Abstract:

The paper presents the partnership between a prestigious technical university from Bucharest-Romania (University “Politehnica” of Bucharest – UPB) and an industrial company (SME) – “AFT Design”, based on a government financial support (Bridge Grant competition). This ensures students gaining practical knowledge in a field of excellence and combines the scientific knowledge of academics with the company's production experience for creating high performance and high quality products. The partnership is exemplified by the project “Multi-drones system for evaluation of flood effects” (SIMUL) and is coordinated by the Faculty of Automatic Control and Computer Science from UPB. The paper highlights the impact and benefits for the higher education and industry obtained by SIMUL research project. The joint activities were developed as a consequence of a national competition, focused on the knowledge transfer from the university to the industry and launched by the Romanian Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation (UEFISCDI), which is subordinated to the Ministry of National Education. The project is running during 2016–2018. The main technical objective of the project is to find a cheap and performing solution for flood areas detection and evaluation, based on new development of ICT, taking into account the equipment and expertise of both UPB and AFT Design. The final result of the project will be a multi-drones system based on multi ground control stations at distance, connected by internet. From the point of view of the University–Industry–Government partnership, the paper focus is to analyze the project impact on the educational process, directly or indirectly, through the professors and students involved in the research team. For educational propose, three directions are identified: allow students to carry out internships at the partner companies; strengthening the practical training of master students and carrying out experiments to complete PhD thesis. The collaboration between university and companies was well balanced both for contributions and results. So, master thesis, doctoral thesis, conference and journal papers, documentation for technology transfer, prototype and patents can considered as outcomes of the University–Industry–Government partnership in the SIMUL project. The experience can provide useful practices of blending research and education within an academia-industry cooperation framework based on the government financial support, while the lessons learned represent a starting point in debating the new role of advanced research and development performing companies in association with higher education. This partnership, promoted at UE level, has a broad impact beyond the constrained scope of a single project and can develop into long-lasting collaboration while benefiting all stakeholders: students, universities and the surrounding knowledge-based economic and industrial ecosystem.

Keywords:

Education process, multi-drones system, research and innovation project, technology transfer, University–Industry–Government partnership.