The Technical School of Telecommunications Engineering (ETSIT – Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros de Telecomunicación), which is part of the Polytechnical University of Madrid (UPM – Universidad Politecnica de Madrid), hosted the third project meeting of the WBNet project between 24th and 26th of September. The goal of the WBNet project is the implementation of short-study programs in higher education institutions in the Western Balkan (WB) region through newly founded centres for short-study programs. The project meeting in Madrid was attended by Klemen Pečnik, head of the WBNet project on the Faculty of Electrical Engineering (UL FE), Žana Juvan, Anže Zadravec and Gregor Burger, all members of the Laboratory for Multimedia (LMMFE).
At the beginning of the meeting, attendees were welcomed by Jesus Fraile, vice-dean of the ETSIT, Ljiljana Pecić, coordinator of the WBNet project and Slobodan Bojanić, coordinator of the WBNet project on the UPM. Welcome speeches were followed by a visit to ETSI facilities, where meeting attendees got information about different laboratories, including a modern laboratory for research of electromagnetic waves and antennas, also used by the Spanish military, start-up companies and even well-known aircraft producer Airbus. The visit also included the Institute for Optoelectronics and Microtechnologies, where attendees could learn about semiconductor production and electromagnetics. At the institute, attendees even saw clean rooms for lithography.
The meeting hosts prepared a lot of interesting presentations for attendees, including projects, research and pedagogical activities on the UPM. Ljiljana Medic from the UPM School for Mining Engineering presented topics like urban mining, green transformation, the fight against climate change, renewable energy sources, and the circular economy. Mercedes Grijalvo from the UPM Organization Engineering Department, Business Administration and Statistics presented a learning approach in the health sector using IoT (Internet of Things) devices for early diagnosis of illnesses in neurology. Joaquin Ordieres from the UPM School for Industrial Engineering presented the transformation of higher education from theoretical approaches to fulfil new requests by generations Z and alpha and the inclusion of artificial intelligence (AI). In contrast, Bojan Mihajlević from the UPM School of Informatics presented a sustainability approach to AI. Susana Sastre from the UPM Institute of Educational Sciences (ICE) presented the implementation of short study programmes on the UPM, while Iciar de Pablo Lerchundi from the same institute presented the implementation of pedagogical courses on the UPM.
The project coordinator, Ljiljana Pecić, also presented a summary of progress during the meeting and included a review of progress by each of the project’s work tasks and work packages. Project partners presented finished activities between meetings in Madrid and Ljubljana, where the meeting took place in April this year. Attendees of the project meeting in Madrid also discussed the foundation of centres for short study programs and the sustainability of the project’s sustainability in detail. The project’s steering, quality control, and dissemination committees also held their meetings as part of the project meeting.