Blog

At the 2022 AIEA Annual Conference, UAS7 had the pleasure to share their first year Virtual Academy experiences on a panel entitled “Taking Virtual to the Next Level”, jointly with Ben Brisch, Director of the DAAD North America Office, Ann-Kristin Matthe, Head of Section Digitalisation for Internationalisation at DAAD Germany, and Annette Richie, Director of Global Academic Programs at our partner University at Albany.

„A match made in heaven“, this is how Prof. Dr. Sonja Klose from HWR Berlin kicked off her virtual collaboration, a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) project, with her counterpart Prof. Daniel Korschun from Drexel University in the US. 70 students from both universities came together for a joint virtual project.

During the COVID-19 pandemic the International Office like other members of the HWR Berlin has had to rethink how it engages with our international partners and incoming exchange students. Thankfully the virtual tools at our disposal have meant that we could engage in creative solutions for the onboarding of students involved in online international exchange. The HWR Berlin’s participation in the UAS7 Virtual Academy has also allowed us to continue international exchange activities online with partners from countries where in-person exchange was unfeasible during the pandemic.

April 2021 was an intense month of learning and cross-cultural interaction for students of the course Different Approaches to Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility in the US and the EU at the Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Recht Berlin (HWR Berlin). Students joined selected counterparts from the University at Albany in the US for a month-long interactive online course that placed international collaboration at its heart.

Moving the Cities is an international event that has been reoccurring annually since 2018. It unites students, professors, industry representatives and universities from all over the world. The goal of Moving the Cities is to look at regional challenges that cities face from an international perspective. To do just that, 135+ students from 6 countries collaborated digitally for one week. 28 internationally mixed teams with participants from Brazil, Chile, Germany, Colombia, England and the USA competed in the final pitches to convince the international jury of their solution.

The rapid development of cities poses unique challenges at a time when urban areas worldwide are threatened by climate and environmental change. How can we make cities smarter and more sustainable using the latest technologies from renewable energy to smart grids? The one-hour live web-talk, Rethinking Cities contributed to this ongoing dialogue by addressing issues of sustainability, smart technologies, governance, and design from the perspective of the communities that inhabit these spaces.

On November 5 and 6, UAS7 had the opportunity to participate in the Annual Goethe Institut "Career Booster Germany" - per 2020 restrictions in virtual form. This year, UAS7 was represented in three separate sessions, presenting Study Opportunities at Universities of Applied Sciences and graduate programs. Additionally, Nathanial Long - SIP alumnus - participated in an Alumni Panel Discussion about Studying in Germany.

The theme "Engineering the Future" for this year's 23rd Annual Colloquium on International Engineering Education (ACIEE) at the university of Rhode Island (URI), emphasized the need to continuously adapt, innovate, and forge new and stronger relationships with each other for all parties involved in this field.