DIGITAL LIBRARY
A MULTIDISCIPLINARY EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMME BASED ON THE COOPERATION BETWEEN UNIVERSITY AND INDUSTRIAL PARTNERS
1 University Politehnica of Bucharest (ROMANIA)
2 National Institute for Aerospace Research "Elie Carafoli" (ROMANIA)
About this paper:
Appears in: ICERI2020 Proceedings
Publication year: 2020
Pages: 1096-1104
ISBN: 978-84-09-24232-0
ISSN: 2340-1095
doi: 10.21125/iceri.2020.0305
Conference name: 13th annual International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation
Dates: 9-10 November, 2020
Location: Online Conference
Abstract:
The world is getting smaller and more complex, but there is more technology, there is more diversity and more intercultural exchange. To answer all those “more” questions the young people of today’s world also need to have more intercultural competences. They need to be sensitive to different country organizational and business cultures. They also need to be able to think out of the box.

European Project Semester (EPS) is an innovative educational programme offered by several European universities to students who have completed at least two years of study. EPS embraces courses and a project-based learning as prescribed by the university`s industrial partners and research institutes. In the course of 6 years, many partners such as Metric Production, RURIS Craiova, Comoti, Biology Institute, have been involved in coordinating teams of 4 or 6 students. One of the most active partner is INCAS - the National Institute for Aerospace Research "Elie Carafoli", which is the leading research establishment in aerospace sciences in Romania, with more than 60 years of tradition in aerospace engineering, flow physics and applied aerodynamics, using state-of-the-art technologies and unique infrastructure of national strategic importance. INCAS has been involved in all major national aeronautical projects for civil and military areas, and currently is acting as a major player in EU policy for R&D development under FlightPath 2050 vision and future Horizon 2020 program.

The current international context has proven to be a challenge for developing an innovative approach in applying new educational methods to sustain a project-based learning. The challenge, in the pandemic context, is to maintain an open and inclusive cooperation between the program provided and the current teaching requirements as well as between the academic world and industry. This means that the academic world offers solutions for the industrial partner. This EPS type of partnership is further dealt with in the present article.
Keywords:
University-Industry experience, European Project Semester, Project-Based Learning.