An international engineering summer school “VGTU-CalPoly 2019” has started at Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VGTU). Next six weeks several dozen students from the California State Polytechnic University (CalPoly) and from the Faculty of Civil Engineering at VGTU will study engineering courses intensively. Lithuanian American prof. Edmundas Saliklis is the founder and one of the tutors this year teaching together with prof. Brent Nuttall and prof. Peter Laursen.
“I am happy that this summer school has become an important part of my faculty and cultural identity. The significance of this summer school is growing in California, because more and more persons know about it: it’s not only students, but also their parents, other family members and friends. My colleagues are eager to go to Lithuania and there is a high competition among the academic staff at CalPoly who is going to teach the next year. It takes almost a year to prepare for the next summer school. We start information meetings in autumn, before Thanksgiving,” – says E. Saliklis, the initiator of the summer school.
The school is very popular among CalPoly students. Even though it is designed for students who have completed the second year of studies, there are applicants who currently are in their first year of studies – they apply a year in advance. They try hard to have high GPA to win theaproval of the applications. This year there were 52 applicants from CalPoly and only 25 were selected. According to Edmundas Saliklis, some students have financial issues (the summer school is fee based), or do not have sufficient GPA, others have lack of motivation. This year the school has 33 participants, where 8 of them are the local students from VGTU, Faculty of Civil Engineering.
During the summer school, students from CalPoly and VGTU will gain a lot of specific knowledge. “They will learn MATLAB, and modelling of buildings with SAP2000. In addition, students will work on professional reports, will analyse issues of ethics. The practical classes are organised for the hands-on experience with SAP2000 and MATLAB,” says E. Saliklis.
This summer school is dedicated to analyse seismic and wind loads. During practical classes students will study the behaviour of a flexible wood floor under a seismic load, and will compare it with a rigid reinforced concrete floor under a transverse load. After carrying out the comparison, the results will be presented. Students will also learn to programme with MATLAB and do construction analysis, and this, in turn, will be compared to calculations carried out with SAP2000 and manually. During the classes, four projects of different construction systems will be analysed and various design alternatives will be simulated on computers.
Speaking about expectations of the summer school, the professor said, that his greatest motivation is to inspire the new ambassadors of Lithuania. “Approximately 150 students have participated in this summer school since 2012, and each of them has fallen in love with Vilnius. It’s not only them. Now, their family members and friends know more about Lithuania too,” explains E. Saliklis filled with pride.
Every year Edmund Saliklis together with academic staff from VGTU Faculty of Civil Engineering inspire VGTU students. Professors want them to learn new ways of studying, experience the teaching and learning methods used in this summer school, master the latest technologies.
“This summer school is very rigorous academically, but also we take into account the cultural experience of the summer school participants. We want students from California to learn as much as possible about our beloved Lithuania, to feel the complicated history of the country. I am telling students that Lithuania is a blood-soaked land, but it’s hard to comprehend for them. Many of the participants will visit the Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights. Students will have a lot of academic tasks, but I am sure that they will have enough time to enjoy European lifestyle as well. It might be a little bit harder for students from VGTU, because they will have to adjust to new ways of teaching. I feel that with this school we educate the future of Lithuania, and the future is in the hands of the intelligent youth,” says E. Saliklis.
It The cultural programme during the weekends is an essential part of the international summer school . The weekend programmes are rich and exciting even for the local VGTU students. The cultural social activities are not only based in Vilnius. All the summer school participants will visit Kernavė and Anykščiai with stops at the Horse Museum, the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum, and a tree top walk. They will also go on a three-day trip to Klaipėda, Palanga and Nida, where they will be guidedto the Hill of Crosses, the Plokštinė Nuclear Missile Launch Site, the Amber Museum of Palanga, the Curonian Spit, the Hill of Witches, will visit cormorant colony, the Parnidis dune with a thorough supervision of the wonderful guide Petras Staselis.
During his six-week visit to Lithuania E. Saliklis tries to expand and strengthen the long-term cooperation between the CalPolyand VGTU. Professor hopes that faculty exchange programmes could be the next step in addition to the international student exchange.
VGTU Faculty of Civil Engineering must be proud to have the great social partner- “Naresta“ Ltd for this year summer school. The summer school participants had a perfect chance to be presented the construction peculiarities of the MO Museum – one of the big projects the company was engaged in.
The international summer school “VGTU-CalPoly 2019” will last until 2 August.
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