A number of activities took place in October that will further strengthen international cooperation in the field of teaching.

Ms. Sophia Keil, Dean of the Faculty of Business Administration and Engineering Management, and Prof. Frank Worlitz, Dean of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, visited the Sino-German University of Applied Sciences at Tongji University in Shanghai. The goals of the four-day working visit were to explore opportunities for collaboration between HSZG and CDHAW in the departments of Business Administration and Engineering Management, as well as to exchange experiences regarding the operation of a “smart factory” for teaching purposes.

Prof. Worlitz is a visiting lecturer and program coordinator for mechatronics at the CDHAW. The goal now is to also cooperate with the CDHAW in the Engineering Management degree programme, with the initial aim of enabling German students to complete part of their studies at Tongji University. Later, similar to the mechatronics degree programme, Chinese students are also expected to come to Zittau to study.

Also in October, a delegation from Jiaxing University (China) led by Vice-President Prof. Yan Congquan visited the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the HSZG. An MOI was signed between the two institutions in the summer. The agreement provides for cooperation in the Master of Mechatronics. The first students from Jiaxing are expected to arrive in Zittau in fall 2020.

As part of his Master's thesis, Jan-Hendrik Smith from North-West University is spending a semester as an ERASMUS student at the IPM's Mechatronic Systems department. The topic of his Master's thesis is the modeling of energetic processes on the basis of entropy balances. He is using data from the Jänschwalde power plant as a reference for his model. On the occasion of his supervisor Prof. George van Schoor's working visit to the HSZG, he presented the results of his work to date in the last week of October. The collaboration between Prof. van Schoor and Prof. Worlitz dates back to 2004. Since then, a whole series of Master's and PhD students have completed part of their studies at the IPM and the NWU respectively.

In the field of computer science as well, the faculty is committed to strengthening cooperation with foreign universities. An exchange program with Hefei University (China) for the bachelor’s degree program in computer science is currently in the works. On October 28, the program director of the “Institute of Computer Science” at Hefei University, Prof. Thomas Weise, visited our university. This visit followed an initial meeting between Prof. Weise and Prof. Worlitz in April 2019 in Shanghai. In Görlitz, detailed discussions took place with the faculty leadership regarding the planned program. In the future, students from Hefei University will come to Görlitz to continue their studies after completing their sixth semester at Hefei University. They will then be enrolled in the third semester of the computer science program and will complete their studies in Görlitz. In addition to proof of having successfully passed all exams, sufficient German language proficiency is a prerequisite for studying in Germany. Students will acquire these skills at the language school in Hefei.

Furthermore, an agreement was reached to deepen cooperation in the fields of AI and big data.