Students from the Université d’Artois visit Leipzig

Author: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Anke Bucher

From 22 to 26 January 2018, our faculty once again welcomed students from our partner university, the Université d’Artois in France. As part of our partnership, which has now been in place for twenty years, a themed seminar takes place for one week each year. This time it took place in January, as our French partners wanted to be here whilst normal lectures were in session so that they could meet the German students more easily. The title of this year’s seminar was once again ‘Process chains for quality assurance using the example of a reverse engineering process’.  The participants were mechanical engineering students from Béthune. The students were accompanied by their professors, Martin Geiß and Alain Bataille. The thematic seminar is largely funded by the Franco-German Youth Office, with additional grants provided by the International Office and our Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Energy Technology.

The seminar centred on various courses and practical sessions dealing with the process of reverse engineering. These courses were delivered in English by Prof. Schulze (Gießen), Prof. Schönfelder (FE simulation), Prof. Wozniak (fluid flow simulation) and staff members Mr Dörfler (scanning) and Mr Rost (hydraulics). This thematic seminar took place for the fourth time in the new faculty building in the Connewitz district. During a tour of the faculty, the guests were able to gain a comprehensive insight, in particular, into the well-equipped laboratories and the technical capabilities of the lecture theatre.

Over the course of the week, the seminar participants took part in various excursions and factory tours. Of particular interest this year, for example, was the tour of the BBG Bodenbearbeitungsgeräte Leipzig GmbH & Co. KG factory in the south of Leipzig. A former, highly dedicated employee of the factory first introduced the students to the company’s history and its extensive product range. They then headed straight into the production halls to see the manufacturing process in action. During a very interesting tour, they were able to observe the production of a wide variety of soil cultivation equipment.

In addition to the activities at the university, the French students also had plenty of opportunities to experience the local culture through encounters with local people. Right at the start of their stay, the student council of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Energy Technology organised a joint dinner with the French and German students at the ‘Paulaner’ restaurant in Leipzig city centre. This quickly broke the ice between the students. The students from France also met with pupils from the bilingual Anton-Philipp-Reclam Grammar School. Mr Forschle, a very dedicated French teacher at the school, had organised this meeting. The Reclam pupils, all of whom have a very good command of French, took the guests on a tour to introduce them to their home city of Leipzig. On another afternoon, the French guests, accompanied by Mr Forschle, set out on a journey through history and visited the Monument to the Battle of the Nations and its associated museum. Another highlight of the visit was a tour of the Panometer in Leipzig. There, the students were able to marvel at a panorama of the sunken RMS Titanic. The 32-metre-high circular painting offers an impressive view of the Atlantic seabed at a depth of just under 4,000 metres and depicts the wreck of the RMS Titanic across a panoramic area of 3,500 square metres. The circular painting and the accompanying exhibition focus less on the shipwreck of 1912 and more on the limits of human endeavour in the face of the forces of nature.

These encounters once again brought great joy to everyone involved. For the French guests, the eventful week passed far too quickly and many would have liked to have stayed in Leipzig for longer.