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 Scientists in Jelenia Góra.” For the first time, the HSZG sent two groups of conference participants, as not only young scientists represented the University with their conference presentations, but also students in their early Bachelor’s semesters attended the event as listeners.

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 from outside the field—as he conveyed his complex scientific findings in clear terms and with exceptional 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 degree programme, 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 findings 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 degree programme), 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 knowledge is somewhat limited, the speakers usually 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 encourages conference participants to connect with one another; the distances between Liberec, Wrocław, and Görlitz melt away during the drive and 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 University Executive Board of the HSZG. Anyone wishing to register for the two conferences in Liberec and Jelenia Góra next year—either as an active participant or as an audience member—should do so immediately, as the number of participants is limited at both conferences due to space constraints.