8 May 2024

Building on the international partnership between Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences and the Universitatea Politehnica in Bucharest, Romania, Prof. Dr. Ing. Michael Rutz and Dipl-Ing.(FH) Frank Einicke recently spent several days as guests of the Faculty of Engineering in Foreign Languages (FILS) as representatives of the Environmental and Recycling Technology degree programme, which also offers courses in consistently German in Bachelor's and Master's programmes.

Prof. Dr Ing. Michael Rutz (5th from left) and Dipl-Ing.(FH) Frank Einicke (6th from left) as guests in Bucharest (Photo: HSN)

On the very day of their arrival in Bucharest, they had their first opportunity to present the HSN's practical study programme in a workshop as part of the lecture on sustainable leadership and to discuss various facets of the topic of sustainability from the perspective of environmental and recycling technology with Master's students. Prof Rutz and Mr Einicke were impressed by the lively discussion of the motivated students.

The following day in Bucharest was dedicated to visiting laboratories that are available for the research and training of FILS students in other faculties, including the Faculty of Machine Elements and Mechanics with Prof. Dr. Ing. Victor Marian and the environmental technology laboratories of the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering and the ECOMET research centre with Prof. Dr.-Ing. Andra Predescu.

Afterwards there was an opportunity to gain an insight into the excellence research at Politehnica Bucharest. The programme included a visit to the Centre for Surface Engineering and Nanotechnology with Prof. Dr. rer.nat. Marius Enăchescu. The scaling up to mass production of advanced nanomaterials and the hardware for morphological, structural and electronic characterisation in real space and in 3D on an atomic and nanoscale are unique in Europe.

On the last day, Prof. Dr Michael Rutz and Dipl-Ing.(FH) Frank Einicke presented Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences and the Bachelor's and Master's programmes in the field of Greentech as well as environmental and recycling technology to many interested German-speaking Bachelor's students and professors and staff from Politehnica Bucharest in the well-filled Senate Hall. Practical examples such as battery recycling, optimisation of sorting and classification processes and the use of digital engineering were used to demonstrate the opportunities offered by the cooperation with Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences and discussed in the auditorium. Logistics for recyclable materials in particular is still in its infancy in Romania.

At the end of the meeting, the further steps for implementing a more in-depth cooperation were discussed with the head of the FILS faculty, Prof. Dr Cristian Dragomirescu and Prof. Dr Maria Dascalu, as well as the DAAD representative. These discussions were constructively continued during the International Project Week at Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences, where we were once again able to welcome representatives from the partner institution.