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TH Wildau International Newsletter: Issue #2
Centre for
International Affairs - March 2023
We are pleased to present the 2nd
issue of TH Wildau’s International Newsletter.
This newsletter
has a special theme: TH Wildau’s solidarity with Ukraine. It has been
one year since Russia‘s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022
changed the lives of so many.
With that in mind, we have
highlighted stories about the resilience of Ukrainians who have
continued to conduct research and teach, despite the challenges they
face. We have also published articles about members of the TH Wildau
community who have chosen to help Ukrainian colleagues and students in
any way they can. We continue to stand in
#solidaritywithukraine.
There are other regions of the world in
crisis as well. The recent earthquakes in Syria and Turkey have left
tens of thousands of people dead and many more displaced in a
humanitarian disaster. And the people of Iran and Afghanistan continue
to suffer at the hands of their governments. We offer our support and
thoughts to those who struggle daily, through no fault of their
own.
This issue is not only focused on crises. We have news and
articles about recent internationalisation efforts, exciting
international projects, and upcoming events of potential interest.
The newsletter continues to be accessible from our website here. If you are not already subscribed,
you can do so directly on the newsletter website. By way of explanation:
We can only send the newsletter to your personal address if you have actively subscribed to it
- otherwise we can only send the newsletter to functional addresses in accordance with data protection.
As always, we welcome your feedback, look forward to hearing from you, and hope you
enjoy the issue.
Your Newsletter Editorial Team
Table of Contents
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Save the Date: 2023 Wildau International Week from 8 till 12 May
After a
successful first edition of its Wildau International Week, the
International Office of TH Wildau cordially invites you to
the second edition, which will take place from 8
till 12 May 2023. Up to 25
lecturers from partner universities are warmly invited to
join the event and get to know TH Wildau, its campus, and
the vibrant German capital region of
Berlin-Brandenburg.
The
programme will include guest
lectures in our different
study programmes (a full list of our programmes can be found
here), an excursion
to the marvellous city of Potsdam, workshops on
German language and
culture, info
sessions for local students interested in
studying abroad, and a festive dinner.
Guest
lecturers are eligible for
funding from the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union
through their home institution. The main working language of
Wildau International Week will be English. Registrations for
International Week can be submitted until 9 April using this
Registration
Form.
If you have any
further questions, please contact Simon Devos-Chernova:
✉ internationalweek@th-wildau.de
We look forward
to welcoming you in Wildau this
Spring!
Impressions from the first TH Wildau International Week (2022)
Participation in the 15th Regional Higher Education Fair
in Latin America 2023
Since 2002 TH Wildau has targeted
cooperation with German schools in Latin
America. Currently, we have partnerships with 20 German schools
from Mexico to Argentina (further
information on our cooperation partners can be found
here).
TH Wildau has
visited its partner schools
every year since 2003 as part of an information
trip. Due to the pandemic, no information trips
could take place in 2021 and 2022. However,
each
school was informed
about the study programmes offered
by TH Wildau in the form of digital fairs and
received information about the application process
and support services for international
students.
In February and March 2023,
the International Office will present TH Wildau
on site at a total of 7 German schools in Colombia, Ecuador,
El
Salvador and Bolivia
(from
20.02.-10.03.23). We are happy to
answer your questions on the application process or any
aspect of (student) life in Germany.
The following
schools will be visited during the information
trip:
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20.02.23
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German
School in Cali, Colombia
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Simon
Devos-Chernova |
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22.02.23
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German School in Medellín,
Colombia
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Simon
Devos-Chernova |
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24.02.23
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German School in Barranquilla,
Colombia
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Simon
Devos-Chernova |
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27.02.23
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German School in Cuenca, Ecuador
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Simon
Devos-Chernova |
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01.03.23
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German School in Quito, Ecuador
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Simon
Devos-Chernova |
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06.-07.03.23
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German School in San Salvador, El
Salvador
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Carolina Winkler |
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09.-10.03.23
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German
School in Santa Cruz, Bolivia
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Carolina Winkler |
Our experience has shown that applicants from German schools
are ideal candidates for studying at TH Wildau because they
bring the necessary qualifications for studying in Germany. They
have already become acquainted with the German language and
culture during their school years - many have even been to
Germany before as part of a student exchange - and thus have
excellent chances of integrating here and successfully
completing their studies. TH Wildau has many years of experience
in advising and supporting students from Latin America, and
we‘re looking forward to many new applications. Are you studying
at a German school and do you have any questions? Feel free to
contact us on site!
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for
refugee students from Ukraine
After Russia's attack on Ukraine on 24 February
2022, aid activities such as the collection and transport of
everyday necessities were initially organised at TH Wildau. However,
it soon became clear that humanitarian tasks should be found above
all in the core areas of the university, i.e. teaching and research.
This is how the idea for the Wildau Welcome IT School for refugee Ukrainian students came about.
In practical terms, the focus was on the field of information technology (IT), as
this could be addressed to many students, the implementation did
not require any special equipment infrastructure and could be
organised well in hybrid format (i.e. in person and online). The
aim was to offer a complete 15-week
semester with 30 credit
points and six modules. These were to be broadly
based. The decision fell on the core modules "Web Applications Development" and
"Applications of Machine Learning and
AI". More than 30 TH
employees contributed to the two modules Cross-Sectional-IT and
Interdisciplinary Module. Finally, there were two language
modules: "German for Beginners" and
"Advanced English for IT".
The admission requirement was that the participants were active
students with a Ukrainian residence permit and were already
outside Ukraine. After less than two weeks of advertising on
social media channels, there were already over 100 interested students, 30 of whom were admitted and eventually
enrolled in the Welcome IT School. Surprisingly, there was a
relatively high proportion of third-country nationals from
Africa. As a result, the programme could not be organised in
Ukrainian for the core modules as originally planned but was
offered in English instead.
The programme started 9 May 2022 and ended with the last
post-examinations in September, so that finally 13 students acquired certificates.
More than half of the participants dropped out during the
course, as they took up gainful employment, had to attend
integration courses, etc. The idea of introducing some students
to the IT industry in the metropolitan region worked and several
participants found student jobs in the IT sector after the
semester.
On 16 December 2022, the most accomplished students were
honoured by Vice President Prof. Dr.
Jörg Reiff-Stephan in the presence of Brandenburg's State Secretary Tobias
Dünow (picture). The programme was conceived by Prof.
Dr. Marcus Frohme. Prof. Dr. Alina Nechyporenko led it and
taught the two core modules. Both are members of the Department of
Molecular Biotechnology and Functional Genomics.
Picture: Award for the most
accomplished graduates. From left: Prof. Dr. Jörg Reiff-Stephan,
State Secretary Tobias Dünow, Mykya Bobkov, Dr. Jeffrey Wolf
(International Office), Vladyslav Omelchenko, Vladyslav
Strelchuk, Oleh Zholubak, Prof. Dr. Alina Nechyporenko, Prof.
Dr. Marcus Frohme
Wildau
Kharkiv
IT
Bridge (WKITB)
Image: Homepage of the project www.wildau-it-bridge.de After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, many research
institutions immediately froze their contacts and activities with
the Russian Federation. The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
also put a stop to ongoing Russian projects and instead offered
extensive funding in the quickly launched programme " Ukraine digital - securing study success
in times of crisis". Up to 250.000€ per project was
available for the second half of the year. Prof. Dr. Marcus Frohme
was successful as an applicant with the project Wildau-Kharkiv-IT-Bridge,
which is currently led by Prof. Dr. Alina Nechyporenko. Her team
consists of several employees in Germany and Ukraine.
The aim was to build a platform on which
teaching can be offered to students in
Ukraine on an inter-university basis. The
main partner is the Kharkiv National University of Radioelectronics, which set
up a Google Workspace for Education
platform. It provides all the necessary
functionalities. 60
teachers from a total of eight other
universities in Kharkiv teach
modules in the IT field there. The WKITB is
not only intended to help students whose
home universities no longer work or only
work partially due to the effects of war but
also to provide teachers with additional
income. For instance, they were employed as
foreign honorary staff at TH Wildau.
Especially in the IT sector, there are
already strong pull effects from industry in
peacetime and thus a brain drain out of
Ukraine. This will be reduced by the
project. Since the degree programmes in
Ukraine are well standardised, students
should not have any problems with the
recognition of their academic achievements.
After the Wildau-Kharkiv
IT Bridge website was set up, 250
thousand students, IT staff and academics in
Ukraine were approached thanks to
professional social media advertising, so
that eventually more than 2.500
students were registered for the
courses.
The project also planned to invite up to 20 Ukrainian
teachers to Wildau to initiate
possible cooperation projects and to get to
know German culture. Nine female and one
male lecturer accepted the invitation and
spent the Christmas period in Wildau and
Berlin, where they taught, visited the
German DAAD headquarters, and the Ukrainian
embassy. A visit to the Christmas market, an
invitation to cheese fondue and
Feuerzangenbowle rounded off the programme.
WKITB has been acknowledged with a citation
in the DAAD Annual
Report, was mentioned in a parliamentarian's
speech in the Bundestag, and was the
starting point of a DAAD community event.
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The Sociology Department of Karazin Kharkiv National
University has already evaluated the project for
2022 and conducted accompanying research. After surveying
around 20% of the student
participants and ¾ of the
teachers, the WKITB received very good approval ratings
despite the difficult accompanying circumstances.
In 2023, the project is continuing as
Wildau-Kharkiv IT Bridge II.
Fostering
German-UkrainianCooperation
Dr. Anna Grebinyk completed her PhD under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Marcus Frohme (Research
Professor in Molecular Biology and Professor of Biosystems
Engineering/Bioinformatics at TH Wildau) in the field of
nanomedicine, and in addition to her research, she helped to develop partnerships with six Ukrainian
academic institutions.
She joined the German-Ukrainian Academic
Society (Die
Deutsch-Ukrainische Akademische
Gesellschaft, or DUAG) that was founded
in 2016 in Berlin
with the
main goals of fostering academic
cooperation with Ukraine, to improve knowledge about
Ukraine abroad and vice versa, and to increase the visibility of
Ukrainian scientists and their achievements. The DUAG
also supports career
development of members and early-career researchers in
Ukraine, as well as
reforms
in Ukrainian science. Today, she contributes to the
society’s communication
and PR activities.
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Anna Grebinyk at Preview of the Exhibition “50
Inventions Bestowed by Ukraine to the World” within Annual Meeting
2018 of the German-Ukrainian Academic Society in Dresden. Copyright:
Jürgen Lösel / DUAG
In 2021, with the support of the DUAG and together with Prof. Frohme and Prof. Nechyporenko, she organised two German-Ukrainian DAAD Autumn Schools in Kharkiv and Kviv under the title “Lessons in Biomedicine Learnt from Nanotechnology & Artificial Intelligence.” The effort to merge these innovative fields in an event for young scientists was a real success.
Because DUAG was well established before 2022, it was able to respond quickly to the Russian invasion of Ukraine by building an informational online resource, organizing and participating in dedicated events, and establishing support for students and scientists fleeing the war. Dr. Grebinyk led a task force #StandwithUkraine, was elected to the Executive Board in October 2022, and will serve as Treasurer of the Society for the next 3 years. Dr. Grebinyk is positive about her experience at TH Wildau: “The i nternational environment at TH Wildau is the place where I grew up academically, and I am very thankful for its versatile support for projects in a time of crisis. TH Wildau is also an ideal strategic partner for the systematic long-term reconstruction of the Ukrainian academic system, where international science and education will definitely be a driving force.”
Support
for Ukrainian Scientists
Even before February 2022, some Ukrainians were
working as scientists at TH Wildau – mainly in
the Molecular
Biotechnology and Functional Genomics
division. Naturally they served as first contact
points for persons arriving from Ukraine after
the Russian invasion. But also due to previous
joint projects, there were connections between TH
Wildau and a number of Ukrainian
universities.
Here are some short
reports about five scientists and their
journey from Ukraine to TH Wildau in 2022:
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 basic structure of bovine
pericardium (heart sac) with all cells removed
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Dr. Valeriia Antonova
is a medical doctor from Kharkiv. Her village was
occupied in the first days of the war and after two
traumatising months, she was deported to Russia. Via Estonia
she found a way to Wildau, along with her parents and cat.
Currently she is working in Prof. Marcus Frohme’s
department, together with Prof. Alina Nechyporenko. Dr.
Antonova’s expertise in the evaluation of medical images
with methods of machine learning contributes to the
development of automated diagnostics and decision support
systems.
Dr.
Dmytro Chumachenko is an associate
professor from the National
Aerospace University in Kharkiv with a
specialisation in Artificial Intelligence. He was already a
visitor at TH Wildau in Winter 2021, where he worked several
months in medical A.I. His wife, Halyna Padalko, is a media
communications specialist and was hired for the
Wildau-Kharkiv-IT-Bridge project. More recently, she started
to work in Canada, and Dmytro was able to follow her thanks
to a scholarship.
Dr.
Nataliya Bilous is a Professor in the Software
Engineering Department at Kharkiv
National University of Radioelectronics. She was
coordinator in a former TEMPUS project with TH Wildau. She
is currently working in TH Wildau’s Faculty of Economics,
Computing, and Law (WIR). Since Nataliya’s family
managed to make it to Italy, she often commutes to see them and
to take care of medical issues there.
Nataliia Shchotkina
and Dr.
Iryna Skorokhod are both microbiologists from Kyiv
and came with their children. Nataliia is at the National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute” and
aims to finish her PhD. She works and has published with Dr.
Skorokhod from the Center for
Pediatric Cardiology of the Ministry of Health of
Ukraine. At TH Wildau they are in the group of Prof. Michael
Herzog (Polymeric High Performance Materials). Their
work contributes to overcome disadvantages of artificial
prostheses for cardiac surgery. They investigate the use
of material from cattle (which is close to human tissue in terms of
elasticity) in order to find ways to prevent bio-degradation and
calcification when used in a patient (figure). Many thanks
are due to the support from the DAAD, ERASMUS and the VW Foundation. Their funding
has permitted these colleagues, in most cases, to live and work at
TH Wildau.
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TH Wildau's
European Business Programme
Welcomes Star Architect
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TH Wildau bachelor students in the European
Business programme and
Prof. Dr. Lydia
Göse (Professor for Business Administration, in
particular Digital Marketing) had the honour to welcome a
special guest to their marketing module. Dr Zhang Yuanchen from the
world-renowned architectural company gmp architects (Gerkan, Marg and
Partners) attended the lecture of the 1st semester of the
European Business program. Dr Zhang is responsible for
communication & PR of the company, which designed Berlin's
main station and is involved in well-known large-scale projects
worldwide.
Born in China, Dr Zhang is fluent in
English, German and Chinese and is well-versed in the
various cultures, especially in German-Chinese relations.
She told the group about her personal career, her
motivation, and the many practical intercultural challenges
and solutions she has experienced over the years.
She also talked about the company's diverse
communication measures and introduced a project that
was particularly exciting: in an international
competition gmp won the contract to rebuild the
decommissioned stainless-steel factory in Shanghai's Baoshan
district. The factory, with a length of 860
meters, will be preserved in its striking basic
structure and expanded into the new headquarters of
the Shanghai Academy of Fine
Arts. Using the charm of a former factory
and converting it into a modern, innovative, and
knowledge-filled teaching facility is very well
known to the TH Wildau community😊. |
Dr. Zhang Yuanchen of gmp architects
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Prof. Dr. Göse and her students would like to thank
Dr Zhang formally for her sympathetic and
intelligent presentation and look forward to future
interactions.
Prof. Dr. Lydia Göse (far left) with students and Dr. Yuanchen
Cooperation project
SCIEnC(e) 4 SuRe with the Universidad
Tecnológica de La Habana (CUJAE) picks up speed
The long-standing cooperation between the
logistics experts of TH Wildau (Prof. Dr.-Ing.
Gaby Neumann) and the industrial engineers of CUJAE (Prof.
Dr.-Ing. Igor Lopes Martinez) has reached a new
level of intensity with the project "Strengthening
Competences of Industrial Engineers in Cuba
for Sustainable and Responsible Supply
Chains - SCIEnC(e) 4 SuRe". Since the
beginning of 2021, the DAAD has been funding the
project as part of its programme "Subject-related
Partnerships with Universities in
Developing Countries" with
funds from the Federal Ministry for Economic
Cooperation and Development (BMZ). With the
industrial engineers (Prof. Dr.-Ing. Thomas
Masurat), another subject area of TH Wildau is
actively involved in the cooperation.
SCIEnC(e) 4 SuRe aims to improve the education of
industrial engineers in Cuba so that
they can fulfil their role in sustainable
and responsible supply chains. To this end,
the range of courses offered at CUJAE in the
field of industrial engineering will be
further developed in a future-oriented
manner and academic capacities (in terms of
personnel and infrastructure) will be
created for its implementation. A "Cuban-German
Competence Centre for sustainable and
responsible Supply Chain Management
(C3SCM)" is to be established at
CUJAE in conjunction with a multinational
network of supply chain experts to ensure
that the initiated changes, cooperation and
exchange relationships continue to have an
effect beyond the project.
German-Cuban student group at a project day in a
Cuban company
While the first year of the four-year project
was still characterised by pandemic-related
restrictions, numerous activities could already be
implemented in 2022, including:
- The first modules, updated and realigned
with help from TH Wildau, were taught at
CUJAE.
- During three visits by
Cuban professors to TH Wildau,
various train-the-trainer measures in the
form of workshops, laboratories, job
shadowing or company visits were on the
agenda.
- Four students from TH Wildau and eight from
CUJAE took part in the first joint
Winter/Summer School "International
Logistics". The TH Wildau students
(under the direction of Prof. Neumann and
Prof. Masurat) first completed lectures and
a business game at CUJAE in February and
gained an insight into Cuban practice during
a project day in two companies in Havana. In
the months that followed, project work in
German-Cuban teams ensured that contact did
not break off. In July 2022, the Cuban
students (under the direction of Prof. Lopes
Martinez) visited TH Wildau, where
laboratory exercises, a project day at
UNITAX Pharmalogistik GmbH, and the final
examination were on the agenda.
- For CUJAE, a Supply
Chain 4.0 lab was designed for
student internships, workshops for companies
and professionals, and a children's
university supported by students. Marcus
Günzel, laboratory engineer in the
intralogistics laboratory at TH Wildau,
coordinated the complex procurement
processes for model-making machines, IT
equipment and a solution for analysing
manual work processes.
- In November 2022, the foundation stone
for the multinational network of
experts was laid during visits to
three Cuban pharmaceutical companies, which
were also attended by experts from two
German pharmaceutical logistics companies.
An expression and appreciation of this successful development was the honouring in November 2022 of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gaby Neumann with the CUJAE seal, the highest award to be given by the university, for special services to the further development of the Faculty of Industrial Engineering at CUJAE.
In 2023, the SCIEnC(e)
4 SuRe project will continue at
an unabated pace. In
addition to the second edition of
the joint Winter/Summer School, this
time with seven students from TH
Wildau and five from CUJAE, and the
commissioning of the Supply Chain
4.0 laboratory, the first
SCIEnC(e) 4 SuRe Workshop for
Sustainable Supply Chains
with numerous participants from
Cuban companies will be a particular
highlight. |
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gaby Neumann with the
Rector of CUJAE, Prof. Dr. Modesto
Ricardo Gómez
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Study
trip to the Netherlands:
Cycling, Urban Infrastructure, and
more Cycling
From
27th to 30th of November
2022, members
of TH Wildau’s
master’s
programme
in bicycle transport
planning
visited Amsterdam
to work with
students
of Amsterdam
University of
Applied
Science’s
(AUAS)
built
environment
programme.
On
Monday, TH
Wildau students and
faculty
were able to see the
modern architecture of
AUAS’
new Jakoba Mulderhuis
building.
They
met around 25
students from
AUAS
who were working on a
semester-long project on
sustainable mobility.
Erik
Tetteroo
(AUAS, hod works) gave an
exciting talk
on "Bicycle
inclusive urban
planning".
The presentation showed
planning approaches that
propose a paradigm shift
away from "Car-Oriented
Urban
Planning".
Afterwards, Marjolein
de Lange from Amsterdam
Bike City
welcomed everyone
to the city of Amsterdam
and gave further
insight
into
the bicycle promotion
measures that the city
of Amsterdam has planned
for the coming years. In
the afternoon,
Ms.
de Lange provided
a tour of
interesting cycling
facilities in Amsterdam
- by
bike, of course.
On the second
day, TH Wildau
participants
took the train
to Utrecht
and
marvelled at the
new train
station and the
largest bicycle
parking garage
in the world.
There, Simone
Jorink from Movares
welcomed
everyone in the
office near the
station and
described the
exciting bicycle
projects
of the company,
especially in
regard to bicycle
parking.
Shortly after
the visit to
Movares,
everyone went to
the modern city
hall of Utrecht.
While there,
Bart Budel from
the city of
Utrecht
explained the
city's
impressive
conversion and
expansion plans,
showcasing how
much is being
done for the
cycling
infrastructure
in
Utrecht.
After lunch, the
group went on
another bike
tour. Ruxandra
Aelenei (AUAS)
showed everyone
her hometown of
Utrecht and many
exciting places
for urban
and
transport
planners.
On Sunday, after
a somewhat rainy
bike ride to
Harleem, a
neighbouring
city of
Amsterdam, the
group returned
to Wildau.
The
study
trip was
kindly
co-financed
by the
International
Office
of
TH
Wildau
and
funds
from
Erasmus+.
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TH Wildau Cycling
enthusiasts
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Further
information
on the master’s
programme in
bicycle transport
planning
can be found here:
www.th-wildau.de/radverkehr-studieren
DileMa MINT project: Mentoring for
International Students
Shortly before Christmas, the mentoring for international students started in the DileMa MINT project. The new support offer is aimed at all international students who are enrolled at TH Wildau, regardless of whether they already live in Germany or are still in their home country. The mentor is an international student herself and supports students in their entry into the university and in their everyday study life and helps with individual and study-related issues with tips, advice and referral to the responsible contact persons at the TH Wildau. International students can contact her, for example, if - they can only enter Germany in the middle or towards the end of the semester
- they do not know how and where to register or deregister for exams
- they need support and information on finding accommodation
- they simply want to talk to an experienced international student.
The mentor Thanippulige Hansimala Jayarathne is currently in her 3rd semester studying Aeronautical Engineering/Aeronautical Management and could not be in Wildau in time for the start of her studies: "Before I entered Germany, I had visa problems and could therefore only start my studies at TH Wildau in the 2nd semester. Since I myself had to overcome some difficulties with registering for and deregistering from exams as well as with paying the semester fee on time or finding the right contact person, I believe that I can support international students well when starting their studies at TH Wildau and give helpful tips and advice as well as name the right contact persons." |
Mentor for International Students,
Thanippulige Hansimala Jayarathne
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Further information on mentoring for
international students can be found at www.th-wildau.de/mentoring-international.
The mentor can be contacted by e-mail at international.mentoring@th-wildau.de
and is, of course, available for discussions and
questions during her office hours. Until the end
of February 2023, the office hours are always on
Mondays from 9:30 to
11:00 in presence LOK21 A1-05 (via
Café21) and on Wednesdays from 9:30
to 11:00 in online format. Please feel free to
make students who have applied to study at
TH Wildau aware of this offer!
TH Wildau becomes Member of the European
University Association
The Technical University of Applied
Sciences Wildau was
accepted to join the European University
Association (EUA) as an Individual Full
Member by the EUA Council on 28 October
2022.
The EUA represents more than 850 universities
and national rectors’ conferences in 49 European
countries. EUA plays a crucial role in the
Bologna Process and in influencing EU policies
on higher education, research and innovation.
By joining, TH Wildau
will strategically anchor its
internationalisation more strongly
throughout Europe.
Announcing the DAAD-funded TH
Wildau
Sustainable Mobility
Academy
TH
Wildau has been awarded
funding by the DAAD to
establish the ‘TH
Wildau Sustainable
Mobility
Academy’.
The project began
on 1 January 2023 and
finishes on 31 December
2024, with a total project
volume of 400.000€. TH
Wildau was one
of only 11 institutions
in Germany to be
awarded funding through the
DAAD’s HAW.International funding programme
and is the
only University
of Applied
Sciences
in the
state of
Brandenburg
to be chosen.
The Academy will
contribute significantly to
the implementation of
central goals of the
internationalisation
strategy recently adopted
by TH Wildau: among other
things, to enhance
international visibility and
attractiveness of the
university, expand the
English-language teaching
and research offers, and to
strengthen
internationalisation of the
university.
The umbrella topic
of sustainable mobility
takes the TH Wildau both back
to its very own
roots on the campus
of a former railway factory
and directly into the
present and future of the
surrounding, increasingly
international Dahme-Spreewald and capital
region. A number of TH
Wildau's practice-oriented partners, for whom
sustainable mobility is one
of their core economic and
political concerns, have
agreed to participate in the
project, including Tesla,
dahme_innovation,
the city of Wildau
and other 'hidden champions'
companies (e.g. Onomotion GmbH) and
municipalities from the
immediate vicinity (e.g.
from neighbouring
Zeuthen).
Dr. Jeffrey Wolf, Deputy Head of the
International Office and Project
Manager for the TH Wildau
Sustainable Mobility Academy,
introduces the project during the
Kick-Off Reception
A
Kick-Off
reception for local and
regional partners was held
on the TH Wildau campus on
26.
January to mark the
beginning of the project.
Approximately 35
participants - TH Wildau
staff, professors, and
lecturers, along with
representatives from the
Academy’s 14 practice-oriented partners from the
region - joined together to
learn more about the
Academy, to exchange ideas,
and to celebrate with food
and drinks. The audience was
well-known in the region:
the mayors of Wildau,
Eichwalde,
and Schulzendorf were in
attendance, as well as
representatives from the
Dahme-Spreewald business
development
agency. The head
of the DAAD Berlin
Office, Kai Franke,
was also in attendance,
marking his first trip to
the Wildau campus.
What more
concretely is the TH Wildau
Sustainable Mobility
Academy? The core component
is an international and
interdisciplinary Sustainable
Mobility Summer
Academy,
which will be held in
English at TH Wildau
from
4 – 15.
September
2023
(under the theme: Approaches
to Sustainable Mobility:
The Role of Cycling and
other Modes of
Transport) and again
in 2024. The
Summer Academy brings together
lecturers and students,
researchers and
administrative staff of TH
Wildau and its international
partner institutions, as
well as employees of
practice partners from the
region for lectures,
seminars, workshops and excursions. A
two-day
research
conference on
sustainable mobility is
integrated into the Summer
Conference.
Karin Schmidt (left), head of the TH
WIldau International Office, and
Vitaliya Tomm (right), responsible
for Double and Joint Degrees in the
International Office, talk with a
guest
The
Summer Academy is complemented by a
Continuous
Exchange Network,
which runs all year round and
supports not only incoming
students and staff on the
Wildau campus but also
outgoing students, staff, and
faculty. The exchange network
offers year-round opportunities
to deepen and continuously
promote the activities and
networks in the field of
sustainable mobility established
and expanded during the Summer
Academy itself in cooperation
with our international
partners. A
special international focus is on partner
universities from the European
Higher Education Area, with
which the TH Wildau has
initiated a "European Neighbours Initiative"
(ENI) since 2021.
Beyond
the international
mobilities to and
from TH Wildau, the project
will also take ownership of
initiatives on campus and,
in cooperation with other
university units, ensure
that the interests of
internationalisation are
closely aligned with those
of a more sustainable
campus.
Further details
about the project can be
found on the project website.
If you have
questions or would like to
participate in the Academy,
please contact the project
manager for the Academy,
Dr. Jeffrey Wolf.
TH Wildau Professors and guests
mingle during the Kick-Off
Reception
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Prof. Dr. Alina Nechyporenko
Dr. Alina
Nechyporenko was born in Ukraine and is a
professor at the Kharkiv National
University of Radio Electronics (KNURE). She
is a biomedical engineer with industrial experience
in the health and telecommunications sectors. She
was member and vice dean of the KNURE Electronic
Engineering Faculty. Her Doctor of Sciences
(comparable to the german Habilitation) was in IT,
and so she is now a member of the Department of Systems
Engineering within the Faculty of Computer
Science. Her field is mainly data mining and
machine learning in signal and image
processing.
With her husband and two children, she came to
Berlin in 2019. Not knowing German and without
connections to the academic sector here, she
found a new “home” at TH Wildau in the Molecular
Biotechnology and Functional Genomics
division, to which she had previous
contacts. In addition to teaching in Ukraine,
she started teaching in TH Wildau’s Biosystems Technology Bioinformatics
specifically in the subjects of medical
engineering and pattern recognition. Now she is
employed as a scientific researcher.
In 2021 she was part of the organising team for
two DAAD summer-schools
in Ukraine, which laid the groundwork
for many activities described in this
Newsletter. She hosted several scientific guests
in 2021 and later scientific refugees. With the
unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February 2022,
her life, like those of many others, was
dramatically changed. Initially she helped
organise the evacuation, initial medical
provision, and placement of some of her elderly
family members. Since then, she has also
promoted the arrival in Berlin of more than
60 refugees at various times, often
hosting them, where possible, in her family’s
3-room flat in Berlin Mitte.
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From May until August 2022, she was head of the
Wildau-Welcome-IT-School for
war-displaced students and is now organising the
Wildau-Kharkiv-IT-Bridge.
In addition, she organises smaller scientific
projects, combining IoT-environments with
Artificial Intelligence in order to improve
diagnoses and predictions as well as decision
support systems for physicians.
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Technical University of Applied Sciences Wildau /
Technische Hochschule Wildau Centre for International Affairs /
Zentrum für Internationale Angelegenheiten Hochschulring 1 •
15745 Wildau • Germany international@th-wildau.de
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