On May 12 and 13, 2022, the International Seminar on “Needs and barriers in didactics of materials science and engineering” was held at the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Silesia in Katowice. This event was carried out as part of the project “Materials Science Ma(s)ters – developing a new master’s degree” co-financed by the European Union under the Erasmus + KA220 HED program (Foundation for the Development of the Education System – National Agency of the Erasmus + Program and the European Solidarity Corps). Project partners of the University of Silesia in Katowice (Poland) are Afyon Kocatepe University (Turkey), University of Žilina (Slovakia), Ivan Franko National University of Lviv (Ukraine).
The hosts of the two-day event organized at the University Campus in Chorzów was a team of scientists from the Institute of Materials Engineering, consisting of Dr. Joanna Maszybrocka, Dr. hab. Małgorzata Karolus, prof. UŚ, dr Magdalena Szklarska, dr hab. Tomasz Goryczka, prof. UŚ and mgr Joanna Stelmaszak and mgr Patrycja Wajda-Mierzwa.
The subject of the seminar concerned mainly the problems and limitations related to educating students in the field of Materials Science from the perspective of Polish and European universities and the industry’s expectations towards university graduates. The seminar was held in a stationary form at the seat of the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Silesia in Katowice and online on the ZOOM platform. (attached Seminar Program)
The role of Experts was presented by representatives of Polish and foreign universities, such as the Warsaw University of Technology (Poland), AGH University of Science and Technology (Poland), Silesian University of Technology (Poland), Lublin University of Technology (Poland), Częstochowa University of Technology (Poland), Karpenko Physico-Mechanical Institute of the NAS of Ukraine, Lviv Polytechnic National University (Ukraine) and industry representatives from companies such as Łukasiewicz Research Network – Cracow Institute of Technology (Poland), Labsoft-Bruker (Poland), Mimar Sinan Engineers Association (Turkey), Danfoss Power Solutions a.s. (Slovakia), Schaeffler Kysuce, spol.s r.o. (Slovakia).
The seminar attracted a lot of interest. The lectures were attended by: stationary 60 participants from Poland, Slovakia, Turkey and Ukraine and 50 participants connected online from Algeria, the Czech Republic, Pakistan, Poland, Finland, Canada and Great Britain. We trust that inspiring lectures, interesting discussions and backstage talks gave rise to further fruitful cooperation, which will lead to the development of a new, interdisciplinary master’s program in materials engineering, responding to the needs of the modern economy, labor market and society.