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Learn & travel: ATHENA summer schools & BIPs for students

June 19, 2023

The ATHENA European University Alliance has prepared a whole range of opportunities for students to make the most of their summer. ATHENA presents summer destinations for students who not only want to experience culture and life in ATHENA alliance countries but also to gain valuable knowledge and skills – from technical communication and sustainability to renewable energy and French language and culture. So, let's take a look at the ATHENA summer destinations 2023!

PORTO, PORTUGAL

Oh, Porto – the lovely second-largest city in Portugal, lies along the Douro River. Home to world-famous winery traditions, street art, and (as already mentioned) Francesinhas, Porto can be the place to be this summer. Check the opportunities in Porto:

Summer school: Getting Started with Technical Communication, 03/07-07/07

Technical communication is focused on the user of services or products and is an essential and transversal competence. Moreover, it is a professional area that is booming globally, most notably because of the digital and technological context of today’s world, and the need to inform the users in a clear way in order to create more value in products/services. The 2023 edition is a 5-day intensive face-to-face course, focusing on a general approach to Technical Communication, with a balanced program between theory and practice of approximately 30 contact hours, in a laboratory environment. More information here.

Photo by Everaldo Coelho on Unsplash

MARIBOR, SLOVENIA

Maribor – the city of hundreds of years of winery traditions and unique Slovene cuisine (imagine the mushroom soup with buckwheat mush). Maribor is a beautiful city filled with lots of friendly people and wonderful sights and monuments! Before heading to taste the wonders of Maribor, look at the amazing opportunities the University of Maribor has prepared for you:

Blended intensive programme: Solution Design, 27/08 – 08/09

Are you ready to face a real life problem in an international team of students of different professions and with experienced professors and experts? If YES, don’t hesitate to register for the 2023 Solution Design Summer school! More information here.

Blended intensive programme: 10th International Logistics Summer School – Sustainable Travel: Re-Defining the World of Travel, 28/08 – 05/09

This year’s summer school will provide you with an in-depth look at the logistics aspect of sustainable travel. You will learn about the challenges and opportunities that arise in transporting travellers, goods, and services sustainably and will include resource management, waste reduction, and improving transportation efficiency. More information here.

Blended intensive programme: Renewable Energy Sources, 04/09 – 08/09

During the summer school, students will learn about different types of renewable energy sources, such as hydrogen technologies, solar energy, wind energy, hydro energy and geothermal energy. More information here.

Blended intensive programme: 3rd International Summer School “Organization, Management & Society”, 04/09 – 09/09

Are you curious and innovative? Do you have a desire for new knowledge? Are you passionate problem solver? If you answered yes to at least one question, then you are the right person to join a group of students at Summer School FOV. It is not important your background, whether you are studying to become a Manager, an Economist, a Programmer, a Data Scientist, a Psychologist, Social Scientists. More information here.

Blended intensive programme: Simulation and Games in Nursing Education, 11/09 – 15/09

The University of Maribor, Faculty of Health Sciences, is organizing a SUMMER SCHOOL Simulation and Games in Nursing Education for nursing students with NO FEE for participants. The work will be done in pre-assigned small groups and will cover topics related to the significance of games and simulation in nursing education, 3D infographics creation, simulation escape rooms etc. More information here.

Blended intensive programme: Open Science Summer School, 11/09 – 15/09

The University of Maribor Summer School offers PhD students and young researchers an opportunity to learn and develop skills in the fields of research data management, open access to research results, the use of open research infrastructure, supercomputing resources and the European Open Science Cloud. More information here.

Blended intensive programme: International Summer School “Sustainability in International Business”, 11/09 – 16/09

Sustainability is becoming an increasingly important direction in business operations. It is rooted in the negative consequences of the neoliberal development paradigm in the world and the calls for sustainable development by international organisations and national governments. Apply for the International Summer School and gain insights into the sustainability aspects of international business! More information here.

Photo by University of Maribor

CARINTHIA, AUSTRIA

Klagenfurt is known as the capital of the state of Carinthia in Austria. It is ideally located on Lake Wörthersee, one of Europe’s largest and warmest Alpine lakes, in the southern part of Austria. Klagenfurt is a city of leisure and culture and is definitely worth a visit.
 
Blended intensive programme: Sustainable Entrepreneurship, 16/10-21/10

Teams of students from Austria and from all over the Alps-Adriatic region, as well as from Barcelona and ATHENA countries, will develop business ideas embedding sustainability and the SDGs. This cross-border collaboration does not only contribute to the entrepreneurial mindset of the students, it also strengthens their consciousness about sustainability and helps them develop intercultural and language skills. More information here. Registration here. Deadline for registration: 30/06. 10 places have been reserved for participants from ATHENA. 

Blended intensive programme: Diversity in the Digitized World – Challenges and Opportunities for (Re)establishing Social Justice, October

The programme is going to be held in Carinthia, Austria, in October. More information soon to be published: here.

Blended intensive programme – winter school: DEVOS – DEVeloping Outstanding Sustainable Entrepreneurship Competencies, 16/10 – 31/10

The purpose of this course is to develop exceptional and sustainable business competencies based on the "Global case study challenge" programme. More information to be published soon here. 

Klagenfurt, Austria

ORLÉANS, FRANCE

The fantastic city of Orléans stretches along the banks of the Loire River, with the small Saint-Marceau quarter and a historic center that is ringed by impressive piers and broad boulevards along the river. So, before seeking out Joan of Arc tributes, check out what summer schools ATHENA has prepared for you in Orléans:

International tutorials in Digital tools for built heritage diagnosis and monitoring, 20/06 – 21/06

This event is for those interested in keeping up with the latest developments in digital technologies for preservation and diagnostic support of historic buildings, as well as future trends. More information here.

French Language and Culture Summer School, 17/06 – 15/07

This summer, experience a full French immersion in Orleans (2 or 4 weeks), labelled “City of Arts and History”. Two or four weeks to Practice and make progress in French, Discover the region and its culture, Live French in and out of classes. More information here.

Photo by University of Orléans

Destination – VILNIUS TECH

For students who do not want to travel far or seek impressions within their own community after traveling abroad, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VILNIUS TECH) offers the opportunity to participate in summer schools organized by the university.

Blended intensive programme: Mastering music video creation, 19/06 – 30/06

Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VILNIUS TECH) Creativity and Innovation Centre “LinkMenu fabrikas” invites ATHENA students from all partner universities to participate in the International Summer School of Sound and Vision “Mastering Music Video Creation“! This programme offers a unique opportunity for students to develop their filming, editing, cinematographic lighting, sound recording, design, and other essential video content creation skills. More information here.

VILNIUS TECH PhD Summer school, 17/07–21/07

VILNIUS TECH PhD Summer School is an annual event that aims to provide doctoral candidates with unique professional and personal development opportunities. It focuses on the key competencies required to achieve the best results beyond general doctoral students’ training. More information here.

Blended intensive programme: Sustainability Summer School, 18/09–29/09

The newly established VILNIUS TECH Sustainability Hub presents its first kick-off initiative – Sustainability Summer School. Teachers, students and practitioners are invited to participate in this summer school. Teachers are invited to deliver sustainability related courses in online sessions and to supervise group works during on-site session. Practitioners and business partners are invited to provide problem-based cases to be solved during the summer school. More information here.

Photo by Reza Bina on Unsplash

To apply for funding for participation in blended intensive programmes and summer schools, please register for the event, obtain the letter of acceptance from the receiving institution and then contact International Relations Office at VILNIUS TECH, outgoing@vilniustech.lt and rasita.martise@vilniustech.lt. 

Regarding participation in events organized by VILNIUS TECH, please contact organizers.

ATHENA European University offers ongoing mobility and development opportunities for every member of the community – from students to employees! To learn more about the possibilities offered by ATHENA, subscribe to the newsletter, follow ATHENA on social networks and visit the ATHENA website regularly.
 

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Modern engineering solutions are increasingly created through collaboration between specialists from different fields. The university environment provides an opportunity to combine diverse competencies and develop solutions that would be difficult to achieve within the boundaries of a single discipline. Such collaboration was also at the heart of a bachelor’s thesis project in which VILNIUS TECH students Laura Venckutė (Faculty of Electronics) and Abderrazak El Aamrani (Faculty of Mechanics) combined expertise in electronics and medical engineering to develop a human motion recognition and evaluation system. From an Idea to Interdisciplinary Collaboration At the beginning of the project, students from the Medical Engineering and Electronics Engineering study programmes sought to address a problem relevant to both sports and rehabilitation: the lack of accessible systems capable of automatically evaluating human movements and providing immediate feedback. As the project authors point out, incorrect movements can reduce training effectiveness and increase the risk of injuries during rehabilitation, sports activities, or everyday tasks. For this reason, they decided to look for a technological solution that could help objectively assess movement quality. The idea emerged from previous projects and experience gained during their studies, while an important catalyst was the opportunity for collaboration proposed by their supervisors. From the outset, it was clear that the project would require expertise from different fields, as motion analysis involves not only developing a technical system but also defining meaningful criteria for evaluating human movement. [caption id="attachment_120707" align="alignnone" width="2048"] Electronics and Medical Engineering students developed a Human motion analysis system[/caption] The students brought different, yet closely interconnected and complementary competencies to the project. The Electronics Engineering student was responsible for computer vision, embedded systems, and system integration, while the Medical Engineering student contributed expertise in biomechanics and human movement assessment. Although responsibilities were divided according to individual areas of expertise, key decisions were made collaboratively. From the Initial Concept to a Functional System In the early stages, the team planned to develop a system capable of analysing a broader range of movement patterns and performing more advanced analytical functions. However, as the project progressed, technical limitations, available hardware resources, and the scope of the bachelor’s thesis had to be taken into account. As a result, some ideas had to be abandoned. According to the team members, no major disagreements arose during the project. Decisions were made by discussing possible alternatives, evaluating how well they aligned with the project objectives, and, whenever possible, testing different approaches in practice. When technical and medical requirements conflicted, the team sought solutions that best balanced project goals and implementation constraints. The final outcome of the project is a human motion recognition and feedback system based on a pose estimation algorithm designed for basketball shooting analysis. The system detects a person in real time, estimates body posture, evaluates shooting technique according to biomechanical criteria, and subsequently provides feedback to the user. The Value of Interdisciplinarity and Future Opportunities During testing, the system performed better than expected. It successfully analysed the movements of users of different heights and maintained reliable performance at distances of up to 12 metres. 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