| European Project Semester |
 |
| Monday, 21.04.2008 00:12 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
- Project-based learning for students of engineering and business - Application deadline: 15 November. Please apply on regular Erasmus exchange forms available from http://www.ife.p.lodz.pl/index.php/lang-en/wspopraca-z-zagranic/program-socrateserasmus
Are you a student of a technical university interested in other cultures and international teamwork? Do you have a good command of English? Would you like to develop your communication skills studying and working in a multicultural environment? If yes, join the European Project Semester run by the International Faculty of Engineering, the Technical University of Łódź in Poland.
WHAT IS EUROPEAN PROJECT SEMESTER (EPS)?
Quickly changing business environment, processes of globalisation as well as enlargement of the European Union constitute real challenges for today's graduates in engineering. Not only do they have to be equipped with profound knowledge of engineering, be familiar with economics and management but are also expected to function well in a multicultural environment demanding international communication, teamwork skills and good command of languages. European Project Semester, started in Denmark in 1995 and today run in several European and American countries, was designed to equip engineering students with all the necessary skills to face the challenges of the 21st c. world economy. International Faculty of Engineering started the EPS project in Poland in 2005 in order to create an opportunity for European young people to study and work together as well as to exchange experiences of different national and corporate cultures. Within the framework of the EPS in Poland international student teams work on academic interdisciplinary projects which are carefully selected to match their specialities and capabilities as well as to develop their intercultural communication and teamwork skills. The language of communication is English.
EPS STRUCTURE
The semester is divided into two parts. The first part comprises short intensive in-class courses with international teachers. The other part is a project-based programme that focuses on knowledge, initiative, creativity and responsibility of the students. International teams of four to six members work together on interdisciplinary research projects applying their knowledge and acquiring cross-cultural communication skills. The projects are carefully prepared by the Technical University of Łódź academic staff and integrated into the state required university curricula.
PROGRAMME CONTENTS
The semester prepares students for working in a multicultural context while studying in a problem-based project-organised scheme. Its international and intercultural context lets the students exchange the variety of their experiences and enables them to learn from differences in approach and attitude due to various national backgrounds. In this way the semester enriches academic education with a more practical angle and prepares students for working in a more global and cross-cultural environment of the future. The following subjects are part of the EPS programme, selected to support the projects:
WHAT DIFFERS THE EPS AT THE INTERNATIONAL FACULTY OF ENGINEERING FROM OTHER EPS PROGRAMMES?
The IFE European Project Semester is unique in its character. Unlike other universities involved in the EPS, the International Faculty of Engineering does not provide industrial projects but gives students an opportunity to participate in academic research projects. The subjects of the projects are carefully selected from within the framework of programmes offered by IFE: Mechanical Engineering and Applied Computer Science, Telecommunications and Computer Science, Business and Technology as well as Computer Science itself. So far, in the pre-EPS stage, numerous academic research projects have been successfully completed by international students' groups, among others: "The Pneumatic Actuator Driven Mechanical Arm", “Infusion Pump for Special Applications”, “Devices for DNA Sequencing - Selected Issues”, “Design of a Compressor for Special Demands”, “Deformations of Vertebral Arteries: Numerical Experiments”.
RECOMMENDED PREREQUISITES
A prerequisite for joining the European Project Semester is two years of completed studies at a technical university which is either a partner of the Socrates Programme or offers Bachelor or Masters of engineering degrees. However, the Technical University of Lodz is open for discussion on alternative student qualifications. It is important that students have a good working knowledge of English in order to participate and contribute to teamwork as well as short intensive courses. The students should be practised users of Word and Excel.ACADEMIC RECOGNITION AND ASSESSMENT
The EPS provides workload and skills corresponding to 30 ECTS credits. Within the framework of EPS the project work accounts for 20 units, languages for 2 units each and short intensive courses for the remaining 6 units. Students are assessed based on the following: • Observations of teamwork and individual students' performance conducted by academic supervisors as well as evaluation of the submitted documentation. Students are expected to submit an interim and final project reports, • Supervisors assessment of the final project outcome and execution, • Peer assessment, • Assessment of students participation in short intensive courses, • The exams completing short intensive courses, • The result of the final exam at which the report is discussed in detail with consideration to both teamwork and individual contributions.
APPLICATIONS AND INFORMATION
Malgorzata Swit The International Faculty of Engineering
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
