Internationalization and cooperation
The Erasmus+ international exchange program allows not only students and teachers of the Zaporizhzhia National Technical University to visit the Catholic University of Leuven, but also provides an opportunity to invite foreign specialists to the university.
Professor of the Catholic University of Leuven, Petro Arras, as part of the Erasmus+ KA1 2016-1-BE02-KA107-017264 program, held the lectures «CAD/CAM/CAE overview as virtual prototyping tools» and «Finite Element Analysis Basics» for students of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering and the Institute of Informatics and Radioelectronics.
For two years of cooperation between our universities, a stable connection between scientists and teachers has already been formed. As part of the first agreement, 2 graduate students of ZNTU (M. Kuchugurov and A. Germashev) and three masters (O. Bondarenko from the Department of Electric Drive and Automation, T. Kharlanova from the Department of Transport Technologies and S. Korotunov from the Department of Software) underwent internships at the De Nair campus. In the autumn semester of 2016/2017, 2 students of ZNTU are graduating at the De Nair campus: Nataliia Chernovol, group M-121m and Oleh Sementsov, group KNT-411m). Halyna Volodymyrivna Tabunshchik, professor of the software department, took part in international days held in March 2016 in Belgium. Therefore, during the meeting of the vice-rector for scientific work of ZNTU, prof. Yu.M. Vnukova and Prof. Petro Arras, the issues of further development of international cooperation were discussed, in particular, the possibility of conducting joint research works, participation in international grants, including Horizon 2020. Much attention was paid to the examination of the scientific results obtained in the «Laboratory of Dynamic Research of ZNTU», which are widely used at the leading machine-building enterprises of Ukraine and are of great interest for foreign production.
To support stem-education in the Zaporizhzhia region, Petro Arras visited the Zaporizhzhia gymnasium No. 11 and the Zaporizhzhia multidisciplinary Lyceum «Perspectiva», where he held seminars on the culture and traditions of Belgium, stem-education and international cooperation between ZNTU and the Catholic University of Leuven.
One of the tasks was conducting an interview with teachers and students. 5 master’s students of ZNTU, 1 postgraduate student and 5 teachers of different faculties took part in the interview. All winners showed a high level of professional training. Since postgraduate students did not show interest in the program, it was decided to redistribute the grant and provide an opportunity for all interested students to study at the De Nair Campus of the University of Leuven (Belgium). Based on the results of the interview, 2 students were given the opportunity to study in the spring semester of 2016/2017 academic year, and 3 students – in the fall semester of 2017/2018. Based on the results of the interview, a teacher mobility plan was also developed for teachers.
Petro Arras also served on the jury of the European Best Competition held on November 6 at ZNTU. Significant progress in English language skills among ZNTU students was noted.
Petro Arras agenda for KA1 (PDF, 412 KB)
Petro Arras Belgium (PDF, 4.4 MB)
Department of international relations and work with foreign students
