Traditional teleconference LUH-SPbPU: results of the year
Leibniz Universität Hannover (LUH) and Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University carried out the annual final video conference “Strategic Partnership” on December 1, 2017. Partners shared the results of the joint work in 2017 and plans for 2018.
The event was attended by SPbPU Rector, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Andrey RUDSKOY, President of the LUH, Dr. Volker EPPING and members of research groups of both universities. The Vice-Rector for International Relations Dmitry ARSENIEV was the moderator from SPbPU. And Vice-President for International Affairs Monika SESTER was the moderator from Leibniz Universität Hannover. The videoconference was opened by the President of LUH Volker EPPING. He underlined the need for expanding international interuniversity cooperation.
SPbPU Rector Andrey Rudskoy noted that interaction between SPbPU and LUH has over 33-year history. “Leibniz Universität Hannover is a priority strategic partner for us in Germany. We were the first among Russian and German universities, which successfully won the DAAD competition for universities strategic partnership in 2012. In 2016 the project was recognized as one of the best, and its funding was extended for another two years, which indicates its success”.
Before the reports, the audience turned to the topic of world rankings of higher education institutions. This issue was discussed earlier during the visit of LUH delegation to SPbPU in October 2017. Then an international seminar “Development of a joint internationalization strategy: international ratings” was held on the basis of the Polytechnic University. Today the positions of Leibniz Universität Hannover and Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University in one of the most recognized world rankings systems QS are almost the same: both universities are ranked 401-410. Participants of the videoconference underlined that promotion in the ranking is a priority of both universities, and expressed interest in increasing the number of joint scientific publications in high-ranking journals and participation in joint conferences.
Representatives of 14 research groups shared the results of their joint achievements. Presentations were made in the following fields: Mechatronics and Automated Systems, Materials Science and Laser Technologies, “urbomachines and Fluid Dynamics, Civil Engineering and Computational Mechanics, Nanotechnologies, Electrotechnologies and Electronics, Quantum Optics, Lasers and Nanotechnologies, Economics and Management, Linguistics, Internationalization, etc.
Among the results of the joint activities, the speakers underlined 3 double diploma in Master's programs in the field of Intelligent Control Systems (Mechatronics), Energy Technologies, Entrepreneurship (the Master's Program in Energy Technology became a triple diploma program with Lappeenranta University of Technology); International Symposium on Automated Systems and Technologies; organization of international workshops, joint projects (an international design project of FabLab Polytech, a trilingual platform project that allows to find academic terms for technical texts in three languages, a video blog “Russia Today, Germany Today”); various joint publications, student and academic mobility, etc.
Among the plans for 2018 participants noted the following: joint research in the field of Life Science, additive technologies, growth technologies; intensification of student and academic exchanges; joint publications; joint projects - both scientific and student.
“I would like to sincerely thank the research teams of our universities for their active and highly professional work, and wish all the participants of the project further success. I am confident that our partnership will deepen and expand. It is very important that our scientific educational contacts play a significant role for us, regardless of the political trends that are well-known today in the world”, summarized Andrey Rudskoy.