Learn about community activities at European level!

A new course, European Engineering Projectwork has been launched in the spring semester of 2023 in English with 20 MSc students at the Faculty of Civil Engineering of BME.

A central element of EELISA is the support of student community activities. How do we motivate our students to participate in activities that broaden their horizons, develop both technical and other key competences and even have cultural values? One of BME's answers is to launch an optional course dedicated to community activities for MSc students.

The course is called European Engineering Projectwork; it was launched for the first time in the spring semester 2023, in English with 20 MSc students at the Faculty of Civil Engineering of BME. In the pilot semester, the course was only taken by civil engineering students with a background in building information modelling and management and the development of sensor networks for buildings. In the spring semester, another course of these students involves a one-week internship to build a smart house system, collect and analyze large amounts of data and perform BIM-based simulations. In this context, the EELISA optional course aims to develop a virtual product or service in a teamwork environment, which will require engineering and digital competences, as well as communication, social and entrepreneurial competences, among others. The course assignment will also be aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and existing EELISA community activities.

In March and April, students will work on non-technical tasks supporting engineering activities, each based on a lecture by a BME professor, carried out in teams but mentored by BME lecturers:

• Study of project management methods and onine interfaces. The selection of an environment per team, the definition of the project tasks and their continuous monitoring, the establishment of communication channels.
• Developing a business model and plan. Students will create a business plan, demonstrate how their idea can be marketed.
• Fundraising, investor communication. Students will learn how to get funding to realize their idea through the BME Z10 startup incubator programme.
• Develop your presentation and communication skills. Presenting and communicating results and ideas is a key priority in a business environment, students will learn the basics from an expert.

In April, they will also carry out an internship (in the frame of an other course, mandatory in their program) and in May they will work on engineering tasks, but document their activities in a way that supports their marketing objectives.

From 5 to 8 June, students will participate in 4-day workshop in Madrid at the Universidad Politécninca de Madrid (UPM) EELISA partner institution, in a joint programme with the UPM Sustainable Buildings, Cities and Communities community:

• Visit UPM laboratories - learning about new technologies and methods
• Workshops in groups with EELISA students (from EELISA partner institutions), e.g. Business idea development, Business planning, Project management, Marketing & communication strategies
• One-day Hackathon between groups
• Investors Forum - presentation of the results of the Hackathon to a jury of academics and experts

Obviously, the course can be relevant for a wider audience; in the future, it is planned to allow students from any of BME's faculties and from any of EELISA's partner universities to take the course, thus contributing to the development of EELISA's community activities.

BME lecturers supporting the course activities: Arpad Barsi, Tamas Lovas, Balazs Nagy, Krisztina Szabo, Laszlo Gergely Vigh, Gyula Zilahy.

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