UAS participants in the InduTwin project visited the partner universities Universidad Tecnológica de Tecámac (Mexico), Universidad de Guanajuato (Mexico), Universidad ESAN (Peru) and Universidad de Valparaíso (Chile) from September 5 to 16, 2022. In addition, students from the Faculties of Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering took part in the "Fundamentals of Industry 4.0" summer school in Tecámac (Mexico) from September 5 to 9, 2022 and the "Deep Learning Workshop" summer school in Lima (Peru) from September 12 to 16, 2022.
The aim of the delegation trip was for the Faculties of Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering to concretize existing dialogues on conceivable exchange formats for students and lecturers and - where possible - to bring them to a successful conclusion. At the same time, the aim was to win over important stakeholders from education policy and industry for the project. The Faculty of Business Studies, on the other hand, was able to intensify collaborations, some of which have existed for over a decade.
The Faculty of Computer Science was also able to record successes: the signing of a student exchange agreement with the Universidad Tecnológica de Tecámac and the approval by the Ministry of Education of the State of Mexico to fund twenty scholarships for Mexican students to enable them to spend a semester at the Faculty of Computer Science.
Scholarships for students and lecturers
The Faculty of Business Studies took the opportunity to promote the existing ISAP/IISD scholarships for students and teaching staff in Mexico and Peru, which enable bilateral semester exchanges and double degrees and - like the InduTwin project - are funded by the DAAD. Meanwhile, the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering focused on options and formats for student exchange with Universidad ESAN and the design of a joint certificate program.
Dual training in cooperation with companies and industry plays a key role in the InduTwin (Industrial Twin Bachelor Program) project. The talks held in the state of Guanajuato with Cofoce (coordinator for the promotion of foreign trade in the state of Guanajuato) and with the managing director of the Puerto Interior Industrial Park, Héctor López Santillana, were particularly important here. Together with representatives of the Universidad de Guanajuato, a strategy is now to be developed to attract companies based in the Puerto Interior to the InduTwin project and to integrate them into the (dual/digital) training formats on site and in Dortmund in the long term.
Real tasks
The "Cross Border Projects", in which international teams of students solve real tasks for companies, are an entry-level format for cooperation with industry partners. Following the successful implementation of such projects in the past two years (with the participation of universities in Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru), a "Cross Border Project" is also to be carried out in 2023; this was successfully advertised during the delegation trip.
In order to improve cooperation between the partner institutions, the topic of "English as a Medium of Instruction" also played a central role during the visit to Latin America. A learning platform is to be launched in 2023 that will enable teachers from the InduTwin consortium to teach confidently in English and simultaneously translate their teaching materials into English. This project is based on the learning platform for students already successfully implemented by InduTwin, which relies on elements of self-study using tasks from the fields of computer science, mechanical engineering and Business Studies combined with peer reviews by other learners.