Young Scientist 2016

Thanks to a new concept, there was strong participation from the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences (HSZG) on May 11, 2016, in the trinational Polish-German-Czech “10th Conference of the Academic Coordination Center of the Neisse Euroregion (ACC) Young Scientist in Jelenia Góra.” For the first time, HSZG sent two groups of conference participants; not only did young scientists represent the university with their conference presentations, but students in the early semesters of their Bachelor’s programs also attended the event as audience members.

From among the active participants, doctoral candidate Daniel Tasche delivered a compelling presentation on the topic “Privacy-Preserving Distributed Data Mining for Enterprises: A Practical Approach.” and received great applause from the audience—some of whom were not experts in the field—as he conveyed his complex scientific findings in clear language and with particular enthusiasm. Mr. Tasche is a member of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and his research is supported by Prof. Dr. Jörg Lässig.

Master’s student Krzysztof Stankiewicz (Faculty of Business Administration and Engineering, international management program, in cooperation with the IHI), supervised by Prof. Dr. rer. pol. Johannes Laser, also made a lasting impression on the conference jury with his paper “The Differences in the Level of Innovation in the National Economies of the Czech Republic, Germany, and Poland” and was ultimately awarded second prize in the “Students” category.

We eagerly await the publication of both papers in the conference journal!

However, the conference presenters achieved far more with their contributions than simply providing insight into their results and activities; they also motivated the participating students from the university’s bachelor’s programs to actively participate in the conference in the coming years.

Christian Freidhoff (health care management program), for example, shared the following in a brief statement with his fellow students afterward: “It was a special experience to take part in this trinational conference. The feared language barrier posed by English isn’t really a problem; the speakers and moderators are good to understand. While the diversity of topics means the audience’s subject-specific understanding is somewhat limited, the speakers generally explain the context in a good way for ‘conference newcomers’. The conversations during breaks and at the buffet are also enriching—there’s an impressive mix of languages, including English, Polish, Czech, and German. The intimate atmosphere in Jelenia Góra fosters connections among conference participants; the distances between Liberec, Wrocław, and Görlitz melt away during the drive and the conversations—suddenly, everything feels close!”

The ACC coordinator on the German side, Ms. Zonja-Stefania Szymanowski, invited all participants registered from the German side to this joint trip to the Hirschberg Valley this year on behalf of the ACC and the Rector’s Office of the HSZG. Anyone wishing to register for the two conferences in Liberec and Jelenia Góra next year—either as an active participant or an auditor—should do so immediately, as the number of participants is limited at both conferences due to space constraints.