The project Educational Laboratories Platform for Complex Engineering Processes with Remote Access (EduLabFrame) addresses the development of sense-making skills through e-learning concerning the design, configuration and administration of complex technological settings, with a focus on security issues. European Union crosses a period of changing policies to reduce dependence on imported primary energy. Among other related directives, Directive 2010/31/EU stipulates: "Measures are needed to increase the number of buildings which not only fulfil current minimum energy performance requirements, but are also more energy efficient, thereby reducing both energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. For this purpose Member States should draw up national plans for increasing the number of nearly zero-energy buildings and regularly report such plans to the Commission". At the same time in march 2007, the European Council adopted targets even more ambitious than that of the Kyoto Protocol. These aims were: to reduce emissions of GHG by 20%; to increase energy efficiency to save 20% of EU energy consumption; to reach 20% of renewable energy in the total energy consumption in the EU by 2020. Energy system of any country is definitely not only a priority but also an strategic point. Investments must be oriented both to human resources and to viable infrastructure. Better prepared engineers means effective and innovative solutions in the future. Moreover a better understanding of an engineering processes or physical phenomena are strictly related to teaching tools and combining the right dosage of theory with practical examples of phenomena that are studied. Therefore the project intention is not only to provide a quantitative or qualitative indicators but more than that, namely adaptation to the needs and market requirements and alignment of tertiary education to EU standards. General objective of the project the development of multilingual educational open resource e-learning platform allowing easy understanding of complex processes in engineering. To this purpose, the project had established the following specific objectives: OS1. The development of an advanced platform for real-time, high-performance video streaming and remote access to laboratories (open educational resources) operating cutting-edge technology, together with OS2. Solutions for students' immersion in the remote experimentation environment through badge architectures and collaborative learning. OS3. The development and implementation of four laboratories with remote access which will address to following domains: Laboratory for pollution risk assessment (Risk-Lab) Laboratory for renewable energy sources (RNW-Lab) Laboratory for sustainable technologies in buildings (STB-Lab) Laboratory of refrigeration and district energy (RDE-Lab) and OS4. Development of dedicated training modules/curricula and laboratory scenarios and applications. The educational open resource e-learning platform will allow easy study in partners language (CO-UPB and P1-UL) but also will encourage learning in English language. Our aim is to translate all training/didactic and dissemination material in three languages (RO, SL, EN). Still, the platforms for real-time remote access with video feedback and support for heterogeneous infrastructures are generic, and they will allow further development of other laboratories accessible remotely, in multiple engineering fields. The target group of the project is composed of 250 students enrolled in the University Politehnica of Bucharest and University of Ljubljana with education level ISCED 6 and ISCED 7 according to ISCED 2011. The project target group will also include 10 trainers which will be involved training sessions of students. Of the total 250 students, 150 will come from the University Politehnica of Bucharest (CO-UPB) and 100 from University of Ljubljana (P1-UL). Students who will attend the training session will be selected from faculties which are activating in the field of electrical engineering, energetics and mechanics. The 10 teachers/trainers will come from as follows: * 4 trained trainers in the field of renewable energy sources.(2- CO-UPB trainers and 2-P1-UL trainers) * 2 trained trainers in the field of sustainable technologies in buildings (2-CO-UPB trainers) * 2 trained trainers in the field of refrigeration and district energy (2- CO-UPB trainers) * 2 trained trainers in the field of environmental protection (2-P1-UL trainers) Project structure will be organized in 4 main activities A1. Project Management, A2. Project Implementation, A3. Project Evaluation, A4 Project Dissemination The most important results of the project are: 4 laboratories with remote access, a multilingual educational open resource e-learning platform, 250 trained students, 10 trained trainers. The project result will remain an example of good practice which will allow integration of other courses and laboratories.
While experts in demography and urbanism projected that the world population will double by 2050 and that by 2020, 80% of people will live in cities and produce nearly 80% of the CO2, it is estimated that the overall investment in new technologies will reach in 2020 the fabulous sum of 110 billion dollars. Another statistic shows that by the year 2050 the final energy demand for buildings sector will increase with 60% while the energy related greenhouse gas emissions will more than double. European Union crosses a period of changing policies to reduce dependence on imported primary energy. Among other related directives, Directive 2010/31/EU stipulates: "Measures are needed to increase the number of buildings which not only fulfil current minimum energy performance requirements, but are also more energy efficient, thereby reducing both energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. For this purpose, Member States should draw up national plans for increasing the number of nearly zero-energy buildings and regularly report such plans to the Commission". In this context, the project Educational Laboratories Platform for Complex Engineering Processes with Remote Access (EduLabFrame) addresses the development of sense-making skills through e-learning concerning the design, configuration and administration of complex technological settings. Our objective was to develop an educational framework for essential disciplines related to power and mechanical engineering through e-learning and virtual experience. Throughout project results we pursued the positive impact on the students which would increase the level of: 1. Digital competence 2. Positive attitude towards the EU values 3. Understanding complex engineering processes. 4. Competence in foreign languages The project consortium was composed of four partners: CO – University Politehnica of Bucharest is the oldest and prestigious engineering school in Romania being recognized at national and European level. Its activity has been started 195 years ago. UPB has more than 25000 students and 1650 academic, 15 faculties, 57 departments, 38 research centres. P1 – University of Ljubljana is an institution with a very rich tradition. It was established in 1919 on the foundations of a long-established pedagogical tradition. It is a very large university, with 50.000 undergraduate and postgraduate students, taking over 300 different undergraduate and postgraduate study programmes. It employs approximately 6,000 higher education teachers, researchers, assistants and administrative staff in 23 faculties and 3 arts academies. P2 – Centre for Renewable Energy Sources and Saving Foundation is a non profit entity founded in 1987 and supervised by the Ministry of Environment, Energy & Climate Change. CRES is by Law the National Centre for Coordination in the fields of RES, RUE, and Energy Saving (ES), its primary aim being to promote technological applications in these fields both at a national and international level. It acts as an advisor to the Greek State, while during the years has established a highly visible profile. P3 – Soft Tehnica is a software company that covers a large area of activities related to computer science and computer engineering, such as: specialized consulting services, analysis and software development, installation and configuration of networks, integration of systems and ready-to-use, customized, software solutions. The project undertaken main activities were: 1. Training of the trainees 2. Development of virtual laboratories 3. Developing of handbook material 4. Implementation of e-learning platform for training purposes 5. Dissemination of the project results The carry out of the intellectual outputs has generated a positive impact which is reflected on the real beneficiaries of the project results, namely: Project teams which are the direct beneficiaries of the project results. The personnel involved in either administrative or teaching matters gained greater experience in working in such projects and updating course materials and establishing new connections. Participating organizations are also the beneficiaries of the project results. The institutions gained experience in managing European projects. Students are also the direct beneficiaries of the project results. Throughout training sessions, they had the opportunity to learn the current technologies existing in Europe, learning from best practices that are successfully applied in EU countries. Additionally, results gained along the project will have a great impact on students learning and more attractive education tools in different fields will be generated. The long-term benefits of the projects result we believe to be better prepared engineers, which will have access to better jobs and this will bring benefits to national economies of the partner countries and a better immersion into Industry 4.0 through project efforts to integrate digital technologies in laboratory activities.