Photo top: EPIC participants in Riga.
Photos bottom: Impressions from the workshops.
Credits: EPIC/aconium GmbH