Welcome meeting
From 31st March to 4th April 2025 the Department of International Cooperation organized the Staff Week for the second time, participants of which came from partner universities from non-EU countries: Georgia, Mexico, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. The welcome meeting was attended by the Vice-Rector for and Internationalization and Student Affairs Bartosz Miller, DSc, PhD, Eng., Associate Prof., the department's employees with the head of the department, MSc Edyta Ptaszek, the faculty coordinators of the Erasmus programme from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics - Andrzej Dzierwa, DSc, PhD, Eng, the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering - Paweł Dymora, PhD, Eng., the Faculty of Management - Paweł Perz, PhD, Eng. During the meeting Monika Stanisz, MA the exchange coordinator for non-European Erasmus project, conducted an information session about the Rzeszów University of Technology in the form of presentations and promotional films. The participants briefly presented their universities and their own scientific interests.
Participants
Representatives of five partner universities from 4 countries outside of Europe took part in the Staff Week. We hosted 4 academic teachers who, in addition to participating in the events prepared by the Department of International Cooperation, also gave lectures as part of their Staff Teaching Mobility at:
Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering - Dra. María Teresa Orvañanos Guerrero from Universidad Panamericana, Campus Aguascalientes, Mexico; supervisor - Mariusz Węglarski, DSc, PhD, Eng.
Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture - Sohibnazar Omonov, MSc from Karshi Engineering-Economics Institute, Uzbekistan; supervisors - Bożena Babiarz, DSc, PhD, Eng., Joanna Krasoń, PhD, Eng.
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics – Nataliia Stelmakh, PhD, Associated Professor from the National Technical University of Ukraine "Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute", Ukraine; scientific supervisor - Andrzej Dzierwa, DSc, PhD, Eng,
Faculty of Management - Iryna Azhaman, PhD from Odessa State Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Ukraine; scientific supervisors - Paweł Perz, PhD, Eng., Bogusław Bembenek, DSc, PhD.
In addition to lectures, teachers met with deans, vice-deans of the hosting faculties, employees of the respective departments, during which the possibilities of further cooperation between the universities were widely discussed. It was also an opportunity to get acquainted with the faculties’ laboratory infrastructure. Ms. Nino Zhizhilashvili and Ms. Marika Zviadadze from Georgian Technical University, Georgia, carried out training within the framework of Staff Training Mobility, participating in consultations with employees of the Department of International Cooperation.
The Staff Week's schedule
A series of interesting events were planned for the participants so that both teachers who delivered lectures and non-teaching staff could fully get to know the university, establish new contacts and improve their competences in chosen areas. On the first day, in addition to the welcome meeting, the participants took part in a lecture by Maciej Chrzanowski, PhD "How to prepare great presentations using AI and PFAA model in minutes?", and also had the opportunity to learn about the activities of the renowned scientific circle PRz Racing Team, presented by Sebastian Rosół, the circle's team leader. In the second day of the Educational Fair was held during which guests from the partner universities presented their universities at stands located in the hall of the "V" building, and talked about their native country, its culture and traditions. The participants of the fair were home and exchange students, employees searching for scientific contacts at the partner universities and employees qualified for the Erasmus mobility outside of Europe. After the fair the participants went to the library where they were shown around by the Director Monika Zub, PhD, Eng. Next point of the schedule was the laboratory where the participants had the opportunity to try their hand at a flight simulator, with the support of the staff of the Department of Avionics and Control, M. Eng. Paweł Krzaczkowski, MSc, Eng., and Adam Trela, MSc, Eng. A moment of respite was brought by the Chills down your spine activity to which Ms. Agnieszka Ursel from the Academic Sports Centre invited our guests.
In the following day a tour of the Castle Museum in Łańcut was organized. Its rich history was presented by the Head of the Library and Archives Mr Daniel Reniszewski, PhD. Thanks to the courtesy of the museum the participants had a unique opportunity to look into the impressive castle library, usually inaccessible to visitors. This place aroused great interest among the participants and the guide was inundated with many questions. The unique atmosphere of a bygone era made participants reluctant to leave the library still hungry for knowledge about the collections.
For Thursday and Friday individual consultations with employees of the International Cooperation Department were arranged. The issues of organizing conference trips, recruiting students for a full course of study, exchange programmes for students, including 'free movers', and for employees in the NAWA programme and other possibilities of expanding cooperation with partner universities were discussed. During these days also Ms. Barbara Pomykała and Ms. Elżbieta Mróz from the International Projects Office invited participants to a presentation and consultations on Action 2 of the Erasmus programme. The ladies talked about ways of establishing partnerships, the operation of the programme at the university, its characteristics and also presented a catalogue of currently implemented projects.
Plans for the future
This exceptional week was full of events, meetings and lectures during which the academic community had the opportunity to get to know partner universities and establish contacts which, we hope, will result in a long-lasting scientific and research partnership in the future. Networking is an invaluable opportunity to build ties also between the participants from the partner universities.
Summary
The entire team of the Department of International Cooperation worked on the organization of the event and thanks to that the implementation of the event plan went very smoothly. We would like to thank all employees of other units, lecturers and the faculty coordinators of the Erasmus programme for their openness and readiness to participate in the event. Without your help and commitment, implementing such a rich and varied Staff Week schedule would not be possible.
