Two HSZG students met representatives from science, politics and business at the conference in Dresden.
The 48th Power Plant Technology Colloquium took place in Dresden on October 18 and 19, 2016 . Representatives from science, politics and business meet at this annual conference to exchange experiences, present new research findings and promote their companies and services. The organizer, TU Dresden, also invited 22 students from all over Germany to attend the events and make initial contacts for their future careers. Among them were two students of heat and power plant engineering from the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences.
On October 17, a workshop was held with the students to discuss career orientation. Various speakers were present to talk about their careers. In addition to involvement in large and medium-sized companies, academic and political careers were also discussed. The most interesting presentation for the students was probably that of Dr.-Ing. Martin Pohl, who has set up his own start-up company. All the speakers spoke in a relaxed atmosphere about starting a career, the advantages and disadvantages of their form of employment and the prerequisites a student should bring to the job. The common theme of all the presentations was networking. Each speaker explained to the students the role that personal contacts could play in professional life.
The lectures were followed by group work in which the students had to work through and present the content. After this and a tour of the Center for Energy Technology at TU Dresden, the students went to dinner together. Not only the speakers of the day were present, but also other trade fair participants. This allowed all the students to start building up their own small networks.
The next morning, the main event began with a welcome address by. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Beckmann from the TU Dresden. During the presentations, the students were able to get a first impression of the topics that would be covered. One focus was the energy transition and how conventional energy technology is making and can continue to make its contribution. Then the company fair opened, which our students took as an opportunity to gather information for their future. They asked questions such as: "What is it like to join your company?" or "What qualifications should I have?", and the exhibitors were on hand to answer questions. As it turned out, some of the stands were manned by former HSZG students. This provided a further motivational boost for studying. In addition to the company fair, researchers also presented their projects. Among others, the IPM and the Department of Technical Thermodynamics promoted the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences and the Zittau research region. After the end of the presentations, the participants met for the evening event and further interesting discussions.
On Wednesday, the students used their time to listen to a number of lectures. The topics were varied and ranged from flexibilization of power plants, heat storage and process automation to the reduction of mercury emissions in power plants. Unfortunately, it was not possible to hear everything due to the parallelism.
In the end, it was an interesting and unique experience for all participating students, not just those from the HSZG. The students returned home with a broadened horizon.