News Overview

From West to East and North and South: A Tunnel Road Trip

Students of the NATM Engineering master’s degree programme were on the road for about a fortnight with the aim of exploring tunnel construction sites in Austria, South Tyrol and Germany.

While theoretical foundations are important, they are just that, theoretical. What can be better than getting a “hands-on” experience of implementation in a real-world environment? And so the international participants of the NATM Tunnel Construction course set out in mid-June to familiarise themselves with Austrian tunnel construction practices by viewing numerous construction sites. Among the locations on the itinerary were the Brenner Base Tunnel, Trunk Line 2 of Munich’s S-Bahn, the Zentrum im Berg Leoben test and research facility, Linz urban motorway, the Tauernmoos pumped-storage plant and a new underground railway in Vienna.  With the opportunity to make lots of new contacts, the participants will also have great memories of various activities on the social programme. 

Salut et bienvenue: SpaceTech in Toulouse

Participants in the second in-person unit of the SpaceTech master’s degree programme finally had the chance to get another taste of space in France in July.

As always, the two-week in-person unit was packed with activities: besides courses on “Earth Observation” and “Business Engineering”, a lot of work was done on this year’s Central Case Project (CCP), with a presentation of the first ideas via a live video link from the ESA “Space4Innovation” event at ESTEC Noordwijk. The students got a behind-the-scenes look at space travel on a tour of the facilities of the French Space Agency CNES, the launching site of numerous satellites. The participants also had a lot of fun at the “Cité de l’Espace” theme park, where visitors can marvel at a full-scale replica of the 55-metre-high Ariane 5 rocket.

Inno-EBS event: from getting to know one another to building towers

Featuring a diverse programme, the first networking meeting of corporate and scientific partners took place on July 4 as part of the Inno-EBS innovation course.

Have you ever tried to build a tower as high as you can using only 20 pieces of spaghetti, a string and an adhesive strip…and then tried to place a marshmallow on top?

Although this sounds like something the office staff might get up to on hot summer days, the participants at the first Inno-EBS event took up this challenge, getting to know one another in the process and, of course, trying to achieve success! In addition, numerous presentations were given and discussion rounds were held on "Electronic-based Systems". The main topic was the shortage of skilled workers and how this can be addressed by promoting "women in technology" and offering specific training courses.

Learn more about the innovation course

Business administration knowledge as a career building block for technicians

Improving your knowledge of business administration to supplement your engineering degree programme can open up interesting leadership and management positions in promising industries.

From September 2022 and on, the following courses will be available for everyone who has already received an introduction to the area of administration and now would like to further develop their skills:

• Fundamentals in Management, starts on 19.9.2022, 20 ECTS
• General Management for Engineers, starts on 19.9.2022, 10 ECTS
• Business Administration for Engineers, starts on 14.11.2022, 10 ECTS

Once you’ve completed the course successfully, you will receive a certificate from TU Graz and possess valuable knowledge that will support you in your career, for example, as an entrepreneur, digitalization expert, or innovation manager.

Questions? Helmut Aschbacher is looking forward to hearing from you!

CompElev: Networking, Exchanging, Getting to Know One Other and Making Contacts

The first networking meeting organised by the CompElev qualification network took place in a relaxed atmosphere on 17 May.

The qualification network is funded by the FFG programme "Research Competences for the Economy". One of the network objectives, in addition to supporting professional qualification in the Smart Factory and Cyber Security subject areas, is to support the establishment of sustainable cooperations. For this reason, corporate as well as scientific partners were invited to share their experiences and competences with one another in an informal event. There was a lively exchange, for example, on the topic of "digital twins" and the different implementation statuses in the respective companies. We are particularly pleased about the fact that, overall, we received a lot of positive feedback about the training programme as a whole.

Learn more about the CompElev qualification network

We Are Happy to Introduce: GRETA - Green Tech Academy Austria

The new non-profit association for the promotion of green competences for business and society was presented at a press conference held at TU Graz on 24 May.

Based on the Erasmus+ project "Greenovet", the Green Tech Academy Austria (GRETA - Austria for short) was founded as the first Austrian centre of excellence for vocational training for green innovations by Green Tech Cluster Styria, WKO Steiermark, TU Graz, FH JOANNEUM and PH Steiermark, and the administrative office was set up at TU Graz. ‘We see ourselves as providing a bridge between education providers and interested companies and individuals,’ says Ernst Kreuzer, GRETA managing director and head of TU Graz Life Long Learning. The focus is directed toward "green change": Innovative products and services should contribute to reducing the burden on our environment.

GRETA website

Link to the press release