Bialystok University of Technology summarised the international CONN’COR project under the Erasmus+ Programme

Bialystok University of Technology has summarised the activities carried out so far as part of the international project CONN’COR: Connect, compare and repair for a common future with Ukraine: a focus on Electrical Engineering teaching, which received €120,000 in funding under the Erasmus+ Programme.

The CONN’COR project, implemented by Bialystok University of Technology together with three partner universities from France, Serbia and Ukraine, aims, among other things, to support the Ukrainian academic community in training future specialists in electrical and electronic engineering who will contribute to rebuilding the country’s energy and communication systems. Hence the involvement of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at Bialystok University of Technology, which leads the university’s activities within the project.

– CONN’COR is, in fact, a continuation of efforts to develop new methods that we can apply in teaching – says Assoc. Prof. Bogusław Butryło, DSc, PhD, Eng., Dean of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at Bialystok University of Technology. – Within the project, we focused our activities on adapting certain experiences of our Ukrainian partners related to wartime conditions. We also want to learn from their experiences and further develop teaching methods to make them more flexible and tailored to current needs.

The project Connect, compare and repair for a common future with Ukraine: a focus on Electrical Engineering teaching is being implemented by a consortium of universities comprising Bialystok University of Technology, CentraleSupelec (France), Lviv Polytechnic National University (Ukraine) and University of Niš (Serbia).

The project’s implementation will help to develop new forms of cooperation between teachers and students. How will the academic exchange of knowledge and good practices translate into education for students at Bialystok University of Technology?

– In collaboration with teachers from Ukraine, we developed the course “Electrical Networks” – says Assoc. Prof. Jarosław Makal, PhD, Eng., from the Department of Electrical Engineering, Power Electronics and Power Engineering at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, deputy project coordinator at Bialystok University of Technology. – We are enriching it with elements that will help our students understand how to repair damage to energy infrastructure such as that experienced by Ukraine.

Although the project has been extended until January 2026, a summary meeting of the partner universities took place on 23 October at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of Bialystok University of Technology.

– As part of the CONN’COR project, we proposed that senior-year students participate in classes as so-called assistants – explains Assoc. Prof. Jarosław Makal, PhD, Eng. – This solution has worked perfectly at our Faculty. In addition, we have developed four new courses and launched activities to correlate certain subjects. Let me explain this with an example – if students learn about derivatives, they must understand that these have applications in electrical engineering. If they study linear functions, they should know where these are used in electrical engineering. This interdisciplinary approach has already brought results. Each partner implemented it within their selected subjects.

During the year-long cooperation among partner universities, numerous online meetings were also held for Ukrainian, Polish, French, and Serbian students, aimed at integrating future specialists.

An interesting highlight of the joint initiatives was the laboratory exercise designed by the French partner university – CentraleSupelec. Students were tasked with constructing a system for measuring ECG signals and monitoring their own ECG signal on a computer screen.

– It was great fun for the students. We also presented this experiment at the Electrical School Complex in Bialystok, where pupils could spend six hours testing how the device works. It brought us a lot of satisfaction – says Jarosław Makal, summing up the project. – CONN’COR is an educational project, but through it we are all developing – the partners, the students, and even secondary school pupils.

The project started in November 2024 and is led by CentraleSupelec (France).

At Bialystok University of Technology, the project is coordinated by PhD, Eng. Jarosław Forenc and Assoc. Prof. Jarosław Makal, PhD, Eng. from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering.

The project is co-funded by the European Union under the Erasmus+ Programme.

Author: Magdalena Grzęda-Zajkowska

See the photo gallery from the meeting at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering.