Joint lecture for students of the HTWK Leipzig, the Université d'Artois in Béthune (France) and the Politecnico di Torino (Italy)
The first Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) at HTWK Leipzig will start at the Faculty of Engineering in the winter semester 2025/2026 as part of ERASMUS+.
The programme was organised by Professor Anke Bucher, Coordinator for International Relations at the Faculty of Engineering. HTWK Leipzig's partners in the BIP, entitled "Polymer Additive Manufacturing", are the Université d'Artois in Béthune (France) and Politecnico di Torino (Italy). They nominated a total of eleven students to take part in the BIP. Competition among students was particularly fierce in Turin: more than 100 interested students applied for seven places on the programme.
As the name suggests, the programme focuses on 3D printing, particularly of polymers. The special features of design and numerical simulation, material testing, material selection and the procedure for combining additive and subtractive manufacturing are covered.
The virtual part with online courses starts at the beginning of the winter semester. Online courses on various 3D printing topics will then be held in English every week. The e-learning platform Moodle will be used for these courses, where educational films, scripts and the like will be available. The online courses will be run jointly by a group of professors from the three participating universities. On the HTWK side, Prof Ines Dani (Chair of Generative Manufacturing Technology) from our faculty and Prof Ingo Reinhold (Chair of Coating Processes) from the Faculty of Computer Science and Media are involved.
At the end of February 2026, the participants from Béthune and Turin will work together with HTWK students on a project on 3D printing at the participating HTWK faculties within one week. During this time, the participants will have the opportunity to get to know each other and the city of Leipzig.
For the coming academic year, the participating universities are planning to organise the attendance phase at another university. This would allow HTWK students to take part in the Blended Intensive Programme in Béthune in 2027 and in Turin in 2028. Furthermore, the BIP is to be anchored as a compulsory elective module in the Master's curriculum in mechanical engineering. With a small additional credit, 5 ECTS will be awarded for this.
ERASMUS+ | Blended Intensive Programme (BIP)
The BIP programme supports short-term stays abroad by students of between 5 and 30 days. This programme thus offers a low-threshold introduction to gaining experience abroad. A BIP is organised by a consortium of at least three universities from three different countries. It consists of a joint virtual learning phase and a face-to-face phase that takes place at one of the three universities. Each student participating in the BIP receives at least 3 ECTS points.
