Executive committee of the CDU parliamentary group in the Saxon state parliament visits the university.
On March 10, 2016, the executive committee of the CDU parliamentary group in the Saxon state parliament visited Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences as part of a trip to the district.
The delegation included: Mr. Christian Piwarz, MdL, 1st Deputy Chairman of the parliamentary group and Parliamentary Secretary; Mr. Georg-Ludwig von Breitenbuch, MdL, Deputy Chairman; Ms. Ines Springer, MdL, Deputy Chairman, Treasurer; Dr. Stephan Meyer, MdL, Constituency Representative, WK 60 Görlitz 4; Mr. Christian Hartmann, MdL, Spokesman for Home Affairs; Mr. Alexander Krauß, MdL, Spokesman for Social Policy; as well as the staff members Ms. Beate Weyh, Head of the Office of the Group Executive Committee and Mr. Pascal Ziehm, Public Relations / Deputy Press Spokesman of the Group.
The delegation was received in the Zittau power plant laboratory by the Rector, Prof. Friedrich Albrecht, the Chancellor, Karin Hollstein, the Vice-Rector for Research, Prof. Tobias Zschunke, the Director of the Institute of Process Engineering, Process Automation and Metrology (IPM), Prof. Frank Worlitz, and Prof. Alexander Kratzsch, Head of Department and Project Manager at IPM. After a general round of introductions, Prof. Frank Worlitz briefly presented the Zittau power plant laboratory and demonstrated its structure using a video. The project managers then explained their experimental set-ups and research projects: Prof. Zschunke his research project Thermochemical Test Field (TCV II), Prof. Worlitz the test rig for experimental investigations of magnetic and trapping bearings under realistic conditions and Prof. Kratzsch the large-scale test facility THERESA - Thermal Energy Storage Facility. The members of the state parliament were impressed by the test facilities, followed the explanations of the ongoing experiments with great interest and discussed them with the project managers.
Afterwards, they met for a relaxed round of talks in the university's energy technology cabinet and discussed topics relating to university policy, such as the upcoming university development plan 2025, basic funding for research, support for research project processes at universities of applied sciences and student development at the university. Foreign students were a particular focus. The MPs' questions focused in particular on students from our neighboring countries Poland and the Czech Republic. Prof. Frank Worlitz also reported on international projects such as the cooperation between the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences and the Chinese-German University of Applied Sciences, the German University Consortium for International Cooperation, as part of which cooperation with Mexico is currently well underway, and the long-standing cooperation with the TU Liberec.
Overall, both sides rated this meeting and the exchange with the members of the state parliament as very positive.