A celebration among friends
The HSZG presented itself at the Europe Festival to mark the 20th anniversary of the EU's eastward expansion.
The Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences (HSZG) is delighted with the good weather and the high level of interest at the Europe Festival celebrating the 20th anniversary of the EU’s eastward expansion, held at the tripoint in Zittau on April 27, 2024. This celebration among friends provided an excellent opportunity to build further bridges between Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic and to strengthen cross-border relations in the region.
The Europe Festival featured a diverse program for the whole family, including “Children’s Europe” and a cultural program on the festival stage. Visitors were warmly invited to visit the booths of the HSZG and other partners and to participate in the various activities.
The HSZG was represented by a large pavilion set up on the festival grounds along the banks of the Neisse River. Interested visitors could learn about the following research topics:
At the ZIRKON Research Institute’s booth, the topic of waste management and recycling in a cross-border context was addressed under the theme “For 20 Years, We Haven’t Been Talking About Trash—We’ve Been Talking ABOUT It.” For 20 years, the staff has been working on this important topic and reported on the progress and challenges in this area. An annual landfill workshop is held in collaboration with the Technical University of Liberec; this year’s event will take place on October 29–30 in Liberec.
In addition, a model of a large-scale plant built in 2007 in Bautzen/Nadelwitz in Czech-German cooperation was presented, giving visitors the opportunity to discover the importance of soil as a water filter.
ZIRKON also presented research papers on silicone elastomers, which dealt with the suitability of these materials as high-voltage insulators. Particular attention was paid to the damage mechanisms.
In the IPM area of the pavilion, visitors were able to experience the Zittau power plant laboratory virtually with VR glasses and find out about the research papers of our Institute of Process Engineering, Process Automation and Metrology (IPM). This facility, financed by the European Regional Development Fund, was a significant research investment by the HSZG.
The GAT research institute presented technical assistance systems and the latest findings that help older people to manage their everyday lives more easily.
Prof. Uwe Schmidt from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science was present to answer questions about energy security and our electricity grids - especially in light of the energy transition.
The Life and Technology project, which is funded by the "Change through innovation in the region" funding program, took the opportunity to meet a broad and diverse audience and conducted a survey. Participants willing to provide information were rewarded with a square bar of chocolate - good thing it was only a pleasant 20° C. Saxony's Minister President Michael Kretschmer also took the opportunity to chat with Rector Prof. Alexander Kratzsch and Vice-Rector for Research Prof. Raj Kollmorgen and find out more about the newly launched German-Polish INTERREG project "Green Future of the Border Region".
Our university sports team was also on site and even captivated police officers on patrol with its mini table tennis tables.
Last-minute prospective students were able to pick up information material on the HSZG's degree courses and find out more in conversation.
The wide range of activities was rounded off by a button machine, which guests could use to design their own souvenir buttons.
At this point, we would like to once again provide information about the article by Prof. Raj Kollmorgen written on the occasion of the Europe Festival. He reminds us that the EU reached a significant milestone in 2004 when ten Eastern European countries, including Poland and the Czech Republic, joined the Union following a long accession process.
This marked not only the end of an important phase in the development of the post-socialist countries, but also the institutional overcoming of the division of Europe that had existed since World War II. Prof. Kollmorgen emphasizes the role of the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences as a key academic institution in the tri-border region and highlights the opportunities for transnational communication and cooperation which have been opened up by the accession of Poland and the Czech Republic to the EU, and points to the EU’s diverse programs and instruments for promoting science and research, as well as the HSZG’s successful participation in EU-funded projects.
Above all, however, it is also important to engage critically with the EU’s current challenges and (over)regulation, without calling into question the EU’s overwhelming achievements.
The article can be accessed here.
The HSZG's participation in the Europe Festival was organized by Kristin Sprechert, a member of the Saxony5 transfer project.
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