Education of Future ICT Experts Based on Smart Society Needs Erasmus Project

Project Title

Education of Future ICT Experts Based on Smart Society Needs

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education

Project Summary

The project “Education of Future ICT Experts Based on Smart Society Needs (SmartSoc)” is prepared by the consortium of twelve universities and one registered voluntary organization form nine EU countries, co-ordinated by the University of Žilina. The main objective of the project SmartSoc is to create and implement intensive interdisciplinary study programme in the field of ICT-based entrepreneurship considering transnational and intracultural context. This project will enforce ICT student teams to deal with economic, societal and environmental challenges defined by strategic documents „Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” (UN resolution) and “Horizon Europe” (EU regulation) programs. It will include important message about smart specialisation strategies and their importance for regional development in EU.

The advancement of university education in ICT encompasses different aspects such as learning methods, tools, business and social skills and work in an environment as closely as possible to a future workplace in high technology, i.e. in interdisciplinary international team. Therefore the key issue of the project is the collaboration of students from different European universities on a common task related to recognizing needs of society and providing solution by using ICT. Specific case studies form Smart Society domain will be elaborated following principles of project-based learning, student teamwork, blended mobility and intensive study program.

International team grouping rule proposed is the following: 4-5 students from different European universities advised by 1-2 lecturers and/or experts from industry collaborating in order to complete a project using offered blended mobility and intensive study program capacities and resources (2 month virtual mobility: social media and online guidance during preparation and execution of the project; 2 weeks physical mobility: face-to-face communication, discussion, workshops and collaboration needed to finalize project, additional lectures). Intercultural skills needed to recognize the importance of understanding the different cultures and customs and effectively communicate and collaborate are covered by the project.

Strategic partnership of the universities included in the projects SmartSoc has quite a long and successful history: European Students Meeting (ESM, 2004-2011), Intercultural knowledge transfer in engineering for a sustainable global ICT community (SUSCOMTEC, 2012-2014), Innovative ICT Solutions for the Societal Challenges (INNOSOC, 2016-2017) and The ICT Engineer of 21st Century: Mastering Technical Competencies, Management Skills, and Societal Responsibilities (TEAMSOC21, 2018-2019). All of them, except the first one, are Erasmus Intensive or Erasmus+ projects. All are completed with a great success, with over 600 students included. The project „Innovative ICT Solutions for the Societal Challenges” received a special recognition “Success story” from a panel of experts from the Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture of the European Commission in 2018.

The project SmartSoc brings novelties regarding topic under consideration, i.e. ICT expertize related to smart society needs, with a special emphasis on entrepreneurship and skills related to evaluation of business perspectives and societal implications of the proposed solution, respecting relevant smart specialisation strategies defined in EU in different geographical levels.

Project Website

http://smartsoc.uniza.sk

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 364736 Eur

Project Coordinator

ZILINSKA UNIVERZITA V ZILINE & Country: SK

Project Partners

• DEBRECENI EGYETEM
• UNIVERSITAT POLITECNICA DE VALENCIA
• IMT Atlantique Bretagne Pays de la Loire
• SEINAJOEN AMMATTIKORKEAKOULU OY
• SVEUCILISTE JOSIPA JURJA STROSSMAYERA U OSIJEKU
• TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF SOFIA
• TECHNICKA UNIVERZITA V KOSICIACH