Long-standing partnership (from left to right): Prof. Antonio Notholt (Faculty of Technology), Prof. Dr. Gerhard Gruhler (emeritus), partner university Dnipro University of Technology: Head of Department Electrical Drives. Prof. Serhii Khudolii and Rector Prof. Alexander Aziukovskyi, President of Reutlingen University Hendrik Brumme, Assoc. Prof. Oleksandr Balakhontsev (RRI Reutlingen), Prof. Baldur Veit (Head of Reutlingen International Office) and Rosalia Danz, LAB4All Project Coordinator.
The close cooperation between educational institutions such as Reutlingen University and its international partners is based on the principle of mutual learning and knowledge exchange. This is one of the reasons for the one-week delegation visit of the oldest partner university Dnipro University of Technology to Reutlingen University within the framework of Erasmus + mobility.
For Professor Dr Hendrik Brumme, President of Reutlingen University, this long-standing partnership is evidence of mutual trust and respect: “We have stood and continue to stand by our partner university in Dnipro even in difficult times and help where we can. Through privately organised fundraising campaigns and deliveries of power generators, for example, we have been able to make our contribution to keeping the university running there.” Since spring 2022, the university has also welcomed numerous Ukrainian exchange students and academics. Dr. Gerhard Gruhler, Professor Emeritus at Reutlingen University, also sees great significance in the cooperation between the two universities, which began back in 1997 as an innovative research partnership.
Professor Alexander Aziukovskyi, Rector of Reutlingen’s partner University Dnipro University of Technology, also emphasised: “It is important to exchange ideas with all the important players at the university for the cooperation in order to ensure the continuity of the partnership, which is very important for Dnipro”. During the visit, industrial partners such as REFU Drive GmbH in Pfullingen and the Electronics & Drives Teaching and Research Centre of the Faculty of Engineering in Rommelsbach were visited, among others. Aziukovskyi was accompanied by his colleague Prof. Serhii Khudolii, Head of the Electrical Drives Department and of the DAAD project “LAB4All”.
Lab4All is the continuation of Laboratories Across Borders (LAB), the joint project of the National Technical University of Dnipro Polytechnic and Reutlingen University, which was launched in 2020. The aim is to set up cyber-physical laboratories and develop customised teaching and learning modules. Innovative, applied teaching methods are key to preparing engineering students for the challenges of the digital world of work. Students at both universities will be able to conduct laboratory experiments with robots, electric motors and other real equipment located in labs on both campuses via remote access to the internet. By exploring what they have learned in lectures in an experimental environment, students acquire applied knowledge in the key competences of mechatronics, robotics and control engineering.
Good news during the delegation’s visit that made Professor Baldur Veit, Head of Reutlingen’s International Office, confident: “DAAD Eastern Partnership funds for Ukraine and EU funds in the Erasmus + program to support the Ukrainian partner universities have now been approved.”
The visit of the Ukrainian delegation was a further step towards deepening international cooperation and underlines the commitment of both educational institutions to promoting knowledge and intercultural exchange (lit. source: “Voneinander lernen – miteinander kooperieren” published on 09.08.2023 online at ” https://www.reutlingen-university.de/aktuelles/news/news-detail/voneinander-lernen-miteinander-kooperieren).