Latest news

In this section you will find all news items that have been published on e-y-e.eu.

Networking worldwide

65 delegates of the European Young Engineers travelled to Geneva in early September, to take part in the joint EYE Conference and World Engineers’ Convention (WEC).

This, the 33rd EYE Conference, featured prominently in the WEC’11 programme. Following Germany, China, and Brazil, the 4th WEC in Switzerland welcomed participants from more than 80 countries to the International Convention Centre in the City of Geneva.

The EYE Lounge, located prominently within the convention centre, provided a comfortable ambiance for networking and an opportunity to showcase EYE to the WEC attendees. People from all over the world dropped in on the young engineers and were impressed by the structure, aims and achievements of EYE.

A highlight of the EYE Conference, was the competition to plan and build a business case on renewable energy application in Switzerland. This gave the delegates a real opportunity to "face the global energy challenge", the theme of WEC! Five teams endeavoured to find the best business model for investments into solar power plants and wind farms. Based on realistic calculations, the main goal was to replace the 40% of nuclear power generation in Switzerland.

Evening events were dedicated to networking among all young engineers who attended the World Engineers' Convention. Delegates from more than 80 countries met to share knowledge and experience - thanks to the Young Engineers / Future Leaders (YE/FL) working group of the WFEO and the Hepia School of Engineering in Geneva, evening events offered lots of opportunities for us to get together! At this conference, a new member association was welcomed to join the EYE family. The Young Railway Professionals (YRP), based in the UK, joined as EYE’s 21st member Institution. YRP connects engineers of different railway industries and fosters collaboration between several engineering associations.

As usual during an EYE Conference, the EYE Council decided on the next steps to move the network forward. Siobhán McGrath (Engineers Ireland) has been elected as Deputy Secretary General of EYE. She will therefore follow Tim Mönkedieck in his position as Secretary General in 2013. Colin Arthur (IET, UK) and Mirella Vladimirova (FNTS, Bulgaria) joined the EYE Task Force.

EYE is thriving and looking forward to another successful year in 2012! The next conference will take place in May / June in the Netherlands. This will be followed by the EYE@Malta conference in October! The feedback from participants in Geneva was very clear: The EYE Conferences in 2012 are not to be missed!!

EYE Embassies - preview released!

Imagine the following situation: You would like to work, study or live abroad. What are the steps you would have to do? Naturally, this is not an easy question and the answer is closely connected to a time-consuming research on various issues and topics.

The EYE Embassies aim to simplify this. Like their diplomatic counterparts the Embassies of the European Young Engineers help you getting around and settled in another country. Surely, someone with your nationality has visited or even lived in the country you are planning to go to before. An EYE Embassy gathers all information and experience of people who went abroad, combined with those kind of information provided by people who call this country their home.

Starting as a vague, but potentially beneficial idea in 2009, the EYE Embassies soon became an important project inside EYE. Today, the EYE Embassies Portal offers detailed information on how to get settled in Belgium and Spain. In order to be able to expand our network of embassies, we are looking for EYE Ambassadors. Become part of this multi-national project!

Delegates elect new Secretary General

The European Young Engineers (EYE) elected Tim Mönkedieck as new Secretary General during their spring conference in Varna, Bulgaria. One of his upcoming challenges will be the organisation of the autumn conference in September in Geneva. For the first time, EYE’s activities will be integrated into the World Engineers’ Convention, where more than 2,000 participants are expected to attend.

Tim Mönkedieck is keen to face the challenges of being Secretary General. Indeed he can make use of his wide experience. As Deputy Secretary General he already influenced the activities of EYE in the past two years, and with the election to Secretary General he succeeds Evert van Lieshout from the Netherlands as head of EYE. Tim, who lives and works in Spain, has particularly been active in international affairs of the Students and Young Engineers (suj) inside the German Association of Engineers (VDI). Therefore international activities and conferences like this won’t be new to him and he can draw on his experience to make EYE a vital part of the worldwide engineering community.

"Engineering the future" was the main topic of this year’s EYE Conference in Varna. From 3rd to 5th of June, engineering students and young professionals met to discuss and highlight social and technical developments. "The efficient use of energy, knowing about social responsibility and focused research and development are key factors for the next generations", said Tim Mönkedieck, new Secretary General of the European Young Engineers. "Only responsible usage of our resources and cross-border collaboration can secure the future of the current and the next generations", Mönkedieck said accordingly. That young engineers are aware of this responsibility has also been highlighted by Andrey Jonchev of the Federation of Scientific Engineering Unions (FNTS) as main organiser of the conference.

One of the highlights of EYE Conferences, the Gala Dinner, also offered the opportunity to get to know Bulgarian culture. With professional support the participants joined in a traditional Bulgarian folk dance.

In 2006, EYE has already been a guest in the Bulgarian capital Sofia. This time everyone agreed that the conference programme and location added another valuable experience to this story and that Europe’s young engineers will return there in the future. Especially the guided city tour through Varna and Bulgarian hospitality convinced the delegates that Bulgaria was an ideal choice for the 2011 spring conference. The next destination will be Geneva in Switzerland, where EYE will meet at their autumn conference from 4th to 8th of September.

An eye on EYE - Task Force meeting in Brussels

Finalizing important aspects for EYE@Varna, defining EYE's representation during WEC'11, a better integration of social networks in terms of communication, new services to offer to our members...: There was a long list of items 'to be discussed' during the latest Task Force Meeting that took place from January 28th to 30th in the city of Brussels.

The two busy days have led to a more focused specification of EYE's strategy - and the definition of next steps until our Varna conference in order to fulfill it. The overall goal is to strenghten EYE's position as NETWORK of students and young engineers. As communication and visibility play an active role in this, the EYE website will initally be connected to two common social networks, namely Facebook and LinkedIn soon. Furthermore, we will make use of the Google Maps API in order to visualize our network.

Last but not least, an important corner stone in terms of 'services' will soon be available: The EYE Embassies project will be launched soon, making it available for everyone via e-y-e.eu. An EYE Embassy is a wiki-based portal containing useful information for engineering students and young professionals planning to live and study or work abroad.

Looking a bit further than Varna, the Task Force is already planning our representation during the WEC'11 in Geneva. Preparations are entering an important phase in the next days and weeks. We are sure that our representation will be remarkable for EYE and for Young Engineers in general - you can look forward to another very attractive event in 2011 following the one in Varna!

Global Innovation Management MSc Scholarship Opportunity for EU Graduates

SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATION DEADLINE 31st JANUARY 2011

There are 8 Erasmus Mundus funded scholarship places for EU national graduates on the Joint MSc in Global Innovation Management (GIM). Each of these places is provided with a contribution of 21000 EUR over the programme duration towards tuition and living costs.

The GIM MSc. is a unique 2-year programme offered jointly by the University of Strathclyde (Scotland), Aalborg University (Denmark), Hamburg University of Technology (Germany) and, Swinburne University of Technology (Australia) which enables graduates of first degrees in engineering, science and technology to successfully manage the innovation process across international boundaries.

Students have the opportunity to study at two European Universities, with a third option to study in Australia in year 2 for students with EU nationality, and the programme's delivery over two years provides a greater depth of learning, more industrial engagement and a rich cultural experience.

The programme starts in September of each year with a number of Erasmus Mundus scholarships available for both Non-EU (Category A) and EU based (Category B) graduates.

For more information and to apply please visit the programme website globalinnovationmanagement.org

EYE & ASME - first joint event in Salerno

For the first time in its history, EYE has opened its conference for a partnering association. In collaboration with ASME, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the 31st EYE conference took place in Salerno, Italy. More than 90 participants - members of both organisations - joined, making the event an even more international conference than usual, providing lots of opportunities for a fruitful networking.

The conference theme 'Standardization in a global world' has been discussed during workshops and a round table leading to a common impression among the participants: Standardization is indispensable to face the challenges of innovation and needs to take place on a global basis. Still, local standards differ - sometimes marginally, sometimes considerably - blocking innovation, free trade and the use of products. It seems obvious that in order to improve the current situation, harmonization needs to be pushed forward more emphatically. Standardization is a major field of activity of ASME whose support notably contributed to the success of the conference.

During a magnificent Gala Dinner the newly founded association 'EYE Italia' donated 2000 EUR to UNICEF Italia. Sunny weather, the Amalfi coast and the Christmas Season opening in the city of Salerno made this event memorable! Salerno again became a milestone in the history of EYE thanks to Giorgio de Riso, main organizer of the conference, and his team.

Co` latha breith sona dhuibh EYE...

... or Happy Birthday EYE (for non-Gaelic speakers)! 30 conferences in 15 years - the magnificent history of EYE has once more been continued in Glasgow from June 25th till 27th.

An amazing set of interesting and innovative activities has impressed more than 100 participants from all over Europe who attended the EYE@Glasgow conference. The organising team around Preetam Heeramun prepared a tailored agenda and surrounding at Strathclyde University to make everyone feel welcome and discover the secrets of innovation during this inspiring weekend.

Special thanks go to the organising team of EYE@Glasgow (back row left to right: Ratheesh Logeswaran, Suzanne Brown, Claire Thompson, La Piñata, Dr. Colin Arthur, Preetam Singh Heeramun, Ryan Tumilty, Rodney Lendore, front row: David Lenaghan, Thomas Hlaing, unfortunately missing: Dr. Keith Bell) and of course all sponsors, namely the IET - The Institution of Engineering and Technology, NCR, ARM and the University of Strathclyde.

EYE@Glasgow: 15 years of EYE

The 30th EYE conference will happen this spring from the 25th - 27th June 2010 in the lively city of Glasgow. The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) is hosting and organising EYE@Glasgow. "Innovating to meet our global challenges" with the tag line Inspire, Engineer, Innovate! - a milestone theme for this milestone conference in EYE’s history.

The conference will appeal to young professional engineers, university students and young entrepreneurs. It will promote the importance of being innovative, inspiring current and future innovators and will connect young engineers with those who can help with their ideas and plans.

Technical visits, highly interactive workshops, keynote speeches from leading industry innovators - only some highlights of EYE@Glasgow. The programme will also include fun and practical activities, designed specially to bring out the creativity in each and every participant!

Register until April, 21st on www.eyeglasgow2010.com!

Task Force meets in Brussels

Reviewing the plans for EYE@Glasgow and developing the strategy of EYE including communications, financials, future conferences and EYE's internal structure: The agenda for the Task Force Meeting, that took place from January 22nd to 24th in Brussels, has been challenging. The good news: The EYE@Glasgow Team prepares the upcoming conference with great efforts, realising an absolutely inspiring programme! The webpage will be launched in the beginning of February - registration will follow. The exact dates and deadlines will be published soon.

The Task Force Meeting has also been the introduction of Claudia Rasche - our new face in the EYE Office. Claudia will resume the work of Dr. Markus Finck and attend EYE's future conferences and meetings. We would like to welcome her cordially within EYE and thank her for supporting us.

- The EYE Task Force

Continuing 15 years of success

In 2009 EYE passed its 15th year as a pan-European network of students and young engineers - a long story of success. In order to continue this impressive era, 30 active European Young Engineers have met in early October in Cologne to pave the way for EYE into a successful future. Focussing EYE's mission and vision, this workshop has led to an optimised strategic orientation and positioning of the network withinin the European context.

By integrating all members and member associations, EYE aims to advance its network in the near future. This includes enhanced communication - internally and externally - as well as an optimised representation. The website www.e-y-e.eu will soon become a central platform for networking, discussions and multinational working groups of EYE. Underlining the main goal of our network, this web portal will soon provide information and contacts to share experiences in the fields of work, studies and daily life of engineers in Europe. In the same manner, EYE will strengthen its position as contact point and voice of students and young engineers.

A first step towards a realisation of the new strategy has taken place only 3 weeks later - again in Cologne. The EYE Day - an informal get together of active European Young Engineers - could soon become a prime example showing how to network inbetween our prominent conferences. On October, 31st a group of 12 students and young engineers from various countries in Europe has met in Cologne to first visit the science museum "Odysseum". Sightseeing and dinner perfected a day of sharing experience and discussions. We are looking forward to the next EYE Day somewhere in Europe!

Meet you in Cologne!

This Autumn there won't be an EYE conference. In order to efficiently use this "gap" until EYE@Glasgow, there will be two different activities instead.

The first one is the strategic session on the EYE development in Cologne on Saturday, 10 th of October. During this session we will discuss the future of EYE and how to advance our network. Everyone is welcome to discuss and work on the future structure of EYE.

The second activity will be an EYE Day in Cologne on Saturday, 31st of October. Again, everyone is welcome to explore the ODYSSEUM - the famous Science Museum of Cologne - and join the social event in the evening. This is NOT an EYE Conference with official support of one of our member organisations. Therefore, this has to be self-organised by everyone completely.

See you in Cologne!!

EYE Hasselt in May

The EYE@Hasselt conference has been a great success. More than 100 participants enjoyed the magnificent programme organised by the team around Jan de Schepper. The EYE Presidency has moved to Preetam Heeramun who leads the preparations for EYE@Glasgow in Spring 2010.