The project is planned as a cycle of innovative and educational activities devoted to ensuring the appropriate quality of practical education in technical studies and technical secondary schools. The project is primarily aimed at counteracting the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the academic education process at technical universities. The introduction of the remote learning mode, as a result of decisions of authorities in many countries, resulted in the fact that practical classes were either not implemented at all or were carried out in a very narrow and simplified (impractical) manner. Conducting education in such a way makes it impossible to achieve appropriate educational results, in particular in the field of engineering and practical studies. Therefore, it is necessary to undertake activities that will make it possible to organize education in such a way that practical education, including that carried out remotely, enables the proper transfer of practical knowledge, and thus ensures the achievement of educational results in this area. Applicants took up the challenge of developing an IT and hardware tool enabling the implementation of remote education in the field of electrical engineering, mechatronics and automation, and related fields. The tool based on network interfaces, educational platforms as well as virtual reality and “Industry 4.0” tools will combine the practical part of the laboratory with the IT part, available remotely. It will therefore be possible to carry out practical exercises in an almost identical way as in classical education in a laboratory. An important aspect of the project is also the possibility of using the tools constituting the results of the project in education carried out at a time when there will be no restrictions on access, especially in international cooperation. The results of the project will enable the participation in the education process of students from other universities, in particular foreigners, and will enable the implementation of joint education programs (integrated studies) between universities, without the need or with a reduced scope of the student's stay abroad. The project is to be implemented by a consortium of six academic centers and one secondary technical school. The leader of the project is the Silesian University of Technology, an academic university, winner of the Initiative of Excellence - Research University competition. The leader's activities will be supported by Tallinn University of Technology - Estonia's largest technical university, a Lithuanian university Vilnius Gediminas Technical University - Vilnius Tech, a large academic center of Romania: University Politehnica Timisoara and a large technical university in Central Hesse: Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen, as well as the University of Zielona Góra and the Technical School Complex from Wodzisław Śl. It should be emphasized that five of the partners have been cooperating for many years in the field of teaching in the CUCEE network (Cooperation of Universities in Central and Eastern Europe) and provide education as part of integrated studies (with a double degree). In addition, three of the partners in 2017-2019 implemented the Strategic Partnership project focused to improve the quality of technical education in secondary schools. The project activities include the development of four intellectual results in the form of four different laboratories on the subject related to the project, four training and education activities and three dissemination activities. As part of the developed intellectual results, each laboratory, in addition to a different thematic scope (mechatronics, power electronics, electronics and smart grid, and sensor technology), will have a slightly different form of the digital platform interface through which it will be remotely accessible. All laboratories will have a modular form that will enable further expansion, and the developed interfaces will be prepared to facilitate adaptation to other subject areas. As part of training activities, two study visits and two educational events for students and school youth in the form of summer schools are planned. One will be conducted for a mixed group of participants by the staff of the leading center, while the second will be attended only by students of the host unit, and the lecturers will be doctoral students from all partners. This event will take the form of a competition for the title of the best lecturer - the evaluation will be made by the staff from partner units accompanying the doctoral students. Dissemination events, carried out as national events in Poland, Germany and Estonia, will be directed to a different audience related to education in technical areas. The obtained results of the project will be made available for public educational access and will be developed in terms of new laboratory exercises and new thematic areas.
The aim of the project was to develop four different teaching laboratories with the ability to access to practical classes remotely (so that students could perform the exercises when there was only one person in the laboratory - the instructor or a technical employee handling the laboratory's hardware side. This approach in situations where access to the laboratory is limited is necessary for the proper education of students in engineering areas.
The project was a response to restrictions in access to teaching laboratories related to the COVID-19 pandemic in the field of electrical engineering, automation and mechatronics education. The project was aimed at enabling participants to participate in laboratory classes remotely. Additionally, the project, implemented as part of the CUCEE network (Cooperation of Universities in Central and Eastern Europe), aimed to develop tools that can be used on the network for educational purposes.