Within the framework of the Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Program (BIP), 60 students from partner universities of the Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts (FH Dortmund) in the Euclides Network successfully took part in two international master’s block weeks in March 2025.
During these block weeks, students were not only able to engage with the provided materials, but were also involved in networking and the project work with the other students intensively. As an advantage of such events, students were able to gain international experience by solving the practically relevant tasks together with the students from other European partner universities. A further advantage of such an academic and international exchange is the chance to build new connections and even friendships eventually.
The Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts hosted two block weeks in March 2025. Those are “VR/AR Block Week” and “Automotive Systems Block Week”.
Automotive Systems Block Week
The “Automotive Systems Block Week” focuses on the area of “Automotive Systems Engineering” with reference to driver assistance systems. Functions for the autonomous braking of vehicles to avoid collisions served as a practical use case. The students, divided into several teams, developed their own functions, which they were then able to test in practice with a vehicle in the BitLab.
The BIP “Automotive Systems”, brought together 28 students from Spain, Portugal and Belgium, originating from six different universities. The BIP was led by Prof. Dr. Björn Schäfer from the Department of Information
Technology of the FH Dortmund, supported by guest speakers. Prof. Dr. Patrick Vandewalle from KU Leuven and representatives from the company dSpace, Paderborn, who provided different perspectives on data-driven automotive
systems engineering. The topics covered during this BIP ranged from automated driving, automotive system and software architecture, automotive software development and system validation. These topics were presented in theory and deepened with exercises using Matlab/Simulink and an autonomous mobile robot. A varied programme with lab visits, a sports exercise and other social activities rounded off this exciting event.
VR/AR Block Week
In this two-week BIP the students were able to create a working prototype of a virtual or augmented reality application. For this the students went through different phases of brainstorming, conceptualisation and implementation. For each of those phases the appropriate tools and methods were provided to the students to support them in achieving the results. Working in interdisciplinary teams consisting of students with project management, marketing, software engineering experience, students were able not only to develop working prototypes of the applications using the VR/AR technologies, but also calculate the business case for it.
