Students from Year 4 of the B.Eng. Honours Degree programme in Mechanical Engineering and their DkIT Lecturer, Ms. Catherine McCloskey travelled to Germany for one week in September 2022 to take part in an exciting new Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Programme on the theme of Digital Transformation in Market-leading Companies.

The programme was hosted by DkIT’s German partner university, Heilbronn University of Applied Sciences within the framework of Erasmus+.

Blended Intensive Programmes are an exciting new innovation of the Erasmus+ programme, offering participants the opportunity to partake in a short, intensive project, combining virtual and in-person classes.

The DkIT students joined 50+ participating students in Germany from Heilbronn UAS Germany, Upper Austria UAS, Hanze UAS in The Netherlands, the University of Bologna, Italy, the University of West Attica, Greece and Karelia UAS, Finland.

Students and staff worked on industry-based, team Innovation projects within the digital transformation arena. Participating German industry partners in the programme included, AS-Schneider, Inevvo, Reca Norm, Wurth Industries, GEMU, Ziehl Abegg and Recaro.

As part of the Erasmus+ Digitalisation agenda, the DkIT students and their Lecturer engaged in a virtual planning session at DkIT, coordinated by Heilbronn UAS at the start of September 2022, followed by a week-long, on-campus programme at Heilbronn’s Kunzelsau campus.

During the programme, the students got opportunity to undertake industry visits where they conducted interviews with employees and customers. The programme concluded with a presentation of Certificates to the students, presided over by Heilbronn UAS and the industry partners.

Lecturer Catherine McCloskey commented:

“Overall, this was an excellent learning experience both for our engineering students who travelled from DkIT and also for me personally. In particular, it was evident that Irish students gained more confidence in their abilities- socially and academically over the course of this Erasmus+ programme and indeed afterwards throughout the semester after returning to DkIT. Many of the participating students would never have had the opportunity to engage with other European students and industrial partners in such a positive learning environment prior to the programme. The Dundalk students have built lasting friendships and connections as a result. I would actively encourage all staff and students to partake in Erasmus+ initiatives!”