The kick-off meeting of the ERASMUS+ project entitled: ENGINITE: “ENGineering and Industry Innovative Training for Engineers” took place at the Cyprus University of Technology in December 7th and 8th 2017. The project’s consortium is comprised of 7 partners in 4 different European countries: Cyprus University of Technology (Cyprus), Aalborg Universitet (Denmark), CUBEIE L.L.C (Cyprus), London South Bank University (UK), Technical University of Crete (Greece), GrantXpert Consulting (Cyprus), and Useful Simple Projects Limited (UK).
Cyprus is represented by the Cyprus University of Technology through the Social Computing Research Center (Social Computing Research Center, which has the responsibility for coordinating the project.
The Scientific coordinator of the project is Dr. Andri Ioannou, Assistant Professor at the Department of Multimedia and Graphic Arts, and Director of the Cyprus Interaction Lab (CIL). The ENGINITE group at the Cyprus University of Technology is also composed of Dr Yiannis Georgiou (Project manager), Prof. Panayiotis Zaphiris, Dr Ioannis Vyrides, Dr Stelios Yiatros and Dr Herodotos Herodotou.
ENGINITE focuses on the design, development and establishment of a new industrial-oriented postgraduate vocational training programme, which will use synchronous methods to set a higher standard level for engineering training. In its essence, ENGINITE aims to change the way in which engineers are trained; in turn, industry and economy are benefited. At the same time, the existing gap between academia and industry will be bridged by integrating ‘theory’ with ‘practice’ using the Problem Based Learning (PBL) approach to teaching and learning. Furthermore, ENGINITE strengthens the recruitment potential of the participants and leverages the industry’s quest for high qualified engineers. Thus, young engineers will have the opportunity to enhance their competences and capabilities, apply their industrial-based knowledge provided so far and gain real working experience.
During the kick-off meeting, a series of presentations took place, aiming at the introduction of the participating partners as well as at the communication of the project goals by:
- Dr Andri Ioannou, Project Coordinator, Prof. Panayiotis Zaphiris, Dr Ioannis Vyrides Βυρίδη, Dr Stelios Yiatros and Dr Herodotos Herodotou (Cyprus University of Technology)
- Prof. Søren Willert (Aalborg Universitet, Denmark)
- Prof. Konstantinos Komnitsas and Dr Nikolaos Xekoukoulotakis (Technical University of Crete)
- Dr Achilleas Constantinou and Dr Elsa Aristodemou (London South Bank University, UK)
- Mr Panayiotis Andreou and Mr Andreas Andreou (CUBEIE L.L.C, Cyprus)
- Dr Stephanie Apserou and Mrs Christina Achilleos (GrantXpert Consulting, Cyprus)
- Mr Oliver Broadbent (Useful Simple Projects Limited, England)
In addition, all partners were provided with the opportunity to get to know each other, review the scope of the ENGINITE project, specify the responsibilities of each organisation and define the framework and timeframe of their work so as to successfully meet the project’s objectives.
The meeting was marked as highly successful and all project members contemplated on the meeting’s high productivity and effectiveness. The next transnational meeting of the consortium will be held in London, United Kingdom in March 2018.
This project has been funded by the ERASMUS+ Strategic Partnerships for VET programme, and started in November 2017. The total project duration is 2 years.