Nowadays companies need higher educated engineers to develop their
competences to enable them to innovate. This innovation competence is seen
as a remedy for the minor profitable business they do during the financial
crises. Innovation is an element to be developed on the one hand for big
companies as well as for small-and-medium sized companies through Europe
to overcome this crisis.
The higher education can be seen as an institution where youngsters, coming
from secondary schools, who choose to learn at higher education to realize
their dream, what they like to become in the professional world. The tasks of
the Universities of applied Sciences are to prepare these youngsters to
become starting engineers doing their job well in the companies. Companies
work for a market, trying to manufacture products which customers are willing
to pay for. They ask competent employees helping achieving this goal. It is
important these companies inform the Universities of applied Sciences in
order to modify their educational program in such a way that the graduated
engineers are learning the latest knowledge and techniques, which they need
to know doing their job well.
The Universities of applied Sciences of Oulu (Finland) and Fontys Eindhoven
(The Netherlands) are working together to experience possibilities to qualify
their students on innovation development in an international setting. In the socalled:
‘Invention Project’, students are motivated to find their own invention,
to design it, to prepare this idea for prototyping and to really manufacture it.
Organizing the project, special attention is given to communication protocol
between students and also between teachers. Students have meetings on
Thursday every week through Internet connection with the communication
program OPTIMA, which is provided by the Oulu University. Not only the time
difference between Finland and the Netherlands is an issue to be organized
also effective protocols how to provide each other relevant information and
also how to make in an effective way decisions are issues.
In the paper the writers will present opinions of students, teachers and also
companies in both regions of Oulu and Eindhoven on the effectiveness of this
project reaching the goal students get more experienced to set up innovative
projects in an international setting. The writers think this is an important and
needed competence for nowadays young engineers to be able to create
lucrative inventions for companies where they are going to work for.
In the paper the writers also present the experiences of the supervising
conditions during the project. The information found will lead to successfactors
and do’s and don’ts for future projects with international collaboration.