In January 2017, the international project known as HEIBus (Smart HEI-Business collaboration for skills and competitiveness) was given an EU grant as part of the Erasmus and Knowledge Alliances 2 programme. Esslingen University of Applied Sciences is one of the project partners.
The consortium comprising a total of 12 partners from five different EU member states is managed by JAMK University as the project coordinator.
The HEIBus project partners from university education are the JAMK University of Applied Science in Finland, the Technical University Cluj-Napoca, Rumania; the University of Miskolc, Hungary; the University of Jaen, Spain. Germany is represented by Esslingen University of Applied Sciences.
The company partners are ITAB Pikval, Finland; S.C. PRO-TEHNIC S.R.L., Rumania; SC AUTOMATES ACM S.R.L., Rumania; Electrolux Lehel Ltd., Hungary; Robert Bosch Power Tool, Hungary; Valeo Iluminación España S.A.U., Spain and Stöbich Brandschutz GmbH from Germany.
The objective of the HEIBus project is to develop intelligent and innovative collaboration models between universities and companies during the upcoming three years (2017 – 2019). The project has a total budget of EUR 989,000 and aims to bring together European universities and companies with sound specialist knowledge and many years of experience in their own particular field of activity.
Enhancing the collaboration
The HEIBus project focuses on enhancing the collaboration between university institutions and companies by developing different collaboration models, thereby increasing the participation of students and university staff in international projects on research, development and innovation. The projects are proposed and accompanied by various companies in the five participating countries. This simplifies the direct contact of students and university staff with the companies in an international environment, which in turn promotes entrepreneurial understanding, innovative thinking, intercultural awareness and the ability to work in a team.
Requirements for complex projects
The new collaborative model between the universities and the companies will simplify the knowledge transfer between the participating partners and create optimum conditions for the development of new, innovative products and services. The companies selected obtain better access, within a clearly defined framework, to European partners from science and industry with a high degree of expertise. This enables complex and multidisciplinary projects to be tackled. These projects will be very important for small and medium-sized enterprises in particular, whose findings are used to enhance their own competitiveness.
Greater company participation
All activities result in greater company participation in the whole education and training process. The HEIBus project creates an educational concept which allows companies to have a direct stake in the training and at the same time creates the framework conditions for the students to be confronted with real problems and to solve them in an interdisciplinary and international team.
The special characteristic of this project is the virtual implementation of the university and company collaboration which both sides hope will be of great benefit in the form of time and cost savings.
The HEIBus involves three forms of cooperation:
Multidisciplinary Real Life Problem Solving (RLPS)
Student teams are confronted with real problems faced by a company. The idea is that these teams compete against each other in finding the solution for the task posed. The inclusion of a virtual implementation is intended to eliminate the time and geographic restriction.
The students gain the opportunity to improve their achievements above and beyond the education system, facilitate their entry into professional life and improve their abilities to deal with real problems. The companies profit by gaining suitable candidates to meet their future needs for highly qualified staff and possibly by being able to apply more efficient working methods in their own company.
This sub-project is carried out under the direction of Esslingen University of Applied Sciences. The main contacts for this are Prof. Dr.-Ing. Anton Haberkern (Academic Director of the “Resource Efficiency in Mechanical Engineering” Master’s programme) and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Steffen Greuling (Dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering).
Expert Level Real Life Problem Solving (EXPERT)
This method is comparable with the RLPS, but the problems are solved by teams of university experts. This approach allows companies to work on more complex topics as well.
Flexible Student Mentoring by Companies (Flex Mentoring)
This mentoring programme for students is a method to involve companies in university education and training. Each company will accompany a group of students through their complete degree programme. The depth of commitment demonstrated by the companies affects the closeness of the link they are able to foster between the students and the company. Flex Mentoring enhances the role played by university education and training in the quality of their subsequent working life and their entry into it. The students and the university staff have the opportunity to develop new skills and professional contacts.
From the point of view of the companies, the Flex Mentoring programme allows them to explore the next generation of potential employees. It makes their recruitment process easier and they gain knowledge transfer from universities and universities of applied sciences.
Project-Homepage HEIBus
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Anton Haberkern
