Fig. 1. Snapshots from Summer School Engineering as Communication Language in Europe, which was held in Koszalin University of Technology in 2012
In Europe, many national languages are used, however, very often engineers use their own slang, which is quite well understandable to them, regardless of their nationality. It has been noticed, that technical tutorials, brochures or other documents which are written in technical English can by understood by people, who have only basic knowledge of English. The goal of that CEEPUS Network titled "Engineering as Communication Language in Europe" is to create communication and cooperation between engineers, dealing with various engineering branches. The aim of the Network is to be able to create Interdisciplinary Engineering Teams. A strong background in engineering techniques applicable to a wide variety of complex problems is in demand in the widespread knowledge. Our engineers should understand more than one discipline and be prepared to work at the intersection of two or more engineering and science disciplines. Nowadays research and industry sectors have high requirements towards engineers. Often a single engineer is not able to solve complicated interdisciplinary problems, but there is a great possibility that Interdisciplinary Engineering Teams would make it better and faster.
The main task of that Network is involving teachers from partner Institutions in order to create team projects that would be main parts of the program. It is also expected that students will take an active part in all didactic activities proposed by Network and will benefit from our Program, as much as possible. Thanks to engineering knowledge as well as soft skills (ability to work in an international team), all the students in their further career will be able to communicate freely and work in international companies as well as continue their education, e.g. doctoral studies in any university in the world.
The CEEPUS Network "Engineering as Communication Language in Europe” gives the opportunity to create successful cooperation, not only between students, but also between teachers from all the universities, which are participants in the network PL-701. Additionally, the Network is open for any open-minded people, who can participate in events organized by that network with using the Freemover Mobilities. Teacher and student mobilities within this network enables learning and research experiences exchange within related fields, help to build interpersonal connections, broaden professional horizons and may give the opportunity to develop the curriculas. Therefore, the knowledge exchanged between the partner Institutions will give a good possibility for the further development of the Universities as well as for increasing education standards. This network would also stimulate further topic-oriented engagement and provide the basis for such kind of work. It must be emphasised, that the Network gives all participants tangible benefits in the field of didactics (mainly bachelor and master students) as well as sciences (mainly PhD students and academic staff). All the Universities, which are participants in PL-701 Network have specialists from different fields of engineering. However, it has to be noted that most of interests should overlap, what is the main goal to effective cooperation. The partners from Faculties of Mechanical Engineering, Production Machines, Machine Building Technology, Mechatronics, Production Engineering and Automation are mostly oriented on mechanical (milling, grinding, polishing, burnishing) and electro-mechanical machining (electropolishing, electro discharge, precision wire and spark erosion, plasma electrolytic oxidation) as well as on widely understood shape and surface characterization (roughness, chemical composition, corrosion, nanoindentation, texture). On the other hand, there are Faculties of Agriculture, Forest, Environmental Sciences, which are focused mainly on biological aspects. The third group of Faculties includes Applied Physics, Education and Technical English. Nowadays, when most of problem in industry as well as in sciences is interdisciplinary, such as problems associated with biomaterials, solid fuels, renewable energy resources, etc., the cooperation of all three groups may be a guarantee of success. Therefore, the main mission of that Network is to support and to develop interdisciplinary cooperation in all fields of engineering in general.
The CEEPUS Network PL-701 entitled Engineering as Communication Language in Europe was established in 2012. Most of the participants in the Network met them-selves together under Freemover mobilities as well as on Skype meetings. On the basis of those activities, in 2012 the first summer school with the same name as PL-701 Network, i.e. titled Engineering as Communication Language in Europe took place. Some snapshots from that event are shown in Figure 1. The participants of Summer School were from Czech Republic, Slovakia, Moldova, Poland and Ukraine. During two weeks the students had a chance to listen to lectures and participate in lab work. The thematics of the lectures were in the field of mechanics and surfaces engineering and applied physics with some elements of experiment planning, mathematical statistics as well as ANSYS and MATLAB simulation. Additionally, there were prepared lectures and consultations on writing professional texts in English as well as classes in farming and forestry engineering. As part of the free time, for participants there were also organized gala dinner, city tour, trips to the seaside, fireplace, billiards, bowling, etc. After a formal activation of CEEPUS Network PL-701 it was possible to bring to life the assumed plans on interdisciplinary character of that Network. At the beginning, in that Network there were 27 participants from Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Romania and Slovenia. The first visits were very important for understanding the didactic and scientific profiles of all the partners. Because of lack of time, it was not possible visiting all partners in one year. That is way, a lot of people had the possibility to meet them together midway, e.g. in Czech Republic and/or in Slovakia, to speak over the details regarding development of newly called into being, at that time, network. Additionally, the CEEPUS Excursions were prepared, what had a very significant impact on the development of the network. A short term visits with a group of over 25 persons, were always giving a very high impact on thinking of young people, in general, and their further life and their career.
The first visit as CEEPUS Excursion to VSB-TU Ostrava took place in 2011, during the preparation of Network. Bachelor, master and doctoral students of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering Koszalin University of Technolgy had a possibility to spend five days in Ostrava to visit the laboratories on VSB-TUO and AV ČR as well as pro-duction companies of Visteon Autopal in Nový Jičín, Tatra Kopřivnicach, Huisman Konstrukce Sviadnovie, Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Czech Republic and Vítkov-ice Heavy Machinery. Till nowadays, the students mention this trip as most im-portant in their carrier. In Figure 2, there are also shown the snapshots from other CEEPUS Excursions, such as to SPU Nitra, University of South Bohemia Ceské Budejovice, Fachhochschule Vorarlberg, University of Montenegro, Jan Evangelista Purkyne University in Ústí nad Labem, Technical University in Zvolen.
In all destinations, besides visiting the university laboratories and participation in lectures, there were always organized trips to companies cooperating with those universities, such as hydroelectric power plant, nuclear plants, sawmills as well as Pöttinger, and Agrio companies.
Besides didactic excursions under that CEEPUS Network PL-701, International Workshops were also prepared. In term 8-16.06.2015 the International Workshop on Surface Engineering was organized at Koszalin University of Technology. Some snapshots from that event are presented in Figure 3.
The participants were from VSB-TU Ostrava, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, SPU Nitra, János Selye University in Komárno, Technical University in Zvolen, College of Nyíregyháza, Óbuda University Budapest. During the International Workshop on Surface Engineering it was possible to participate in seminar lectures, consultation and joint laboratory work in following fields of interests: Comparison of non-traditional technologies for material cutting from the point of view of surface roughness; General approach to the biocompatibility studies of metallic biomaterials; Identification of hard of coated tools on cut surface; Study, measurement and evaluation of measurement results of specific heat capacity and specific electrical conductivity of solids; Assessment of quality surface with visual methods after milling; A Study of Surface Roughness of Machined Polymer Composite Material; Modified grinding wheels with microcrystalline sintered corundum grains for internal cylindrical grinding processes; Identification of Mechanical Equivalents from the Topography of Surfaces Generated with Abrasive Waterjet Flexible Cutting Tools; The advanced high-resolution opto-digital microscopy in diagnostics of abrasive tools; New method of technological surface layer shaping of machine parts during duplex burnishing rolling process; Aspects of burnishing rolling process; Modern methods for condition monitoring of lubricants; Microtopographic characterization of surface feature; Soft sensor for monitoring of dynamical processes. Additionally, during the Workshop there were performed seminars by experts of agriculture and forestry, especially for students, who were interested in biological surfaces analysis. Those lectures included following topics: Harvester technology; Measuring system and performance of harvesters; Characterization of biological Materials; Biogas production and its characterization; Automation and controlling processes in the agricultural; Implementation of E-Learning Content for Energy Saving Farm into Education process. In addition, that Workshop the sponsors' (BerlinetLuft and nLab) lectures also took place. Thanks to the companies and the financial support of Rector of Koszalin University of Technology, there has been organized a social program consisting among others of the Gala Dinner, narrowgauge track trip with a bonfire as well as an integration meeting with grill.
In the same year, i.e. in term 20-25.09.2015 at VSB-TU Ostrava further International Workshop on Surface Engineering was organized. Some snapshot from that event are presented in Figure 4.
The main goal of that event was to perform interdisciplinary seminar lectures, consultation and laboratory measurements. However, during the Workshop besides didactical activities, the VSB-TU Ostrava authorities organized and fully financed a visit into Planetarium and Geological Pavilion.
Additionally, the trips to companies, with which the University cooperate, such as Vitkovice Power Engineering and Advanced Metal Technologies, were prepared. The event allowed students a joint work in laboratories and listen to lectures on the following topics: Unconventional and Hydrojetting Technologies; Economical aspects of materials cutting by Hydrojetting Technologies; Introduction to FEM analysis (static problems, nonlinearity, contact problem); Topological optimization; modeling of elastic/visco– plastic strains in product’s surface layer after burnishing rolling process of real surface; problems of rebounding phenomena during burnishing rolling process; Original modifications of the small-size grinding wheels structure; Monitoring the internal cylindrical grinding processes; Advanced microscopy techniques in the diagnostics of abrasive tools; Using of the non-contact laser methods for automated in-process inspection of machined surfaces; Basics of polishing process; Abrasive polishing at low temperature; Surface Quality; Shape-friction safety clutch; Basics of solar collectors; Experiment planning and experimental data processing; Basics of corrosion measurements.
The high number of partners in present CEEPUS Network allows to get support by expert knowledge of other partners. Therefore, there are reported such cases, where reviewers of students' thesis were professors from partner Universities. Such examples are: Assoc. Prof. Jan Valícek from VSB-TU Ostrava (CZ), who was formally a consultant of engineer thesis of Stanisław Trzeszczkowski and master theses of Grzegorz Solecki at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Koszalin University of Technology (PL); Assoc. Prof. Juraj Maga from SPU Nitra (SK), who was formally consultant of master thesis of Marta Kara at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Koszalin University of Technology (PL); Assoc. Prof. Jan Valícek (VSB-TU Ostrava, CZ) who was a reviewer of PhD thesis at SPU Nitra (SK); Assoc. Prof. Krzysztof Ro-kosz who was PhD thesis at Technical university in Zvolen (SK), SPU Nitra (SK), VSB-TU Ostrava (CZ) as well as consultant in Master thesis at Selye János University. Presented examples show the potential of that Network, what will be continued and developed. It is also planned to conduct joint doctoral dissertations with two pro-moters from two different countries.
Under the PL-701 Network, joint reviewing of students’ thesis is done; then the works are very often published in the scientific journals. Now many doctoral students, mainly from VSB-TU Ostrava (Czech Republic) and TU Moldova (Moldo-va), get the opportunity to perform their 3D surface roughness measurements at the laboratories of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Koszalin University of Tech-nology (Poland). Also, BSc, MSc and PhD students from Koszalin, PL, performed a lot of measurements inter alia at VSB-TU Ostrava, CZ (surface characterization by confocal microscopy, nanoindentation, SEM, EDX, XRD), at SPU Nitra, SK, (solid fuels, biogas plants, combustion), at CZU Prague, CZ (forest harvesters, forest tech-nique), at BOKU, AT (forest protection, combustion, construction analysis).
Summing up it should be emphasized that due to the mobility within the CEEPUS programme the quality of the engineering, master and doctoral thesis can be raised to a higher level. Also the opportunity appears to the teachers to review of the students' thesis, allowing for a better understanding of the lecturers and re-searchers who work with the youth at different universities. That greatly increases the possibility of taking further joint actions at all levels of the education. Important is also the fact that, based on the cooperation in the framework of PL-701 CEEPUS Network, many professional papers have been published in the reputable scientific journals. Most of them were developed by the doctoral students involved in the in-ternational CEEPUS cooperation in the laboratories at the Universities of Danube Region.
Scientific papers published in the years 2014-2016 on the basis of cooperation between partners of CEEPUS Network PL-701:
In present CEEPUS Network has a high impact of scientific contribution especially in case of PhD students, who can participate in seminar lectures and consultation as well as take part in joint laboratory work or SKYPE meetings. Among other things, to the scientific results, the scientific publications of MSc and PhD students on the basis of performed measurements at host University's laboratory may be included. Additionally, the host professors are the consultants and reviewers of master and doctoral thesis. Many students and professors during their stays at host Universities under CEEPUS grants had the possibility to find scientific contacts, with a high im-pact on their carrier. Based on those contacts from the stay at SPU Nitra Monika Ster-czyńska M.Sc. Eng. (PhD student) received NCN national scientific grant titled ETIUDA. Another example is Małgorzata Smuga-Kogut, whose part of measure-ments to her PhD thesis was performed during her CEEPUS stays. On the basis of CEEPUS contacts, the Polish-Czech project No. 8071/2010: "Measurement and anal-ysis of surface topography produced in the progressive processes, including thin cold-rolled sheets of classic materials and nanomaterials, and analysis of the strengthening mechanism", was completed. In 2015 the Polish-Slovak project titled "Development of low-emission solid fuels from biomass residues", as well as in 2016 the Grant OPUS 11 of National Science Centre, Poland, with registration number 2016/21/B/ST8/01952, titled "Development of models of new porous coatings obtained on titanium by Plasma Electrolytic Oxidation in electrolytes containing phosphoric acid with addition of calcium, magnesium, copper and zinc nitrates" with CEEPUS partners were qualified for the funding. For many of staff the stays at host Universities under CEE-PUS helped to obtain the habilitation of the professor title. At the moment, a better understanding of all participants mutually allows for very efficient use of expert knowledge of individual teams from all universities being a part of CEEPUS Net-work PL-701.
All the international experiences are very important concerning both the experienced lecturers/teachers as well as young people. Students and the university staff can get the access to a new knowledge and have a look at another innovative education methods going abroad. Of course, not everything can be directly copied to the reality of each country, however, many of the innovative methods can be adopted to the needs of each subject at the partner universities. The experience of many people, who are participants of that Network shows, that teaching in a foreign language pro-vides an impulse to create better lecturing, concerning both the native language as well as teaching in English at their home universities. The latest idea is to write joint students’ handbooks in English, which could be used in several partner universities. In addition, we are going to prepare laboratory set ups, which would complement themselves at partner universities, then students would have a possibility to go abroad for the whole year to a partner university. With that step, a stimulation of CEEPUS long-term mobilities could be achieved. It should be also mentioned that the International CEEPUS Workshops as well as group educational CEEPUS Excursions and Summer Schools have a significant impact on the education value of the PL-701 Network.
The PL-701 Network has a big impact on the promotion of Danube Region. In the network there are the Universities from Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Poland. Within the network the CEEPUS Excursions, Workshops, Summer Schools as well as standard short mobilities are organized. The young people (BSc, MSc, PhD students) as well as the teachers have the possibility to open their minds and explore the richness of opportunities flowing from the possibilities of cooperation in the framework of being in the Danube Region. Also the events such as the CEEPUS excursions, Workshops and Summer Schools have an impact on the local society, by the fact that they have also contact with the guests staying in the host country. From a sociological point of view, it is very important that especially the young people have the possibility to learn living and working with each other on the basis of a conscious co-existence. And for that co-existence, the best starting point is the preparation of common projects with teaching and research elements, varied by an excursion to the industrial companies or summer schools. Such actions can be the best starting point for building long-term friendships, and hence long-term didactic and scientific cooperation. It should be also noted that the young people learn most willingly when they can formulate own thoughts, and no one forces them to learn monotonously. For this reason, the net-work PL-701 is promoting CEEPUS Excursion to provide them with a possibility to attend a number of students at the same time. And most importantly, the students participating in the seminars, lab works or trips to the companies, can hardly believe how much they learn at that time, not to mention, of course, of exercises in com-municating in a foreign language.
In the PL-701 Network, the teaching activities in English are treated as a prior-ity. For example, at the Koszalin University of Technology a teacher must show to University coordinator the materials prepared in English regarding the teaching hours before getting an official permission for the CEEPUS trip. In other Universities the situation is very similar, which is constantly increases the professionalism of teaching and the motivations for the ever-growing challenges, such as common stu-dent handbooks, and also regular lectures by foreign lecturers. Of course, there are some places in the Central Europe, where a teacher or a student has to know other language, mostly it is the language of the host country. However, the opportunity to learn a new language is always definitely a challenge, but also a great adventure. In the summary it should be highlighted, that most of the professors teaching during CEEPUS scholarships are very well prepared thanks to the technical English lan-guage knowledge, and the content of lectures shared by them is very valuable for the students. In addition, all host Universities are trying to teach host country language. In most cases, this is accomplished by taking care of foreign students by host youth.
That CEEPUS event was organized in term 5-11.06.2016. The participants was from VSB-TU Ostrava, Jan Evangelista Purkyne University in Ústí nad Labem, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Brno University of Technology, SPU Nitra, János Selye University in Komárno, Technical University in Zvolen. During the Workshop it was possible for students (especially master and doctoral ones) to contact with professors from partner universities in case of consultations and joint work in laboratories. There were also series of lecture seminars, which carried out as thematic blocks both by foreign lecturers. Additionally, in that Workshop, the representatives of companies (BerlinerLuft, nLaband ShimPol), which partly sponsored that CEEPUS Event, also took part. Some snapshots from that event are presented in Figure 5. In addition social events, such as: Gala Dinner, Baltic Sea region sightseeing, International Bowling and Billiard and Narrow-Gauge Track with the bonfire, were also prepared.
The second CEEPUS event was organized in term 26-29.06.2016. The participants was from West Pomeranian University of Technology Szczecin, Cracow University of Technology, University of Science and Technology in Cracow, Gdansk University of Technology, Silesian University of Technology, Koszalin University of Technology as well as from Brno University of Technology, Alexander Dubcek University of Trencin, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and VSB-TU Ostrava. Some snapshots from that event are presented in Figure 6. The students had a chance to listen to the experts' lectures on mechanical and electrochemical machining, surface monitoring, PVD, CVD, sol-gel and PEO coating as well as surfaces measurements and identification. There were also consultations regarding the master theses and dissertations performed by current participants. Additionally, the joint laboratory works were performed. More information is available on http://if.vsb.cz/wk.
This year, there were some requests from new potential partners to join the PL-701 CEEPUS Network. They contacted with the coordinator with plans for bringing their didactic and scientific experiences, which could be helpful for other participants. Most important is that these new partner universities are already enrolled in "network live" and with help of Freemover mobilities. Two new partners from Po-land, i.e. Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics, Rzeszów University of Technology in the field of high temperature corrosion as well as surface identification after that treatment as well as Faculty of Wood Processing Industry, Koszalin University of Technology in field of wood processing,, were added to the PL-701 Network. The other new ones, i.e. Department of British, American and German Studies, University of Craiova" (Romania), which is very strong in field of education and technical English communication as well as Polytechnik of Sibenik (Croatia), which focusing on technical design and transport, jointed to our Network, too. In addition, it has to be also pointed that The Kecskemét College (HU) changed its name to Pallasz Athéné University.
The first CEEPUS Excursion to Szent István University was organized by prof. Tomasz Rydzkowski in term 16-19.05.2016 mainly for students involved in Human Nutrition and Food Processing Technologies from Koszalin University of Technology. The event was spoken over with Dr. Zsuzsanna Tarr, who is the main coordinator at that University. The participants saw in host University inter alia laboratories as well as listened to lectures of expert involved in nutri-tion and food processing problems. Additionally, it was possible to get know some culture of Hungary, as well as to learn some words of Hungarian lan-guage. In addition, some excursions to local industry were provided, too. The second CEEPUS Excursion were prepared by Dr. Krzysztof Kukiełka to Technical University of Moldova. It took place in term 20-23.06.2016 in Chișinău. During the stay in Moldova the group visited the host University as well as part of that country. The students from Poland had the possibility to show some presentations in case of their interests. It has to be pointed that the contacts between Koszalin University of Technology and Technical University of Moldova are very close, that way the students from Moldova as well as from Poland would like to benefit from those opportunities related to CEEPUS grants. The third one was prepared to Czech University of Life Sciences (CZ) by prof. Krzysztof Rokosz and took place in term 14-17.12.2016. The program was prepared together with prof. Jirí Dvorák. All the students had the possibility to see some laboratories related to forest, agriculture and food engineering as well as School Forest Enterprise in Kostelec nad Černými lesy. There were also both, seminars and consulting activities related to harvester simulator and sawmill. In addition, the host organized also some social events with Prague tour.
At most Universities, which are participants in the PL-701 Network, for CEEPUS students there were very often prepared cultural and educational events such as: International Narrow-Gauge Train, International Evenings, International Bowling and Billiard, International Seminar for Students and Young Researchers, Cooking Day, etc. Some snapshots from those events are displayed in Figure 7.
Those meetings developed integration of youth from host and home countries, what sometimes resulted in friendships for lifetime and most often it was the impulse to learn a new foreign language as well as to the get to know a new culture.
Continuation of good practices related to long-term stays especially for master and doctoral students, who would like to perform part of their work in partner insti-tution in one of CEEPUS country. The recent years of Network activity, based mainly on short-term stays and group, educational excursions allowed to get a knowledge on machining and measuring devices as well as the know-how of experts in partner Universities. Before sending students abroad, for longer period of time, would have no substantive value. The arrangements between the staff allowed to carry out inter-disciplinary thesis. Now there is a group of students, interested in participation in 3-months CEEPUS stays at VSB-TU Ostrava (CZ) and SPU Nitra (SK), what is a good trend in the network development.