Cooperation between Zaporizhia Polytechnic University and Ilmenau Technical University (Germany)

The cooperation of Zaporizhia Polytechnic University with the Technical University of Ilmenau (Germany) began with a joint international educational project ICo-op: Industrial Cooperation and Creative Engineering Education Based on Distance Engineering and Virtual Tools (2012–2015): https://zp.edu.ua/archive/ico-op/

Furthermore, our universities were partners within the DESIRE project: Development of courses in embedded systems using innovative virtual approaches for the integration of science, education and industry in Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia (2013–2016): https://zp.edu.ua/archive/tempus-desire/, as well as within the framework of the academic mobility program ERASMUS+ KA107.

Today, the cooperation of our universities continues within the framework of the ERASMUS+ SUNRISE project “Network of Strategic Universities for Regional Innovative and Sustainable Evolution” (2025–2028): https://www.tu-ilmenau.de/forschung/forschungsaktivitaeten/forschung-international/sunrise. Zaporizhia Polytechnic University is a partner in the alliance, which includes 9 universities from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Sweden, as well as associated partners from business and industry, government institutions, education, science and technology. The project is coordinated by TU Ilmenau, and its goal is to create innovative, internationally oriented educational programs.

One of the areas of joint research and scientific publications of Zaporizhia Polytechnic University and TU Ilmenau is technologies and systems of virtual and remote engineering based on the use of the GOLDi hybrid laboratory (Grid of Online Lab Devices Ilmenau). The experimental setup of this laboratory was installed at the Department of Software Tools within the framework of the ICo-op project, and was also included in the international network of online laboratories, which allowed students to remotely control real physical experiments and their virtual models (elevators, production lines, warehouses, gantry robots) via the Internet.

The GOLDi development team, led by Professor Emeritus of Zaporizhia Polytechnic Carsten Henke, is constantly improving didactic, technical and organizational solutions to create an open digital interuniversity learning environment that can be adapted to the requirements of learning and the needs of students, which will provide them with the skills necessary for future professional activities.

That is why at the end of February, representatives of the Department of Software Tools of Zaporizhia Polytechnic, at the invitation of Professor Carsten Henke visited TU Ilmenau, where they explored the new CrossLab architecture of the GOLDi 2.0 laboratory and the features of its use to support competency-based teaching and learning of students of computer specialties. During the visit, Ilya Parkhomenko, a student of the KST-212 group, implemented a project for remote control of GOLDi 2.0 experiments using the software and hardware of the Hybrid Take-Home-Lab case. This case provides students with an interface block that they can use to conveniently connect modules (Arduino, Raspberry Pi, FPGA or digital logic experiment kits) for remote control of the GOLDi physical equipment, creating a hybrid home laboratory.

Currently, work is underway on the LTI integration of the GOLDi 2.0 laboratory into the Moodle distance learning system of Zaporizhia Polytechnic. This will allow students of the Master’s degree program of the Department of Software within the discipline “Technologies and Systems of Virtual and Remote Engineering” (Associate Professor Anzhelika Parkhomenko) to work directly with online experiments without the need to go to the GOLDi 2.0 laboratory website.

The experience gained will contribute to the further implementation of online experiments to strengthen the practical components and improve the quality of distance learning for students of Zaporizhia Polytechnic University.

Working together – developing together!