Project Aim
The aim of the German-Ukrainian collaborative project Laboratories Across Borders is to improve mechatronics students’ education through the use of innovative digital tools. It also intends to set up networked, remotely operated laboratories at both partner universities so that they can be integrated into the curriculum to lay the groundwork for educating lecturers and students in the years to come.
Project Outline
The combination of technological development and digital transformation is bringing about fast-paced, fundamental changes in the world of work. Innovative, applied teaching methods are key to preparing engineering students for these challenges.
The objective of the Laboratories Across Borders project is to set up cyber-physical laboratories and to develop complementary teaching and learning modules. By the end of the project, remotely accessible lab experiments using robots, electric motors and other real-life systems will be accessible at the two universities. This project has the added advantage of reducing the considerable costs of building real-life system set-ups on both sites.
The telematic lab experiments in robotics and control engineering are being integrated in the teaching at the two universities.
It is an opportunity for students to explore what they have learned in lectures in an experimental setting. By gaining applied expertise in the remote control and maintenance of equipment and industrial systems, the project will have tangible benefits for graduates as they enter a job market that is undergoing a huge transformation towards digitally networked, flexible production processes – known as Industry 4.0. It will also help to take engineering innovation in both countries to the next level.
Benefits
- Integration of digitalised learning modules in the mechatronics curriculum at Reutlingen University and the NTU Dnipro Polytechnic.
- Modernised and international teaching fit for the future of the field.
- Development of the lecturers’ and students’ digital skills in remote commissioning, maintenance and control of equipment and systems.
- Levelling up and expansion of the mechatronics course content by incorporating complementary expertise.
- Access to the hardware infrastructure at the respective partner university.
- Improved language proficiency and intercultural competence for the lecturers and students involved.
- Better employment prospects for mechatronics graduates from both universities.