Multidisciplinary students travel to the Netherlands to take part in International Project Week
Students from Glasgow Caledonian University recently travelled to the Netherlands to complete the International Project Week, which saw them work with 150 students from across Europe.
The International Project Week is an annual project which sees students from different Higher Education institutions come together to work on a team industry project, overseen by an industry representative.
From the 6to 10 February, 150 students from Saxion University (Enschede, Netherlands) international partners and local secondary schools were tasked with a project sponsored by local companies. GCU students Jacob Bamsey , Ryan Dodd, Adam Laird, Ryan Cummisky, Maximilian Urtz and Alessandro Conia were also chosen to attend and had the opportunity to apply their expertise gained from a range of programmes.
Each project team was overseen by a company representative, as well as an academic tutor from Saxion University and related partners. The varied mix of experience levels, including economic and technical disciplines, encouraged the team members to inspire each other to come up with exciting new approaches.
Under the consultation of a client, the students were asked to work together and use their course knowledge to come up with a new solution which would help solve an issue identified by the client.
3rd year Computing student Alessandro Conia was amongst the representatives from Glasgow Caledonian University and enjoyed getting to work on a project that involved students from a range of subjects. He said: “I found this opportunity through my lecturer Mark Jenkins, who thankfully decided to share it to the Computing department, since the project was not necessarily related to our studies. There was an application process in the form of proof of study, academic results at GCU and contact information.
During the project week, 6-7 students were put into teams and each assigned to a company.
The company would provide a real life problem that they were facing and your objective was to produce a solution by the end of the week. Each team had a ‘group leader’ who was responsible for ensuring that we all met the deadlines required for each stage of the project.”
At the end of the week, the student teams were asked to present their ideas where a panel would choose the winning solution.
Now looking back at the experience, Alessandro wants to encourage students to get involved in future. He explained: “There are so many benefits from taking part; confidence in travelling abroad, taking on new experiences and participating in projects that are not necessarily related to your programme. It turned out to be a great experience!
For anyone interested in the International Project Week, I would tell them to apply! It's a great chance to see a different city, meet different people and it’s a great opportunity to work together for real life companies”.
By Rachael McAlonan
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